Nathaniel Salzman

Chicago area designer, writer, maker and journalist.

March 29, 2012

Writing, Riding and Wrenching: The 2011 Wrap Up

For me, 2011 was truly epic. It was long, arduous, fun, tedious, surprising, frustrating and a hell of a lot of fun. Looking back, I can’t believe how much happened in just a single year. With 2012 in full swing, I’m looking back on the 2011 that was, what I learned, what I experienced, and where I’m headed from here. I’ve told many of the stories already, but there are still so many I haven’t got down in words yet. – Read More –

March 21, 2012

Wrench Log: All the king’s horses

For all Jeff’s instruction, there are still times when I feel out of my depth on a motorcycle project. In early July, after months of tearing into the my 1974 Honda CB450 Supersport, we finally had the machine back together. It was even running, though it wasn’t quite ready to ride. – Read More –

March 16, 2012

On the fear of words

If you are sensitive to explicit language, feel free not to read this.

Today I noticed a lot of attention being given to the use of particular words. First, there is the ongoing controversy surrounding the movie ratings agency, the MPAA, and the documentary film Bully. The MPAA has given the film an R rating because it contains the word “fuck” more than an arbitrary number of times. – Read More –

March 13, 2012

Wrench Log: Elbow Deep

It’s no secret inside the walls of BlueCat Motors that my ambitions tend to far outpace both the time at hand and any sort of moderate good sense. I wanted one of everything that rolled through the door and three of some things. That, and I want to do it all myself. I want to go to bed every night smelling vaguely of either the wind and road, or of grease, petrol and industrial-strength solvents. I don’t like it if the creases in my fingerprints get too clean. It’s a good thing I don’t mind getting over my head in a bike project though. I own an old Goldwing after all. If I’m not over my head, I’m going to be at least elbow deep.
– Read More –

February 28, 2012

Fireflies and silliness

Last week I was riding the train home from downtown Chicago. Standing just inside the door, I was leaning against the entry wall, my back to the front of the train so I wouldn’t have to hang onto anything. As the north side of Chicago blurred by, I caught a glimpse of something unexpected out the window. – Read More –

February 21, 2012

Joy Ride

I’m not a modern sport bike guy. Once in a while, I get a wild hair to buy the ugliest ’80s superbike I can find, but mostly, I’m a UJM man all the way. Meanwhile, there’s Vimeo — where aspiring and professional filmmakers are sharing their art with the world. This particular video was made by the people at Nikon (w00t!) to promote their new digital camera. It tells a simple, small, enigmatic story about a guy and his sport bike. On the surface, it’s simple motorcycle porn — part speed homage, part love letter to Chicago in the wee hours. But watch carefully and there are layers, subtext, arc and story. I can’t stop watching it.

Nathaniel Salzman

February 17, 2012

Announcing ScooterFile

Recently I got excited and made a thing. That thing is Scooterfile.com — a site I’d intended to create for more than a year. Riding my scooter around the Twin Cities is a big part of why I started my own blog. And as most regular readers know, I’m currently the Senior Editor at MotoringFile.com — the internet’s premier source for MINI-related news, reviews and opinion. ScooterFile hopes to take its place next to MotoringFile and BimmerFile as a place where scooter fans can come together and see what’s going on in the wide world of motor scooters. While I’d currently describe the site as in Beta form, news is already starting to stack up and we’re gaining readers every day.

What I’m most excited about of late is the addition of scooter community lynchpin Eric Almendral as Senior Editor. Eric moderates what I think are two of the most important web properties in all of online scooter culture: Modern Buddy and Modern Vespa. Nobody has their fingers on the pulse of scooter culture like Eric and ScooterFile is very fortunate to have him aboard.

So if you’re into scooters, or want to be, head on over to ScooterFile. Follow us on Twitter. Even Like us on Facebook. That’d be swell.

Nathaniel Salzman

February 16, 2012

The CB450 fires to life

Air. Fuel. Compression. Ignition. These are the building blocks of internal combustion. In the correct ratios, they’ll turn common gasoline into noise, heat and best of all, speed. Speed was exactly what I had in mind as Jeff and I continued resurrecting my 1974 Honda CB450 Supersport. I felt like I was running out of riding season. – Read More –

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