Next morning starts out cold for the first 1 1/2 hours of riding, but eventually gets tolerable for the second half part of the stretch to Newcomb's Ranch, a biker hangout. The bikes struggle with the thin air, and go slower and slower when climbing over a foggy pass on Rt. 138. Trying to be considerate, I position myself at the rear, as the two stroke premix effectively turns my motorcycle into the two-wheeled equivalent of a skunk. I also realize that my brakes won't make it all the way to NYC, because the MZ being a twostroke bike, engine braking is not possible. And there are going to be some mighty steep inclines to coast down.
Dave Nelson on his creme colored 1943 'Bumblebee' Type C Nimbus comes by Dave Jensen's house again in the morning, and ride with us to Newcomb's Ranch.
Sign at gas station where we stop to whinge about the temperatures and warm up a bit.
Not long ago I was riding around in the Atlas mountains of Morocco, and comparing that to what I see now is inevitable. The rock formations, the desert areas, the mountains, and endless number of turns - everything the Atlas had is here too, albeit with vegetation, better road surfaces and - this being America - just at a much larger scale. More colors too, when we climb past cliffsides in ocher, a pale greyish turquoise, red or dirty white. Areas with burned trees appear and disappear, a reminder of the fires ravaging California very recently. Angels' Crest Hwy 2 is just beautiful, and unlike in Morocco, maybe you won't necessarily die if you fly off the road and down the cliffside.
The other guys have seen this view 500+ times, so they race around the corners the best their Nimbuses can. But for me it is all new and very exciting.
Serious looking naked Ducati at Newcomb's Ranch. The vast majority of motorcycles are large H-D dressers or sports bikes. Interestingly the MZ gets very little attention, probably because the Nimbuses are so much more old & classic looking.
After lunch at Newcomb's there's another long stretch of fast curves, until some hours later we meet up with Mark, a Nimbus guy who also came to the biker hangout. This is today's surprise, that Dave and Kaj had just hinted about: His house - make that his entire estate - is filled to the brim with cool, mainly automotive stuff. Interesting cars and motorcycles, jet plane drop tanks, movie and racetrack memorabilia, Mark's own mechanical sculptures, etc. etc. I'm not talking about hundreds or thousands of things, but more like tens of thousands. Aside from a pair of rusty 1920s Studebaker cars, the carefully arranged garden has an orange tree (first time I picked my own orange) and various cactus plants.
Mark's garden and some of his collection of cars and car bits. Like the front part of a Nash.
Dave, Kaj and Mark discussing the merits af the blue '38, that Mark bought from Nimbus dealer Niels Nielsen in Denmark.
Mark has owned the pristine, all-options-added 1924 Nimbus 'Stovepipe' for more than 30 years, but run only once. The little wings are period correct, and extremely rare. He has only ever seen this one pair, and a French ad for them.
In the collection one will find a few things painted by famous artist Kenny Howard, better known as 'von Dutch' (google him). He was best known for his involvement in the 1960s hotrod culture, but painted whenever people paid him to paint something - and not necessarily what they had in mind. Mark knew him and has some of his stuff, a few Nimbus related items being amongst them.
Most of the customers were happy about his work, but one that wasn't, was a fire department, when he gave one of their fire engines [store brandbiler] a nice flame job....
Kaj, Dave, Mark & the chef outside Sumo Sushi. Excellent food, even better than my two favorite places in Copenhagen.
1960 Chevrolet El Camino, Mark's future custom Honda CB750 transporter, under the everchanging lights of the larger carport.
Yet another droptank, here hanging over a 'survial style' Plymouth Roadrunner. Mark has been into the California car scene since forever, and knew many of the most important people involved with custom cars. He mentioned that this car took von Dutch to his last party before he passed away in 1992.
Casts of von Dutch's hands are morbidly placed inside the fireplace, along with a collection of lava lamps. The grille is off a Nash Statesman car, and the picture above features one of artist Robert Williams - dubbed by some to be Norman Rockwell's evil twin (google his pictures too).
Robert William's 'Hot Rod Race' from 1976, in a better version found on the net.
Mask from various Southeast Asian countries.
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