The Symphony has now entered the 21st century

I used to believe that Instagram was a tool for hipsters, Internet celebrities, and other bottom feeders to post selfies and self-aggrandize; it turns out this is not the case. After prodding from my brother, I finally signed up and found it to be extremely useful. No longer do you have to trudge through image searches for obscure motorcycle parts or one off builds, you just need to use pound signs (or hashtags as I've been corrected numerous times). You can find me at @symphony_of_shrapnel on Instagram for quick images, big updates will still go on here.

BULLITT, MONKS, DISNEY, IMM, and DUCATI

Eventful month so far.

Drove the family to Disney for a long overdue vacation. I'm glad I did because it convinced me never to take I-95 that far ever again. 1100 miles of a straight line is exhausting, if I ever visit my retired uncle in SC, I'm taking the long, windy way. Adam from IMM says if I made that trip from Britain I'd end up in Mandello del Lario - Guzzi factory. Hopefully the next time I drive a trip that long I'll be doing just that. Speaking of which...

I got presents when I arrived back to beautiful NJ. A buddy of mine, Bill, sells these towelettes and donated buckets of them - they worked fantastically removing 60 years worth of sludge from the R60's timing cover. More exciting though, issue 6 is here from England.

Well worth the wait, they just don't make quality magazines like this very often. I just found out that Adam that publishes Italian Motor Magazine is the brother of Guy that publishes Greasy Kulture, another top notch magazine from over the pond. Me and my brothers don't share any common interests, let alone do anything as remarkable and publish our own mags.

And look at this clown... The first 2 pages of a 7 page article. I'm just getting over being bashful about the whole thing

 I finally realized my head is worth more than $40 and gave up the vintage half helmet.

I fought getting a full face helmet for many years now, but I'm happy I made the switch. I wanted something with a more vintage look as modern Shoeis and the like still just look wrong to me. The Bullitt seems like a better quality helmet than the Biltwell Gringo (solely based on simply holding them in my hand and trying them on), yet retains the vintage look, and feels very comfortable while riding. I thought I'd remove the face shield and use the goggles, but my field of vision is better with the screen and I'm kinda digging it. I used to have a bell half helmet years ago and I hated it and swore off any future Bell helmets, but this one pretty damn good, at least so far.

Never seen a Paul Smart Edition Sport Classic in person till this week. $19K will buy it. Don't have the money and don't want a modern bike, but maybe I can convince a someone to buy it so I can at least test ride it.

That new BMW RNineT was just to the right of this picture again, cool bike, but when you own a REAL R90 that you built yourself, who cares?

Italian Motor Magazine Issue #6

It's been no secret that I love this magazine and not just for what I'm about to mention.

Issue #6 is coming out in the next week or so and the Aermacchi I built is being featured. I'm totally pysched, and to be quite honest a little bashful at the same time. Check the mag out, and I've said it before, it really is the best. Great home built bikes, no pretention

ITALIAN MOTOR magazine: Issue 6 on its way - and Happy Birthday Dave!: At last, finally, amazingly, Issue 6 of ITALIAN MOTOR is off to the printers and we hope to have the magazines back in a week - watch ...

Arrived fresh from Britain