I’m not a lot of a golfer, so the fantastic thing about the Quail Lodge and Golf Membership is essentially misplaced on me. However you’d be shocked how rapidly you possibly can spruce a joint up by splashing a little bit of used motor oil about, and wafting some unburned 110 octane round. Classing up the greens sooner or later a 12 months, The Quail Motorbike Gathering in Carmel, California, is cause sufficient to mud off your flat cap and blazer.
Since 2009, The Quail Motorbike Gathering has grow to be probably the most standard occasions for top rollers and dreamers alike, attracting a number of thousand spectators a 12 months. Mirroring the automotive world, these prestigious golf course occasions aren’t the most affordable to get into, however the caliber and number of the automobiles on show is often definitely worth the value of admission.
The Quail was pared all the way down to round 200 bikes this 12 months, presumably so you possibly can get via the whole thing in a day. All the standard lessons had been represented, however they throw some enjoyable ones within the combine as properly, such because the Choppers Award, Convey on the Baggers and the Extraordinary Bicycles and Scooters Award.
For those who had been too busy wrenching in your not-so-rare scooter in your not-so-pristine storage, right here’s a fast rundown of a few of our favorites from the occasion.
1939 Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata You’ll be able to’t argue with Better of Present, and this 12 months’s title went to John Goldman’s 1939 Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata. With sufficient artwork deco affect to make an Indian Chief seem like a Honda Insurgent, the 200 Carenata is an particularly spectacular machine from Italy’s golden period of bikes.
The model that might grow to be Miller-Balsamo was began by brothers Ernesto, Edgardo and Mario Balsamo in Milan again within the early Nineteen Twenties. Earlier gross sales reps for Ariel and Excelsior, they’d a imaginative and prescient of constructing bikes that had been quick and trendy, and the trouble is definitely evident within the 200 Carenata.
Miller-Balsamo constructed some fairly trick bikes for the day, and snatched up some data within the late ’20s, however the model by no means returned to full energy after WWII. Regardless of the savvy design and exquisite enclosed bodywork of the 200 Carenata, gross sales of the 196 cc two-stroke fell wanting expectations, and the model is healthier identified for coining the identify ‘Vespa’ nowadays.
A marvel of expertise that exemplifies what may have been, Goldman’s Miller-Balsamo 200 Carenata is extremely uncommon, and a worthy and thrilling alternative for Better of Present.
Hazan Particular Velocette Customized Exif readers will immediately acknowledge this gorgeous twin-Velocette powered {custom} by Max Hazan, and proprietor Marco Diaz walked away from the Quail with a 1st place within the Customized/Modified class.
This one deserves its personal class, I’d name it the ‘Decide Your Jaw up off the Ground Award?’ It’s a working title, however both method, Hazan’s handcrafted {custom} is solely in a league of its personal. Whereas it seems to be extra like a front room centerpiece, this one runs and rides, regardless of being a literal ache within the ass in keeping with Hazan.
The entire mission began when a pair of 349 cc Velocette MAC engines got here up on eBay, and Hazan instantly envisioned mating them collectively in a chassis. If that wasn’t sufficient, the engines are literally burdened members within the handbuilt chromoly body, and the entire setup runs belts on custom-machined pulleys via a Matchless four-speed that’s been tipped on its aspect.
Okay, however anybody with a flux core and a crescent may try this, so Hazan added a supercharger to the combo. The polished Eaton TVS R410 is definitely pushed off the ultimate belt within the system, which is double sided, sending energy to the transmission and the supercharger. And don’t suppose for a second that it’s for present solely, as Hazan has the blow-through system set to six psi! [More]
1929 Indian 402 ‘Uncommon means nobody needed one after they had been new,” the previous guys quip, and in the case of Indian Fours, that assertion has some reality in it. Regardless of a manufacturing run that ran from 1928 to 1942, Indian didn’t promote very many Fours, and the mannequin’s lack of success damage the model as a complete.
However with the passage of almost 100 years, Indian Fours have grow to be a technical spectacle for the eyes. There’s simply one thing totally different about an air-cooled four-cylinder operating lengthwise beneath the saddle that makes the 4 fascinating. Whereas they didn’t obtain the Chief’s deco-inspired bodywork, these bikes are among the many most useful on this planet, commanding costs above $200,000 in some circumstances.
Mike Lynch’s 1929 Indian 402 is a surprising instance of the mannequin, with its leaf-spring entrance finish, gold pinstriped bodywork and sprung tan saddle. Wanting ’29 showroom recent, Lynch’s Indian was Bonham’s alternative for Vintage 1st Place.
1961 Ducati 350 Racer Ducati didn’t make a 350 in 1961, and in reality, the primary Ducati 350 racer left the manufacturing facility as a 200 cc bike. Frank Scurria was racing his 200 cc Ducati within the 250 class again within the early Sixties, and regardless that the bike was a screamer, he was uninterested in giving up a lot displacement to the competitors.
Modified with a stroker crank and an aluminum spacer beneath the cylinder, Scurria’s Ducati was now a sq. 247 cc, and he gained the AFM 250 cc Championship in 1961 with this engine. However Scurria knew his little Ducati had extra to offer, and with a borrowed piston and cylinder, he pushed the engine to 254 cc, and raced it within the 350 cc class.
With a second place end behind an AJS 7R, Scurria’s Ducati was deadly in each the 250 and 350 cc class, however issues received even higher in 1962. Ducati had unveiled a brand new over-square 250, and with Scurria’s mods, a sq. 344 cc engine might be constructed. Maximizing each facet of the brand new engine, Scurria’s 350 was the quickest Ducati he ever raced, and netted him a 3rd place end within the 350 cc Championship for 1963.
Realizing the worth in Scurria’s creation, the Ducati manufacturing facility requested his technical drawings for a manufacturing 350, which had been used to develop the 1965 Sebring 350. Regardless that the manufacturing facility wouldn’t heed his recommendation to start out with recent castings, and construct the 350 over-square, the Ducati 350 engine owes its existence to a younger racer’s stroker crank and aluminum shim.
Frank Scurria accepted the Hagerty HVA Historic Preservation Award for his 1961 Ducati, which he restored after being reunited together with his authentic chassis within the early 2000s.
1972 Moto Guzzi Eldorado However what concerning the baggers? We wouldn’t go away you hanging on that one. Whilst you’re doubtless picturing one thing with apes, tassels and a bit extra chrome, MotoAmerica’s Convey on the Baggers award went to a 1972 Moto Guzzi Eldorado, outfitted for police responsibility with the California Freeway Patrol.
There was a lot to achieve financially from constructing an appropriate patrol bike, and Moto Guzzi understood the project. Constructing on the strengths of the rock-solid Ambassador, Moto Guzzi added one other 100 cc to their venerable air-cooled V-twin to higher go well with American highways. The torquey engine was mounted low and ahead for stability, and auxiliary techniques like oiling and electrical had been hopped up for lengthy onerous miles.
Thought of a workhorse, and appropriate for lengthy haul driving, the Eldorado bought properly to civilians and freeway patrol departments, with the bulk imported into the States. Nonetheless sporting its radio, siren, luggage, cherries and berries, Daniel Crowley’s 1972 Moto Guzzi took dwelling the award within the model new bagger class.
The Quail Motorbike Gathering | By way of Kahn Media
