Davida

MCN staff's bike gear rated in last weeks issue 07/12/2011- Marc Abbott gave the Davida Jet a glowing report and a 5 star rating.

In 1 year, eight months he rode 9,000 miles in his Davida Jet . Click here for Marc's full report. In summary he said " .... there are many years of service left in this ( fast becoming) old faithful.

Yesterday  12/12/2011 we received an email from Marc.

" A short note to let you know two things.

1. A review of my Davida Jet is in the current issue of MCN. It gets five stars.

2. I will be reviewing it again soon, as it saved my life on Friday night. A 40-50mph collision and slide along Tarmac has ended its life, but left me with not even a headache. The broken collarbone I don't think any helmet could have saved!

All the best, Marc "

As Davida customers will know, unlike other modern creations, the more you wear a Davida Jet the better it gets. It's a shame then that Marc's was just coming into its own.

13 hours condensed into 7.5 minutes Rollerburn:The Documentary

Davida has had a long association with Sideburn Magazine, so when they came up with the out-there concept that was Rollerburn it was almost a given that Davida would get involved, particularly given the nature of the beast. Rollerburn loosely combined roller derby, motorbikes (mainly custom, classic and flat-track), skaters, live music and motorcycle artwork.

The main highlight of the Rollerburn event took its inspiration from the classic 1975 genre-film Rollerball starring James Caan as a fierce, fight-to-the-death competitor for the Houston Team, fighting for freedom, in a violent sport against teams from New York, Tokyo and Madrid.

The  main event of the Rollerburn event featured TT Hero Guy Martin, Sideburn’s Gary Inman and comedian Charlie Chuck recreating the films iconic game where motorbikes dragged fearless skaters around a track. Rollerburn created the perfect platform to display the skill, enthusiasm and commitment of two British motorcycling companies, with riders dragging tattooed skating vixens on specially produced Flat Track race bikes supplied by Co-Built and wearing Davida helmets created in each of the teams designs from the original film. Classic British attitude at its best. Amen.

These helmets designs are now available as standard on any Davida helmet from 220.00 pounds (ex VAT)

Part Nos 370 – RB Houston ( orange/red & gunmetal grey)

Part Nos 371 – RB Madrid ( teal green & & gunmetal grey)

Part Nos 372 – RB New York (orange/blue/white & gunmetal grey)

Part Nos 373 – RB Tokyo ( yellow & gunmetal grey)

Helmets will be supplied with poppers as required by raod safety regulations and not as shown. Designs shown are on a speedster but designs can be applied to Davida Ninety Two and Davida Jet. It is not beyond the realms of possibility to adapt the designs to work on the Davida Classic. This has not been tried yet !

 

www.davida.co.uk          www.sideburnmagazine.com       www.co-built.net

I AM EASILY SATISFIED - WITH THE VERY BEST - Winston Churchill

This year, along with other premium brands Davida supported THE VERY BEST - 2012 The Moustache Calendar with The Davida Classic which appears with Matt Cavallaro at Camden Lock ( May)

Since 2003, nearly 12 million pounds have been raised to raise awareness of Prostate & Testicular Cancer by Movember. Although the main event is to sponsor men to grow facial hair during the month of November you can still support the charity by buying THE VERY BEST - 2012 The Moustache Calendar. At only 12.99 it's a brilliant christmas gift. Go On DO IT !

 

The Davida helmet raised 1000 pounds at the auction last Thursday. Another Davida lid was a raffle prize, won by Martin Gray who said

"I've been like a kid in a sweet shop over this, especially since there are more choices on the web site!

Thanks for donating such a geat prize. After much deliberation and prevarication I have settled on the White R/W/B Target Sides code 80506, size 61 = fat head!"

 

Dakar Team GB 2012 Charity Launch

Ross Noble hosts an evening and set to deliver a hilarious Q & A with current and past Dakar racers. His own views on sport and things in general and will hold the hammer in the charity auction.

When:   Thursday December 1st 2011 From 7pm

Where: The Tabernacle, Nottinghill – 35 Powis Square off Portobello Rd. W11 2AY

Why:  To introduce the Dakar Rally, support the charities and Party!

Come and join Dakar Team GB to launch Dakar 2012 in central London!

The event promises lots of high octane rally action with rally bikes, Dakar presentations, a chance to meet the team and the three GB riders going to Dakar 2012 as well as other biking legends and heroes.

The event will be promoting the Dakar Rally in the UK and raising funds for the team’s supported charities Royal Marsden Cancer Research, Shelter Box and ARK (Absolute Return for Kids) by offering some fantastic exclusive auction items and raffle prizes.

There will be buffet food, free drink and a huge charity auction with prizes ranging from 1 to 1 tuition with Dakar legends, adventure holidays to South America, Belstaff Jackets, Davida Helmets, VIP Chelsea passes and many more amazing one off bike related items, plus dinner with Charley Boarman and Si Pavey.

Tickets can be bought from http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/208602

Rollerburn - Fuelled by the energy of the Independent Garage Custom Scene in the UK ,  Spain and France

A mashed together day of skatebording, motorbikes, rockabilly, punk, motor art as well as war painted Roller Derby vixens,  who filled their boots, ripped their tights, burned their skin whilst they launched themselves of a high ramp sprint racing and happily clung to drag bikes wearing little more than Davida helmets, knee pads and hot pants. In the chair cupboard, now the green room, with Charlie Chuck and 3 fearless Bombers, we prepared for the highlight of the night the Rollerburn Drag Race. Everything suddenly became crystal clear and went into slow motion as Guy Martin removed most of his clothing to get into his leather race suit... as well as a TT hero Guy is also a serious endurance mountain bike head, with the body to match. Davida recreated a full set of team helmets from Norman Jewison 1970's cult film which inspired the Rollerburn event. It's all blogged, tubed & booked on the web. A full report by Jules Watts and more images here. Videos below

-The Start Warm Up and 1st Roller Vixen Crash

- Return to the start for race proper 1

- Return to the start for race proper 2

- The Race and 2nd Roller Vixen crash

- End of the race

Sideburns facebook

Conrad Leach Blog

Last word to Charlie Chuck

All four team designs have been born. Orange,Red and Grey is Houston. Black and Yellow is Tokyo, Teal Grean and Grey  is Madrid and what beauty for New York - Orange, White and Blue with stars and stripes.

See them action at the Rollerburn event, Saturday 19th November 2-11pm

 

It's Gonna Be Good ! Indoor mayhem with a complete Roller Derby- race bikes dragging tattooed vixens dressed for battle in fishnet tights, hot pants and special Davida helmets painted in the team colours of Houston, New York, Madrid and Tokyo . With just a few weeks to go the Rollerburn helmets are nearly ready.

Ontop of that there's live bands, motorcycle artists from across europe, best of british custom bike show, all for a tenner.

Unmissable. Without Doubt the Place To Be ROLLERBURN - A Complete One-Off From Sideburn Magazine With TT Hero Guy Martin

Teaser

Submitted to MotoPhoto Madrid this self portrait of Alberto Gracia Alix - the authentic Movida: a countercultural movement that took place mainly in Madrid. 

Before MotoPhoto Madrid I’d made one brief visit to the city. What little I saw appeared very dignified with grandiose buildings everywhere and a little austere. I was sad that I had not had time to discover Madrid’s charms. The excuse of attending Davida MotoPhoto gave me my chance and I discovered a beautiful, vibrant and artistic city.

On the first day, I found myself on a narrow street outside Motos Mazarias, Madrid’s Royal Enfield and Davida dealership, and MotoPhoto’s venue, listening to an excellent pianist practising, a warm, dry breeze on my face, I knew I’d like this town.

A local contact in an unfamiliar city is invaluable and we lucked out in Madrid by having an artist by the name of Antonio Merinero helping us out with the exhibition, putting us up in his studio, solving problems, making sure we got to see the real Madrid and lots more, all with a very easy-going attitude. Introduced to us by Sideburn magazine, Antonio worked with Moto Photo Curator, Sharon and Victor Osorio from Chopper On magazine putting the exhibition together, I helped out when I arrived, there was a lot to do. In Antonio’s studio all the photographs had to be put onto large panels, lifted down a spiral staircase and walked around the corner to Moto Mazarias, a working shop was transformed into a gallery in just a few hours though it never felt stressful.

On the opening night it was quite an exciting scene on the street outside the shop especially if motorbikes are your thing, I don’t think any of us expected so many, the surrounding streets were thronged with exotic machines of all types, plenty of café racers and inevitably there was a plethora of Harleys, chopped and not.

The atmosphere was charged with the sound of loud pipes a lot of the time, a music of its own. It was somewhat of a convention for the Madrid bike scene, the ‘faces’ and characters were all there catching up. I couldn’t say there was a dull photo on the wall anywhere anyway and it makes a big difference having local submissions to the exhibition, including a self portrait of motocycling photographer Alberto Garcia Alix, the 'Wild One' looking adventurous in his Davida Speedster, also of David Boras of El Solitario MC stylishly shot by another celebrated photographer Luis de las Alas. Elsewhere there were some touching and evocative photos, a couple honeymooning on a Vespa in Mallorca in 1958, another showed Alfredo Calles, Aldolfo's Uncle with his 1959 Indian Chief in the Franco era

Organised by Federico of Café Racer Obession, the after-show took place in a great bar/club not too far away, with drinks paid for by the main sponsor Moto Ciclismo Clasica and being Madrid went on ‘till the early hours. Frankly every night was a late night while I was in Madrid as invariably Antonio, Sharon and myself would get back from late meals and talk for hours, Antonio showing us his artwork (amazing stuff by the way).

We went for a ride into the mountains on the Saturday, the good people, Rubi and Emilio of Motos Mazarias very kindly lent me one of their machines. Once out of the city Antonio swapped his city Vespa for a ’72 Harley kept at his mum’s place, the machine had formerly been ridden by one of Franco’s outriders. I’m not crazy about Harleys but this one was a beauty, reassuringly over-engineered, black, with a nice art-deco look to it set off nicely with a sprung, leather, solo saddle, hand made by Antonio. Thing is, cool though it undoubtedly was, it couldn’t go round corners for shit. On right-handers the exhaust hit the deck at approx 30mph and on lefties the crankcase sent sparks flying at the same speed. How Franco’s outriders could have kept up with any kind of pursuit or flight, the mind boggles. With fascists it was all about getting the aesthetics right I reckon.

His mum was great and insisted on feeding us delicious homemade delights washed down with beer and coffee. While we were there Antonio showed us a BSA petrol tank he’d had made in India, the metal had been painstakingly hand-beaten into shape with just some photos for reference and rough dimensions, it was a work of art.

The Enfield was a joy in the mountains, small and agile with just enough grunt and a nice tone. After a few days in the narrow streets of our Madrid neighbourhood, never experiencing a vista of more than 100ft, getting into the great wide open is good for the spirit. Riding along a tree-lined stretch in the evening sun I had one of those moments where you’re suddenly aware how perfect that moment is and how lucky you are to be there, I’d stop short of saying it was an epiphany, not far off though.

In contrast to the desert around Madrid, the mountains keep surprising you with fresh sights, lakes and terrain. We stopped at a famous biker hang-out, La Crux Verde (The Green Cross), maybe fifty bikes, interestingly, many of the riders women, we kinda decided that bikes are seen as cool on the continent by successive generations in a way that isn’t the case in the UK for whatever reasons. We kept on on the road to Portugal and the coast, none of us wanting to turn back towards the metropolis, the sun was low and we had a dinner to get to and no warm gear with us, next time.

Sharon spotted some bulls destined for the matador (literal translation: killer), we’d discussed the ethics of bullfighting with David Boras of El Solitario MC, his take on it was that the bulls live the life of Reilly for 8 years or so before they’re dispatched in the ring, which made it ok. Food for thought, still reminds me of the worst excesses of the French revolution or of the dying days of the Roman empire. I’ve killed a few animals in my time for food but I can’t imagine dispatching them slowly for someone else’s vicarious thrills. Sangria.

You might be interested to know, though perhaps not surprised, to learn that it has not rained in Madrid since May, it being October, the city is choked with pollution and aridity, your lips feel dry and cracked after a day, you have to drink a lot of water. The good news is that, just around the time Antonio predicted, the heavens opened as we boarded our plane, that man knows his world.

Click here to more images of Davida Moto Photo Madrid

The Goodwood Revival, if you go check out these boys. Ian will be riding a 1962 Manx Norton and a couple of Greaves Hawkstones.

It always amazes me the side wall tyre wear on the Norton on the return from racing! 

Image shown is Ian the racer and Geoff Bain taken June 2011.

Check the riding and the bikes. We will be there with them.

They collected a Davida helmet this week to wear at Goodwood. Ian mentioned he had made some wings to wear on Sat night  at the Goodwood Ball;  theme is Barbarella.

Fid the lid  

Exhibition and Party 

THURSDAY 20th OCTOBER 2011 from 7.30pm

Motos Mazarias, Calle de San Pedro, 13, Madrid, 28014, Spain 

Entry Free. All Welcome. 

Davida Moto Photo is an eclectic collection of more than 200 printed images selected by Davida from images submitted by riders, photographers and magazines across the world. Spanning every decade of motorcycling history from 1889 through to the present day, Moto Photo is much more than a celebration of the motorcyclist and the machine.

The human interest to be found within the photographs, which depict more than a 100 years of social and cultural change, will fascinate anyone, regardless of what sort of bikes their into, even to those with little or no passion for motorcycling. “To add another layer of interest, every photograph in the exhibition carries a detailed explanation of the story behind the image, when and where it was taken and by whom”

All life is here in these images, from Royal Enfields being transported in Rajasthan strapped to the back of elephants in 2002, lady stunt riders from the 1930’s, men yanking bikes out of waist high Yorkshire mud in 1927, A NSU looking more like a space pod attempting a land speed record attempt in the 1940s, 60’s rockers, a wedding party on scooters in 2006. Moto Photo has been  very lucky to have had access to the Mortons Media Archive, probably the most comprehensive and diverse historic collection of motorcycling photography , with hundreds of thousands of images which have never been published.

In short, Davida Moto Photo is a uniquely diverse collection full of unexpected curios.

Curated by Davida’s David Fiddaman and Sharon Underhill, Motophoto came about through more than 30 years of being in the motorcycle business “ constantly seeing fantastic images which we couldn’t use commercially we decided to collect them together and share them with anyone who was interested”

Originally exhibited in Liverpool 2008, this is a touring exhibition which has been shown four times over the past four years; 2009 Stockholm Ton Up and Rumble, 2010 Sideburn Magazine Party in Wigan, 2010 Lahti Motorcycle Expo, Finland and more recently the 2011 Burning Man Festival in Nevada Desert, USA.

“We always said the idea was to take this exhibition anywhere, so the images are not framed, just simply mounted, that way if we wanted, we could as easily post it to a venue as ride it there on the back of our motorbikes”

 Each time Davida Moto Photo is shown it grows and evolves to include images submitted by local people, keeping it fresh and relevant to its audience. “We are interested to see what pops up for Moto Photo Madrid, it could be a photo taken last week or an old black and white family photo from a previous generation. If you think it’s a good photograph send it in.

 Submit no more than two images per person to info@davidamotophoto.com before Friday 14th October. Images should be either tiff or jpg files between 2.5mb – 7mb. There is no charge or payment for images submitted. It is however very important that you have the copyright to the images you submit.

Davida Moto Photo Opening Party Thursday 20th October 2011 from 7.30pm.

www.davida.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0)151 647 2419 Fax: +44 (0)151 649 9611

Davida (UK) Ltd, 4-6 Pilgrim Street, Birkenhead, Wirral, United Kingdom, CH41 5EJ.