Wildfire

#RoyalEnfieldWildfire #RoyalEnfield #RetroRallyRaider #DeathSprayCustoms #GiantRockRally #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Paddy Dakar 2024 - Photodump

Some shots documenting the Paddy Dakar motorcycle rally last weekend, from the MERCENARY GARAGE perspective.

The event went off flawlessly thanks to the dedication and brilliant organisational skills of the PD staff and volunteers. The atmosphere was relaxed, friendly and inclusive and the catering was superb. It's a uniquely laid-back affair and we look forward to returning in 2025.

Our sincere thanks go to Damo, Stephen and the rest of the team for their dedication, their vision and all their hard work.

Apocalypse Moto

Image - Gorm Moto

#NX650 #HondaDominator #GormMoto #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycle #Mercenary

Marlborover

Images - landrover.addict on Instagram

#LandRover #CustomLandRover #MotorcycleTransporter #BikeHauler #SuzukiDR #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Homemade IKEA Roadbook Holder II

Try this One Weird Trick that Big Roadbook-Holder doesn't want you to know!

No Special Tools! Easy to Find Parts!

The finished Roadbook Holder stored safely in a Secret Location.

A few years back MERCENARY published a post on building a Roadbook Holder. That post is available here - https://www.mercenary.ie/2018/08/ikea-roadbook-holder.html

It wasn't really intended as a How-To and although all the parts were easily accessible, the tools used weren't. Since it was published, that post has recieved many hits, and it seems like there might be an interest in an inexpensive, quality roadbook holder that can be made using commonly available parts and simple tools.

So here goes...

The parts required to build the Roadbook Holder.

Navigation Tower

Image - via Bikebound

#LeMotographe #YamahaWR450 #RallyBike #NavigationTower #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

T3 Rally

Image - Some AI

#VWT3 #VWVanagon #VWT25 #CustomVan #RallyVan #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Superminibike

 

Illustration - Chui Poson

#Superminibike #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Tired Now

 

Image - Upshift Online

#KTMRally #Baja1000 #RallyBike #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

2023 Husqvarna FR 450 Dakar

Images - via adventure_attack on Instagram

#Husqvarna #HusqvarnaFR450 #Dakar #ParisDakar #Dakar2023 #RallyMoto #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Paddy Dakar 2022

Doon, Co. Limerick, September 16th-18th 2022

Sidecar

Dunno anything about this, but WOW! 

Image - Laurent Berthe

#Sidecar #SidecarStreetfighter #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

Paddy Dakar

The Paddy Dakar 2021 takes place tomorrow (with Covid restrictions).

Image Ró Hickey

#PaddyDakar #ThePaddyDakar #PaddyDakar2021 #HondaCRF250 #CRF250 #HondaCRF250Rally #CRF250Rally #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryGarage

VHS Wednesday - Timerider (1982)

Timerider - The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)

VHS tape cassette box art is generally a pretty poor indication of the quality of the movie contained within and Timerider - The Adventure of Lyle Swann is no exception. 

I took a look at the cover art and expected this to be complete trash and was surprised to find that it's not. This is a good movie! Not just good in a cheesy VHS kind of way, but objectively good.

Yeah, its got a eightiestacular synthy/metal soundtrack, but this is mostly at the start. It gets more synth/metal/cowboy as the film progresses and it actually works well. The acting is good, the costumes are good, the plot is good and it's action packed without resorting to ridiculous stunts. How has no-one heard of this movie?

It predated other '80s time travel flicks like The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), Terminator (1984) and Back to the Future (1985) and as soon as I get my time machine back working again, I'm going back to the '80s to find out if it had an influence on the Terminator movies, cos it sure looks like it.

This movie is (Spoiler Alert) exactly what would happen if you entered the Baja 1000 and accidentally strayed off course into a Top Secret Government Time Travel Experiment that zapped you and your motorcycle back to the Wild West of 1877 where you became your own grandfather. 

Exactly!

#VHSWednesday #TimeRider #YamahaXT #YamahaXT500 #XT500 #TimeTravel #TheEighties #Mercenary #MercenaryMotorcycles #MercenaryMotorcycleWorkshop #MercenaryGarage

Timeless Horizon

#Yamaha #YamahaTenere #Tenere700 #Tenere700RallyEdition #XT600 #Tenere #XT600Tenere #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Night Rider

There's a night section in the Paddy Dakar and last September we found ourselves riding around a mountain in the dark looking for tiny 1" x 2" metal plaques.

The headlight on the KLR is super bright, but it's limited in it's aim by how far you can turn the bars while stationary. This isn't ideal.

At the time it occurred to me that it would be wonderful to have a lamp of similar brightness to the headlight, but mounted on my helmet so that there would be good illumination wherever I was looking.

What you see here is the culmination of that thought process.

The stock headlamp bulb on the KLR was a 50/55 Watt so the alternator is good for at least that. In addition, it had to power the stop/tail bulb, the indicator bulbs, licence plate bulb and the various bulbs in the instrument cluster.

My KLR doesn't have any of that stuff any more due to advances in LED technology over the last few years. The LED headlight is 35 Watt and the LED parking lamp and the LED stop/tail bulb draw 1 Watt each!

It also has a GPS now - I don't know what kind of power that draws, but I guess its only a couple of Watts.

The point is, there should still be capacity to power an additional 15 Watt LED cluster mounted on a helmet.

The short term plan is to test it out over the winter by simply plugging it into a wiring harness on the bike. But for the Paddy Dakar next year I'll probably run it off a second battery in my backpack so I can walk around away from the bike (there's a good bit of thrashing around searching for the markers). I'll plug the second battery into the wiring harness to keep it charged while I'm on the bike.

I went riding today with the lamp mounted on the peak of my helmet and instantly forgot it was there. It doesn't weigh very much and it's fairly low profile - about 50mm tall and 150 wide. I didn't have it wired up, but I often ride with an electric heated jacket plugged into the bike, so I don't think the wiring will be an issue.

So it looks like it might actually work quite well...

Images Mercenary Garage


#NightRider #NightRaid #NightRally #LEDBulbs #PaddyDakar #KLR #KawasakiKLR #KLR250 #StealthKLR #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Carducci SC3

Images via Carducci

#Carducci #CarducciSC3 #CarducciDualSport #HarleyDavidsonSportster #HarleyDavidson #Sportster #AdventureBike #DualSport #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Twilight

Image Ronan Hickey


#PaddyDakar #PaddyDakar2018 #HRCBiker #VWT4 #VWTransporter #ZombieVan #TacticalVan #BugOutVan #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage

Paddy Dakar 2018

Doon, Co. Limerick

Photo Evan Kelly

Photo Evan Kelly

Photo Noel Feeney

Photo Noel Feeney

Photo Noel Feeney

GRRRRRRR...

Image Evan


#TDM850 #PaddyDakar #SharkTooth #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage