Ian's got a brand new Jacket...

er....well its about 40 years old but its new enough.  I was chatting to Keith Baker at Classic Cycle Works about stuff and the subject of vintage leather jackets came up, and he said that old AMF Harley ones were very rare.  Of course I went straight on Ebay and found one in the USA - and as a result of a mix up in postage prices and the inability of our Parcel Force to tell me its in the UK - I struck up a email conversation. with Chris Baker of Bazooka Garage.  He has a great shop in Santa Barbara which specialises in converting old Japanese bikes into British Style Cafe Races, as well as selling other cool stuff - so check it out here

Anyway the jacket has finally arrived and I will be wearing it on my road trips next year.

Here is a small story from Chris about its original owner:

There is quite a story about the gentleman who owned this jacket. He was a deaf mute aerospace engineer here in Santa Barbara, very interesting chap, his son sat with me and translated a whole
conversation when I bought all his old riding gear and 1978 CB750.
We connected and he was very excited to pass this huge part of his life on to me. He also had a mid 80's BMW Dakar. He told me he road the Honda with this Jacket on from California to Belize and back. He had some very cool stories he would tell in grunts and noises and hand gestures, you could almost follow him and his excitement, then his son would translate it all to me with them using his Dad's limited vocal abilities and sign lanquage.