Shooting the Hammer

671 Press needed two covers for upcoming books, and Robert Pandya, the Victory rep (who resides in Austin, Texas) had the perfect bike for the job in town, a Victory Hammer Eight-Ball. So Robert and his brother Manny and I went out into the hill country to shoot the covers on another hotter-than-blazes August night.

The riding shot was for the cover of Ride America, a collection of tours all across America from the pages of Motorcycle Cruiser, Motorcyclist, and Motorcycle Escape. We wanted a shot that evoked going for a ride, and we felt the over-the-shoulder winding road shot was perfect for that. I had two nice examples in my stock, but one was an extra from a GPS unit shoot and the rider wasn't wearing a helmet, and the other was shot in Hokkaido, Japan so the rider was on the wrong side of the road.

We needed a clean example of the same photo shot on a bike with a classic, attractive dash on a curvy road. Our new shot was taken over the shoulder of Robert, on a stretch of the well-known-in-Austin Fitzhugh Road. I scouted the location beforehand, and found a stretch of road that curved up to the right to draw your eye into opening the book, and curved up and away from the bike at the proper angle.

Robert proved to be an excellent photo pilot. He's an experienced rider and a solid photographer. Shooting from the back can be nerve-wracking, as you have one or both hands on the camera. Robert proved eminently trustworthy, and his experience as a photographer meant he understood where to put the bike for the shot.



The cover for The Perfect Motorcycle by Kevin Dammen needed to evoke finding the motorcycle of your dreams. The book answers that question whether you want a Harley or a sportbike, as it is all about evaluating your needs, means and the market, so the book cover needs an image that suggests an ideal machine that is not emphatically in a category such as a chopper or a sportbike. For that image, we wanted a sunset silhouette of a standard-looking but still cool and exciting bike. The Hammer was perfect--all we needed was a sunset.

The sunset shot turned out to be more challenging than expected, mainly because the sunset shot required a ridge. Such a thing is easy to find in the midwest. Well, the hills can be a little hard to find but an open field or other piece of ground where you can shoot is not a problem.

Central Texas has plenty of hills and ridges, so finding a spot geographically suited to the shot is easy. But the area is mainly private land and almost entirely fenced and locked, so finding an accessible spot is not an easy proposition. We found a little turn-around at the end of a dead-end road that worked for us to shoot this cover. We had to tear down some grass and I set up in a ditch in order to get the angle. Note that Texas ditches are not friendly places. Vegetation here is sharp and spiny!

A bonus was that the chrome reflected light from the sky and gave the bike some definition. My intention was a pure silhouette, with the bike totally blacked out. The shots with the chrome glowing lightly are much more interesting. We have both and won't decide on a final image until the cover is complete and approved.

High-Octane Interior Decorating

Interior decorating with internal combustion is an admirable trait, and this guy has raised the bar a bit from rebuilding a Chevy V-8 in your living room or "decorating" your house by scattering parts from a KZ1000 restoration project around the place.

Mr. Maserati's only miss is his elevating ramp; part of the joy of engines in the house is the smell of high-test.



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Time to Motorcycle Dream Garage Publication: 36 days, 9 hours, 44 minutes.

Snowbound: Riding 2Moto's Radix Snow-Bike

Interested in throwing roost in the snow? The guys at 2Moto can fix you up.


The site of the test was Mammoth Mountain ski area in southern California. 2Moto VP of Research and Development Bill King and CEO Mark Maliwauki had brought out a trailer full of RadiX-equipped bikes to test. Former pro rider David Pingree was on hand to try out the machine, and Bill had converted one of Ping’s bikes.

The kit consists of a driven rear track unit in place of the rear wheel, with a ski up front. Most of the riders gathered that day had never been on 2Moto bikes before and the early discussions centered around adapting to the machine. King gave a few pointers on riding the bike to the group, and we took off up the mountain.




While the riders went up the mountain on the bikes, I rode up with the videographers in a snow cat. Photos were the first priority, and I spent about three hours on the mountain photographing the bikes. As I shot, I could see how the riders quickly adapted.


Pingree was visibly more confident within about 10 minutes, throwing it into corners with gusto and leaping off a hump on the ski hill to soar 40 feet down. He later explained that the track-equipped bikes jump well, but you cannot correct much in the air.

We came back for lunch, and then headed back out to go up the hill for more shots and my test ride. As we climbed into the snow cat, I was recruited to ride one of the bikes up. Trial by fire.

I grabbed an EFI RMZ450 and kicked it to life. I let out the clutch and the bike spun the track a bit and snorted up the hill. The oddest sensation is the front ski, which feels just a little nervous, and takes little skips to the side every so often. The sensation reminded me of riding a dirt bike in deep sand, where the front end hunts a bit.

We went straight up several ski hills, and wound through the forest on wide roads and trails. The RadiX was easy to ride straight, and would go up nearly as fast as I was willing to wick it up.

The track does soak up some horsepower, and the normally eyeball-flattening RMZ450 had ample but not awe-inspiring power.

Personally, I found the power output of the 450 four-strokes to be perfect for the machines. They would climb anything, accelerate with authority, and were managable when riding through the trees.

Once we made it to the backside valley where we were testing and photographing the bikes, I was able to take the bike out into the open snow. Turning requires you to lean the motorcycle and turn on the throttle, and it takes a bit to adjust to that. While the ski bites very well, you can’t turn the motorcycle with just the handlebars.

King’s advice was to go out in the snow and lean it over until the handlebar dragged with the throttle on. I found an open meadow and leaned it over with the power on. After a few cuts, you quickly learn to trust that ski. It sticks far better than a wheel. Flick it over, gas it and the bike will cut hard, tight and clean.

Once you learn to turn, the real fun begins. You can snake the bike between the trees in a way that a snowmobiler can only dream about. The 2Moto bike transforms a snowy patch of woods into one giant piece of free-riding singletrack.

One of the most remarkable aspects is how well the machine cuts across sidehills. The ski tracks true, and you simply lean a bit into the hill and the track bites securely.

One of the interesting things about the 2Moto machine is that the ski tracks better than a wheel in ruts. Every time I came to a rutted-up patch of snow, I braced myself for the typical sliding around you experience with a wheel out front. The ski just tracked straight and true through the snow.







Off-road riders also adapt well to the RadiX machines. Former Paris-to-Dakar racer Casey McCoy was on hand at Mammoth for a ride, and we went with him through open slopes and did some bushwacking snaking through the woods. The ability to explore remote areas struck a chord with McCoy.



“I’m not a moto-head. I like to be able to go places I ordinarily don’t go, and this thing does that,” McCoy said. “I’d do this over snowmobiling any day.”

Bill King perhaps summed it up best. “We aren’t selling a product,” King said, “We are building a new powersport.”




To see a few more images of the 2Moto machines in action, check out my Photo Gallery.

Behind the Scenes Feature in Motorcyclist magazine

Check out the September issue of Motorcyclist magazine for another sneak peak at Dream Garages with my semi-intelligent babble about the book. Brian and Aaron were kind enough to give me several spreads in the mag, so buy six copies and reward their efforts!

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Time to Motorcycle Dream Garage Publication: 67 days, 11 hours, 30 minutes.