Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/1125850
WheelsOfGrace.com | Volume 10 Issue 5 | 29 HANDLEBAR NEWS dash cam. The video starts off with Kal at the junc on, where a traffic police officer can be seen inspec ng a car that had somehow ended up on a pedestrian crossing curb. Two parked police bikes can be seen, but according to Kal, there were actually three officers at the scene. When the lights turned green, the motorcyclist in front of Kal must have had a massive brain fart. With the casual grace of a seasoned outlaw, he rode right onto the curb on the le in full, unbridled view of an actual traffic police officer. The blatancy of the offense and the u er nerve of the rider must have stunned the officer as he watched the motorcyclist ride away. The rider had what appears to be a GrabFood delivery bag at the backseat, so uh, kudos to him for priori zing a customer's order over ge ng in trouble? When the astonishment se led down, the officer can be seen yelling and making angry gestures at the rider, appearing to demand that he return immediately in front of him. Kal, on the other hand, couldn't help but burst into laughter, cackling at the total irra onality of the rider. INDIAN TURNING LEGEND AND ARMY VETERAN PASSES AWAY AT AGE 97 Bob Nichols, who has personally made nearly every internal part for his super-modified 9,000-rpm 1937 Indian Scout, has le this life, aged 97. I had pre y much expected him to live forever. Google "Bob Nichols Racing" to read what's in print about his life. Off to work in garages and machine shops from age 11, he also learned surfing at the same me—in the depths of the American Great Depression. He was always at the bike races. Although his work in a World War II defense plant gave him an exemp on, he joined the Army in September 1944, was shunted into the Corps of Engineers, and shipped to Tinian Island [part of the Northern Mariana Islands] in the Pacific, home of 500 B-29s bombarding Japan. There he was in charge of maintaining engines powering generators and water wells. Nichols survived three airplane crashes during the war, including one which he survived only because 1) he'd been a strong compe ve swimmer, and 2) he'd seen an island on the way down, and headed for it. "I was pre y red when I got there. They picked me up a er a while." A er the war he worked 24 years at Douglas Aircra Company/ Santa Monica "…in that mile-long building." In 1964, he pioneered the first tanium connec ng rods for Champ Car builder George Bigno (for driver A.J. Foyt). The following year he saw that the new Vascomax 350 maraging steel (machinable but extremely tough) would make possible lighter tappets for the Offenhauser engine, enabling it to use cam profiles that picked up a bunch of horsepower. At this same me, Albert Gunter was making rods for his Matchless G50 dirt-track engines out of the same stuff. California was the hotbed of car, motorcycle, and aircra innova on. Bob Nichols designed and machined rev-boos ng aluminum con-rods for his Indian Scouts. He used investment-cast blanks to make high-strength pivoted roller cam followers, and made his own cams and cranksha flywheels. With younger men riding, Bob con nued to enter his bikes in races and speed trials as long as he lived. On Wednesday evenings he taught a course in CNC programming at a local college. A year or so ago he phoned in a state of high excitement to tell me he'd located and bought a set of the much-sought-a er 648 "big-base" Indian crankcases, which he told me would allow him to use lower-fric on ball main bearings rather than rollers. To Bob, being alive was always an exci ng opportunity to think of something or make something happen. I'll miss Bob's voice on the phone because it came straight out of the center of the do-it-yourself-and-do-it-now racing tradi on that drew so many of us into this sport. CALIFORNIA FIRES SPARE ONE MOTORCYCLING FIXTURE, SCORCH ANOTHER The deadly Camp Fire in northern California was contained early this week, ending the worst recorded wildfire in the state's history. The Woolsey Fire, which simultaneously burned nearly 100,000 acres outside Los Angeles, was contained by Thanksgiving of 2018. The devasta on is hard to imagine. Together, the two blazes covered around 250,000 acres and claimed the lives of at least 88. Over 20,000 structures burned in total, many of them homes, and dozens of people are s ll missing. We will have an ar cle directly from a pastor and friend of ours showing his Harley Fat-Boy below. During the rush of evacua on before the fast-moving Camp fire, many people in and around the town of Paradise had no choice but to leave pets and livestock behind. That's where Shelina comes in — literally — because besides being a model and motorcycle racer, she's also a pet-rescue (s)hero. She goes into the burn zone to find animals le behind and returns them to their owners. Shelina and I are friends on Facebook. When I saw photos of her rescuing pets from evacuated buildings around Paradise, I had to know more. Ironically, when I reached her by phone, she answered from New York City. She'd flown straight in from rescuing animals for a Cover Girl photo shoot, and was flying straight back to Northern California to manage the rescue opera on the next day. There's a look in makeup that they call a "smoky eye." I'm guessing she's got that down pat. KAWASAKI'S REVIVED W800, PROLIFERATING RETROS AND MOTORCYCLE PRICING The W800 is back. They ought to call it the McRib, because it keeps showing up. The W800 has been reintroduced as a 2019 model paying homage to a motorcycle that was a nod to a throwback machine (the W650 reissue that ran from 2000 to 2001 in the United States) which spawned an update (the W800 that we never got here) that was itself a tribute to an earlier motorcycle (the W1 that was introduced in 1965) that was pa erned heavily off yet another bike (the BSA A7). My head hurts. Convoluted history aside, Kawasaki has brought to market a bike those under the age of 40 will probably iden fy as a retro and those over 40 will probably call a standard. Kaw's new bike is clearly pa erned a er Britbikes of the 1950s and 60s, because way back when (1963), they purchased a factory licensed to produce a copy of said Beezer. Motorcycle history is intertwined and knows no borders, eh? Kawi drew on that history when they released the W650 in 2000. That bike had sales problems, like some