JackCrank

*** SHILL ALERT ***

 

The Motorcycle Film Festival is less than 3 weeks away and my partner and I have been busting my ass on this since the day last year's fest ended and I'm pretty proud of what we're putting together. We've been lucky enough to have a few amazing folks chip in and help out as well and we're feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Events go from the 24th-27th of this month, all at The Gutter Bar on N14th street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY (same place as the NYC Vintage Moto show/Works engineering). In the plans are:

- a pre-party screening of our Judge Peter Starr's classic, "Take It To The Limit"
- 9 Screenings of films submitted for this year (over 30 short and feature films in documentary, narrative, and experimental genres)
- 2 Afterparties (on fri and sat) with Julia Haltigan and Daddy Long Legs headlining
- Maybe an art show...?
- Filmmaker Q&A's hosted by a bunch of our judges
- Other various shenanigans

I'd love it if y'all would come out and support. We've got some killer films including the amazing doc on the Pentons who brought KTM and modern dirt biking to the US, a movie about Indian wall of death riders, 85 year old sidecar world champions, Dave Roper and the Isle of Man, chopper legend Tom Fugle, the Dirtbag challenge, and what's still looking like the North American Debut of the new On Any Sunday!

We've got a fuck ton of movies, We've got a ton of good folks coming into town. We've got parties, art, the whole 9 yards. Most of our judges will be in attendance too. Here's the panel for this year:

- Paul d'Orleans "the Vintagent"

- JP from The Selvedge Yard

- Stacie B. London of the East Side Moto Babes, 55 Triple Nickel Racing / LAMOCA

- Paul Cox of Paul Cox Industries

- Roland Sands of Roland Sands Design 

- Shinya Kimura of Chabott Engineering / formerly of Zero Engineering

- Peter Starr, legendary motorcycle filmmaker

- Amos Poe, long time NYC Punk/Independent filmmaker
- Ultan Guilfoyle, filmmaker and curator of The Art of the Motorcycle show at the Guggenheim museum

- Eric Ristau, filmmaker of "Best Bar In America" and winner of last year's MFF Best in Festival Award

- Chris Logsdon of Godspeed Co. / Iron & Air Magazine

- Hayden Roberts of Hell on Wheels MC

Now all we need is good people to show up and have a good time. If you head to our website www.motorcyclefilmfestival.com and check it out, it has all the details on the schedule of films and how to buy tickets. Or, if you want to skip that part and go right to the store, here's the link to our bigcartel. My one piece of advice would be to buy tickets soon as they're going super fast and the venue only seats like 90 people.

 

Also, if y'all wouldn't mind doing me a favor and following us on instagram(@motofilmfest), twitter(@motofilmfest), and facebook and spreading the word, it'd be awesome. We could definitely use the help.

Hope to see y'all there.

 

Adios,

Jack

Either of these will be fine for a crappy, rainy commute but if you're bringing muddy into the equation, I'd look into more of an ADV style bike. Judging from the photos you posted, you're looking to buy new. If I had the cash for a new bike I'd be all over a Vstrom 650 after they ditch the dame edna glasses in 2015. Or, if I was truly no budget, black and orange all the way. KTM 1190R. Less budget it'd be one of the new Honda 500s all the way. They're supposed to be phenomenal bang-for-the-buck as commuters, especially the CB500X

 

As far as standard seating position, "cool" bikes, also look into the KTM Duke 690 and the Ducati Monster 696. Or, if you wait a few months... 

 

I'm in the market for a new bike. Need some advice from seasoned riders...

Any opinions on the following options?:

 

What I really need is something I can commute on all year - through the wet, icy, muddy British winter, I'm used to 60's vespas in London and ran a couple for almost 10 years but wanted a proper bike now that I live in the countryside.

 

I like the looks of these:

Moto Guzzi V7

 

Triumph scrambler

 

Are these viable options? Are they going to deteriorate through the winter? Would I be better off with a big modern scooter? These are way more practical but hard to get excited about.

One of the realities of EDC is that shit breaks, goes missing, etc. Over the last year I've had to replace pretty much every piece of what I carry for one reason or another. But, silver lining is that I had a chance to upgrade a few bits here and there.

 

Some of the new gear

- Back to Maratac AAA for everyday in the pocket from my Quark MiniX. Quark's keychain holder broke, twice. Plus it only uses "nonrechargable" 123's and is bigger. I'll stick with the Maratac

- Backup Maratac AA that lives in my messbag

- Benchmade Mini-Barrage 586BK, M390 Steel for everyday in the pocket to replace the SOG Twitch I. Miss the small size of the sog but the Bench is an infinitely nicer knife and the m390 steel is rad as fuck...

- Benchmade Mini-Grip CM154 for backup and for when I have to send the MB back for sharpening.

- Polarized Oakley Frogskins in black

Anybody know any sites that might have a pre-thanksgiving/black friday sale going on Sog Twitch II's? I lost my Twitch 1 ages ago and I'm missing it bad. Bonus points if they ship to NYC...

you probably drive a moped pussy

That was awesome. I'm proud of you!

What crawled up your ass?

I didn't ask for safety advice, I asked for helmet sizing. There happen to be some of us that like old bikes, leathers, helmets and all of the 'unsafe' and obsolete materials, mechanics, tires, etc that go along with them. There's no need for asinine commentary.

Taking a few days off it seems I have been a bit of a dick. Sorry about that. I've just been dealing with a lot of friends lately who are "into obsolete materials" who have broken hands or feet recently and gotten away very lucky. Look, I've run the new york city vintage motorcycle show for the last three years. I'm a founder of the motorcycle film festival. And when it comes to weird, old obsolete shit allow me to show you my bikes. I just don't see a reason to skimp on a helmet. You wanna skimp on gloves or pants or a jacket that's your business but a helmet is the one area where people should actually get something modern and protective.

A 1971 Yamaha DT1 Pre-reed valve 2 stroke.

And a 1980 Yamaha XT500 with a 2001 dropped YZ125 front end, a 1990 YX600 Swingarm and supermoto wheels.

And for what it's worth, I'm working with Vanson on developing a jacket that looks classic and but has actual working armor that doesn't fuck up the lines and I've brought up reissuing the moto 2 with a contact at bell helmets. Because I like to look like a kewl dewd too and I'd like my friends to be safe, I'm just not willing to need a machine to poop if I stack it.

Does that clarify what crawled up my ass?

gonnna go check out a 72 ironhead today... its salvaged tho, already registered til November, is this a big deal? also what should I be lookin for before buying one of these? has springer front (will include original forks), 21" front, 16 rear... already sitting pretty, with youtube vid proving it runs........................ edit, I bought it

Congrats man.

Thanks for the entirely unhelpful commentary, mom. Really.

I am fully aware of motorycle helmet safety standards and the risks of 'vintage' helmets, however, that doesn't mean I want a helmet that doesn't fit, should I choose to wear it jerking off, riding unicycles, or otherwise.

Edited for being a dick even though it's already quoted.

This is my Grandads 1956 BSA D3, it was his first and then my Dad rode it when he was 17. After that it sat in Grandads garage for about 35 years. Lost my Grandad about 6 years ago, my Dad is now restoring his Norton and I'm slowly restoring this.. on a shoestring budget, I'll be keeping that patina.

Good on ya man. Got a build thread anywhere?

Anyone own a Bell Moto 3? Any advice on sizing?

The prices on E-bay are absurd since they are 'in' right now. I wore one growing up when I rode dirt bikes and wanted one for nostalgia reasons. I wear a 7 1/2 hat+helmet normally and bought a 7 1/2 Bell Moto 3 on e-bay and its HUGE. No way the sizing is standard.....

Sizing advice? Buy the size that looks best on your shelf and then leave it there and buy a helmet that won't just act as a takeout container for your brain pudding when you stack it doing more than 11mph.

Sweet moped bro.

Jack that looks like a blast to ride.

Snapped a pic of my bike from a recent track day at Willow Springs

I want this bike to be my bike.

what is it? switches?

Obviously, you are not a golfer.

Yeah they're super fancy motogadget switches.

I want this badly, but you can tonguebathe the inside of my oring if you thing I'm paying 89 fucking euros for that shit.

http://motogadget.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/800x600/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/s/mswitch_black_black_800_3.jpg

Who's got alternatives?

Here's my ride in "getting there" state. Fenders and a new box section swingarm off a 1990 Radian are heading to the powdercoaters for some gloss black some time in the near future.

Oh, and these lovely 79 Öhlins beauties are being rebuilt, revalved, and resprung for their new owner.

Oh my god the sound. I've heard a few of them now. I swear to the lords of land, sea, and sky that a tuned Ducati exhaust note is the sound of Thor smiling.

Was it a ninjasword rocketship from the outerspace future? Because it looks like a ninjasword rocketship from the outerspace future and sounds like the laughing of satan himself.

Also, I want one. But I can't have one.

Just got my lights and batteries from 4sevens and tacticalleds.com. Happy to be lit up again, it'll make life a lot easier.

HUGE HUGE thanks to Tactical LEDs out of PA! This guy is an amazingly nice guy and is donating 5 headlights shipping it out overnight free to help with Hurricane Sandy relief.

It is dark, disgusting work out in the rockaways and the ability to not have to work in the dark or hold a light in your teeth makes it so so much easier. Most of the work we're doing out there is going house by house dealing with flooding. This basically means standing in 2-12" of sewage water lugging out crates of people's possessions ranging from christmas decorations and ruined TVs or pieces of busted drywall and wood. You're in a respirator most of the time and thick ass work gloves all of the time. Thanks to TacticalLEDs help, at least we'll be able to see what the hell we're doing.

Please support this guy and please please donate to the relief effort. The scale and scope of this disaster is beyond belief.

Lost both my EDC lights in one week right before Hurrican Sandy. Quark minix and maratac AAA. the quark keychain ring holder bit had broken months ago. maratacs bulb unscrewed and fell off somewhere. I am pissed off by this. But I just ordered another MiniX and a Maelstrom X-10.

Fuck that, leave it.

I was thinking of doing something like that actually. I fabbed up a hidden electrics pan for my old bike and headlight ears would be about the same as that. Just gotta find some metal lying around. I'm so stupidly fucking broke these days that I'm literally begging for scraps.

Got the new throttle body/cable on last night. Revs really nicely with the new carb/air filter setup. Thank fucking god. I'll probably have to rework the jets at some point but thankfully not right now.

It's not done yet. But either way I don't see it ever being a single seater. Going to trim down the foam and the subframe eventually to give it a cleaner line. But fuck the single man. Also, I don't have any light up front yet because I need new fucking brackets. Fucking piddling little parts. Goddamnit.

Just go with a 600 man, that little 250 is great for what it does but a bigger bike will be nicer for slogs on the highway.

Nice bike jack! Surprised you didn't put single seat cowl and large circular light.

Debating on getting another bike for more "spirited" highway rides. The wr250x is pretty dull past 75 mph. Not sure if a ninja 250 is worth it or I should just buy something in the 600cc range.

Man that's fucking mean. Pipes look stellar. I want one so fucking bad.

I bought this bike 3 weeks ago bone stock, here's how she sits today.

Untitled by Andrew Wong MPLS, on Flickr

From this:

To this:

Still have a bunch of shitty, piddling, little parts to get together (rotor nut locking tabs, spacers, throttle assembly/cable, headlight brackets, blahblahblah) and what may be a slightly major issue with the new front end's rake... But man does it feel good to see it standing on it's own two legs again.

Oh god. Fucking Dream status of the moment. That bike is a ninja sword rocket ship from the fucking future. So jealous.