Cool waste of time at SFO

[motoproponent]

If you have time to kill at SFO and like small displacement italian racing motos check this out.

I have and they are much cooler and the exhibit is much larger than the press release lets on.

http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/sfo_...national_terminal_exhibitions/north_wall.html

 

[flying_hun]

Very cool! :thumbup

 

[VicTim]

I love those old bikes, very cool.:cool

 

[tuxumino]

I had to drop some peeps off there last week, spent an hour checking them out.

very cool

 

[CoolBDPhenom03]

Sweet...I wonder how long it'll be around.

 

[Idioteque]

Sweet...I wonder how long it'll be around.

exhibitions - international terminal

Galleries A1 and G1, International Terminal Main Hall
November 5th 2011 – April 2012
*

Looks like til April.

 

[vato_loco]

Damn, I was just at SFO and missed it. :thumbdown

 

[dkcwenge]

yup! i saw it a couple weeks ago. they're at the international terminal! very awesome.

 

[clutchslip]

I just luvs this fairing. There were some other "bubble" type fairings from that era that were also very distinctive.

 

[Carlo]

Nice. I remember looking at ads for many of those when I was a kid. Those were way cooler than the step-through Honda 50's and 90'.

 

[Carlo]

I just luvs this fairing. There were some other "bubble" type fairings from that era that were also very distinctive.

They called those "dustbin" fairings. The brits thought they looked like dustpans, which they called dustbins, and the name stuck.

They were banned from racing after 1957 because they gave a huge aerodynamic advantage to the companies willing to forgo looks for performance.

 

[two wheel tramp]

Very cool. There are a couple of vintage Italian motorbikes here in the warehouse at work. They are beautiful to look at. :love

 

[flying_hun]

They called those "dustbin" fairings. The brits thought they looked like dustpans, which they called dustbins, and the name stuck.

They were banned from racing after 1957 because they gave a huge aerodynamic advantage to the companies willing to forgo looks for performance.

That's funny. I thought they were banned for safety reasons. They were very susceptible to crosswinds. IIRC, there was a famous crash of a Guzzi V8 being ridden by a journalist caused by just such a gust. From Wikipedia:

Dustbin fairing: A single-piece, streamlined shell covering the front half of a motorcycle resembling the nose of an aircraft, sometimes referred to as torpedo fairing. It dramatically reduced the frontal drag, but it was banned by Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) from racing in 1958, because it was thought that the frontal point of wind pressure made them highly unstable even with small amounts of yaw.[5] Other reasons cited for the ban were to ensure adequate steering range (lock-to-lock) and stability against crosswinds. FIM regulations forbid streamlining beyond the wheel spindles and require the rider's arms and legs to be visible from the side.

 

[Johndicezx9]

We were gonna head to SFO to check the dispays out after hitting the IMS but ran out of time...

 

[RichK]

stumbled across this exhibit yesterday - I was blown away by the number, amazing design and rarity of these bikes! I think the display will still be there through July. This is totally worth a trip to SFO international terminal (it's before you get to security) - you could take BART straight there.

Here are some iPhone shots:

 

[RichK]

a few more:

 

[CurveSurfer]

I saw this a couple months ago, it's a fantastic display. Take your time to read all the descriptions and look carefully at each bike. Each one has a great story and details you won't notice otherwise.

 

[DucatiHoney]

I don't know what's in the water over there, but they seem to be good at making "beautiful". (Actually, the water in Rome is fantastic. It seriously tastes good straight out of the tap.)

 

[BlacKat]

Saw that exhibit while I was waiting to fly out to NZ, most cool.