So long, Homer

Just heard the sad news that Homer Knapp has passed away. I met him a couple of times, visiting his incredible workshop in North Hollywood, after being taken there by his good friend, Andrew Gray. I even got the opportunity to ride his 1928 Harley JD (above) at Perris, a bike we'd worshipped from afar for years.

Andrew wrote a great story about Homer for Sideburn 7. I've just read it again. If you have it, dig out your copy, give it a read and thank the world for folk like Mr Knapp.

'A down to earth, smart interesting gentleman in the best sense of the word, who while proud of his achievements isn't one to brag.'

So long, Homer. G

Perris

Julian of Deus LA kindly organized a run-what-you-bring at the Perris track, two hours east of LA (crawling in rush-hour traffic), a loose rabble of Hell On Wheels, Deusites, Co-Built, a big Biltwell crew and other friends of Sideburn came out. Everything from crappy plastic scooters to a fully accessorised RGS1200 BMW was throttled around the short track until the sun went down. Iced Beer. Good times.

Co-Built Geoff on Conrad Leach's desert sled.

Dave Skooter Farm in his sparkly new Biltwell Gringo and Jeannette.

Dorinda ripping it up on her Triumph.

Nevin wing-ning-nign

Hayden's Hell On Wheels Triumph.

Mule showing the kids how to do it on his Yamaha TT500.

Bixby Moto showing us that your Mum's 150cc Amstar is all you need.

Gary on the Mule TT500.

Always good to have a seamstress on standby for every eventuality.

Homer Knapp bought his 1928 hand-shift Harley JD (featured in SB#7) along for us to try. An awe-inspiring bike - and man.

Put knobblies on anything and it's legit. Kiyo's CB750/4

Great to finally put names to faces and meet Richard 'Mule Motorcycles' Pollock.

Jen McClain of Deus. BP

UPDATE: some great photos by Shadra Wilson on the Biltwell blog

Dimitri at Catalina

OTW Collection: Dimitri Coste from Off The Wall TV on Vimeo.
A short film about the mighty Dimitri Coste racing at the Catalina GP. The Triumph in this film was featured (in an earlier guise) in Sideburn 5. Dimitri has shot a few stories for us and we have another lined up for issue 10.
The chap on the excellent black Harley JD (at 1:03) is Homer Knapp. Troy Critchlow took a wonderful set of photos of him and his bike for Sideburn 7.

And, finally, I found this video at Derestricted. G

Homer Knapp Feature

Two-and-a-bit years to put a name to a face in a snap-shot from an unknown photographer and to arrange a photo-story. It was worth the effort. Our sharp shooter Troy Critchlow flew down to LA from Seattle to meet up with Andrew Gray who wrote the story on the legendary Homer Knapp and his legendary JD Harley. SB#7 is at the printers! BP

Catalina Race Results

Dimitri won his Premier Open Twin B Class. Felicitations!
From JC. Hilderbrand:
...."One of the most interesting racers, and certainly the best dressed, was Dimitri Coste. The Frenchman made the trek all the way from Europe to compete on his 1967 Triumph. Apparently something was lost in translation during the planning process and Coste mistakenly had a set of custom white leathers made up with the incorrect number. Considering the effort it took to get across the world for this event, race organizers gladly swapped numbers in order to ease the sting. The slender French rider overcame a few crashes, one that nearly took out two spectators, to win the Premier Open Twin B class."
Read about Dimitri and the Triumph he raced in Catalina in Sideburn 5.

The next sentence of the report then mentions another hero of ours...
"Another special rider is Homer Knapp. This grizzled motocross veteran raced a Harley-Davidson in the original Catalina GPs and he raced again today - on the same bike!" Duuuuuude. BP

Mr Perfect and his perfect bike

Last month we put out an APB on this guy via our own private dick Chopper Dave. At that point we had no name, no nothing, except that he and his vehicle are Perfect. Lieutenant Dave is good. The name is Homer Knapp. The game, gnarley 1928 JD.
BP