Update | Fitting the bike

Finally! This week I was able to sit on my café racer for the first time! It was a very pleasant “ride” as you can see on the picture below.
The Spark exhausts will be positioned a little bit backwards. The current position is not the final one, due to a connector I need to bend to fit the silencers to the manifold.

The automotive tape is applied on the clay body this week! This is such a great tool to check out lines on the body of the motorcycle and the planned transition of one surface into the other.
On the second photo you’ll see the two black lines of tape positioned lower than in the last two photos’. I have lifted the lower part of the fuel tank a little bit, to give motorcycle a more aggressive and agile feel.

The coming weeks the volume and surfaces of the café racer will be tweaked further.. Stay tuned!

Update | Main body volume refinement

The tank area appears to be a little bit too bulky; it feels too much like an Enduro type of tank. The top surface is trimmed down, so the bike leans forward a little more. This modification has increased the aggressive feel of the motorcycle enormously. The lower part of the tank will be tweaked this week as well.

The seat and the rear end of the motorcycle where a little bit too slim in my opinion, so I smudged on more clay to increase its volume. At the same time I fitted the seat on the motorcycle again, to have a proper overall view on this café racers volume. Pictures of the bike with seat will follow later this week..

Update | Tweaking the main volume of the body

It has been a short while since my last blog post about the bike build. I have been more busy building and shaping than blogging, so I will make it up this weekend with more posts than regular.
A week and a half ago I have been tweaking the main volume of the clay model. First the tank area has been shaped with a big rasp to create its rough shape. After that I have used Kolb slicks (spring metal strips) to smoothen the surfaces of the tank.

Similar to the tank area I used the slicks to smoothen the rear end surfaces of the motorcycle, for the time being.. because from now on the refinement starts; trimming and optimizing the motorcycle’s volume, lines and surfaces.

Video | Café racers

This is where the café racer culture and heritage is all about!

Airing on Discovery HD Theater on October 13th 9.00pm (in the US..)

Update | start clay modeling

The clay modeling finally started! The polystyrene core was already mounted on the frame, but last week I added the Kolb automotive styling clay onto the polystyrene. Smudging the 60 degree clay on the body is a hot and time consuming job, but once the clay is on the real shaping starts!
These pictures show the clay modeling preparations, the coming weeks more shots of the clay modeling will appear on this blog! Keep in touch..

Video | Ducati and Audi on Pikes Peak

Two iconic brands on a legendary mountain; Pikes Peak.. no need for extra explanation; just watch!!

Video | Dorian van Rijsselberghe

Impressive documentary showing what it takes to become an Olympic windsurfer, winning a Golden Medal in London. A Video about physical training, mental training, hours… days no years of practice!
One of the most interesting “lessons of the day”; how to reset your mind during a race on the water; use your nose as the reset button!! It is a 45 minute documentary in Dutch, but the video footage is very cool!