Riding Free On Three

Today on my bike show themed week, I want to highlight my favorite class of motorcycle--the trike. I wish I could have gotten a wider-angle shot of this trike, because it's just gorgeous! It's custom made in Moorhead, Minnesota. You can check out their website right here. This is the 2009 HLE model. It has a powerful VW engine. The faux gas tank opens up to store your helmet! I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and wished I could take it home with me.



Here's another trike I liked at the show. That's a blue dragon on the gas tank.

Techie Corner
Like I said the other day, I was working with a 75mm equivalent lens. This made it even harder to get a full pic of a trike with all the bikes and people crammed in there. Note to self: don't give myself that kind of challenge again!

The Forerunners

Continuing on with my bike show pics, we can't forget the forerunners of all the cool bikes and trikes we have now. There were a lot of antique bikes at the show too, and this 1949 Indian Arrow was one of them.


Long before "pocket rockets," there was the Doodle Bug. A swarm of 40,000 Doodle Bugs took to the streets between 1946 and 1948.

Pinkalicious

Continuing on from yesterday with the Donnie Smith Bike Show, this one is a real beauty. This is the best old school girlie bike I have ever seen! It would be perfect if it had pink sparkly laces coming out of the handle bars. If I rode bikes instead of trikes, I would definitely ride Pinkalicious!


Here's a close up of all those pink sparkles. I love the "diamond" studs in the seat.




Techie Corner
I purposely gave myself some challenges at this bike show. I used my 50mm lens (which is 75mm on my digital camera.) I also had to focus manually since this lens is kinda touchy.

The 75mm turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought. With so many bikes packed together and so many people crowded around them, it was hard to get back far enough to get a whole bike in the frame. I would have liked to get Pinkalicious' front tire in the shot, but that didn't work out.

I shot all of my bike show pics at F2.8, so there is some selective focus involved. But the faster lens did help out greatly since none of the pics were taken with flash.

It's All in the Details

We went to the Donnie Smith Bike Show on Saturday and drooled over a lot of nice bikes and trikes. Some of the paint jobs and detailing were phenomenal! I have a few blogs-worth of picts, so today I thought I'd share some detailing close-ups.

I've always loved dragons, so when I saw this little guy trying to melt the crome off this bike, I had to get a shot.





This bike has dragons, swords, and knives all over it. Here's a close-up of a little dragon keeping a watchful eye on the front tire.

And here are a couple more dragons protecting the saddle bag.




No dragons in this pic, but it's not every day that you see a chain drive on a modern custom chopper. I think it's much nicer looking than a belt drive, especially with that shiny gold contrasting with the chrome.

Soaring Eagle

We went for a little drive Saturday evening. With the sun out a little later and the beautiful weather we're having, it was a very pleasant drive.

Just past Lake City on HWY 61, people gather at the look-out points to watch the annual eagle migration.

We saw several young eagles flying around, including this one. Looking at the pictures in my bird book, this eagle will probably be an adult by next year.