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Dec 10
Love0

Custom LiveWire One Motorcycles Debut at Autopia 2099 in Los Angeles

By General Posts

SMCO custom LiveWire One

Reimagined Electric Motorcycles Launch the Future of Customization

LOS ANGELES, CA (December 9, 2021) – The customization potential of the LiveWire One™ electric motorcycle was on full display on Saturday, Dec. 4 at Autopia 2099, a new and dedicated EV event held at Optimist Studios in Los Angeles designed to showcase electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and other mobility solutions. The event featured more than 80 vehicles, from home-built and conversion EVs to brand new cars and trucks, plus a display of what the event organizers called retrofuturism. Two custom motorcycle builders, SMCO and Earle Motors, presented the first fully customized LiveWire One motorcycles, both of which originated in Los Angeles, a city rapidly becoming LiveWire’s most successful market.

“The custom bikes showcased at Autopia make a big statement on behalf of LiveWire,” said Ryan Morrissey, Chief Electric Vehicle Officer. “Personalization has always been an element of motorcycle culture, and this weekend SMCO and Earle Motors demonstrated the customization potential of LiveWire One. These custom bikes and components are early indicators of our intent to incorporate limited edition builds and accessories into the digital bike builder on LiveWire.com.”

SMCO: LiveWire One Hooligan Racer
Brothers Aaron and Shaun Guardado started racing as young teenagers, first in shifter karts and then in high performance import cars before they turned their attention to motorcycles. They founded SMCO in 2010 to sell branded T-shirts and started building custom competition motorcycles in their Long Beach, Calif., shop to back up the brand and feed their appetite for racing and performance. Now in their mid-30s, the brothers have built serious Harley-Davidson flat trackers and performance bikes for hooligan racing, and even converted a pair of Harley-Davidson® Street Rod® motorcycles into snow bikes for a winter hill climb at the ESPN X Games.

“When we got our hands on the LiveWire One, we immediately wanted to race it,” said Aaron Guardado.

This past July, Shaun and Aaron entered a pair of LiveWire One bikes in the Roland Sands Super Hooligan Championship at the Laguna Seca race course in California. The series is open to almost any motorcycle, and for the event the bikes were stripped of lighting but were otherwise stock.

“The bikes are so fast and so much fun to ride, but we wanted to find ways to improve on that performance,” said Aaron. “We started by reducing rotating mass with a set of carbon fiber wheels from BST. Then we removed all the stock bodywork and used it to make molds for our own lightweight carbon fiber body pieces. We also designed our own rear-set foot controls to put us in a more-aggressive posture for road racing the bike.”

The SMCO race-prepped LiveWire One bikes were displayed this past weekend at Autopia in the unpainted carbon bodywork.

“This project really pushed us into some new technology,” said Aaron. “We learned to use CAD and a 3D printer to create the rear sets, for example.”

All of the carbon bodywork created by the Guardado brothers uses the stock mounting points on a LiveWire One, and if there’s interest from other owners, the parts may show up for sale in the future.

Earle Motors Custom LiveWire One

Earle Motors: E/MULHOLLAND CUSTOM
When designer Alex Earle needs to unwind, he often does it on his LiveWire One electric motorcycle.

“I’ve spent a lot of time riding off road, but I discovered the LiveWire One was the perfect stress-relief street ride,” said Earle, who teaches powersports design at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. “I live near the base of Mulholland Drive, a famous and very curvy road winding from Los Angeles up into the mountains. On weekends it’s nuts with cars and bikes, but on an evening during the week nobody is there. It’s like my private road. Unlike an internal combustion bike, the LiveWire One is quiet, and smooth, and cool. I can make a run up Mulholland, or Decker Canyon Road, stop at Old Place or the Rock Store. It’s a great escape.”

Earle Motors is more of an outlet for Earle’s creativity than it is a business, and he turned that creative design bent on his LiveWire One, in a very dramatic way.

“Initially this bike was intimidating, because it’s electric,” said Earle. “There’s no exhaust, for example, which is always an easy starting point for customization. And no fuel tank. I had two goals in mind – to consolidate the design and adjust the ergonomics for my own comfort. I want it to fit like a tailored suit.”

Earle replaced most of the bodywork with pieces of his own design, created in composite on a 3D printer, except for the “fuel tank” in front of the seat, which covers tightly packed electronics that can’t be reshaped. He removed the rear fender and lighting, and replaced the tail section with one he formed of welded steel.

“I painted the electronics cover, which looks like a fuel tank, in Synthetic Haze, a gray-to-blue fade developed during World War II to help airplanes appear less visible in the sky, which lowers the profile of the entire bike,” said Earle. “I filled in the space below that cover with a new finned piece that wraps around in front of the seat. The fins are the same shape as those on the battery case in the center of the bike.”

The part Earle removed incorporates air scoops to cool electronic components, and to replace that cooling capacity he created hollow galleries within the fins in which coolant might circulate. Two small hoses on the show bike would carry that coolant to a finned heat exchanger located between the forks. To create this part, Earle made detailed drawings, and had the entire motorcycle digitally scanned by Mimic 3D. His drawing and the scan was handed off to PROTOTYP3, a firm founded by two of his former students, who recreated it in CAD and then made the part in one piece with a 3D printer.

“It was amazing that when I got the part the holes lined up perfectly with the mounting points on the bike.” said Earle. “Right now, this is an idea, not a functional feature. I have no way of testing it, but I designed it so that I think it could be functional. The next step would be to 3D print it in aluminum.”

The lower bodywork behind the front wheel is shaped to be an air curtain to smooth flow around the battery case. Its bright orange color is meant to draw the eye down and lower the perceived profile of the bike. Earle removed the stock headlamp and its nacelle to fit three LED lights.

“The new tail section and a custom motard-style seat I designed raise the seat height several inches, which is perfect for my six-foot three-inch frame,” said Earle. “Saddlemen covered the seat in black leather, and it looks great. I also installed a chrome handlebar that’s lower than stock, chrome because it doesn’t get scuffed up when I transport the bike.”

A final custom detail can be found on a logo Earle created for a new charging port cover, which combines the number 23 – which he has always used on his competition-style customs – with an elk antler design that’s also used by the Old Place on Mulholland.

“Some of the inspiration for this project comes from my students, who show up in class with these computers they have built themselves, and they are liquid cooled,” said Earle. “People have been hot rodding motorcycles the same way for 70 years, but how will that happen in the future, when bikes are electric? How will this generation customize a bike? They can 3D print their own parts. They could liquid cool the electronics. I’m hoping this project gets on Instagram and some 17-year-old in Portugal sees it and gets a spark of inspiration. That will be the future of customization.”

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About LiveWire
More than a motorcycle, LiveWire plans to redefine electric. Drawing on its DNA as an agile disruptor from the lineage of Harley-Davidson, capitalizing on a decade of learnings in the EV sector and the heritage of the most desirable motorcycle brand in the world. With an initial focus on the urban market, LiveWire will pioneer the electric motorcycle space, and beyond. With a dedicated focus on EV, LiveWire plans to develop the technology of the future and to invest in the capabilities needed to lead the transformation of motorcycling. LiveWire expects to benefit from Harley-Davidson’s engineering expertise, manufacturing footprint, supply chain infrastructure, and global logistics capabilities. Innovating by design and attracting industry-leading talent, LiveWire will be headquartered virtually, with initial hubs in Silicon Valley, CA (LiveWire Labs) and Milwaukee, WI.

For LiveWire career opportunities please see LiveWire.com/careers

For more information regarding LiveWire products visit: LiveWire.com

Nov 19
Love0

Discovery of huge fuel-can stash reveals 500 rare artifacts

By General Posts

from https://www.hagerty.com by Charlotte Vowden

A shedload of surprises: Discovery of huge fuel-can stash reveals 500 rare artifacts

Editor’s note: In the interests of preserving the authentic whiff of petrol that pervades this remarkable story from our U.K. colleagues, we have made only slight concessions to an American lexicon. All quotations remain untouched.

Alan Pooley’s pursuit of petroliana was purely sentimental, but the collection of more than 500 automotive artifacts that he amassed during three decades of buying for love not money is so remarkable that it could fetch up to £65,000 (roughly $88,600) at auction. Including over 250 oil cans, 60 two-gallon fuel canisters, and dozens of enamel signs, oilers, and pourers, it is set to go under the hammer later this year.

“The important thing about this collection is that it is completely fresh to the market, but the exciting bit about it is that no one really knew about it,” says Tom Godsmark, an associate and vintage specialist at Cheffins auction house, the agency managing the sale.

“It’s a big collection in terms of scale, but it’s the extensiveness that’s so interesting because it ranges from little items such as lapel badges, old match boxes, and advertising pencils for Rudge bicycles to a fully restored petrol pump.”

Among the pieces which the late Mr. Pooley carefully stored, restored, and displayed in sheds at his home in Norfolk is a two-gallon fuel can that, to the untrained eye, stands out because of the large lightning bolt and bold lettering embossed on its side. Those in the know will recognize it as one of the few surviving examples of a limited-edition run of Shell Racing cans that were produced in the 1930s. With an estimated value of £400 to £600 (approximately $545–$818), it’s one of the rarest pieces of memorabilia to have been discovered in its original condition.

An automotive body finisher by profession, Alan, who passed away in 2020, was equipped with the skills and patience to rejuvenate items in a state of distress and spent a great deal of his spare time doing so. “It could be quite a long process, but he was a master of the art and was able to bring them back up to a really good standard, it gave him a huge buzz,” explains Alan’s partner, Karin Burleigh.

His penchant for rescuing fuel canisters from ruin (originally known as “motor spirit” cans) extended to vessels produced by the Scottish Oil Agency, Mobiloil, Alexander Duckham & Co Ltd, and Anglos Taxibus Spirit. “If it wasn’t for him, some of those cans wouldn’t be in existence anymore, they would have just rusted into a little heap on the floor,” says Burleigh, who considers the “best” of the three sheds Mr. Pooley used to house his automotive memorabilia is the one in which he arranged his favorite pieces—on every available surface.

From to floor to ceiling—where oil pourers, Shell-branded hard hats, and Castrol Racing baseballs caps hung on hooks that he had fastened into the timber beams supporting the roof—Alan had curated his own at-home exhibition that showcased the containers, canisters, tins, tools, and signs that he treasured the most. “You name it, it was all there,” says Godsmark. “My first thought was Crikey! I imagine he liked going in there and just admiring it. I suspect it was a bit of a sanctuary for him.”

As a boy, Burleigh reveals, Alan cherished the time he spent with his grandfather, and as a man, the tools and Francis-Barnett water cycle that he inherited from him held huge nostalgic value. It’s this relationship and those heirlooms—which are not for sale—that she believes sparked Alan’s passion for automobilia and subsequent apprehensiveness to let any of it go. “He may have sold one or two things, but the majority stayed here,” she says. “Looking at the collection it looks like we spent our whole time at boot sales and auto jumbles, but honestly, we didn’t.”

With so many items in need of a new home, the collection will be divided into lots and auctioned gradually so as not to flood the market. “Collectibles such as gas pumps, fuel advertisements, enamel or tin signs are continually seeing a growth in value as the market continues to gather pace,” says Godsmark. “Values can be hugely varied, ranging from a few hundred pounds for a good example of an oil can right up into the tens of thousands for the best of class in petrol pumps.”

Of the six vintage motorcycles found in Mr. Pooley’s collection, Godsmark tips the 1937 499cc Norton Model 18 and 1966 649cc 650SS Norton as the ones likely to attract the highest bidders due to their condition, low mileage, and thorough documentation.

Making the decision to part with Mr. Pooley’s collection has been incredibly difficult for his three grandsons, who were entrusted with its care upon his passing, and the family’s biggest hope is that each of the items will find their way to “someone who will love it like Alan did.”

Feb 18
Love0

San Francisco International showcases early American motorcycles

By General Posts

by Colleen Morgan from https://www.moodiedavittreport.com

An exhibition exploring the history and development of motorcycling has opened at San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

The SFO Museum exhibition, in the International Terminal Departures, started on 11 February and will run through 19 September 2021.

According to exhibition organisers, early American motorcycles “reflect a bygone era of mechanical innovation and bold industrial design”. They are prized by collectors around the world and displayed on vintage rides, endurance runs, and at special events.

The exhibition presents fourteen ‘exceptional’ examples made prior to 1916, along with a collection of rare engines and photographs from the pioneering era of motorcycling.

It follows the development of the motorcycle – “one of the earliest and most exciting applications of another new invention, the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine” – from the 1890s until 1915. The exhibition highlights the progress of motorcycle technology during that period and the evolvement of riding “from a novelty, to a hobby, sport and a reliable source of transportation”.

As the presentation points out, “motorcycling in the early twentieth century was always an adventure”.

“Road conditions were generally poor and hitting a pothole or other hazard on a motorcycle supported by a primitive, stiffly sprung suspension could easily throw a rider off the bike”.

It also underlines the need for “athletic ability” to start and ride these machines and that motorcyclists had to be mechanically minded to keep them in working condition.

Early American Motorcycles is one of several exhibitions which are running for limited periods at the SFO Museum. Others include Hair Style, Instrumental Rock ‘n’ Roll, Paula Riff, Amelia Konow   and Alternative Process by the San Francisco University School of Art.

The airport also offers a strong line-up of permanent exhibitions which include Pan American Airways, Harvey Milk ‘Messenger of Hope’ and Spirogyrate, an interactive children’s exploration area featuring artwork by Bay Area artist Eric Staller.

The SFO Museum,  a division of San Francisco International Airport, is a multifaceted programme with rotating exhibitions on a wide variety of subjects and interactive play areas featured throughout the terminals.

Its mission is to “delight, engage, and inspire a global audience”; to collect, preserve, interpret and share the history of commercial aviation, and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport.