Musings from one who writes, and rides…
Originally published on Motorcycle.com. Photos by Randy Wilder. In the pantheon of vintage motorcycle shows, the Quail Motorcycle Gathering is a little like your neighborhood block party. Part Concours d’Elegance, part custom show and part biker bash, it’s a place where a hardtail chopper with springer forks sits happily alongside an impeccable Manx Norton. Vincents, Velocettes,…
Photos by Randy Wilder. Article originally published on Motorcycle.com. Not long ago, Santa Cruz County was the perfect place for a weekend shop crawl. You could find every major motorcycle brand within a few salty blocks of the ocean: Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Harley-Davidson, BMW, Yamaha, and Hinckley Triumph. There were multiple incarnations of Ducati and…
Note: This article originally published on Motorcycle.com. Photos by Randy Wilder. Robb Talbott is late. We agreed to meet at the site of his forthcoming motorcycle museum in Carmel Valley, but the guy is nowhere in sight. Just then, a late-model pickup comes rattling up the drive, towing a trailer. On the back is something you…
This story was originally published in City Bike Magazine. We like to say that motorcycle restorations are like archaeological finds. History is revealed beneath every layer of dirt and dust—a thousand stories told in the arcane language of slapping pistons, worn valve guides, and multicolored wiring bodges. That’s not just a cute analogy for this…
This article was originally published in the BMW MOA magazine. In my younger days, motorcycle adventures involved unfurling a not-so-sweet-smelling sleeping bag in the dunes, eating a UFO (Unidentified Food Object) from a rusty pot, and washing the dinnerware with river rocks. Cold hands were warmed on protruding cylinder heads. Showers were an imagined luxury,…