10/10/10

Inspiration


Inspiration can come from anywhere. Yeah, right. It mostly comes from really good stuff done by other people. I made it to the Off Road Expo today and while there were no epiphanies to be had, there were plenty of hand-built machines that any motorcycle dude could instantly find inspiration in. The thing about purpose-built race machines is that generally speaking the aesthetics come last. Performance, durability, function and serviceability are generally sorted before the cake decorators get their hands in the mix.








Trail rigs, 4x4's and Rock Crawlers are all kinda neat and I'm just hillbilly enough to love an old lifted anything, but the real sweet spot is the desert race cars. Simple things like exhaust mounts, springs, couplings, etc are robust as can be and would be welcome on just about any chop. Why don't we use more dimple dies on motorcycles? It makes things lighter, stronger, looks great. Bulletproof circuit breakers instead of fuses? I've been doing that for years now but these waterproof ones from Painless are way better than the ones I've been getting. Some things like beautiful welds and hand-crafted 4130 are pure art whether you find it on a chop or a Jeep, and never go out of style.





2 comments :

Joe said...

Jesus, those welds! What circuit breakers are you running? I've never even thought of that, but I would love to just flip a switch instead of fishing for a fuse.

Camp4lo said...

Joe, 15 amp on lights and 30 on ignition. I've been running the regular ones from Napa but don't like the plastic bezels. Painless has SS bezels and a little waterproof rubber tit to cover them. Nice stuff. Probably available from a marine supply too.