Low flying spaghetti jets

Please say HELLO and tell us about yourself, your bike[s] and where you are located etc...
Post Reply
Spagjet
Mach 3
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Spagjet »

I've had my '76 GTS860 for 25 years, bought it in Cairns with 12500 k's on it. It had been rebuilt after an end over end crash by a bit of a nong, he meant well but got it pretty much all wrong. Been sorting it out, crashing, repairing , modifying, customising, mirror polishing and painting every single part, and machining, making, stitching and handcarving heaps of bits from scratch. It's had a complete engine rebuild, rewire, and been painted about four times (maybe more, I forget lots), seat is made from old Kangaroo skin, plywood, and scrap steel. It's won lots of trophies at bike shows and been sideways and very sideways in, out and around countless corners.
For very many years was all I cared about but now also got an '81 SD900 and a '75 GT with a very souped up Darmah motor in it so the compusion and affection has to be spread around a bit more. Got a bunch of other European bikes too but we're talking about bevels here. I do everything myself apart from re-wiring and when gearbox/big end shimming is needed. I am a Fitter and Turner by trade and a full time artist by profession, been a long haired dirty bikie always.
Two of the bevels are in the middle of big rebuilds at the moment with lots of custom things going on and repairs being made. The GTS is going to undergo it's next major surgery soon, I just have to get the no-drama Darmah happening first, it's well on it's way. Anyway, thought I would try the computer thing and maybe pick other brains from time to time or even share some of my own crazy thoughts on the hallowed subject of customised vee-twin spaghetti jets if helpful to others of the same leaning.
User avatar
BevHevSteve
SITE OWNER
SITE OWNER
Posts: 2324
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2004 8:53 pm
Location: Lafayette, California
Contact:

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by BevHevSteve »

welcome aboard
Image
Steve Allen (925)798-BEVL[2385] Ride'm, Don't Hide'm
Ducati/Euro Spares -> https://Store.BevelHeaven.com
GeoffW
Mariana
Posts: 43
Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 3:01 am

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by GeoffW »

Yeah welcome spagjet...BTW UR a f'n nut... but I see you realise this already so there's no saving you now!
Spagjet
Mach 3
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Spagjet »

maybe I'm the only sane one and all the other humans are the nuts. It's very hard to tell when you've been taking no notice for so long. I just lika the spaghetti. I've got no family so my children are my Ducatis and my Bull terrier. I live in my studio and workshop so I am always either doing my art or playing with my bikes. It could be worse, I could be 'normal'.
I've just been working on my GTS, I smell like engine oil and I'm going for a ride later. Got some art deadlines to hit but soon the next big stint in the bike workshop starts (the last one was every day for 2 months). All three bevels have got work coming but the Darmah is going to be the centrepeice in my next art exhibition (there is always a bike) so perfect excuse to work on it for weeks in a row. All I do is draw and work on my bikes. Maybe nuts is good.
User avatar
Steve Foster
Parallel Twin
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia.

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Steve Foster »

... the Darmah is going to be the centrepeice in my next art exhibition ....
As art, or as a prop?

Image

Nice frame.

Steve.
1974 Ducati 750 GT
Spagjet
Mach 3
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Spagjet »

as art. Not for sale though so sort of a prop as well. I just figure since I put all the same level of intense energy and intent into fixing and modifying ny bikes thay should be in my exhibitions too. I've had two solo exhibitions so far, the first one had my GTS in the middle of the room, the second one had my Bultaco Alpina up on a plinth like a peice of sculpture. Both bikes have a LOT of custom touches and LOTS of attention to detail, I really see my bikes as just another form of art. I've seen all sorts of crap put forward as fine art over the years so I reckon what I do with old bikes with no money and an open mind counts as art. No one has ever said it wasn't. The third solo exhibition will have the Darmah in the middle of the room as the centrepeice with all the other art around it. If nothing else it makes for a much more interesting art display than just pictures on the walls. I started out drawing motorbikes, I want to do more but seem to draw everything but nowadays. I'll get back to it.
That's the first time I've ever seen a 916 up on a wall. Amazing. It begs a couple of questions. Is it able to be gotten down and ridden? Is it a going bike? It must have been a big job to put it there and look so neat without hurting the bike. I understand why you would see a 916 as artwork. I have got a couple of old bikes hanging from the ceiling in the studio but they are old Malvern Star motorbikes that aren't really worth buggerising around with riding anyway. You must have a few Ducatis if you can afford to have that up on the wall. I've got heaps of bikes but the newest one is the '81 Darmah. I'm really just a desperado with a very f#%cked back and half f#ck%d brain but as they say life is what you make of it (and then it's over). I finished putting the GTS back together today (it's always getting mucked around with), I'm going for a ride to an art gallery in the next town tomorrow. It hasn't had any gauges or indicators for over 15 years, all you can see is front wheel and road, all you can hear is bevel........
User avatar
Steve Foster
Parallel Twin
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia.

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Steve Foster »

Hey Spag, yes, several questions are indeed begged. However, this is not me, it's not my bike and it's not my cat (I have an Eclectus parrot so the last thing I would want around the house is a cat) so I'm unable to address them. I remembered seeing this a couple of years ago and tracked it down for the amusement of the forum. I also remember seeing a 916 hanging from a wall in one of those quaint British TV shows about rich people who move to the country and renovate a old cottages (i.e. small castles) with the help of expensive architects and jolly good builders, interior designers, tradesmen, etc.

In terms of bikes as "art", there was a controversial exhibition staged by the MOMA in 1998 called "The Art of the Motorcycle". When it opened in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art under a storm of controversy - the sort of crap about fine art that you refer to - it became the best attended exhibit in MOMA history, which earned it the privilege of going on the road.
http://www.arcspace.com/exhibitions/uns ... otorcycle/
http://www.davidhealdphotographs.com/in ... 3&a=0&at=0
http://www.davidhealdphotographs.com/in ... 3&a=0&at=0

Would be keen to hear of your next solo exhibition - any details of date and location?
Steve
1974 Ducati 750 GT
Peter Mille
750 SS Greenframe - the holy grail
Posts: 500
Joined: Fri Aug 13, 2004 2:12 am
Location: The Netherlands, Europe.

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Peter Mille »

Steve Foster wrote:
In terms of bikes as "art", there was a controversial exhibition staged by the MOMA in 1998 called "The Art of the Motorcycle". When it opened in NYC at the Museum of Modern Art under a storm of controversy - the sort of crap about fine art that you refer to - it became the best attended exhibit in MOMA history, which earned it the privilege of going on the road.
Nice memories...
We were in Manhattan by that time,( just before we started travelling Route 66...) and we did visit "The Art of the Motorcycle"....!
Spagjet
Mach 3
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Spagjet »

Very interesting links Steve, thanks for posting them. Astonishing really, at the Guggenheim no less. I've always thought of bikes as an artistic medium, right back to when I was a kid. I have been thinking a lot about what was put forward as an artistic exhibit in the links. A completely different approach to me, but still interesting. All the bikes were utterly stock (although the absolute cream of motorcycling in my eyes, LeMans 1, SFC750, Greenframe, 750 America, all artworks in their own right. But they were stock bikes, the artistic idea was playing with them as artistic images by putting them in weird shaped reflective surfaces. Hmm, all good (a bit hard to see in the images but my imagination filled in a lot), but different altogether to the way I see it. I see them as artistic compositions that can be drawn freehand as fine art originals with the artist choosing the aspect, point of view (depth of feild), and light direction and intensity as parts of the composition. I actually like to draw bikes that are 'real' (i.e. registered, ridden, loved, modified through necessity, worn, battered, etc). Funnily enough after seeing the bikes in the links, I have drawn a LeMans (a mark three though), an SF1 750, a greenframe (in progress), and a few others, all take at least 6 months to draw. I want to draw a lot more bikes but I have had quite a lot of success professionally as a fine artist (the bike drawings are a big part of that happening), so have had to wander into other subject matter as well as I am now a writer/editor for art magazines about drawing and a freehand drawing teacher. I am also a playing card designer.
My next (third) solo exhibition will be in October 2016 in Hervey Bay Regional Gallery (and then it goes on the road to Maryborough, Gympie, Noosa, and Caloundra over the following six months, all regional galleries). There will be graphite originals, pastel originals, the new playing card decks, four volumes of the annual drawing magazine I write and edit for a Sydney publisher, and a customised Darmah in the middle of it all.
I've been involved in the bike scene all my life and have seen a lot of 'customs', most look a bit crappy to me as they are all about looking weird, or over-the-top, blingy, or just changing something for the sake of it "to be different", you know what I mean. that's not how I see customising. I see a bike as a starting point and just make it as beautiful a thing as I can, I make a lot of new parts and change a lot of things but a lot comes down to just making whats already there perfect. I like to make some things better than new, mirror polished and utterly perfect, re-shaping parts slightly a lot of the time, and leave some things as a bit battered, you can't fake age patina or crash damage, it just happens in the course of a bikes life (if it's had a life). Thinking about bikes (and bevels in particular), working on them, fixing them, riding them fast round corners and sometimes sideways under power, improving bits and peices of them as the years go by as you get to know them better and better, gives me a metallic taste in the mouth and puts the hair up on the back of my neck.
Thanks again for the links, I stared at them for a long time. A blowout on several levels for me.....

Anyway, if you want to see my Spaghetti Jet (GTS), and my motorcycle drawings, go to my website http://www.seaofpain.com .

I had an awesome ride on it yesterday, racing a storm home. I am going hill surfing day after tomorrow in the Blackall Ranges on big thumpers up very steep hills. the Darmah has been stripped down to a frame since November last year and is a good way toward being a goer again. Wheels on, swingarm on, brakes on, front end on, guards on, dash on, gauges on, headlight on, 'bars on, seat on, s'covers on, tank on, wiring/resistors/coils/regulator on. Everything just mentioned has been completely stripped and rebuilt, modified, improved, repaired, re-painted, etc, etc. it is shaping up to be something that should be the centrepeice in a big art exhibition. My whole life (every second) is nothing but art and motorbikes and even though I've got a dozen or so bikes the three bevels are what I really care about.
User avatar
Steve Foster
Parallel Twin
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:43 am
Location: Sydney, Australia.

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Steve Foster »

... that's not how I see customising. I see a bike as a starting point and just make it as beautiful a thing as I can, I make a lot of new parts and change a lot of things but a lot comes down to just making whats already there perfect. I like to make some things better than new, mirror polished and utterly perfect, re-shaping parts slightly a lot of the time, ..
Brett - thought you might like these, a couple of my absolute favourites:

http://www.bikeexif.com/ducati-750-sport

(but for me, and I really hesitate to say this, the drilled front discs and modern rearsets don't look completely "right")

.. and from Oz,

http://www.philaphoto.com/imageLibrary/ ... fullsize=1
http://www.philaphoto.com/imageLibrary/ ... ?album=972
http://www.duccutters.com/MichaelCecchi ... wxmBYXiMl1

That's art.

Steve
1974 Ducati 750 GT
Spagjet
Mach 3
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Jan 08, 2014 9:07 pm

Re: Low flying spaghetti jets

Post by Spagjet »

just beautiful. Both of these bikes are my idea of motorcycle art. Both are a bit different to my vision of it though which is just another reason I see it as an artform, customising is so personal. Like you not liking the discs and pegs. Both bikes have got things I don't like much either but they are both beautiful things (some bikes are just ugly but someone must love them) with obviously endless thought and hours put in to them. I am an artist so by definition have always got a VERY limited financial base, the red one must have had a lot of dough poured into with the kind of mods mentioned being done, part of the thing that appeals to me (which is just as well) is spending the absolute minimum amount as an intentional element in the process which really changes the way things get done, what you end up with and why.

I forgot to mention when I suggested checking out my own road burner that you have to go to my website (seaofpain.com), click on "Other Stuff", click on "Display Galleries", then click on "Spaghetti Jet" right at the bottom of the page. If you look at the images of my GTS you will see what I mean about why I think about it as an artform.

I didn't get to hill surf in the ranges after all but scored another bike out of the blue (like often happens) instead, a 1976 Yamaha TY175 trials bike for $150, only things missing are fuel tap, throttle cable, and sidecover. Rough but all there and nothing seized, another full rebuild project, ha ha ha, just what I needed. How could I knock it back though at that price. I like '70's trial bikes, they are great material for bike art.

the GTS is getting a few pretty big changes soon but it's never 'finished', always a work in progress, either through crash damage opportunities (although not for a few years now thankfully), worn out bits, or just the ongoing evolution process (every time I do necessary repairs I end up changing or modifying things while it's apart or make some new bit from scratch. I know what is happening next and why (I can see it in my head) but at the moment it looks just like the images on the website.
Post Reply

Return to “Introduce Yourself”