Let's Welcome C.C. Filson to the Ballard area and Backfiremoto during Backfire moto event #69 !4/15/2017  Backfiremoto would like to welcome the new C.C. Filson store to Ballard! They are excited to be part of the Ballard Community and are looking forward to meeting you. The store is about a block and a half away from the backfire corner. They are located on the corner of Ballard Ave . and Dock street. During Backfire ( 4-8 pm) they hope that you might stop by and see the new store and share a brew with them on the house. ALSO, make sure that you sign up for the free raffle. SEE BELOW  So this is the sweet blanket that they are going to be raffling off on Wednesday during Backfire. It is a custom Faribault Woolen Mill Co . wool blend blanket. Perfect for a night out in the wilderness camping or sleeping by your bike on the side of the road after a roadkill dinner and a few sips off your vintage backfire flask. ( is ten years old vintage?) This custom, queen sized, wool-blend blanket was made for Filson by Faribault Woolen Mill Co. It features an original design featuring the C.C. Filson Company store in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Features:
  This is a shot of the inside of the store . Lastly , a map of how to get there from backfire. It's a block and a half away . So ride over or walk over between 4 pm and 8 pm on Wed. 19th April 2017 and say "hi "to them and share a brew with the Filson crew! and sign up for the raffle between 4 and 8 pm ! whoohoo!   If you would like to learn more about the Filson History just click here:
https://www.filson.com/history  Well, It was a rustic Pacific Northwest Spring opener as usual. Planning the spring opener is always a gamble. Every year, we have to study the weather and wait as long as possible to decide whether to make a go of it in March or not. The Groundhog in Pennsylvania doesn't usually help us out with the decision. The weather reports can often be wrong this time of year. All we really need is a four-hour window of decent weather to draw out all the hibernating PNW moto-folks. Actually, over the past nine years, we have been extremely lucky in terms of weather. We have only had a few rainy spring openers and maybe one with snow and hail. In the past, we have postponed the date to April a few times. The April option always puts us on or around tax day. Which is a bummer. And then there is the daylight factor. Waiting till April definitely helps with having more time to see. But, everyone is anxious to get their " Spring on ". So in the past, if the weather looks bad, we have made the March Spring Opener an informal and un-official "meet and greet ". That works too , but the next month it might rain again as well. So, all in all, it is hard to win. Or maybe we will either way. Just about now I can hear all of the " soggy bottoms / "I always ride in the rain" people saying," that is what rain gear is for!" ... And now I can hear that guy saying " Rain gear is for wussies!". It doesn't matter where you stand on the matter ..... If you ride out to Backfire and it is too Dark , too rainy , too cold , and too windy to chill out and walk around outside and mix it up with your friends and see the sweet bikes, then it's just not as good. And that is why we try to pick the best date to have the spring Opener. This time we were kind of lucky because we just had inclement weather meaning a few sprinkles and wind in Ballard. But, It was raining all over the area north and south of us. So the turnout was pretty small, but as they say" the people who did show had a great time! ". Below, you will find a few highlight from that evening.  Mark showed up early on his 1958 Lambretta.  Doug showed up on his new build. It is a 1978 Suzuki PE175, shopped down to a cafe/flat tracker style. Doug is planning to race it at dirtquake this year! Whoohoo!  There was definitely enough attendees to have a good time and see some interesting bikes. It was not a 500-600 person turn out like in the Summer, but a good time was had for sure  A beautiful Triton showed up. This is Jacks new ride for the Season. It came from Gloy Motorworks from LA. He is in the process of tweaking it to his own liking.  Jack  Nice BMW side car showed up.  Nice ! Hey, put that down.....haha....  When in doubt, roll up on a classic Cafe Racer!  We even got a classic PNW rainbow for the occasion!  If you didn't make it to the Spring Opener, this is the shirt from the event. We have plenty of them left, so please drop by the red info. / DJ booth and buy one to help support us. Thanks and see you on Wednesday, April 19th for Backfiremoto# 69. Cheers TW
  With spring and summer just around the corner, there is nothing better than camping in the Northwest! Well there is nothing better than camping with your buddy a vintage Yamaha Enduro. Last year I took my light weight vintage dirt bike/enduro with me camping numerous times. If I couldn’t take my dirt bike I took my Trail 90. I usually packed my Honda Xl250 with me, but a few times I bought the Yamaha. I suggest this year if you love motorcycles and mainly ride vintage street bikes to get yourself an old Enduro and give it a try. They are reasonably cheap and reasonably easy to work on and maintain. I suggest getting one that is street legal with license plate and is tabbed. I know you could go to a ORV park with ORV tabs, but you're really cutting yourself short if you can’t hit some Forest Service Roads, logging roads etc..legally.I like to bring my bike to Lake Wenatchee State Park to camp. So many dirt roads and trails up there by Leavenworth, Wa. I will give you a list of rides in another post.  I suggest getting yourself a little tool bag and a little extra storage so you can pack yourself a couple of good Session Ales, matches, a knife and your phone. Only use your phone for pictures and stuff, don’t go on social media, enjoy the ride and great outdoors! Also you might want to attach an extra gas can in case you plan on going far or need to start a quick fire. That’s what the matches are for. I am not sure why you’d want to start a fire? Perhaps you come upon fire pit and you are little chilly and you want to enjoy a campfire while you are drinking a nice session ale or sip of whiskey with that flask you brought. I also like to carry a little axe or machete. You never know when you might have to clear some brush or need a log for your fire or come across a big mean killer grizzly bear!   Why I am talking about all this stuff? I don’t know. This story is really about the Yamaha. So here are the details you came here for. This Yamaha 175-CT1-C is a decent Enduro with great clearance and decent power band. Remember this is 1971 so it's state of the art. They produce about 14 horse power at about 6350 RPM from this single cylinder two-stroke engine also has a five-port cylinder. They are easy to maintain and super reliable. They also have an Autolube feature that if maintained work like a charm. You can start this bike by disengaging the clutch and kicking without having to shift gears to neutral. This also has adjustable rear spring tension to compensate for weight, speeds and different road condition. I love this Yamaha because it’s lightweight enough to throw on the back of your SUV. Oh yeah and it’s pretty.  Stay tuned for more outdoor stories, motorcycle stuff and products we like or not like or think is ok and other things coming soon. If it ain’t smoking it ain’t working or something like that. Special Thanks to Jay Ubelhart a great guy and a regular attendee at Backfire Motorcycle Night for writing this post about his 1968 Greeves Ranger. Photos by Sean Westlake  My bike is a 1968 Greeves Ranger with a 250 cc 2-stoke engine. It is the factory street legal model with headlight, speedo, & taillight. The unique color and distinctive front forks attracted me immediately. It’s a fun ride but geared pretty low for any highway driving. I found the bike this year and was pleasantly surprised at its condition and how well it runs. The 48-year-old Villiers/Greeves engine runs well and starts in one kick when I am by myself, and 30 kicks when anyone is watching. The best part of having a vintage machine like this one is riding it. Go find an old bike, fix it, and ride it.  Greeves motorcycles began as a manufacturer of 3-wheeled cars for the disabled, Invacar. Motorcycles were produced in Thundersley in Essex from 1953 to 1976. Bert Greeves was a motorcycle enthusiast who designed the machines and introduced his first units in 1954, one a trials bike, the other a scrambler model, powered by Villiers 200cc two strokes engines. They were easily identified by two unique Greeves features: the leading link front fork and the cast aluminum "down beam". The bikes were exclusively two-stroke powered, using engines from Villiers and Anzani. In 1962, Greeves introduced a new Villiers powerplant featuring a Greeves designed cylinder head and barrel. The new cylinder featured revised porting for better power and the familiar Greeves "square barrel" look.  In 1958, Greeves traveled to the Europe to compete in the FIM 250cc motocross class and was shaken to discover that the British were "regarded as rather a second-rate race in sporting spheres". Greeves redoubled the company's racing efforts and the commitment paid off quickly, with Brian Stonebridge garnering two second place finishes in the championship standings in the ensuing two years. Following the tragic death of Stonebridge, the company hired Dave Bickers as their rider. With a new motorcycle punched out to 246cc, Dave Bickers won the European championship in both 1960 and 1961. Greeves were successful in competition, with wins in the European Motocross Championship, the Manx Grand Prix, the European Trials Championship and the Scottish Six Days Trial, and with Gold medals in the ISDT and ACU 250cc Road Race and Motocross Stars.  It was about this time that Greeves motorcycles began to show up in western states desert races. The little silver and blue Hawkstones began to change peoples’ ideas about what kind of hardware was needed to win. Before the Greeves, lightweight bikes were a joke. For a ten year stretch, from 1959 to 1969, Greeves motorcycles became the ones to beat. These were the first two-strokes to de-thrown the ruling BSA, Matchless, Triumph, four stroke thumpers both in European motocross, and the big four stroke 'desert sleds' in California. Greeves was very successful in the USA and can be credited with helping awaken the off-road biking scene there, and with the invention, as early as the mid-sixties, of the trail bike with their road legal off-roader, the Ranger. (most of the historical facts from the Greeves owners site, http://www.greeves-riders.org.uk/history and http://www.greevesguru.com/history.html ) Usually we post them a few weeks after each event. This set of photos by Todd Werny got lost for a while, but here it is now. If you would like to see more photos from Backfiremoto #64 just click here to go to facebook . Eric and his better half rolling up on his BSA. A Great example of a local Suzuki Boulevard S40 with Ryca bobber conversion ( minus the Tank) . You don't see a lot of these Ryca bikes here in seattle. The Ryca scrambler , tracker and Cafe racer are worth taking a look at too. Haha .... Looks like she is taking a nice ride in the Swiss Alps ..... A nice Motobike showed up .... Just had to include these two Yamaha 650s that showed up . Beautiful bikes. I am not sure who built them . Great job! Nice Harley Cafe racer . I think this one is owned by a local rock-star. Well we cant put all the photos up here on the blog but please go to our facebook page to see all the rest from this event soon. Looking forward to getting the pics from Backfiremoto #66 up from last summer too. Expect them next week ... Till then, Cheers T.W.
 A short history of Backfire Moto : The first event was August 13th in 2008. We held it at what is now the home of The Shelter Lounge. At the time it was "The Station Bistro " And it was a Service station / gas station converted into a bar. You can still see the three garage bays inside. It was the perfect atmosphere for a small gathering of Bikes.  Even the first Backfire had a great turnout for the time. We had advertised for 2 months ahead of time in the Newspaper , Stranger , Craigslist , weekly , wooden nickle , and spent a few months putting flyers on every bike we ran across.  We invited all our friends and hoped for the best. The goal of the event was to unite the disenfranchised generas of the NW motorcycle scene and provide a meet up for them.  Cafe Racers were much less commonplace at the time and so were today's version of the bobber on vintage Japanese bikes.  Ratbikes were around but less developed in terms of purposeful patina and tastefully preserved rust. Originally we invited the vintage Vespa and Moped enthusiasts to show and they have been a big part of our turnout from the start.  Stock vintage restored bikes have always made a big showing even from the first event. One big difference today is the emergence of "retro" new throwback style cafe and streetfighter bikes by Triumph , Ducati , Royal Enfield ,other bike companies. The first event pulled in about 40 bikes if I remember correctly. And then the word got out.   Seattle was hungry for an alternative motorcycle mecca and numbers grew quickly. Then The Station Bistro closed and we moved our headquarters to The Bit Saloon.   Next the Shelter Lounge opened up so we combined the two locations. Eventually the Bit closed for a while and changed ownership so it was back to the Shelter only for a while until The 2bit saloon opened their doors again. Next Hilliards Beer opened up shop and the Northwest Peaks Brewery too. This year we saw The 2 Bit close to become the new home of NW Peaks "The Bergschrund". Currently , The Hilliards Beer location changed hands and has temporarily closed down for the fall. This is a pic of the very first Backfire Moto Shirt . Since then we have designed dozens of shirts that in the end was a great way to get the word out. Click here to see our shirt gallery and order one .  Heading into our 9th year we now see hundreds of bikes each event and a more varied turnout.  Yes, at times there are more generic bikes in the line up than we all would like to see but try to remember that these are riders coming out to see the interesting and unique bikes that Backfiremoto draws and it’s better that they ride out rather than drive out. Our mission statement remains the same. Everyone is welcome to show up and support our brand of bikes which is centered around the Cafe racer, rat bike and vintage categories.  Going into the future we hope to keep up the same goals of remaining a grass roots , DIY encouraging community that helps to bring attention to the alternative bike community in the PNW. We really don't want to change anything. Once again , THANKS! To all the great people who have been so supportive over the years and thanks to the venues who welcome us each month. Sincerely, Todd, Sean and Sean at Backfiremoto.com  Origins Early Backfire moto Backfiremoto Number 4 November 19th 2008 The first few Backfiremoto events were quite small compared to the current turnout of hundreds of bikes each month. This winter has been pretty harsh so far in many ways . Reminiscing about those early events took me back to the first Backfire Winter when we kept it going through December in the snow, wind , rain and icy road conditions. A smaller core of us showed up to huddle around burn barrels to keep warm in the parking lot of “The Station” which is now “The shelter Lounge”. I was wishing that I had some pictures that captured the spirit of the early events when I remembered that a talented photographer and motorcycle enthusiast Darren Beatty had documented Backfire 4 . After searching through our old Myspace account and ancient e-mails , I was able to contact Darren and download the photos from his web site. http://www.darrenbeattyphotography.com/ . This is a great shot Darren took of the smoke of the burn barrel mixing with the people and the bikes.  We don’t do the burn barrel anymore but those days were fun. Actually it melted a hole in The Station’s asphalt parking lot . Coincidentally , The Shelter Lounge now has a cozy gas fireplace in the same location that we used to have the burn barrels. The following photos are more of Darren Beatty’s photo collection and then a few photos by Todd Werny and a pic of the Poster and the T-shirt from Backfire #4 . If you click on the shirt it will take you to our t-shirt shop if you would like to buy one.     Blonde dynamite !     We had some nice cafed mopeds show up that night….    Norton  Bultaco    Thanks again Mr. Beatty for the great shots of a classic moment in Backfiremoto history. Although Backfire is a lot larger now , usually if you stay late at one of the venues you can experience the camaraderie and conversation with other PNW riders who share similar motorcycle interests . Backfiremoto winds down as someone kickstarts their bike on that cold night.  And now a few shots by Todd Werny and a pic of the T-shirt from Backfire#4 and the poster.    Chris hops on his bike….    D-day!   Wonton!  Yours Truly on the left ….  The Duke  Pic of the “Bit Saloon” before it was the “Two Bit “ and now the “Bergstrund”.   Nice walk down memory lane ! See you in the spring! Todd , Sean , and Sean at www.BackfireMoto.com
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