Major Kong rides again

Motor-Bicycle?

1902 Steffey motorbike, like all early motorcycles, it is literally a motorized bicycle, what we might call today a moped. 250cc 2 stroke single-speed motor and pedals for human power. I came across this one at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama, which is well worth a visit if you have any love for things that go vroom.

I love the look of these early motorcycles, they seem almost steampunk, but cooler because all those brass fittings and glass bulbs are there for a reason.

Careful out there

Watch out for deer. They have no love for motorcycles. Cars too, but mostly motorcycles.

Sketchy thing.

Layer

A cross section reveals the hidden layers of this man.

Minimal Henderson

Quick sketch of a Great War era Henderson motorcycle. Trying to keep it loose and kind of feel the shape.

Rocker Switch

A friend said he was looking for rocker switches…

Psycho KLR

My friend's industrial motorcycle. Having spent a lot of time operating industrial machines, I personally wouldn't want my motorcycle to look like work, but to each their own. I spent a lot of time looking at this bike on my recent adventures. I almost miss the ugly thing.

Mobile test

Trail

Just a real quick one as I'm about to leave on vacation. I wouldn't have even bothered,  but this weeks Illustration Friday topic of "Trail" was too perfect to ignore.

I'm about to go motorcycling across the United States, following the trail of one C.K. Shepherd, who rode across the country on his motorcycle after he came back from World War One, back in 1919. He documented his journey with the book Across America By Motor-Cycle, which you can find, free of charge, on Archive.org. And as we follow his trail, our crossing will be documented by my good friend Chris, at acrossamericabymotorcycle.blogspot.com

I'll probably do some sketching on the journey, and I may update from the road, but for now, no promises.

Until next,
Rod

Ahead

Maybe it's because I was just reading something about Eric Chahi and the classic Amiga game Out Of This World (originally known as Another World, presumably the name was changed for America to avoid a flood of death threats from disappointed soap opera fans) but I did this one in simple vector style with Illustrator instead of freehand (again, freehand, not Freehand, and if you get that joke, give yourself a cookie).

I worked out the basic idea freehand in Sketchbook Pro before taking it into Illustrator, and you can see the original rough outline, if you're into that kind of thing, after the jump.

Eff Zed Six

After listening to Big Illustration Party Time podcast episode 36, with guest Jason Cruz, motorcycle and hotrod illustrator extraordinaire, I decided to try out something in the Cruz mode.

Rocket Surgery

Buell Ulysses XB12S RIPFTW

Nothing too exciting, this is part of a t-shirt design I'm working on. It is, however, a motorcycle, on Monday.

Somewhere to the West

The sun came out, and a man went for a ride.

Adrift

Everyone always said I was a space cadet.

Monday moto

McKing

It's Monday, you know what that means…

MotoMonday!

Motomonday!

Starting last monday, I intend to commemorate everybody's favourite day of the week with my favourite thing, the motorcycle. Enjoy!

A Night Ride

Had a dream I was racing in a strange yet familiar indoor city on my motorcycle.