Mert Lawwill's Harley-Davidson Streettracker Special

Mert Lawwill was a sensation in the glory days of AMA dirt track racing as a member of Harley-Davidson's racing team. He won the AMA Number One plate in 1969. In those days the championship spanned oval dirt track (mile, half-mile, and shorttrack), TT events, and roadracing... to take the Number One plate a rider had to be versatile and win races in all those disciplines. Mert even starred in Bruce Brown's epic On Any Sunday motorcycling documentary of 1971, along with motorcycling enthusiast, Steve McQueen. 

In addition to being a great rider, Mert is an outstanding mechanic and designer who tuned and maintained his own dirttrack race machines. Since his retirement from racing, he has designed and marketed his own line of high-performance mountain bikes; in fact his Lawwill Pro Cruiser, released in 1978, was the first production mountain bike on the market. When his friend and Harley teammate, Chris Draayer, the "Stormin' Mormon", lost a hand in a racing accident, Mert designed and fabricated a prosthetic riding hand that allowed Draayer to continue riding and even racing. Mert has since refined the design and continues to manufacture it to this day.

A few years back, Cycle World did a feature piece on Mert's plan to bring a limited production run of Sportster-based streettrackers to market (unfortunately, I can't find it online at the magazine's website). Doing the post below about Mule Motorcycles brought that back to mind, so I thought I'd go see what I could find to share here with you. I found this very good video below where one of his streettracker customers shows off the bike, and Mert describes its design and construction in quite a bit of detail. Note his unique rear suspension design, and the XR-750 like cylinder heads.

By the way, some new things that I learned doing the research for this post: Mert is the only person who is in both the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. I also learned that his son Joe Lawwill is a major mountain biking figure in his own right, as a racer, designer, and instructor.

Yamaha XS650 Twin Lives On

Mule Motorcycles Yamaha XS650 Streettracker

Doing some background research for the streettrackers post below got me to rethinking the Yamaha XS650 twin this weekend... I wasn't really much impressed with it back in the Seventies, when it was Yamaha's answer to the Triumph 650 and 750 Twins, but I am looking at it now in a different light.

Back in those days I loved Triumph Bonnies and, even more so, was obsessed with Norton Commandos --- I've owned three --- so I didn't have the time of day for what I viewed then as just a soulless, mass-produced knockoff of one of the most-beloved Britbikes. Now I have to say that the XS650 has had real staying power, there are still thousands of them on the road, here and all around the globe.

One of the primary reasons, besides their quality, reliability, and low cost is, I think, the fact that they are so versatile, that they readily lend themselves to customizing in different styles: streettrackers, bobbers, cafe racers, and choppers. Quite a thriving aftermarket has grown up around them and is going great guns to this day --- see, for example, the popular streettracker conversion kits from Omar's Dirt Track Racing.

The folks at 650Motorcycles.com have an entire website devoted to the XS650, with huge galleries of XS650s in every kind of style mentioned above.  If you've got one ---  stock, custom, whatever --- you can post pics of your own there.

Update: I just found this site called XS650.com, totally dedicated to the XS650. A lot of good info on accessories for the Yamaha.

Mule Motorcycles Streettrackers

Mule Street Tracker Based on Modern Triumph

Richard Pollack of Mule Motorcycles is one of America's most talented custom bike designers and builders. He is a highly skilled craftsman. His bikes have often been featured in Cycle World and Barnett's magazines. Street Trackers are his self-declared specialty.

 He's versatile, building bikes based on Harley Sportster engines, the new Triumph, and vintage Yamaha XS650s (for all you Kenny Roberts fans). If you've got the inclination and the dough, Richard will build you a bike to order.

UPDATE: We've got a new post about the new Mule "Brighton" Triumph Cafe Racer. 

Here's a Cycle World video that features Richard's XR1660 street tracker, "The Punisher." 

Captured By Porches Microbrews

I was shopping at our local Orenco Station New Seasons Market a couple of months back, and, as always, made a pass through the beer cooler aisle... A couple of beers in big stoppered bottles caught my eye. Actually, what really got my attention was the brandname: Captured by Porches Brewing Company. "Captured by Porches?" What could that mean? The label had these funky graphics depicting what looked like a starling... is this bird being held in captivity on the brewer's porch, or something? Well, I didn't know, but I thought it was cool and different, so I grabbed a bottle to try it out, and am glad I did.

The Captured by Porches Brewing Company is located in St. Helens, OR, just up the road aways north of Portland on the Columbia River. Or, from Hillsboro, north over Cornelius Pass Road to Hwy. 30.

The first brew I tried was their "Invasive Species" IPA, which you see in the picture here, the bottle with the yellow label with starling, which is, of course, an invasive species.  Back at New Seasons again a week or so later, I bought a bottle of their "Rebecca's Divine Wit" wheat beer. If you look closely at the picture here, you may be able to see that the bird is holding a pair of handcuffs in its beak... some side text on the label says that the beer is "dedicated to our Aunt Becky, who has since been acquitted and released." Sounds like there's more to that story... but anyway, I really enjoyed both brews and will be back as a regular customer.

The company's website tells us that Captured by Porches started out as a for-fun community brewing project that morphed into a company that supports the founders' family now. The website is very good. 

Here's something really cool they do: They've got a "Mobile Public Haus" brew bus, which serves up beer at various venues around Portland, even at the Kruger Farm Market out on the awesomely beautiful Sauvie Island. You can even bring your own bucket or mason jar and get it filled up. Also, note that the stoppered bottles may be returned to the place of purchase for a $1 deposit refund... Captured by Porches washes the bottles and refills them.

Theo Jansen's Wind-Driven Strandbeests

One of my coworkers brought in to work today this really strange looking little plastic contraption with a propeller on it. It was a rather complicated, skeletal structure, never seen anything like it. Hit the propeller with a fan and the thing would walk across his desk. About a half dozen of us gathered around and said, That's geeky cool! It was too good to not do a post about it... (I'll try to remember to take my camera into work tomorrow and get a pic of it.) So, I asked, where do they come from, and where do I get one? He said he built it from a kit, and if I looked up "strandbeest" on YouTube I'd see the real thing in action... Here's what I found about the Strandbeests and their creator:

Theo Jansen of The Netherlands designs these awesome kinetic sculptures, these works of art that he calls "Strandbeests." In English, that is "Beach Beasts." They are entirely powered by the wind on the beach. He has been evolving their designs over a period of twenty years. Someday, he hopes to have evolved them to the point where they can roam the beaches of Holland autonomously, like living creatures.

Check out Theo's Strandbeest website. It features Strandbeest design details, videos, event dates, a webcam and more... You can even purchase and assemble your own Strandbeest from kits that he sells there. Note that the component pieces are fabricated by the Shapeways 3D printing service, a very high-tech concept in itself!
I've included a link below where you can purchase the kit that my coworker built. Also, I've included a link to Theo's book about his work, which includes a DVD.

Portland Ketchup

Portland Ketchup

So we were out for a late lunch after working up an appetite while hiking around Portland's beautiful Japanese Gardens a couple of weeks ago. We took the scenic route back towards Hillsboro, going west and north on Skyline Blvd. to one of our very favorite venues, the McMenamin's Rock Creek Tavern on Old Cornelius Pass Road in the lovely Helvetia district north of town.

 I had the fish and chips, so they brought out ketchup... instead of the usual Heinz 57 glop that they and everyone else have been serving since time immemorial, the waiter brought to the table this new local product, Portland Ketchup from Portlandia Foods. It's all organic, gluten-free, no high-fructose corn syrup, either. It was very tasty, and it pours well. Their bottles and the packing cases they are shipped in feature artwork and phots of local scenes and landmarks.

The website is very nicely designed. There's a map of the local stores that stock Portland Ketchup and the restaurants that serve it. You can also purchase it online there.

P.S. We will do a followup post here later about the Rock Creek Tavern...
P.P.S. The Japanese Gardens also deserves a post of its own, so we'll do that, too...

Analog Motorcycles

Analog Motorcycles KZ750 Streettracker

I saw an article yesterday about a very elegant Yamaha RD350 custom cafe racer at BIKEEXIF, and jumped from there to the builder's website, Analog Motorcycles.

Analog Motorcycles, which is based in Illinois, is the passionate pursuit of owner/bike-builder Tony Prust. The KZ750 streetracker pictured here is one his creations. A very nice touch here is the inclusion of a gallery that documents the build process, starting with a photo of the original, stock Kawi.

Looks like Tony has an eclectic and versatile style: streettrackers, cafe racers and a 1978 CB550 with sidecar(!).

Creepy Doll

Johnathon Coulton's Creepy Doll... it's like a Twilight Zone episode in song.

My daughter and son-in-law played this for me last week... Thanks, kids, it's cool!

One Guitar, Five Guitarists!

Here's an amazing musical feat.... five people simultaneously playing ONE acoustical guitar, and doing it beautifully!

Sarah Blackwood and the members of Walk Off the Earth cover Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know.

One of my L.A.-based cousins sent me this, saying, "This is interesting, and then gets more interesting, until it is ultimately very interesting, and thus, cool." Thanks for the tip, Pat!

The Pocket Radar

Here's a low-cost radar (under $200!) from Pocket Radar that you can use in all sorts of sporting applications... baseball pitching speed, tennis service, speed, motorsports... Why spend thousands of dollars on an big and bulky old-tech radar gun? And this baby is aptly named, it will literally fit in your shirt pocket.

An old college friend is an engineer with the company that developed this high-tech gadget.

So, if you want to measure just how much smoke your star pitcher is hurling, grab one of these.