Bear from www.oldbikebarn.com brings you coverage of AMA Vintage Days at Mid Ohio. This is one of the best Vintage Motorcycle weekends in the country!

Bear from www.oldbikebarn.com gives you a walk through of one of the largest motorcycle swap-meets in the country. Lots of cool old bikes and parts to look see at this event, with plenty of inspiration for you next winter project.

Kawasaki shows off its Historical Machines at AMA Vintage Days. Many pristine examples of some of Kawasaki’s ground breaking bikes displayed including the Infamous Z1, H1, H2 and Z1R. They really turned them out in fine, style have a look.

Old Bike Barn Celebrates 10 Years Online! Stunt video, Bear speaks in support of disabled and wounded Vets.

We already knew BMW’s subsidiary Husqvarna is planning three new road bike models due for launch in 2012, so we were getting excited to hear news on how the project is going. The company has just introduced details on the engine that will power the first street bike model, which apparently is an unexpected 900cc unit.

The company decided to use the BMW F800R’s 800cc twin-cylinder engine that would have been adapted to the specific needs of Husqvarna’s new bike concept.

The capacity has therefore been upgraded to 900cc and many of the main components have been reworked for an increase in power and torque. The air-box and exhaust layouts have been designed to create the optimum balance of performance and functionality in terms of weight reduction and mass distribution.

Husqvarna isn’t letting any other information out at this stage other than  claiming the power delivery is linear and smooth at low rpm, but strong and outstanding at high revs. “This means that the bike is easy to ride, giving immediate confidence to less experienced riders, while also delivering a great riding experience for more accomplished and experienced motorcyclists,” Husqvarna explains.

“We are very excited about the future for Husqvarna. Thanks to the massive resources BMW is able to put in place, Husqvarna will benefit from their R&D capabilities and expertise to launch a new breed of road motorcycles,” Massimo Granata, General manager at HVUK Ltd said.

“The first bike to be launched using the new 900cc power plant will be a naked street bike in two versions (standard and factory). The bike will retain the distinctive Husqvarna aggressive lines, performance and balance. The same power plant will then be the base for other exciting new Husqvarna models that will be launched in the years to come,” he added.
Article Written by: Alina Dumitrache

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Thanks to our friends of at Burly Brand for posting this on Twitter!

You can check out more footage by clicking here

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There’s a short list of talented custom bike builders out there who use baggers as their medium. Coincidentally, two of the best come out of Arizona. Jim Nasi out of Phoenix is one of them. Nasi opened his own shop in 1998 and has been honing his craft since. From full on bagger conversions to custom parts, Nasi products are a hot commodity. We caught up with Jim at the 2011 Laughlin River Run where we had a chance to ask him a few quick questions.

Motorcycle USA: What led you down the path to become a custom builder?

Jim Nasi: Well, I was born and raised in Detroit. My two older brothers and my father did a lot of street rods and cars. I relocated to Arizona. You can’t ride motorcycles that much in Detroit, you know. The weather was better and bikes were just more popular over here so I started to get into them.

What have you been working on recently?

A lot of the bagger stuff. Baggers are real popular so we’re making a lot of parts. And there’s so much you can do to a bagger. When you build a custom and you do the work to it, it is what it is. You’re not going to add anything else to it. But a bagger you can just keep adding stuff on. So we spent a lot of time with R&D making some really good quality ABS products. Economical, obviously, with the economy now. Nice easy bolt-on parts, stuff like that.

What’s your hot selling product right now?

I have a brand new fairing out for the Street Glides and my side covers, I’ve been making those a long time. Stretched side covers. I have a bagger conversion kit, it’s an entire rear kit, saddlebags, steel fender, those are selling well, too. A lot of guys are bringing me their baggers and just dropping them off and letting me do my thing.

Where do you find inspiration for your builds?

A lot of is just things I’m thinking of. I mean, I’ve probably got about 10 bikes in my head right now that I want to build. You meet a customer and get to know them and talk to them about what they’re looking for and eventually I can use one of those bikes in my head to suit their needs.

Tell me a little bit about Sangre Azul.

That was built for a guy named Robert Renero in New Jersey who became a good friend of mine. He pretty much told me he wanted his family crest on the tank and his wife’s family crest on the front fender. It’s got kind of a medieval theme and he let me do whatever I wanted to. That was one of the bikes I had in my head. The airbrush and the black chrome, I wanted it to look like old armor sitting somewhere. I wasn’t going to put swords and s@#* all over it so what I did was make the whole bike look like a weapon. It’s got a 124 S&S engine, dual Keihin carbs, open belt primary, Baker 6-speed, front and rear air ride suspension, air-operated kickstand and a lot of homemade stuff.

The one out in front, the silver bagger, is my newest one. All steel and aluminum, no glass or plastic. Took over a year to build. Stretched the whole thing out. A lot of these baggers you see with the big front wheel and the back’s still kind of pushed in so we stretched it out so it’s more proportioned. It’s got a 24-inch front hoop and a thicker tire on it so the overall diameter is the same as a 26 but it’s got more meat on the tire.

I know you were with Titan Motorcycles. Now another similar company, Big Dog Motorcycles, has gone under. Do you think those styles of bikes are played out?

My brother’s been at Big Dog for 10 years. It seems like the mid-range guys just aren’t buying bikes anymore. That’s why what I’m doing is parts and high-end motorcycles. Unfortunately that middle range has just really taken a hit. It’s unfortunate, but that’s just the way it happened. And then the financing all went to crap. No one’s lending money anymore and those guys can’t buy those bikes.

Article Written by : Bryan Harley, Cruiser Editor  www.motorcycleusa.com

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Motorcycles a method to save on gas: wlfi.com

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) – “That was a low one, but not bad,” said Tippecanoe County resident Chris Patrick as he calculated his gas mileage at a West Lafayette BP station.

On Monday, he found his motorcycle was giving him 33 miles per gallon. When he’s doing less city driving, he says he’s used to 38 to 40.

“When you figure out how much mileage you save, versus my SUV, which gets around 17 miles to the gallon, it [the motorcycle] actually will make up for itself almost, monthly payment wise,” Patrick said.

Patrick said as gas prices have climbed since 2007, he rides his motorcycle as much as he can in the summer.

Another motorcycle rider in Lafayette told NewsChannel 18 even the winter cold didn’t stop him, as he’s been riding his bike all year long.

At Beyond the Limits motorcycle shop in Lafayette, owner Cheryl Chapman said she sees plenty of customers just like Patrick. And the rising cost of fuel could make her familiar customers even more regular.

“We have a lot of customers that take care of what they have, and they bring it in during the winter time for their tuneups and their maintenance work that needs to be done so that they’re ready,” Chapman said.

While some people are finding it takes $50 to fill up their cars and SUVs, Chapman said motorcycles and mopeds take about $8 to fill up, and that gas will last you about 80-100 miles.

Since a tank usually holds about two gallons, riders are getting 40 to 50 miles per gallon, Chapman said.

She said those numbers are peaking the interest of new customers. And people are asking questions.

“‘What’s the gas mileage? Is it going to be lucrative for me to purchase this instead of my car?’” Chapman said. “Since the gas prices are skyrocketing and there’s not light at the end of the tunnel at this point.”

With the likelihood of more motorcycle riders on the road this spring, state police are warning drivers to pay attention.

According to Indiana State Police Sergeant Kim Riley, last year about 2,600 crashes across the state involved motorcycles. Those crashes led to more than 100 deaths.
Posted on www.wlif.com

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In customer surveys,  free shipping has come up many times. Old Bike Barn is happy to announce, Fast Free shipping on all orders over $79 3-7 days in the lower 48 (from time of order processing)

If you have a machine more than 10 years old there is only one site for you, www.oldbikebarn.com. Oh yeah we carry parts for the new stuff too

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