Daniel Melo of the Azores
	Daniel lives in the Azores and bought his M1 Super from Frank's Classic Sidecars. He is proud of the fact that he owns one of the first CJ750s in his country. Daniel is planning to start a local club for vintage motorcycles. The last BMW sidecars disappeared from the island back in the sixties. He's a really enthusiastic guy!
	"I feel proud because the bike that I have imported to my friend David Mira in Lisbon, was selected to do a publicity advertisement from the oldest Portuguese bank. In Lisbon there are a lot of Urals and Dneprs, but this CJ750 M1S, re-buildt by Franks Classic Sidecar from my friend Jim Bryant was the one selected to do the job."
March 12, 2007
			"Romeiros from S. Miguel Azores is one of the oldest religious traditions that I am involved with. It This is kept genuine as it was back in the 16th. Century when it started."
			"It is related with the volcanic origin of these islands. After a huge earthquake back in the 16th. Century where many people died and several had serious injuries, it became a habit to create groups from several villages to go hiking around the island for a week during Easter time, praying and asking for blessings from God for his protection and to avoid new catastrophic events."
			"I did not go with my group this year because of a serious illness with my wife, however I went to meet them with my CJ for an unexpected meeting to offer a drink and share my prayers with them..."
			"... together with a silver curio heaven crucifix made in the ancient China, recently restored and purchased through eBay . Attached are some pictures from this event."
March 12, 2007
"2 July, 2006: Today the weather was good. I did a ride on my bike to the western part of the island. This is the time of the year when the streets become full of Hydrangeios. You can see how small the bike looks like with a large amount of flowers around. These pictures are from the Twin Lakes (Sete Cidades), S.Tiago Lake and pictures from the extreme western border of the Island Mosteiros and Ferraria."
July 3, 2006
		"Between the two tunnels on the way to Ribeira Quente, there is an open area with a fantastic waterfall."
		"Just 3km from the ocean, you have a feeling that you are in a rain forest.
June 4, 2006
	"Furnas Valley is also known as Vale Formoso (Beauty Valley). It exits here at a botanical garden with plants from five continents. Volcanic phenomena are common here. At Caldeiras (Hot Springs) the magma is about the level with the ground. The smell of sulphur is in the air."
	"There are a lot of hot springs. Furnas Valley is huge old volcano crater. The ground is mainly pumice and very fertile. You can see that I now have a flag on my bike."
	"It's the flag of the Azores, an autonomus region of Portugal as Macao was before 1998. I am keeping the Chinese plate on the front fork."
	"There is nothing in Portuguese law that says you must have a front plate on your bike but I like it the way it is."
June 4, 2006
	"This is a good example of a mineral waterfall that we have here on the island. The temperature of the water is about 40º Celcius."
	"How cool is it to take an outdoor bath in the winter? It's walking distance from the road and free of charge."
June 4, 2006
	"The Azores are an archipelago composed of nine small islands. I live on the biggest one, S. Miguel with 747 square kilometers. Ribeira Quente (Hot Stream) is one of the most isolated villages on S. Miguel. It's very picturesque with only one access road with a tunnel. There are only 600 inhabitants and half of them are fishermen. Its name comes from the stream that starts at Vale Formoso (Beauty Valley) 6km away. This stream is mixed with fresh water and 32 different mineral waters that flow to the ocean. Some are as warm as 96º Celsius. You can take a warm bath for free. Are you surprised?"
	"Yes, that is correct. You may take a thermal bath in the warm water of the stream, waterfalls or even at Fogo (Fire) Beach in the ocean. There are hot springs under the sand and you take an ocean bath mixed with mineral water. Here I met an old friend who's retired from the Portuguese navy and now 75. He said this was the very first time a sidecar motorcycle ever came to this village! I was very proud of it."
June 4, 2006
	"Vila Franca was the principal town since the settlement from 1439 until 1642. There was a huge earthquake that has destroyed a lot of houses on island and this town had 90% of the houses destroyed. Many were killed and injuried. One of the oldest hospitals of Portugal and Europe has been located here since that earthquake. About 1km from the coast is a small islet with a natural swimming pool. It's a nature reserve where fishing is not allowed. It's a great place for scuba diving and watching colourful fish. You may notice a huge tree on the right side of the islet. It belongs to a family member and is on a property with 10 acres. That tree is about 250 years old. It's an Aurocaria, originally from Australia."
June 4, 2006
	"China, Tea and Azores" "Those three words makes a triangle. The epicentre is the TEA word. China was the first world producer of tea for centuries, long ago. The tea was brought to Europe by the Portuguese discovers on the 16th Century. However in the Azores there was a different tory. Back on 1882 there was a huge economicl crisis in the islands. At this period we were exporting oranges to England. Due to the crisis one of the goals was to restore the economy. Than via Macao, two techs with the name Li-a-pan and Ti-a-pan came to Azores to select the good places to start tea plantations."
	"They had been living here for about ten years and went back to China. Even today we still produce black and green tea. Since than we are still the unique place in Europe where tea pantations still exist. Today (May 21, 2006) the very first CJ750 that came to the Azores went to visit the place where 124 years earlier those Chinese techs came to the island."
May 23, 2006
	Here again is Daniel's Super, registered and personalized.
	Nice machine!
May 20, 2006