Robbie Maddison’s New Year Jump
To bring in 2008 Robbie Maddison completed a record length jump. For 2009 he went back to Las Vegas and not only jumped his bike to the top of the Arc de Triomphe at the Paris casino but he jumped down as well. Not much more to be said about it, you should see it!
Ft. Stockton Shakedown
- Teknikka Texas Flag
In honor of one of Texas’ finest law enforcement officers we have decided to add a new section to the wiki for speed traps. This is where we will gather information on all the well known spots for the highway patrol to stake out so you will know where to look out for the tax collector on your way through the state. Now, we at Teknikka do not promote racing on public roadways or speeding in any way so do not confuse this as support for law breakers. This is purely to help law abiding drivers to negotiate those revenue generators.
You can find the directory of speed traps by clicking HERE.
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December ‘08 Site News
December 2008 - Well, it’s been a lot of work and the site is starting to come together. There is obviously a ton of work left to go, but I’m feeling good enough about it to start contacting people directly to join. With continued effort, I think Teknikka.com should be a success. Thanks to everyone who has helped us since we started in July.
Here is the list of updates we are working on:
1. Streamlined registration. We asked too many questions and I’ve heard about it from just about 100% of the people who have registered. The new one will only ask you to make a name and password then leave an email address so that you can recover your login if you lose it. This will be done as soon as the guys at FM can get to it.
2. Consistent interface. The templates for all the modules we use for each section of the page have to be customized to have all the same logo’s and buttons. It’s some more programming and we just have to get to it. Until then, I’ll always post a link back to the main page in the content so that users won’t get lost.
3. More Content, More Content, More Content. We have a substantial library that is being read and sorted through. The best we can do is chip away at the mountain and hopefully we will get some help along the way.
4. More event coverage. This is mostly a technical and reference site, but everyone likes to see some new stuff on occasion. The Teknikka schedule for 2009 is available in the forum and all events will be posted as I confirm that we will be going. The first event of the year will be from the races in Fontana in January. A friend of ours will be out on his new superbike preparing for the road racing season with the new AMA group.
Thanks again to everyone who has helped us out along the way. Time to get back to work.
-Napalm
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Aermacchi Harley-Davidson - New Article
Early Days in Italy
Aermacchi was the manufacturer of Harley-Davidson’s lightweight motorcycles during the 1960’s and ‘70’s. It was founded in 1912 in the same buildings in Varese, Italy that Cagiva uses today under the name Societa Anonina Nieuport Macchi. Interestingly, they were still decades away from building a motorcycle. Their original focus was on seaplanes used by the Italian Naval Air Service.
Planes were also built purely for racing and airspeed record attempts. In true Fascist fashion, Mussolini’s government supported displays of Italian power and technology. This aided Aermacchi in developing and racing numerous planes throughout the 1930’s. Those planes were also the ground work for Italian fighter planes that saw action in World War 2. Near the end of Italy’s participation in the war the company began to use a Daimler-Benz design from the Messerschmidt 109 in their fighter planes. They were, however, quickly shut down after the armistice and prohibited from producing any aircraft for a period.
Turning Terrestrial
In order to keep the company alive they moved to building commercial vehicles. The first non-aircraft product manufactured was a type of three wheeled commercial light truck. Aermacchi was already taking a look at creating motorcycles by prototyping an electric bike in 1943 but didn’t enter the market until 1950 with their 123cc “125”.
Motorcycle development followed a similar path as aircraft development. Shortly after creating a utility vehicle they began to experiment with speed records. In 1955 they built a full streamliner based on the production motorcycles to run at Milan-Varese where they topped out just over 100 mph.
Read the rest of the article in our Wiki HERE.
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CustomBike 2008 - Germany
Teknikka member Blue Angel sent us some nice pictures from the CustomBike 2008 show in Bad Salzuflen. It doesn’t look like there is such a thing as a “typical chopper” on that side of the pond.
Brushed Tank
Honda Dirt Track Style
Triumph
Aluminum Buell
Check out the galleries HERE and HERE
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The Art of the Bone Yard
Sometimes you find gold in the junkyard.
Secret Weapon
Marley’s move into motorcycle photography started with a curiosity trip to the local motorcycle bone yard on one of my trips with my dad to track down some elusive parts for an old Honda. As I climbed over piles of scrapped frames I could see her disappearing into a forest of old exhaust pipes and dipping behind a stack of wheels with her head twisted to an awkward angle.
After a couple of hours in the hot Arizona sun we gave up the search for parts to Soichiro Honda’s masterpiece and headed back to the truck. While the car cooled down Marley showed us some of her pictureson her digital camera.
Bone Yard Clutch Plates
I knew she had done a great deal of photography in the past and have seen some of her fantastic color pictures, but these were even more striking! (Perhaps because of my inclination toward all things mechanical) The picture that caught my attention was a shot of some clutch plates from a bike that had been scavenged for engine covers. This haphazard pile of parts became a dramatic composition in black and white.
The next day we made plans to drive to Bonneville together to take more photos (while I check out the situation to ride on the salt next year). Results of this trip can be seen throughout this site.
“I try to recreate how these parts might exist in the mind’s eye of the person who has an intimate relationship with this particular machine instead of trying to represent it the way others might want a motorcycle to look or even the way I see it.” - Marley
Marley is always snapping pictures and is currently contributing photography to the Teknikka Encyclopedia. Keep coming back as her gallery grows.
Naturally, we will let people use the pictures in the Encyclopedia, but all of Marley’s pictures in her gallery and store are copyright to her. An exclusive selection of her photography is available in the Teknikka Store.
Bone Yard Exhaust
Triumph Pipes
Moto Guzzi Brake
Brakes Triumph
Bonneville Salt Flats
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New Pictures Posted!
Fresh new pictures of old bikes have been uploaded to the pictures section. This includes a 1939 Triumph, an RD60 race bike and various vintage Harley Davidson race bikes.
1939 Triumph
Yamaha RD 60
Harley Davidson Race Bike
To see many more visit our picture galleries HERE
Motorcycle History Videos
We have assembled some quality videos on the topic of motorcycle history. They are categorized as:
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Jay Leno’s Collection of Motorcycles
We all know that Jay Leno has one of the best collections of motorcycles. On his website at www.jaylenosgarage.com he has a ton of videos. As soon as I figure out the proper way to embed these into the wiki, you will be able to find them all there. CLICK HERE FOR TONS OF JAY’S VIDEOS
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Launch : Nov.27-30
Thanks to Simo, Kent and Frank who have been active on the site during the pre-launch phase.
We have scheduled the last remaining tasks and are planning the official launch for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend in the USA. During those four days we should see significantly more traffic and many new members.
It should be interesting! Keep checking back as we get closer to launch.
-Napalm
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