Richard Cook in California
Trainer Day at the Hiller Aircraft Museum

Did you know Indian made a WW2 horizontal shaft drive V twin? I sure didn’t until I parked next to one at the Hiller Museum Trainer Day.

Look at that rear end in the picture. The rear plunger part of the frame looked directly copied from the R71 BMW to me. Indian used Scout cylinders and heads and a big casting to turn the engine sideways.
Sort of Motoguzzi like.

Like the Harley XA only 1,000 copies were made to test. If you just have to have one North West, Hiller’s historian, has two frames and a bunch of parts for sale. Add several thousand hours and who knows how many dollars and you can have one too.

I cruised slowly up in the hills down to San Carlos as I have had so much apart that I wanted to be sure I was not losing oil. When I got to Hiller I was surprised to have no leaks at all since last year I was oiling everything. The one problem that showed up was a dragging clutch so the next thing you will see from me is what it takes to fix it.

There were several assorted trainer aircraft on display and lots of motor bike fans. A car club was also displaying and re enactors were there in full gear. Next year I’d love to get some military equipped Changs as folks would love them. I could have put a can under a WW2 White scout car and gotten enough oil for my next oil change. Luckily he put down cardboard when he stopped.
May 11, 2008  
We used the Chang to help thank our loyal transit riders today. We handed out a thousand goodie bags with treats to our customers.
In most cases I just leaned out and handed folks treats and was gone in a moment. In this case it took long enough for the photographer to take pictures with both cameras that I held up a bus for a bit before getting out of the stop.
Check out my friend Matt's Dilbert costume. He was riding with me early on and then we split up. The Chang is going to need a bit of cleaning because of that oil leak as soon as it cools down.
October 31, 2007  
Let's take a little spin!
October 23, 2007  
Loren Adrian came by tonight and we went on a spin on my Chang. Out by the bay Loren had a go in the parking lot, and even though he usually rides a K bike, had no problems adapting. Loren actually does not have a halo on his chest, that’s just sunlight reflecting off the mirror. He will be on the board soon as he has the Chang bug and just has to figure out exactly what he wants to order on it. On the way back we dropped by the local market and met Simone who has to be one of the prettiest girls in San Mateo.
October 19, 2007  
On Friday we had torrents of rain and Saturday turned out nice for a cruise to Santa Cruz and back through Half Moon Bay's Pumpkin Festival traffic. My Kiwi brother in law Jed stopped in on his way to Houston to renew his well control certificate and we had a pretty good ride.
We finished up on the part of SF Bay where the wind surfers seem to prefer and kite surfers were tearing around. About 15 of them were there and as soon as the Chang stopped a guy in a wheelchair came up as well as another surfer to find out what it was.
A nice day all around, I seem to have developed another oil leak from the engine and one ignition position quit on the switch. No worries there as I just used another position, literally a one second breakdown and I was running again before the light changed. There will be plenty of rainy days to fix it this winter and today I just ran it on the other position again.
October 15, 2007  








"Today was going to be one of the last good riding days of the season so even though everybody else cancelled I headed down to Alice’s. Alice’s is the best known biker and sports car hangout in the Bay Area and is located in Woodside which is in the mountains between the bayside of San Mateo County and the Coastside. It was cool enough for long underwear but not that uncomfortable today and even though there are a number of events in the Bay Area today from Fleet Week to Bluegrass Alice’s had a good turnout.

Alice’s is only a 50 mile round trip from my house as the crow flies, but the crow doesn’t fly to Alice’s. It took me 45 minutes longer than I expected due to all the mountain curves. A Harley cruised with me for several miles until he turned off for the coast and I was able to keep up with traffic fairly well. I did let some sports cars and ricers pass and everybody waved.

My bike is happiest winding in the mountains on a slightly cool day and didn’t skip a beat.

When I hit Alice’s there were a bunch of bikes in her lot and maybe 30 Harleys across the street. My bike and the Ural in the pictures got a lot of attention.

After a ten dollar meal that was big enough for two folks I hit the road back. There are many intrepid bicyclists on those roads and three of them passed me on the down hills, I passed them on the uphill but there was little glory in that. I did see one other modern sidecar outfit that was just starting the climb as I as coming down, we waved wildly as often happens with sidecar folks. Too bad he was not at Alice’s when I took the pix."
October 7, 2007  
"Did you ever wonder if a 360lb. ex-football player with wrecked knees can fit in a Chang?"
September 18, 2007  
"I'm sure far more has been hauled with Changs then I ever will but with my Subaru down for a tranny, the Chang has to fill in while I rebuild the porch before winter." [Just like in China!]
September 9, 2007  




"Today I went down to display the Chang at Hiller Aircraft Museum in San Carlos' annual "Yak Attack". There were three AT6 Trainers so altogether we had four Nanchung products. Altogether about 11 planes including some truly odd Yaks. That red Yak nine is a brand new model somebody is producing with a big Allison engine. Freddie could not make it but they would have loved his military bike. Tomorrow Freddie and I are going to help a guy change his clutch and we will do a write up for the toolbox."
August 5, 2007  
"I rode the Chang down to be an exhibit at the Vertical Challenge Air Show in San Carlos today. I was busy running the ground transportation and the Chang was busy amusing kids. We have no plans to fit the 747 jet engine it was parked in front of to the Chang."
June 18, 2007  




"The Chang was an out-front exhibit before the air show and during the show we brought it out back to amuse the kids.

I was busy during the show but I grabbed some pictures of Steermans being brought into the compound and the Texans all lined up.

They do a show called Yak Attack that will have Russian and Chinese planes and I hope to get Fred with his military looking Chang and a few Urals for that.

The Chang only faultered once on the run down, after running 90 kph for a while it coughed once. I slowed a bit and all was fine. No idea why it coughed but the pipes do leak a bit."
May 13, 2007  
Richard rode his OHV to the 51st. Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance in San Mateo County, California. "The cheapest vehicle in this multimillion dollar crown was parked for free on the corner where you turned in. The Chang got many questions, laughs and thumbs up while driving there..."
Richard sent lots of pictures of the cars but due to space limitations we'll just be able to see a couple of them... like this Czech Tatra T87 with its rear mounted, air cooled V8....
...and the famous one-off Phantom Corsair...
...and this silver Pierce Arrow, built in Buffalo, NY. Every single car in this event is a rolling work of art, restored to the highest standards you can imagine.
May 7, 2007  
Richard rode his CJ to the Pacific Coast Dream Machines show and look who he met—Carla King's dad! Carla was there too but Richard didn't meet her. That's Richard's OHV that Mr. King is sitting on. The bike performed very well!
Typical Fifties style salt flats car. My guess? 1932 Ford coupe.
Not one but two H-D XAs—a civilian and a military. These are the real deal. The fancy one originally belonged to the Sacramento Harley dealer and was purchased from the estate by the current owner.
April 30, 2007  
"Fred Balanay came over today to deliver the tools I purchased from him and to pick up a powerpont CD I did of the fork repair. Since I had been recently working on the bike we used him for a test pilot."
March 8, 2007  
"Thanks to some help from our friends! I had a pretty good ride and the Norton wheel on the front is actually round, bigger nipples, the hub turned the right way makes a good improvement. Removing the powder coating and roughing up the shoes with small slots to kick out dust means my brakes are now safe to nearly 30 mph. Only one minor glitch on the test ride and that was old fine dust kicking up and sticking a brass float. You'd think a sealed tank and filters would help but if it is already in there it won't. I cleaned out the bottom of the offending carb and will do the other one tomorrow."
March 5, 2007  




Here's a scene that's familiar to many of us—the arrival and uncrating of a CJ straight from China! This red OHV machine belongs to Richard who you know as "cookiecookr" from the CJ Experience board. He ordered his bike through China Sidecar and has had plenty of experience wrenching on bikes having owned Triumphs and Nortons. I especially like the black frame, rims and hubs which give the bike a really vintage feel. Since we're not that well acquainted with China Sidecar yet, we'll be interested in hearing more about the bike as time passes.