PHIL O'BRIENS VELOCETTE
Jim Scaysbrook from Old Bike magazine recently wrote a feature story about my old man's custom bike he built from scratch. I watched for years as Dad handmade the frame, built the Velocette inspired engine with help from engineering mate Chris Dowd, hand make the exhaust, and piece together every part of the bike that took close to seven years. The finished result is a work of art, and now serves as an escape for my Dad on weekend's. Check out the story below, thanks Jim! (Right click and save images to view them full size.)
Finke We'll Make It?
Sleepy blasting off towards the Flinders Ranges
The dream was to take in the Finke desert race and then cross the mighty Simpson Desert on the journey home, but for five adventure-craving riders from Northern NSW, Australia, their 7000 kilometre outback escape was in gods hands and they soon found out that not all dreams come true in the land where time is forgotten and each day unfolds just the way it’s meant to!
A Rat Tale (As featured in Transmoto)
The Rat – fast, cunning, stealthy, dirty, sly and annoying. Does it remind you of something? In the ’80s, a large percentage of Australia’s best motocross racers fronted the starting line with the Rat symbol stamped proudly on their jerseys, pants, and gloves. They were fast, cunning, stealthy in their approach, lived for the dirt and, on the whole, annoying.
The gear they wore was custom-designed, visually creative and cutting-edge, and to many the Rat era symbolised an epic era in Australian motocross when the riders’ names were big enough to push football stars off the back pages of major newspapers.
Today, most riders under the age of 30 won’t know much about this iconic Australian brand. But for the older-gen motocrosser, the mere mention of Go The Rat will invariably prompt a gushing of memories from what many still consider the golden age of Aussie motocross.
These days, you’ll still see the occasional faded Rat jersey worn by an old trail dog, or by a weekend warrior cutting laps on his clapped-out machine at Appin in Sydney’s southwest. Yes, the Rat legend still hangs on by a thread. So before it fades away for good, we decided to set its tale in stone – its birth, rise and fall, the champions who wore it – so the rodent can live on in peace, knowing its contribution to sport of motocross will never be forgotten.
Pitwalk At Red Bull X-Fighters Sydney
Red Bull X-Fighters Sydney Report
An all Red Bull rider podium from left Josh Sheehan, 3rd, Levi Sherwood, 1st, and Tom Pages 2nd. Photo: Ben Dillaway/FRMX
Fierce competition, insane innovation, extreme conditions, were the main ingredients that riders faced in the eye of the storm earlier today at the final round of Red Bull X-Fighters on Cockatoo Island, Sydney. After a week of picture perfect blue sky days leading into the main event riders battled under dark grey clouds and against heavy cross winds to see who had the goods to take out the 2012 X-Fighters crown, and after seven epic head-to-head match-ups it was the cool head of Kiwi Levi Sherwood who came out on top to claim his first Australian round win and overall title.
To read full report 'click here'