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johnnyg

a wicked pissah bike/car collection

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i visited my best friend in nh over the new year... he turned 50 on 12/29, and i turned 49 the next day. i don't remember not knowing him, our parents stuck us in the playpen together and we've been fixtures in each others' lives since -- he's a brother from another mother, as the saying goes. he has had a few bmw's, mostly k-bikes, and currently has an r100 and an r65, both of which he's restored.

the weather was cold, never above 15*F, and it didn't reach that till the day i left. we managed to get in a few short hikes, to stave off the cabin fever in us and his two dogs. that's chris on the left, at 3*F.

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chris's girlfriend's dad, dave, is a motorcycle guy, mostly british bikes, as you'll see... he is 85 years old, and his brother is 87, and they meet daily at the garage to restore bikes they've picked up along the way. he had all the details of each bike, the issues they encountered doing the restorations, what he paid for each, trips he's taken on them, etc. he was a regular at the isle of man in his younger days, and became friends with colin seeley, who built racing bikes and chassis back then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Seeley. heres a photo of a photo of seeley at gp de espana in 1963.

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anyhow, i didn't record years and models, and frankly, i suck at those sorts of things, so please speak up in identifying the bikes. i'll add what details i remember... 

first, a car. this is an sm(?) model citroen, with a maserati motor and front wheel drive. dave said he was stopped for speeding in it, and assumed he was only a little over the limit. apparently, it's such a smooth riding car that it's easy for the speed to creep up without noticing. he also said people always try to buy the headlight glass from him because it's rare. sorry about my finger over the license plate, but i want to respect the man's privacy.

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ok, next is another car, a lancia.

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ok, here's where you all can chime in... the next several bikes i don't remember years and such, so speak up!

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yes, the odometer is accurate!

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another car...

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this bmw has 160k miles, ridden by dave, his brother and their father.

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and now for the really nice stuff...

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according to dave, the seeley condor here is number one of seven, because dave convinced colin to make a road bike version of his successful racing bike.

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very clean welds in the reynolds 531 tubing.

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it was a great way to spend some time with a motorcycle-riding friend/brother and a highlight of my week in new hampshire. 

thanks for coming along!

best regards,

johnnyg

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Very cool. And definitely a cool collection.

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Just now, Oracle said:

Very cool. And definitely a cool collection.

thanks lb! i wasn't familiar with seeley, so i got to learn about stuff i otherwise never would have.

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The chrome tanked Seeley is sweet.  Some great bikes in that collection.

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oddly enough a bunch of us were just talking about the Citroen DS  and how weird and fast and air ride smooth they were. that SM model is highly prized and even standard DS in turbo diesel and gas are fetching very high prices in the EU. The bikes are very very nice and the Lancia brilliant, killer mix of machines. love the oil pans under the Brit bikes. Seeley, Rob North along with Clewes, the Rickman brothers and others from the time were pioneering Anglo chassis builders, very rare machines from Colin Seeley.

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