http://m.justbikes.com.au/article?id=24874bd6-5333-46cb-95c3-436e3a90e7fe

Mid Life Cycles won the Just Bikes magazine bike build-off at the recent Australian Motorcycle Expo with our radical Honda CB77-based cafe racer. See our Facebook page for more!

http://michael-at-midlifecycles.blogspot.com.au/

Charlie’s Place specialises in classic Hondas

For more on the Ace and all our projects, check out our Blog at: http://michael-at-midlifecycles.blogspot.com.au/

Ace CR125 cafe racer

Or check out progress on our Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.106624392761033.13729.106623929427746&type=3#!/pages/Mid-Life-Cycles/106623929427746

Lunch with a 1913 Henderson – see more on our Blog.

Sammy the Honda CB100 Cafe Racer is just one of the stars of our new TV commercial.

Mid Life Cycles has a new TV commercial, courtesy of Melbourne’s Channel 31. Here’s a sneak preview of the commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL1xMYliJGE&feature=youtu.be

Frankenbike starting to emerge from his long hibernation

Project Frankenbike is steadily taking shape on the Mid Life Cycles’ operating table… errr, workbench.

A combination of mid-Eighties Honda XBR and GB parts, Frankenbike will be lighter, quicker and prettier than his XBR daddy (maybe not a difficult task…), with a few touches of mama GB and an unhealthy dose of custom or cut-about parts, from front guard to LED tail-light, Cycleworks exhaust to Nitroheads seat.

Cycleworks custom chrome exhaust, polished footrest hanger-exhaust mount and Yoshimura black-n-gold shocks all follow the Frankenbike build plan

The Yoshimura-badged shocks out back pick up on the black-n-gold theme we’ve set for Frankie, but it’s the deep gloss-black tank with gold GT stripe and matching front guard, both courtesy of painter Trevor Whitty, that make this bike stand out.

Add the Cycleworks chrome exhaust, polished alloy footrest-exhaust carriers and the dull sheen of the external braided oil lines, set it against the black engine and pick out a few details and you’ve got a bike that’s less than fugly. http://www.cycleworks.co.nz/

Nothing like a bit of gold jewellery, Cloth-ears, to offset the severe black 'n polished alloy penguin suit.

And then there’re the wheels with black powder-coated hubs and rims laced with stainless spokes, all courtesy of Lightfoot Engineering and a wallet-induced fainting spell, plus a small but special artistic touch, the gold chain stolen from a hairy-chested southern European… there’s no stopping the Frankenbike deconstruction squad.

http://www.lightfootwheels.com/

We put Dr Roger in charge of the electrickery and he immediately performed a

Wiring spaghetti all the simpler without stupid-box and sundry bits…

 stupid-box-adectomy on the Honda wiring loom, removing all those civilised bits that tell you the tail-light bulb is about to blow, or the headlight is on… stuff that you either don’t need to know or don’t care about, or both.

Honda frame has lost its ugly bits, replaced by this neat rear loop and seat mount, with tail-light mount shaped and grafted into place.

Surgeon-in-charge Dr Darling has already put in the hours on the frame, removing the unsightly tail and grafting in a frame loop, seat mounts and a neat tail-light mount that follows the line of the seat and cleans up the beast’s back-end.

We’re stuck with the dry-sumped engine’s external oil tank, but it sits low in the frame

Standard dry-sump oil tank sits low and tight in the frame with K&N filter hiding under the tank.

and looks purposeful in black, as does the K&N filter tucked up tight between the top frame rails.

The Shorai battery sits neatly in place, with a few electrical tidy-ups to be done before the tank is re-fitted.

The standard battery box and bits are long gone, and Dr Electrickery’s assistant has fabricated a neat mount beneath the tank for the regulator and wiring, and the light-n-lean Shorai battery. Mount this electric-stick sideways or upside down and it’ll still crank the starter and illuminate the road ahead. See: http://www.shoraipower.com.au/

The front-end has rebuilt forks and a custom gauge mount for the standard tacho.

Standard Honda tacho takes pride of place in fabricated mounting.

Dr D. will find somewhere out of mind, if not out of sight, to fit a speedo. We wouldn’t want Frankie to get a ticket the moment he emerged from the side lane outside the laboratory…

Napoleon bar-end mirrors are neat and effective and the quality matches the rest of the bike.

Then there are the Napoleon bar-end mirrors, courtesy of our friends at Motociclo in Sydney: (http://www.motociclo.com.au/)

These are fitted to the neat ‘n standard Honda clip-ons, bolted above the top triple clamp so that Frankie’s new daddy doesn’t suffer spine-seizure after the first short ride.

There’s not much more to tell really… the plan is to have Frankie ready to crank over in the next week and maybe to set out on a short shakedown ride. Check everything, tighten everything else, hand over to Frankie’s very patient daddy… and start to plan the Bride of Frankenbike…

Seconds from disaster -Josh Brookes (#6 – XR69 Suzuki) fends off Steve Martin (Suzuki Katana) moments before the dragging exhaust system pitched him off in Turn One. Photo: Andrew C

What a great event! The 19th AMCN International Island Classic at Phillip Island GP Circuit is the biggest historic bike race meeting in the Southern Hemisphere.

Held on the last weekend in January, the meeting attracts large grids of classic racebikes and an even bigger display of classic and modern bikes in the paddock. This year’s feature event, the International Challenge for teams from Australia, United Kingdom and the Rest of the World (including some highly-competitive regulars from New Zealand) was won by the Aussie team after some great racing.

Mid Life Cycles' new Triumph Thruxton at the Island Classic, with Godzilla the Yamaha XJR1300 in the background.

The Mid Life Cycles team was there in force – as spectators, not competitors – aboard an eclectic mix of classic and modern bikes and cafe racers. But a quick wander through the spectator areas and the bike park in the paddock revealed multiple examples of great classics, from Vincent to Gold Star to MV Agusta, through Seventies Superbikes, Eighties musclebikes and moderns from Triumph, Ducati, BMW, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha and more.

Three Bikes for Three Brothers – Yamaha XJR1300, Kawasaki W650, Triumph Thruxton

Even if several brothers share an interest in bikes, there aren’t many opportunities to take a fraternal ride when you live in different states, especially when two of the bro’s live  in Tasmania.

So a recent trip to the Island State to deliver a “new” Kawasaki W650 to brother Tim was too good an opportunity to pass up. The Mid Life Cycles crew loaded the recently-serviced
Vito van (“rebirthed” might be a more appropriate term thanks to the extensive work by Simon and the guys at Eurostar Diesels) and we headed for the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.

Andrew and Godzilla, the Yamaha XJR1300

The van was driving well, but was to feel the load on some of Tassie’s hills later in the trip, as we were hauling the W650 (a relative lightweight) and Godzilla, brother Andrew’s  recently-purchased Yamaha XJR1300. Now THAT is a big bike when it comes to  loading into a van… The XJR is destined to become Andrew’s mainland-based ride and the Tassie weekend proved that it will capably handle the double (or triple) duty of Melbourne freeway running, high-country touring and a couple of scheduled blasts down to Phillip Island for the Historics and Superbikes.

A later-than-scheduled docking in Devonport on Tassie’s North-West Coast meant it was close to 11.00pm when the van rolled into Andrew’s driveway in Kingston, south of Hobart and overlooking the mouth of the Derwent River. Next morning, the Dubya emerged first from the van, leaving us with the task of coaxing Godzilla from its cage. I’d been entrusted with Andrew’s 2009 Triumph Thruxton and was looking forward to the ride up Tasmania’s scenic East Coast. A quick check over each bike, and we were off to rendezvous with the rest of the party – and have a much-needed coffee.

In fairness, this post should be headed “The Three Brothers and Three Others (plus More) Ride”, as we met up with Steve (Harley Forty-Eight), Eva (a race-scarred Honda CBR600 with all damage attributed to partner Simon) and Leigh (Ducati Monster) for the run up
the East Coast, and then a similar-sized party which came down from the North headed
by the Honda VFRs of Bernard and Jim plus Wayne, Carolynn and Guido aboard BMWs
… but then that would just confuse the issue and make for a VERY long headline.

Triumph Thruxton at rest

The ride out of Hobart and over Grasstree Hill to Richmond was a good start to the day, despite the best efforts of a couple of full-dress Harleys to occupy even more road than  Godzilla. Andrew was already enthusiasticallypunting the XJR1300, but then he’s  used to “touring” on a 1976 Honda GL1000 GoldWing when he’s not hammering the  Thruxton through the twisties. Meanwhile, the Thruxton was meeting all expectations raised by various magazine tests – making me feel like a better rider than I ever was and delivering the full café racer experience without drama. Tim was also obviously enjoying the W650, which suited his lanky frame better than the Honda XBR café racer that he’s ridden for the last couple of years.

After a fuel stop at Richmond requested by Steve, whose concern for the Harley’s fuel capacity in its stylish but tiny tank bordered on paranoia, it was a good and quick-ish run up to Orford, for a second Harley top-up and a general rider emptying. Steve’s question as to whether his Nightster would make it to Swansea, still short of our lunch destination of Bicheno, prompted Tim to suggest he might like to refuel at Triabunna – a very challenging five or so kilometres up the road…

Despite the summer holiday campervans, caravans and a few small cars typical of Tassie’s generally aged vehicle fleet cluttering up the corners, the second half of the outbound ride lived up to the roads, the mild weather and fantastic scenery as we ran alongside the rocky coast.

Lunchtime line-up shows diversity of bikes on the ride

The ride and meet-up at Bicheno with Bernard and the crew was a fitting tribute to long-time mate Jim Woods, who succumbed in October to injuries from a bike accident. Similar rides also were held in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. The Bicheno pub meal failed to
live up to expectations – whoever decided that Tassie scallops are best served in breadcrumbs with the cr#p fried out of them should be sent back to cooking school.

The 200km ride home had its highlights, with a speedy run back down the coast and then inland broken only by a few meandering Honda CRVs and their Toyota-Subaru equivalents. The bikes had been garaged less than an hour and the post-ride stubbies were still cool when the rain started, so it was a well-timed and successful weekend and a good ride on just a small section of some of Tassie’s great roads.

See the bikes at: http://youtu.be/Lko5WWm2mTU

How!? Well, quite easy, really… Jim and new Mid Life Cycles sign

OK, so we’ve been busy… but we’ve also been a bit slack about putting up some new signage at Mid Life Cycles.

Finally it got too much for Jim, our resident designer-builder-bearded person. Not happy with anonymity, Jim warmed up his sign-machine and ran off this cool new signage back at the home teepee.

Now he’s talking T-shirts and stickers and other stuff. We think he needs to chill, or maybe move to Parramatta…

Mid Life Cycles hosted the VJMC-Old Bike magazine event

More than 70 bikes and about 100 people turned out for a Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club-Old Bike magazine photo-shoot and shed day at Mid Life Cycles in Richmond (Melbourne) on Sunday 11 December.

Heavy overnight rain threatened to wash-out the big day, but the drizzle cleared in time for VJMC members from Melbourne Metro, Central Vic, Western Vic and Gippsland regions to gather at Mid Life Cycles. Old Bike magazine editor Jim Scaysbrook and advertising rep Luke Finn had asked if the VJMC event could also double as a promotional day for the magazine so Jim could add to his already-bulging library of motorcycle photographs.

VJMC registrar Jeff Eeles and Old Bike editor Jim Scaysbrook

The photos will form part of a planned special magazine focusing on Vintage Japanese bikes, scheduled to appear in newsagents around the country shortly before the VJMC’s national rally in March 2012.

Jim and various helpers worked flat out to get photos of most of the bikes that turned up on the day and he was very pleased with the range and quality of bikes available.

The event was voted a great success, despite the hired coffee machine losing its innards before a single cup was made. However, the sausage-sizzle and cold drinks met most needs and the late appearance of a back-up coffee machine satisfied those who needed their caffeine fix.

Classic Japanese bikes large and small kept the cameras clicking.