Evel used to do his stunts with a HD XR 750. Not only is it no wonder that he got busted up so bad, it is miraculous that he lived.

No crazier than some of the folks doing the flips nowadays I suppose.

More than likely those old bikes did attribute to back problems. The modern bikes of today land like soft pillows and are a dream to ride

I do believe his was a rigid frame too. Alot of his bikes seemed to snap in half for some reason.

Monoshock suspension was introduced in the early 70's. Ten years later, I imagine everyone was using a long travel advanced suspension.

Like most sports, can be hard on the body.

XR 750 was designed for dirt track racing. They had rear shocks.

Front fork diameters also increased which improved dampening and the monoshock seen many improvements over that decade also. My last YZ 250 was feather light and came out of the crate race ready. But if you do crash the body still eats all the force just the same . Guys do wear better protective gear now and neck , knee and back braces are common amongst the modern racers.

Couldn't have been much travel in that setup . That man was crazy to even try to fly one of those bikes let alone land it .

the guy was plain nuts,,

When he bought the car it several gears were shelled out in the transmission. Dad thought he could fix the car and make a little money. He ordered some gears from a local parts house that had to get them from England. If I remember correctly two gears came in wrong and he was stuck with those. Had to turn around and order some more. The wrong gears are still on his shelf in his shop. This ended dad's foray with foreign cars. This must be why we never had any Ferraris around.

Largely, trail riding as I knew it has disappeared. Modern off road vehicles of all types can maneuver where only bikes horses and hikers could ever go. That, and liability shut out most places to go.

Do you have riding places still?

good reason sir..

most trails and 4x4 areas are now closing to anything with wheels around here as well..

Yes . There is still alot of places open to dirt or trail bikes around here . Old railway beds that were torn up became public trails and most landowners allow you to ride through their property as long as you respect their land and dont tear it up. We also have dirt tracks all over the place .

Awesome, so many fond memories.

No sterling in my neck of the woods

I do have a mandarin Kolonya from Turkey though, which i adore!

September theme: Perceived versus real sharpness. I have read comments where DE blades are sharper than straights and Feather SE blades are sharper than straights. I think they just feel sharper, DE blades and even the Feather Pro blade is thinner than a straight razor. Between the coatings and blade flex they feel sharper than a straight.

I think the assumption is a machine can do a better job honing than a human. I do not know how high grit blades are ground too nor how they are stropped. Straights generally are honed to 12-20k and some up to 30k. Taking things further pasted strops to 200k are out there. Then there is stropping on linen and leather.

One of the goals and advantages of straights is the ability to customize the edge, determining the correct blend of smoothness and sharpness. If the edge is smooth it does not feel as sharp as it truly is.

So my quasi-scientific experiment is to try different ground straights to see if my theory holds. The quasi-scientific part is I judge my 'true' sharpness by how easily my blade cuts on the ATG pass for my chin and upper lip. OK its not that scientific, but is all I have and I am too lazy to set up a proper test. The feeling of sharpness will be judged by how it feels on my WTG and first XTG pass.

To kick things off is my Brian Brown 7/8, she is 1/4 hollow. She felt sharp on the first 2 passes when it was time for the true sharpness test she went through the stubble like it wasn't there. Feels sharp, cuts like it is very sharp.

Razor: Brian Brown 7/8
Strop: Kanayama
Brush: Rooney
Pre: Proraso
Soap: Tabac
AS: Enhanced DR Harris AS, Stirling ASB
Scent: SMN Acqua di Cuba
Watch: Christopher Ward brass C60 GMT

15/30. Halfway!

Boiler still on the blink so it was a tepid shave today. Another day with the synth. and another day of me wondering why i stuck it out using the 404.

Clouds of lather today. Also, i found some post shave slickness. Not much, but a bit more than i am used too. Odd.

A lovely, irritation free DFS+ shave (the blade is getting long in the tooth). That is one thing i have noticed with the razor, i might not be getting BBS++ shaves but i have very little irritation and bumps.

I am currently playing around with the passes to see if anything suits better than my normal down-across-up routine.

Finished off with Freshwood A/S and Balm.

Good post!

Sharpness is an odd word tbh. I am not so sure it equates directly to shavabillity. The sharper the edge, the weaker it is and the quicker it dulls. Profile kicks in somewhere as well as a straight is a single edge (?) And cuts on one plane only whilst a DE blade has to cut on both.

Coatings are for blade glide, not cut. Although getting the cuttings away from the leading edge quickly (by reducing friction) is perhaps as important.

An interesting topic for sure

great progress..

nice shave sir..