Bosozoku style

Picked up this wonderful magazine in Nagasaki. It's about Bosozoku (biker gang) style bikes. I can't work out anything about it but just know it is a feast for the eyes. A completely different style aesthetic for European sensibilities. Bikes are largely 80s Japanese, style is half cafe racer, half chopper: ape hangers, wild exhausts, dolphin fairings and way out paint schemes with lots of rising sun motifs. Girls are out in force on the bikes too and there's a whole fashion scene going along with it. Makes me want to create a bosozuku style bike back at home but not sure I would have the balls to ride it out and about!

Apologies for the slightly ropey snaps. I cannot find any web links for the magazine but if you see it, buy it, if just for the pictures...

Magazine cover.

Foxy lady on 80s Suzuki!

It's not all chick pics, just the larger ones that are easier to
copy. School girl outfit doesn't quite reach any safety
standards for motorcycling kit!

Japanese scooter scene

A few snaps from wandering around Nagasaki. Scooters are a way of life here and petrol head pursuits are in the mainstream. There're a huge number of customised super scoots running around. The Honda Fusion is a popular platform. Low riding, uv downlights, race cans and pearlescent white paint schemes are all in vogue. The look for many is a brilliant retro vision of the future. These are the machines we would all be riding in 2015 from the vantage point of he seventies. If you haven't encountered Japanese custom scooters before I urge you to go to google images and search 'japanese custom scooters'....

Custom Honda Fusion ticking many of the boxes.

Not modified, but an oddity worthy of inclusion - Honda PS250.
Made from 2004 to 2007 and apparently sold in the States as the
'Big Ruckus'. It features many of the styling cues of the wonderful
'Zoomer'' 50cc (sold in the US as the 'Ruckus') though the
scale up is a bit clunky.

Lightly modded Yamaha Morphous.

I honestly don't know what this is. It's probably got a body
kit on. I would guess Suzuki. Looks great anyhow.

Another view of the above.

Not a custom but a cute scoot not seen in the
UK. The Yamaha Vox.

Another one not seen in the UK. The Yamaha cargo scooter,
the 'Gear 50'.

Levis Motor Cycles 1938 brochure

Never a great volume manufacturer of motorcycles, Levis none-the-less seems to have had a big budget for promotional materials judging from the number of surviving brochures kicking around. Here's a 1938 one...

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure front cover.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 1.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 2.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 3.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 4.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 5.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 6.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 7.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 8.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 9.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure page 10.

1938 Levis Motor Cycles brochure rear cover.

Early thirties ohc Norton

Period photo of an early thirties ohc Norton. There's folks out there could readily identify it but I'm pressed to recognise one model of cammy Norton from the other..

Early thirties ohn Norton.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure

A real obscurity here. I can't find out anything about CCR Motor Cycles (Smith Brothers) other than what is in the brochure. There's an entry in the Grace's Guide but it is brief and a little conjectural. I doubt there is a survivor, would be great to hear otherwise.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure front cover.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 1.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 2.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 3.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 4.



CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 5.

CCR Motor Cycles 1911 brochure page 6.

Kanko Maru paddle steamer Nagasaki

Kanko Maru paddle steamer moored up in Nagasaki.

It's a two wheeler of sorts... Not really usual subject matter for this blog but if you like dodgy old bicycles and motorcycles then you must like paddle steamers too, maybe.

The Kanko Maru was Japan's first warship and was presented to the country by the Dutch in 1855. The boat currently plying the coast of Japan with a cargo of tourists is a replica built in Holland in 1987. Full history of the vessel on Wikipedia.

Seal Sociable sidecar with steering wheel

Here's an unusual photo. It's a Seal Sociable. Made from 1912 to 1924 in, presumably, very limited numbers. It must have seemed like a logical idea at the time - most big v-twins were made to haul sidecars so why not combine the two together and allow rider and passenger to sit side-by-side?

It is powered by a JAP v-twin and at least one survives, in the National Motorcycle Museum. Strangely the sidecar in this picture is on a different side from other pictures I have seen. They must have made left and right hand versions.

The machine might be a studio prop as was popular at the time, but it would have been quite an expensive device for a studio to own. Perhaps this couple are in fact the proud owners.

Seal Sociable posed photo.