Slippin' and slidin'...

Outside temprature this morning: minus 2 degrees Celsius. The ride to work on my Transalp was one we can call slipping and sliding... interresting! Taking it easy and freezing my fingers for 40 minutes but hey, I got there in one piece...

Old love never dies...

My first motorcycle; I bought it after I had seen an ad hanging on the wall of my... motorcycle riding school. Even before I had my licence, I owned a Harley-Davidson. A dark red/brownish 1973 XLH 1000cc sportster, which had been imported from the US by the previous owner. It was also the first motorcycle I ever putted awrench on and did my own maintenance on it.

I came across some black and whites which I took in 1996 for school (yes, I was back in school again and riding a Harley...). When I saw them, old love again. Here are some more...

And one in color...

(Believe it or not but the garage these were taken in is a vew years later transformed to a... livingroom !)

Hangin' out with your friends...

My new section label is called: From the Old Shoe Box.

In my early days at home we used to have an old shoe box, packed with pictures. Always a mess and never on date, my parents wedding followed by my youngest brothers school pictures etc.. I created an Old Shoe Box folder on my pc stacked with old biker and bike pictures which I found... Here is the first episode of... "From the Old shoe box".

Looks interresting, the old school way of hangin' out with your friends; cool cars, cool bikes...

Bobbers...

I have a weak for bobbers, they're my favorites I guess... Love other bikes as well but these are my favs. Specially the original 50's stuff is waaaayyy cooool... I will start a new label called "From the shoebox" with Early days pictures. How cool is that hey?

Cool sticker...

Here's a sticker I came across when I visited family in Rotterdam a while back. I tried it this morning; someone was on my tail and I just slowed down smoothly... I thought he would explode ha ha ha...!

National Road Assistance Day...

Today is National Road Assistance Day... Got some picks from the early days.

The last one is from my old 1973 Sportster being brought home with my girlfriend at that time... at 1:00 am. Thank god for the road assistance guys.

Cool painting...

This is a very nice painting I found on the web a year or so ago. Nice car, nice bike, nice setting... Cool picture!!

Ford Falcon 4.0 Ute

When I was over in The land of Oz (Australia) a vew years back, I drove this Ute for some time. When my brother in law was working, I could use his car. A 4.0 liter Ford Falcon Ute with a black tar on the back. He said: "Go easy on the throttle when it rains, he's got to much power and there's no weight on the rear axle... Don't park it on the grass when it's wet, you'll prob get stuck..." Yes, it was a very powerfull car and I loved riding it. Later he traded it in for a new Toyota High Lux pick-up...

Bones Motorcycles

With my old '73 Sportster I visited Bones Motorcycles for the first time. I adjusted the valves after a top-end revision and wanted his advise on further adjustment. Later I came to him for maintenance on my Softtail. No much later (that's another cool story) I worked at Bones for almost a year. The owner Sean became my friend and after another year or so he ended the business of the bike shop because of some idiot customers... sad story. I have good memories of that time we worked together and during that time, instead of paying me, we totally customised my Softtail. We had so much fun whilst working on Harleys.

(I still think this business card above is a very cool business card...)

Very Hotrod !!...

What a beauty !! A verrrrry hot, cool Hotrod... If I could build me one, it would look a lot like thisone!

Another cool bike...

The 2008 BMW R1200GS Adventure with 'lifestyle' package; another cool bike... I'll putt it on my wishlist...

She's waiting...

Being Januari and frosty, salty roads don't go together with bare aluminum, I'm not a polisher!!... Waiting for cleaner roads...

When winter is to long...

Yeah, what do you do when the winter is toooo long and tooooo cold? Ya get creative and take pictures of it!!

This winter's pics

I did my best to have better pictures than last year's winter pics. Here is what we have seen next the cycling lane when we went ice-skating this morning... Outside temp was -4 degrees Celsius...

Frosty Transalp...

...waiting, waiting... itch, itch...

My own Hotrods...

My collection of Hotrods contains two 1931 Fords made by... Hotwheels. These little buggers are sold by a store-chain called "Blokker".
Every now and then I run into the store in the shopping center on the corner and go trough the big display with Hotwheels cars. Looking for Hotrods for me or Muscle cars for my son...
(Sadly we don't have enough money for the real stuff...)

One of the coolest muscle cars... ever.

The Dodge Charger is, in my opinion, one (if not the) of the coolest muscle cars ever build. Almost everybody knows the Dodge Charger, even without them knowing.

Most people know this car in a bright orange color and most men directly link it to a girl called Daisy...

The General Lee, the brother Duke's car. A big 01 on both sides and a southern flag on the roof with the name "General Lee" next to it. Daisy Duke was their cousin in the hotpants always prepaired to help Bo and Luke out of trouble. Scooter... yeah, the mechanic with an eye on Daisy.
Hiiiihaaaa !!!

First car (R.I.P.)

This is my first car I owned, bought it for about 150 euros back in 1988-1989. It's a Fiat type 127. That time I also started my drumming carreer in Rockabilly bands. The doublebass player of my first band was living in the same city as I did at that time and I used to pick him up for our weekly practise sessions.
Yes, the drumkit in the back and the doublebass and two persons and loud Rockabilly music from the stereo in the seat compartment. The base of the bass all the way against the rear window and the top of the bass on the dashboard. Our weekly tour to Amsterdam became a headturner ha ha ha ha.

The Living End... Cool Aussie Rockabilly-ish Rock dudes

These guys are after years and years playing again in The Netherlands in Melkweg Amsterdam on Friday 24th of April 2009. Yiiihaa, we've got the tickets...
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C-28TsqykM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXqlouMAS2I for some nice videos)

Always keep your cool !!

Today I picked up my repaired Transalp after I had an encounter with a blind (!?!) car driver and his car doing a U-ie just when I was overtaking his car, he was in line in a roadblock… Anyway, today January 3rd, the outside temp was around 1 or 2 degrees Celsius… not to bad to ride if you’re packed in well. This makes me think of a story my mom told me several times…

My parents apparently are some motorcycling pioneers over here in The Netherlands… My father and one of his brothers used to own a 98cc motorcycle and later (after ’56-’57) these two brothers both owned a identical 350cc Jawa. Proudly my mom tells me: “Theirs did 49 km’s a liter of gasoline, ours did 50"The tradition is that on January 1st you visit your family and in laws to bring them your New Year whishes in person. It must have been January 1st 1955, I guess, my parents were dating at that time and my father came to pick-up my mother at her parents where she was living still. He came to pick her up to go to his parents… on a 98cc motorcycle. The last days and the last night it had been snowing so the streets and road were very slippery. Not a lot of people had enough money to buy a car and especially these days, with the snow, people used the public transportation. On the corner of a street there was a bus stop, totally packed!! My parents came to that corner on their bike and the only thing my father said to my mother was: “Whatever happens, don’t scream or yell.” My mother proudly tells me: “I didn’t yell”

So my father in these days already understood that:

Whatever happens; always keep your cool!

(On thisone I see wedding rings so this picture must been taken after January 4th, 1958, in front of my grantparents house - mom's parents)

Happy 2009... !!

Everybody; a very happy 2009 !!!

This picture was taken in 1963, the biggest lake in The Netherlands was frozen. They even made a temperary gasstation because the cars were riding on the ice.


11 Years ago we had the last "Elfstedentocht" a two hundred kilometer long skating track over natural ice on lakes and canals. 11 Years ago was the last time I did my kilometers on natural ice... the ice is thick enough again this year so I went skating with my inlaws and my 4 year old daughter, we had so much fun. Everybody was skating on hightech, state of the art skates... I was making my rounds (as the only one) on old-school Friesche Noren. Wooden skates which belonged to my father, his last time on these skates was... 22 years ago when we had a cold enough winter also.

(Picture was taken with my old mobile phone...)