Vroom vroom vroom. Not just pretty pictures.
March 19, 2009 7:50 AM Subscribe
Timing... I was on my BMW Monday evening when a guy cut me off. I t-boned his Nissan, I'm fine the bike may be totaled. This post makes me sad :(....
posted by GratefulDean at 8:34 AM on March 19, 2009
posted by GratefulDean at 8:34 AM on March 19, 2009
The BMW is a great dystopian future bike. The only thing it's missing is a secret police officer coming to a realization of the evil he's abetted as he looks into the eyes of a beautiful, young radical who's been caught with a banned book of poetry.
posted by stavrogin at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by stavrogin at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2009 [3 favorites]
I'm glad you are okay, GratefulDean. Sorry about your bimmer, though
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:41 AM on March 19, 2009
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:41 AM on March 19, 2009
Oh man, I was hoping for vehicles more like these.
Yeah, I'd really appreciate it if people said "motorcycle" when they meant it, and left "bike" to be short for "bicycle" as it obviously is. I know, I know, prescriptivist/descriptivist, but it really helps when people say what they mean and mean what they say.
posted by explosion at 8:50 AM on March 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I'd really appreciate it if people said "motorcycle" when they meant it, and left "bike" to be short for "bicycle" as it obviously is. I know, I know, prescriptivist/descriptivist, but it really helps when people say what they mean and mean what they say.
posted by explosion at 8:50 AM on March 19, 2009 [2 favorites]
I need this.
I like the cut of your jib. You would like the cut of this.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:51 AM on March 19, 2009
I like the cut of your jib. You would like the cut of this.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:51 AM on March 19, 2009
For my money, new bikes don't come any better-looking than the Ural sidecar models.
As soon as I can afford to ride again...
posted by Dr.Enormous at 8:55 AM on March 19, 2009
As soon as I can afford to ride again...
posted by Dr.Enormous at 8:55 AM on March 19, 2009
The Vincent Black Lightning, breaking 150 mph in a bathing suit.
posted by 445supermag at 8:55 AM on March 19, 2009
posted by 445supermag at 8:55 AM on March 19, 2009
Is this where I link to photos of my BSA? No. Hm.
I personally think the Ferrari bike has some good angles, but from the front isn't one.
posted by maxwelton at 8:59 AM on March 19, 2009
I personally think the Ferrari bike has some good angles, but from the front isn't one.
posted by maxwelton at 8:59 AM on March 19, 2009
Yeah, I'd really appreciate it if people said "motorcycle" when they meant it, and left "bike" to be short for "bicycle" as it obviously is. I know, I know, prescriptivist/descriptivist, but it really helps when people say what they mean and mean what they say.
posted by explosion at 11:50 AM on March 19 [+] [!]
Then what would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves?
posted by stavrogin at 9:00 AM on March 19, 2009
posted by explosion at 11:50 AM on March 19 [+] [!]
Then what would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves?
posted by stavrogin at 9:00 AM on March 19, 2009
"Lesbian Motorcycle Enthusiasts", obviously.
Sorry to any for the confusion.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:07 AM on March 19, 2009
Sorry to any for the confusion.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:07 AM on March 19, 2009
ardgedee: that is what I had hoped for too.
About the bamboo bike in your link, I have heard of these before, and the two issues I have with the idea are that they would be very soft and heavy as a bike frame, and also prone to shattering rather than hairline cracks. I have seen the kind of jagged edge that bamboo gets when it shatters, and I would not want to fall on that. I guess it is all the problems with carbon fiber, but without the low weight.
posted by idiopath at 9:18 AM on March 19, 2009
About the bamboo bike in your link, I have heard of these before, and the two issues I have with the idea are that they would be very soft and heavy as a bike frame, and also prone to shattering rather than hairline cracks. I have seen the kind of jagged edge that bamboo gets when it shatters, and I would not want to fall on that. I guess it is all the problems with carbon fiber, but without the low weight.
posted by idiopath at 9:18 AM on March 19, 2009
> I'd really appreciate it if people said "motorcycle" when they meant it, and left "bike" to be short for "bicycle" as it obviously is.
As a dedicated bicyclist and erstwhile bicycle mechanic who has no abiding interest in motorcycles, I disagree. "Bike" has stood for two-wheelers with and without motors since long before any of us were born. Let's put up with it and move on.
Those motorcycles look damned cool and I can appreciate them for that. Handmade bikes deserve their own post and I'm sorry if they're threadjacking this post.
posted by ardgedee at 9:29 AM on March 19, 2009
As a dedicated bicyclist and erstwhile bicycle mechanic who has no abiding interest in motorcycles, I disagree. "Bike" has stood for two-wheelers with and without motors since long before any of us were born. Let's put up with it and move on.
Those motorcycles look damned cool and I can appreciate them for that. Handmade bikes deserve their own post and I'm sorry if they're threadjacking this post.
posted by ardgedee at 9:29 AM on March 19, 2009
The OP's bikes don't have ceramic double-rotor two-wheel drive, though, and they're too vulnerable to take on the Clowns.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:05 AM on March 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:05 AM on March 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
I'm glad you are okay, GratefulDean. Sorry about your bimmer, though
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:41 AM on March 19 [+] [!]
Bimmers are cars. Beemers are motorcycles.
The origin of 'Beemer' stems from early racing days; BMWs were Beemers and BSAs were Beezers. And the BMW roundel is not based on the image of a spinning propeller; it is a standard engineering symbol redone in the colors of the Bavarian flag.
...I spent five years behind the parts counter in a BMW motorcycle shop. My long-distance bike is a 1986 R80RT. So yeah, I'm a Beemer nut.
posted by workerant at 10:47 AM on March 19, 2009
posted by YoBananaBoy at 8:41 AM on March 19 [+] [!]
Bimmers are cars. Beemers are motorcycles.
The origin of 'Beemer' stems from early racing days; BMWs were Beemers and BSAs were Beezers. And the BMW roundel is not based on the image of a spinning propeller; it is a standard engineering symbol redone in the colors of the Bavarian flag.
...I spent five years behind the parts counter in a BMW motorcycle shop. My long-distance bike is a 1986 R80RT. So yeah, I'm a Beemer nut.
posted by workerant at 10:47 AM on March 19, 2009
server... dying... slow.... death.......
Server. Dead.
posted by torquemaniac at 11:19 AM on March 19, 2009
Server. Dead.
posted by torquemaniac at 11:19 AM on March 19, 2009
Server **IS** dead.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:24 AM on March 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:24 AM on March 19, 2009 [1 favorite]
new bikes don't come any better-looking than the Ural sidecar models
And for the frugal, you can purchase the used ex-military chinese version lovingly refurbished.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:25 AM on March 19, 2009
And for the frugal, you can purchase the used ex-military chinese version lovingly refurbished.
posted by CynicalKnight at 11:25 AM on March 19, 2009
Actually, bdc34 (and in a motorcycle thread your tag would more appropriately read TDC or somethin') this thread started off with a link to a very cool, good-looking and now totally over-loaded site about photographs of motorcycles. A really nice site I've been going to avidly for a couple months now. Ardgedee made a good point out of the gate that 'bikes' can be understood to mean 'bicycles' as well as 'motorcycles'. There was some back and forth about that throughout, Grateful Dean got T-boned (my own personal night-mare), workerant drove a parts desk and an R80RT, I personally drove a R1100R an R100/7 and a BSA Thunderbolt, a 1968, a bike I fell in love with when I was 18 and spent the next fifteen years rebuilding until I could finally ride it for a hundred miles at a time it was a beautiful bike at 40 miles an hour and an absolute mess at 60 and with a fairing, a dream again at 80 (ahhhh resonance), when you really ripped the grip you could feel the frame flex which was damn exciting. Otherwise the bike was a piece of crap and I sold it with joy and no regrets at all through ebay to a guy whose 'tag' was "labialicker" I kid you not, "labialicker" and he lived in my nabe I assumed he was some Polish dude I had maybe done plumbing with at some point but in fact turned out to be a very geeky kid in a loft I had but the mechanicals into ten years earlier (which was a wierdly bittersweet moment, I might add) I saw the bike around the nabe periodically after that and was always glad it was someone elses now...
Then the server got borked, god I feel bad about that, it's a particularly good-looking site, here's his twitter.
And google caches of link 1, 2, 3 and this other cool bike. Yeah, "bike," sorry, as ardegee later very decently noted while trying to re-rail the thread, 'bikes' means (to me as well) 'thing with two wheels, person powered or otherwise.'
posted by From Bklyn at 12:52 PM on March 19, 2009
Then the server got borked, god I feel bad about that, it's a particularly good-looking site, here's his twitter.
And google caches of link 1, 2, 3 and this other cool bike. Yeah, "bike," sorry, as ardegee later very decently noted while trying to re-rail the thread, 'bikes' means (to me as well) 'thing with two wheels, person powered or otherwise.'
posted by From Bklyn at 12:52 PM on March 19, 2009
Then what would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves?
Sapphic cyclists? That has the same ambiguity. Anyway, it would be better for fixies. Sapphixies. How about the Tribaader Meinhoff? It might be a good name for a lesbian gang but it says nothing about motorcycling. Scissoring with Runners would be a lesbian jogging club. Organ donors who eschew boners? I give up. What would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves (other than lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts)?
posted by pracowity at 1:35 PM on March 19, 2009
Sapphic cyclists? That has the same ambiguity. Anyway, it would be better for fixies. Sapphixies. How about the Tribaader Meinhoff? It might be a good name for a lesbian gang but it says nothing about motorcycling. Scissoring with Runners would be a lesbian jogging club. Organ donors who eschew boners? I give up. What would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves (other than lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts)?
posted by pracowity at 1:35 PM on March 19, 2009
I once saw one of these, lovingly restored, in the flesh. I've never, ever seen a more splendid piece of mechanical equipment. The speedometer looked like something directly out of a steam locomotive. A gleaming chromed steam locomotive.
posted by Skeptic at 2:53 PM on March 19, 2009
posted by Skeptic at 2:53 PM on March 19, 2009
Nice Augusts. In fact, I've never seen an ugly cafe racer. Seriously. Everything made in the 60s was just beautiful.
posted by cazoo at 5:15 PM on March 19, 2009
posted by cazoo at 5:15 PM on March 19, 2009
I like the motorcycles in A-Ha's Take on Me, because they come with pipe wrenches.
posted by Tube at 5:51 PM on March 19, 2009
posted by Tube at 5:51 PM on March 19, 2009
Mine's better.
This comment is dedicated to ardgedee and explosion.
posted by Doohickie at 6:13 PM on March 19, 2009
This comment is dedicated to ardgedee and explosion.
posted by Doohickie at 6:13 PM on March 19, 2009
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride
posted by hortense at 8:10 PM on March 19, 2009
Swooping down from heaven to carry me home
And he gave her one last kiss and died
And he gave her his Vincent to ride
posted by hortense at 8:10 PM on March 19, 2009
What would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves?
If they are into drugs, how about Gaye Bykers on Acid, aka Lesbian Dopeheads on Mopeds.
[Ignore for a moment it's an all male psychedelic rock band]
posted by MuffinMan at 4:02 AM on March 20, 2009
If they are into drugs, how about Gaye Bykers on Acid, aka Lesbian Dopeheads on Mopeds.
[Ignore for a moment it's an all male psychedelic rock band]
posted by MuffinMan at 4:02 AM on March 20, 2009
Where you've come from is gone,
Where you thought you were going wasnt ever there
And where you are aint no good unless you can get away from it.
posted by BadMiker at 4:12 AM on March 20, 2009
Where you thought you were going wasnt ever there
And where you are aint no good unless you can get away from it.
posted by BadMiker at 4:12 AM on March 20, 2009
Thanks From Bklyn, excellent linky.
A couple of my favorite bike pic blogs...
8negro somewhat NSFW
motocicliveloci
ottonero also nsfw
posted by Duke999R at 5:25 AM on March 20, 2009
A couple of my favorite bike pic blogs...
8negro somewhat NSFW
motocicliveloci
ottonero also nsfw
posted by Duke999R at 5:25 AM on March 20, 2009
stavrogin: yes, Dykes on Bikes is old news. The whole idea was "what would lesbian motorcycle enthusiasts call themselves" other than Dykes on Bikes (if, as had been suggested, we stopped using the term "bikes" to mean motorcycles)?
posted by pracowity at 8:27 AM on March 20, 2009
posted by pracowity at 8:27 AM on March 20, 2009
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Cool motorbikes, though. Too bad that Ferrari is imaginary.
posted by ardgedee at 8:07 AM on March 19, 2009