Graham Robb leaves the remains of the FF stand in his Voyager at the end of the Festival of 1,000 bikes at Mallory Park.
Strange to think that both the Eco and the Voyager are now well over 20 years old! Definitely classics, then! PNB
Photo: Paul Blezard 8/7/12

Andy Tribble's 1987 Peraves Ecomobile, driven by PNB, meets Colin Russell's red Voyager and Graham Robb's blue one with an incongruous pre-war AJS V-twin bringing up the rear. One thing the Eco and the AJS do have in common is a hand gear change! Messrs Russell (left) & Robb (with hat) are also in the pic.
Photo: Paul Blezard

On the last Saturday before the Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park, this is what the bike looked like. Naked and lying in the sun - a good way to enjoy summer in Provence.

What you can't see is the closed fuel tap. I found that on the main highway.

A Voyager owner takes his HF BMW 650GS parallel twin to the Alps and back in company with two Honda Varaderos.
Size and quality

Paul Blezard riding a Gurney Alligator on the cover of The Rider's Digest magazine No.165, April 2012 issue. The photo was taken by Alex Gurney with PNB's Canon EOS at Ortega Canyon highway, Southern California in December 2011.
The article about the Gurneys, All American Racers and the Alligator, 'Adventures in LaLa Land' (Part 2) and indeed the whole magazine, can be downloaded for free from www.theridersdigest.co.uk
PNB

Here's a picture of the relevent bits of the basic (single clutch) Honad Linto(ish) layout. Double sided steel swing-arm, easy enough to modify to twin shocks and top wishbone, junking complex single shock under the seat. Radiator in wrong place, but small and there's enough room to put it under the heads, Yamaha style, once the catalyser has joined the rear suspension in the bin. Doesn't seem to be anything actually in the way of FF layout except clutch housing.

Paul Blezard testing the C600Sport on the launch in and around Madrid, Spain. March 2012. This photo, along with a 19 page report on the launch, can be seen in the August 2012 issue of The Rider's Digest, No.169, available to read on line, or download for free from: www.theridersdigest.co.uk. PNB

This is my new motorcycle! I will be sculpting a radical body for it over the next year that looks like the Akira motorcycle (Manga animation).

http://youtu.be/jytYbSLdDio

I thank http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeffs-Projects-By-Monroe-County-Customs-MCC/160837117318428 for producing the motorcycle (Jeff England).

Should I be here? I see a comment suggesting that this stuff should be elsewhere? No probs with that, and if the Moderator (or whoever…) suggest that I dump this to some other place, please give me a link and I’ll do that. Not sure I was needing feedback…really just posting in case others wanted to know…what not to do! In the meantime, I always thought of the old site as just that…’old’…and this was the newer, preferred one. And since this one prominently said ‘Blogs’ on the LHS, I assumed I was in the correct place…but I’ll take advice…

Out of sequence…

I’ve a couple of bits written, but it’s still ‘lead in / whimsy’ stuff, which might work if you are patient, killing time or like a meander…but might be boring as sin if you want to get to the greasy bits…so I’ll ditch some of the run-in stuff this post and add it in next time, flipping between the two genres in subsequent posts, until we are exclusively in garage + welder territory…

My Early FF Attempts

Alex Gurney riding his father Dan's original Alligator on the Ortega Highway, Southern California in December 2011. The Alligator has a small but useful seat back, but it's clear from this photo that Alex doesn't make any use of it at all when seriously 'scratching' in a turn. PNB
Photo: © Paul Blezard

BMW Motorrad's American chief designer, David Robb, sitting on the freshly-presented new C600Sport maxiscooter, (which is actually a 650), at the EICMA show in Milan, November 2011. The C600Sport is clearly aimed at Yamaha's Tmax; let's hope it's as easy to FF! Mr Robb has interesting FF experience of his own because he rode the very first K100 Ecomobile way back in the 1980s, after meeting Arnold Wagner at the Nurburgring. March 2012 Update. David Robb left BMW only a few weeks after this photo was taken, at the end of 2011, after a quarter of a century working for the German company.

Quasar bodyshells being created in Sussex. The two red ones on the left are mating, having already produced the white and blue ones on the right! PNB
Photo: Paul Blezard, Nov 2011

Paul Blezard in the SynergEthic Tilter, an all-electric leaning 3-wheeler displayed in the Green Planet zone at EICMA 2011 (Probably the world's biggest motorcycle show held in Milan, Italy).
It was fully road legal and had a French number plate.
Not a 'proper' FF perhaps, but interesting none the less, IMHO.
PNB

This image, snapped at Von Kuenheim's presentation of the new maxiscooters, makes it much easier to see the differences between the two new models than looking at them 'in the flesh'. PNB
Photo of BMW image snapped during the live presentation on the BMW stand by Paul Blezard at EICMA in Milan, Nov 8th 2011.

Here's the 2010 Cmax being ridden to it's first MOT, having arrived back from Spain where it went on completion. Now living in Italy, amusing the locals in Naples.

Another video from FJ's head fairing. selected clips from the trip home from John Bruce's gathering

Eight FFs at the Baker Memorial Woodlands: 2 Carvers, 1 MonoTracer, 1 Voyager, 1 Coda, 1 Burgman 400, 1 Helix and Genesis. PNB
Photo: Paul Blezard

Voyagers. Doing what it says in the title. Not very exciting. Which is very much the point.

Voyagers coping with strong sidewinds, Old Severn Bridge from ingrid oesten on Vimeo.