Garage Land Glamour

The Chicken Shack Ducati got honoured with a photo shoot on the weekend. Adam, the editor of Italian Motor magazine spent a gloriously sunny autumnal afternoon, shooting the bike from every angle. His magazine comes out roughly quarterly, and it's a true enthusiast publication produced with great professionalism. Adam is a working motorcyle journalist, but Italian Motor is his personal baby, written with passion and integrity, It follows it's own agenda, not that of advertisers or manufacturers. Check out the magazine's blog including some pics from the photo shoot here:

http://italianmotor.blogspot.com/2011/11/finger-lickin-good.html





All of this made it even more gratifying that Adam wants to feature the bike in the next edition, early in the new year. I must admit I barely feel the bike is worthy, looking at the standard of some of the modified and restored vehicles that have featured in the magazine. The current edition, for instance, features a 900SS that's been re-fashioned into a traditional Harley flat track racer so professionally that it looks like it came out of the factory (Bologna or Milwaukee's race division perhaps). The basic idea may not appeal on first hearing, but wait until you see it. One of the most iconic racing motorcyles, suddenly sporting one of the most iconic engines, and they look like they were made for each other. And yet the UK owner builder did almost everything himself including frame re-design, fabrication of tank and panels in alloy, and excellent authentic orange paint job.

Next to work like that, the Chicken Shack bike looks like what it is - baby steps. However, people seem to like it, and that's great inspiration to try and learn, and achieve, more on the next project.

The  photo shoot couldn't have happened without my great friend and fellow biker, Barry, who allowed us to use his Tyre and MOT company's industrial unit as a venue. Not the first time he's helped me out on the project, and I suspect it won't be the last. As, (with the exception of the teaser shots on the Italian Motor blog), Adam's professional pictures are embargoed until publication, I took measures to get some photo reportage of the shoot itself. Many thanks to gifted amateur photographer, Graham, a lifelong friend more usually found documenting Parisian architecture and street life. It's his shots you see in this post, including the rare Adam, captured in his natural habitat - around Italian motors!

The eagle-eyed will have spotted this author sporting top lip habitating face-fungus. This is for Movember, the charity for Men's health awareness and treatment, in particular prostate and testicular cancer. Please feel free to donate here:

http://mobro.co/PeteJuzl