Wednesday 30 April 2014

Stoppies

Stoppies


#Stunters #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

FTWCO

FTWCO - Image by Jeff Wright




































#FTWCO #ChurchOfChoppers #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Showtime

Showtime


#ShowtimeFestival #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Distinguished Gentlemen

Sean Connery and Harrison Ford - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Sean Connery and Harrison Ford


























#IndianaJones #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Barbour

Barbour - Spirit of the '70s


#Barbour #SpiritOfThe70s Triumph #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Stormie Ray


Stormie Ray

Image Unknown


#Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Airborne

Image by Jeff Wright


Image by Jeff Wright


#FTWCO #CHVRCH #MotoX #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Monday 28 April 2014

Hook Motors

Hook Motors


#FlatTracker #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Hands Free

Hands Free


#HandsFreeWheelie #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Teya Salat

Teya Salat


#TeyaSalat #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Vibrazioni

Vibrazioni Art


#VibrazioniArt #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Blitz Custom Motorcycles

Blitz Custom Motorcycles



































#BlitzCustoms #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Harley Davidson

Harley Davidson - Do This, Do That...



























#HarleyDavidson #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Biker Ladies Mainhatten

Biker Ladies Mainhatten































#BikerLadiesMainhatten #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Black Bike Week

Black Bike Week


#BlackBikeWeek #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Action!

Action!


#StuntLife #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

M.A.D KUUSAA

M.A.D KUUSAA






































#MADKuusa #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

SuperRetards

SuperRetard


#SuperRetards #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

StuntFreaks

StuntFreaks























#StuntFreaksTeam #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Adventure Bike

This is all you need. A big tank and a luggage rack.

Yamaha XT600 Tenere Adventure Bike


#YamahaXT600 #AdventureBike #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Ford Moto - Custom Trailway

I really dig Trailways - www.mercenary.ie/2014/03/trailway.html

Ford Moto - Custom Trailway














#FordMoto #Yamaha #TW200 #TW125 #YamahaTrailway #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Turbo Supermoto

'Cos that's a really good idea!

Turbo Supermoto


#Turbo #SuperMotard #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sunday 27 April 2014

Rolling Burnout

Rolling Burnout


#Burnout #Stuntex #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Rolling Burnout

Rolling Burnout


#Burnout #MADKuusaa #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Saturday 26 April 2014

Fuji

Fuji


#MountFuji #GPZ1100 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sunshine Cafe

Sunshine Cafe
#CafeRacer #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

VanVan


VanVan


#SuzukiVanVan #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Mud Adventure


Mud Adventure


#Stuck #AdventureBike #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Rainbow Adventure

Rainbow Adventure


#Rainbow #AdventureBike #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Thursday 24 April 2014

Streetride Wheelie

Streetride Wheelie


#Streetride #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Salt Flat Wheelie

Salt Flat Wheelie


#KTM #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Buell Helicoils

Remember the other day when I broke three of the stainless-steel mudguard bolts on the Buell?

Well last night I drilled out the remains of the bolts using a series of cobalt drill bits. It wasn't so hard. And this morning I re-threaded the bores with Helicoils to reduce the chance of any future seizures.

So all is right with the world again...

Mercenary Garage - Buell Helicoils


#Helicoil #Buell #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

HPN

It's no secret that I'm not very fond of BMW motorcycles. It's not the bikes so much as the brand really. It always strikes me as a very smug brand and this smugness is often reflected by the riders. I've often got chatting with BMW riders who simultaneously look down their noses at my bike (almost invariably a 20 year-old Honda of one sort or another) while complaining about the unreliability/cost of parts/general uselessness of their own machines. 

I've met a total of five BMW riders in the Sahara desert and every single one of them complained about their bikes while looking dubiously at whatever ratty old Honda I happened to be on... 


So I don't much like them.



HPN GS


However, I've always had a weakness for the original air-cooled GS bikes. Particularly the GS thousand. I actually owned one for a while in the late '90s. It was a low-mileage fire-damaged basket-case and I was preparing it for my first desert trip. However, a cash-flow crises forced me to sell it very quickly to raise money for a print job for which I subsequently didn't get paid...


So in the end, I made that first trip on a ratty old Honda XL600L with a 670cc Dominator motor and a 27 litre tank off an XLM. 


While I was prepping the BMW I discovered this website - http://www.hpn.de/english/english.html


HPN are expert in converting BMWs into proper off-road machines - They built the BMW bikes that won the Dakar in the early '80s. That website is full of tips and tricks for modifying BMWs from people who have been doing it routinely for 30 years, and much of that wisdom has a wider application for adventure bikes generally.


I was surprised tonight to find that the website hasn't changed in the 15 years or so since I first looked at it. It has some newer bikes, but they've been added on - all the original content is still there! On the images reproduced here, there's still a warning that the images are 'huge' and will take a long time to download!


I remember waiting for several minutes as each image downloaded over my late-nineties dial-up internet and I smiled as they appeared almost instantly tonight! Some technology advances are clearly pretty good.


But not all...


If I was in the market for an expedition bike and had to choose between an air-cooled HPN 1000GS or a late model 1200GS, I'd pick the HPN in a heartbeat...




HPN GS


HPN GS


HPN GS


#HPN #Dakar #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Deus Dakar

I was surprised to find this on the Deus Ex Machina website...

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar

Deus Dakar


#Dakar #DeusExMachina #Mercenary #Mercenary

Smokin'

Smokin'


#HarleyDavidson #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Sportster Girl

Sportster Girl










































#HarleyDavidson #Sportster #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage 

Abnormal Cycles

Abnormal Cycles


#AbnormalCycles #Sportster #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage 

Deus

Deus


#DeusExMachina #ShovelHead #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage 

Mercenary Garage

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Mercenary is going pro.

The first phase of this operation will be offering a service designing and installing vinyl motorcycle wraps. This is due to go live in May.


As part of this endeavour we've established a new Facebook page - Mercenary Garage


It will be less oriented towards Culture and more oriented towards whatever is going on in the workshop. There will be some overlap between Mercenary.ie and Mercenary Garage but there will be additional photos and stuff on Mercenary Garage that won't feature on the blog.


We'd really appreciate it if you paid a visit and 'Liked' us!


Just follow the link above or click on the Facebook doofer on the top right of the page and then click 'Like'



Mercenary Garage
Motorcycle Vinyl Wraps, Design and Install, Dublin, Ireland

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Buell Motorcycle Wrap

The portion of the print destined for the front mudguard didn't have any flaws so I installed it this evening. It went well and I'm pleased with the result. I think the reprint should be ready tomorrow so hopefully I can pick it up from the printers and finish out the install tomorrow evening.

Mercenary Garage - Buell Motorcycle Wrap

#MotorcycleWrap #Buell #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage