Twenty twelve, a year in mono

Bandwagen

Looking back at 2012, it’s been very memorable from a photographic point of view due mainly to the appalling weather we’ve seen in the UK! If you look through my photos from 2012, you’ll notice that there is one thing (apart from VWs) that most have in common, and that’s a stormy looking sky!

From a VW perspective, I’ve made it along to some new shows that I haven’t attended before – Back to basics and the show at Blenheim Palace were nice and fairly local but, I’ve missed several of the regulars that I’ve been to many time over the years including Bug Jam, VW Action, VanFest and BVF at Malvern.

One show which was missing in 2012 was the Ivan Hirst Memorial Show at the REME Museum near Reading. I went to this show in 2011 and it was probable the the last Vintage VW show which will…

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Recycled Bicycle Chandeliers by Carolina Fontoura Alzaga

CONNECT is a series of chandeliers inspired by DIY and Bike punk culture combined with aesthetics rooted in the Victorian era created by LA based artist Carolina Fontoura Alzaga. Her handmade bespoke pieces evoke a strong industrial look and invite the viewer to examine them up-close in order to come to grips with their fine details and the technical precision needed to put them together. Carolina managed to master the challenges faced by resilient materials such as bicycle chains and cassettes and created a stunning collection which also addresses universal themes around sustainability and the environment. She admits to having a strong connection with  urban bicycle culture and hopes to inspire audiences to question their ideas on what is beautiful and functional. Yatzer briefly discussed her ideas behind the project, choice of materials and conceptual preoccupation with the universal themes that this work touches upon with the artist herself….

How and when did the idea of making chandeliers from recycled bicycle parts emerge?
The idea for ‘The CONNECT Series’ began from seeing pots and pans hung from a makeshift pot rack which had been created from a used bicycle rim during a time that I was completely immersed in DIY and bike punk culture. In turn, it inspired me to make a mobile made from a bike rim, bike tube and bike gears. The result was lovely but too simple and the semantic mistake of calling it a bike ‘chandelier’ and not a mobile, led me to make a proper chandelier.

Can you take us through the artistic and technical processes that are involved in assembling and transforming the recycled bicycle parts into chandeliers?
My pieces often ‘reveal’ themselves to me as I begin to work with a medium. To create CONNECT 1 all I had was an image in my mind’s eye. Although I sketched out some forms, it was through the action of creating that I familiarized myself with the nature and logic of the material and understood its capacity and limitations. It guided me through how it needed to be assembled. Of course, there was a tremendous amount of trial and error – taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.

The process since then has been an exercise in iteration and in doing so, further developing a close relationship to bike parts as a material. I’ve certainly had moments where I felt like I understood it in a way most people don’t.

Do you consider yourself more as product designer than an artist?
To me it’s one and the same. One informs the other.

Which are the challenges that you seem to face when making chandeliers with non conventional parts, in this case bicycle parts?
The most challenging aspect is making each chandelier an approximate perfection despite the imperfect nature of the material. I’ve had to surrender to the rhythm of creation and accept regressing in order to progress.

Have you ever considered making chandeliers from any other recycled material?
I didn’t start out being interested in lighting but now I absolutely love it! The CONNECT Series is bound to bikes as a material so as to maintain the integrity of the concept. It can’t have motorcycle parts or anything else because then it’s not TCS, it is something else. I’m sure that in the future I will be making other sculptures with lights in them as well as other proper lighting fixtures.

Which are the broader themes you touch upon and why is it so important to address them through your work?
Visual art has the unique quality of being able to relay information on a level that language alone cannot access. There’s an immediacy to this sensorial reaction that is very special. 

What I find pleasing about these bicycle chandeliers, especially when seen in person, is that they command attention. They trick the eye – most people usually confuse them with regular chandeliers but have a moment of surprise once they get closer. Ultimately, they also trick the mind – Audiences ask how is it that such an industrial material can seem simultaneously light in weight and so elegant? Once the pieces have your attention, they draw you in and hopefully lead you somewhere. 

My hope is that they will inspire audiences to question their previously established ideas on what beauty, function and form are, who established those ideas and why? Most of us go about the world accepting ideas as immutable fact when in reality, things are much more dynamic and malleable.

– Stefania Vourazeri via Yatzer

El Solitario Triumph T120R build “La Sal del Diablo”

Love them or hate them, Spanish builders El Solitario MC have an eye for a good paintjob: their 1969 Triumph T120R sports paint by the East London signwriter Ornamental Conifer (Nicolai Sclater) and Corpses From Hell (Maxwell Paternoster).

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El Solitario built “La Sal del Diablo” with the Bonneville salt flats in mind. It was modified to meet stringent safety regulations: new Avon Distanzia tires good for 120 mph, new electrics, and an emergency cut-off loop attached to the rider. Other mods include short bars, certified fuel lines and a vintage drag-style nose cone.
In the end, the bike never made it across the Atlantic—the journey was stymied by air transport costs and a reclassification of motorcycles as dangerous goods. And that’s a shame, because at the French Wheels & Waves show earlier this year, the Triumph not only stopped the traffic, but also showed a promising turn of speed.

Images courtesy of Kristina Fender. Follow the adventures of El Solitario MC via their website and Facebook page.   Article via BikeEXIF.

The ‘new’ Brough Superiors

If you follow the classic motorcycling scene, you’ll know that the Brough Superior name has been revived by Austrian-based businessman and motorcycling enthusiast Mark Upham. These bikes are meticulous recreations of the originals, and built to the same Rolls-Royce quality standard as George Brough’s own machines. The ‘new’ engines are liter-class OHV V-twins—updated and refined versions of the J.A.P. racing engine used by George Brough in 1927. And finally, these new Broughs are slowly getting the photographic attention they deserve—as the Vincent Prat images below show.
The four new Broughs were shot on the banks of the River Seine in October. The odd man out in this set is the bike with the heavily dropped ‘bars, in the image below. Known as the ‘Basil Brough’, it’s based on a 1928 model Superior. It was originally built by Chris Williams of Autocycle in the UK, a company that supplies useful spares for restoration. ‘Basil’ was built for sidecar racing, and runs on methanol. Mark Upham’s crew completely rebuilt the machine in 2008, to the extent of re-tubing the frame—which now has extra struts to handle the stresses of a ‘chair’. For more images and information about the bikes, check out the product pages on the Brough Superior website. I’m thinking of putting my name down for the bike in the final shot below, a ‘Pendalpine’ built in 2008 and based on the 1926 SS100.
Images by Vincent Prat of Guerry & Prat Images. Shoot by Nick Clements for Men’s File Magazine.Thank you Paul d’Orléans and Jared Zaugg. – Article via BikeEXIF.

Crowe Customs BMW R80/7

 

Custom motorcycles are often about sacrifice. As looks improve, functionality suffers. And most of the time, it doesn’t matter, especially if a bike is only ridden for short blasts, or down to a local watering hole. But it’s good to see the occasional long-haul machine given the custom treatment—like this 1978 BMW R80/7 from Crowe Customs of Portland, Oregon.

“This BMW has been my daily beater for the last three years,” says James Crowe. “It’s taken me across the country, up and down the west coast, and up to Canada in the dead of winter. But last fall, it was really starting to get beat. I hadn’t built a bike for myself in over five years, so the timing was right to blow it apart.”

Crowe is working with the bicycle builder Jordan Hufnagel on a project called West America, celebrating the idea of two-wheeled exploration: cross country trips involving gravel roads, swimming holes and carrying large loads. So the modifications to this R80/7 have a serious purpose.

The front suspension is from a Suzuki DR650, which was a surprisingly easy fit. (“The DR650 bearing races are the same as the stock BMW ones,” Crowe notes.) To complete the install, a custom brake rotor was machined, along with new fender mounts. And at the back, Progressive Suspension shocks improve the ride.

Crowe relocated the battery under the transmission and made a new subframe to match the curve of the custom rear fender. New Church Moto created the seat and rear rack, which is supplemented by pannier mounts and soft bags from Lemolo Baggage.

There’s some trick engineering going on here too: the under-tank master cylinder is now actuated by a set of CNC-machined perches and levers, hooked up to an integrated throttle unit. Crowe also made the bars, selecting a wide scrambler-style bend, and designed the ceramic-coated exhaust system.

It’s a practical machine, as the image below shows. And believe it or not, there are even mounting points to carry a full-size MTB bike on the back. What more could you want?

Images courtesy of Jon Humphries.

via Bike EXIF – the world’s #1 source for custom motorcycles, classic motorcycles and cafe racers.