Moto Borgotaro Is Run By Peter Boggia And We Dig His Straight Shooting Approach

Moto Borgotaro Is Run By Peter Boggia And We Dig His Straight Shooting Approach

We did motorcycles in every shape and capacity and especially if you are the one wrenching on them. It doesn't matter if its a chopper or a sport bike, but whether or not you have injected your own personality into the machine and made it your own. Watching a seasoned mechanic such as Peter Boggia, talk through some of the design ideas, but done in a begrudging manner further points to an individual that is defined by his work and letting it speak for himself. This vibe and mentality is what sets him apart and defines his character. We couldn't enjoy watching this short film anymore, so we had to play it a few extra times to really enjoy that sexy Moto Guzzi.

Liberty Motorcycles And Sticking To Your Guns

Vimeo is a great site for skimming through videos and groups, for simply watching TV. The small biography styled documentaries are fare more interesting than what cable tv provides, because they aren't littered with crappy commercials and focus in on the subject in a far superior way. 

Recently I found a cool video on Liberty Motorcycles out of Philadelphia that works on most any type of bike as long as it is vintage. One of the cool aspects of the video is when Adam Cramer, talks on learning the trade of mechanics becoming a lost art. I can attest to this and witness the same notion weekly, while talking to individuals that are pushing for a career path, which maybe it isn't quite for them. Learning the ins and outs of anything mechanical is something most everyone should learn to understand. Knowledge is lost, if it isn't consistently being challenged and put into use. 

Go fix something mechanical, just for the sense of accomplishment.

Link to original post on Vimeo


Handmade Portraits: Liberty Vintage Motorcycles from Etsy on Vimeo.

Engine repair? Liberty is there to help

Need the cumbustion chamber cleaned up?

Carburetor rebuilds are par for course

Top end of the engine tear down?

Reassembled and ready to roll

Richard Peek - Backyard Creator Extraordinaire

A few months back we were hangin' out while eating some breakfast and cruisin' through youtube videos looking at various motorcycles, engine builds and killing time listening to music. But while sorting through our mental catalog of upcoming projects, we happened to see a particular video and an idea struck us. 

Now as much content is uploaded to youtube daily or lets say by the minute (roughly 48 hours of footage is uploaded every minute,) the progression of the site seems to indicate that it truly is becoming the new FM station du jour, for your favorite music. With a world wide audience at the ready and the ability to stream 24/7, youtube is the future of content programming. The best part is that you can sift through to exactly what you want to hear or see and its free.

Our default some days might be watching vintage motorcycles fire up or our absolute personal favorite is to view process videos of objects being made. So that lands us square into another big project that we have cookin', but we needed some outside help on this one.

As y'all know, we are workin' with the one and only Billy Don Burns and his new album will be coming out on July 10th. For as great as the music sounds, we knew that we needed a better way to help get his songs out to fans world wide and to take a different approach. The same way Billy Don might craft a new song, was our guiding path to hatch a new plan to grow his fan base. Luckily we happened along to one cool dude by the name of Richard Peek. After numerous emails back and forth about our idea, he was on board to help build a truly unique element for this album. 

Tomorrow we will launch part one in a series of process music videos to shine light on Billy Don Burns new album with the help of Rpeek, our new favorite back yard builder!

Below is quick write up on Richard Peek and what makes him tick, read on and enjoy the videos as they roll out...

Richard Peek - Backyard Builder Extraordinaire

1. tell us about yourself, what drives you to work through new ideas and seek out new possibilities?

I don't think of myself that way at all. I'm still trying to catch up with all the old idears that's been stuck in my head for the last 50 years that I never had the time or the money to mess around with.

2. What really got you started into making Gas Can Banjo's?

I can't take credit for it. I seen one on ebay many years ago. Someone stuck a 4 string banjo neck on a can and was sellin' it for $45 bucks. I figured it seemed like a good idear, only I converted a 4 string neck to a 5 string. At first I thought it sounded like crap, but over time I learned to make it do what I wanted it to do. Still got that first gas can banjo too, and I think it's the best one I ever made.

Gas can we won on Ebay is going to turn into something really cool for Billy Don Burns

Just one of Richard Peek's ornate back yard builds

3. How many have you made so far?

The one I'm making for you will be #10. Every one is different. Each has its own personality and sound. I never know how one is going to turn out. I had a girl bring me a 5 qt oil can she found in the woods and asked me to make it into a banjo for her so I did, and that rusty old can had the best tone quality of any I've made so far...


4. If you could pick out new type of musical instrument to build what would it be?

Oh I don't know.  Maybe tractor music. Like let's crank a tractor, get it to lope along, get some guys to squeel their tires in the background. Mess around with different types of rubber to adjust the tone of the squeel and see if we can make music out of it. hahaha


5. Is the journey to creating a new piece, enjoyable most in the process or at the conclusion of a job well done?

Oh I don't ever think I've done a job all that well. I just get idears and throw things together.  Sometimes they delight me. If'n they don't I come up with somethin' else. I don't think about it much.



6. When it comes to building a hot rod, where do you like to start?

Frame. I think about the frame. I'm old enough to know frames. Model A frame. '32 Ford frame. '33 Chevy frame. 55 Chevy frame. 69 Camaro sub frame. Each tells it's own story, makes it's own project happen on it. I know frames, how they should be set up, how they used to be setup and what people do now days, makin' new frames like the old frames didn't matter. I like a car with an old reworked frame best.  It's just part of being old enough to understand 'em I guess..


7. What is in store for some future projects?

I've got to build me a bigger garage to put some of this junk in. hahaha

Is Nitrogen Better than Air in Tires?

Got a newer car and been hearing about how great nitrogen is in replacing your tires over regular old fashioned air? We have been on the fence and did some digging to find out some more data on this which wasn't easy. Low and behold we found a canadian car guy that might just be moonlighting as a high school science teacher. Listen to his discussion on Nitrogen vs Air and you might be in for a surprise. Not quite what you will hear from a tire dealer or but there is also more info from Popular Mechanics below.

Q: Is there any advantage to using nitrogen instead of compressed air in tires? Will I notice improved fuel economy or a smoother ride? Will my tires last longer?

A: Sort of. From the top: Air is 78 percent nitrogen, just under 21 percent oxygen, and the rest is water vapor, CO2 and small concentrations of noble gases such as neon and argon. We can ignore the other gases.

There are several compelling reasons to use pure nitrogen in tires.

First is that nitrogen is less likely to migrate through tire rubber than is oxygen, which means that your tire pressures will remain more stable over the long term. Racers figured out pretty quickly that tires filled with nitrogen rather than air also exhibit less pressure change with temperature swings. That means more consistent inflation pressures during a race as the tires heat up. And when you're tweaking a race car's handling with half-psi changes, that's important.

Passenger cars can also benefit from the more stable pressures. But there's more: Humidity (water) is a Bad Thing to have inside a tire. Water, present as a vapor or even as a liquid in a tire, causes more of a pressure change with temperature swings than dry air does. It also promotes corrosion of the steel or aluminum rim.
If I ever need to top off a tire when I'm out on the road, I'll always briefly depress the tire chuck's valve with my thumbnail and vent some air. If my thumb gets wet, there's water in the line. Some gas stations don't do a very good job of keeping the humidity out of their air system. I don't even like to use a water-based tire-mounting lubricant unless I can let the tire bake in the sun for a couple of hours before I air it up and seat the bead. I've dismounted tires (not mine) that had several quarts of water inside—probably from a compressed-air hose that collected water and was never purged properly.

How is water relevant to a nitrogen discussion? Any system that delivers pure nitrogen is also going to deliver dry nitrogen. Filling tires with nitrogen involves filling and purging several times in succession, serially diluting the concentration of oxygen in the tire. This will also remove any water.

It's certainly simple, although time-consuming, for a tire technician to fill and bleed tires. But most shops use a machine that not only generates almost pure nitrogen by straining the oxygen out of shop-compressed air, but will also automatically go through several purge cycles unattended. Some shops have been charging as much as $30 per tire for this service. I think that's too much. If you're buying a new tire, it should be far less. Still, the nitrogen generator, filling system and technician's time aren't free—the dealer is entitled to some return for that.

So, to answer your specific questions: With nitrogen, your tire pressures will remain more constant, saving you a small amount in fuel and tire-maintenance costs. There will be less moisture inside your tires, meaning less corrosion on your wheels. You will not be able to feel any difference in the ride or handling or braking, unless your tire pressures were seriously out of spec and changing to nitrogen brought them back to the proper numbers.

Read more: Nitrogen vs Air In Tires - Why Nitrogen in Tires - Popular Mechanics

$43 bucks for a nitrogen fill... hot air?

Air filling station at your average quickie mart

Forget Nitrogen or Air, don't need them at all with airless tires and wheels

Nitrogen valve stem caps

Want to see more marketing on why to use Nitrogen filled tires