If so, it must possess some sort of cruise control. Strange, her eyes seem to be narrowed to slits and she must have a death wish letting her hair dangle so close to the wheel.
Other than that, I guess it’s just your average ex-sphinx out for an easy cruise to oblivion … and back.
re: cruise control. while it may have one, if she is actually in motion, her right calf is on the throttle, and by sliding her leg slightly forward and back can roll off and on the throttle as desired. @ NOTDilbert, re: spokes. mag wheels are a distinct possibility. whether or not the bike is in motion, only Paul knows…
Of course, that’s a Really Stupid Design – the amount of trail that that fork geometry creats is going to make it Hard To Steer … and the drive to the rear wheel is by a friction wheel that runs on the center of the tire.
Not only would i not trust that arrangement in the slightest bit of wet, it’ll wear out tires fast – not the visible wear along the centerline of the tire.
And i’m not sure how well it would handle hard braking.
NOT something to actually ride much/hard, i would think. (Of course, i could be wrong, since i don’t ride motorcycles.)
More something to put in shows for the rubes to gawk over.
Yeah, if her hair gets caught I can only imagine the severe damage it would do to the wheel. And if she wiped out, she’d totally demolish yards of public roadway. Utterly irresponsible.
Right, that plus the fact she could not die only while in the Time Tree Forest. Even if she transformed into a sphinx now, I belive she still could be killed while on earth.
I wonder though if she could have died in the TTF if some other sphinx killed her? The story says she could not die while there, but that could simply mean she could not die from the passage of time.
I’m guessing solid aluminum wheels. Most big cruiser bikes have some variation of them nowadays. No visible kickstand so I’d say Shelly’s holding it up with her left foot braced against the wall, which, along with the rest of the background, has been blanked out. Artistic liscence and all that.
I didn’t mean THE ACTUAL bike in the picture, I meant to say it’s a link to a picture of MY Shadow 750.
Was just trying to show a photo reference. Google Honda Shadow Aero 750 any year between 2004 and now.
It’s a GREAT model, very popular because Honda doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for them and while they’re 750cc’s they look like the much bigger Harley Big Twins in appearance, like a Softail Deluxe.
*sigh* i keep seeing this motorbike-thing (not sure if its a proper bike but looks like one) in a shop when my bus goes past it.
i cant ride a bike
dont know anyone who can ride a bike
but its soo pretty i wants it
(loves looking at motorbikes – and fast cars sometimes..even if i have no wish to buy the fast cars…barring the odd one which look soo georgous…)
There’s a McDonalds near here. (Exit 16, Ga 400/US 19)
It has a number of classic bikes in its window.
Including one lovely suicide-shift Indian Chief. Which, to judge from the fact that they keep a drip pan under its crankcase, may well be in ridable condition.
I have no idea how to ride a suicide-shift bike – and only barely any idea how to ride a more modern bike.
I can ride both. Suicide-shift is….interesting. That name didn’t pop-out of no-where suddenly.
Especially the really old ones, preferred double-clutching..interesting experience..but not something I’d like to try again anytime soon Let’s just say I’ll never complain about un-smooth shifting again. Suicide clutching and shifting makes a 50′s Norton feel smooth..
You know why he had three? Because older Nortons were notorious for needing re-tightening&re-servicing everything after 100 miles… Gets old after a while ,so it’s handy to have a replacement available
You know why the English drink warm beer? Because Lucas makes refrigerators too. (Old joke stemming from the classic Triumph and MG sports cars and the notoriously horrible wiring.)
Speaking about suicide shifts and double-clutching – i can’t find a copy online, but Gil Shelton, who was obviously as much of a motorhead as he was an underground cartoonist, did a strip in which Fat Freddy decided to buy a chopper.
Well, the lot had a suicide-shift Harley chopper that was owned by a little old lady Hell’s Angel who only rode it to church on Sundays, and invited Fat Freddy to take a test ride.
All was going well until he came to a red light and discovered that there was something wrong, and it wouldn’t go into neutral.
Which meant that he couldn’t take his foot off the clutch.
“Which means,” he said to himself, that if it decided to start to tip the wrong way…
Which, of course, it does.
Following which there is a panel showing a large dust cloud like a comic-strip fight, with arms, legs, wheels and the like sticking out in various directions…
I had a 1980 Superglide with the stock buckhorn handlebars. I made a short trip (30 miles) and back and my back was killing me. Shortly after that I traded someone for a set of drag bars with 4.5in risers and loved them. Look at a picture of the movie Easyrider and see the difference between Peter Fonda’s and Dennis Hopper’s handlebars.
Billet “teardrop” airfilters are a dime-a-dozen, same goes for oil-tank/battery covers. Doesn’t mean a whole lot. The oil-cooler is more of a Honda-ish give-away. Although I wouldn’t put it beyond Shelly to find that after putting on high-compression heads on her hog, and flowing all of it, she needed an oil-cooler.
Pretty standard neccessitiy when tuning big-bore long strokers.
Shelly would certainly have the fab skills to use what she considers the best parts from various manufacturers. Her bike is probably a subtle custom. A Frankenbike, if you will, that only real motorheads would be able to spot as such. To every one else, it’s just one more cruiser. Car guys do it all the time to biuld “sleepers”. Cars that look stock, but will eat your lunch for you and ask for seconds.
I can vouch for that. my cousins down in the NYC go racing. Then I saw what they drove, a honda civic, and a toyota corolla, both were high gloss red. I laughed for a few minutes, thinking that they were joking. Then they lifted the hoods… I don’t think there was a single stock part in either car…
*smiles*
I do so Love Shelly’s hair long. And it is fitting with her hog, most all of my “aunts” growing up had long hair. So biker girls with long hair is the only way to go in my mind.
Archimedes, the well known truth-seeker,
Jumping out of his bath, cried “Eureka!”
He ran half a mile,
Wearing only a smile,
And became the very first streaker.
(The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean–
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.)
Sweet motorcycle mama! Looks like a little eye-candy is on the menu for this week.
I am curious, however, as to what Shelly’s dad is going to think when his daughter turns up with 80,000 years (well, at least 10 months) of hair growth overnight…
Chee – the things i learn doing comments on comics.
How many one-hit wonders do you know of whose hit was the title track of a concept album, with cover art (which i knew about) and gatefold art (which i didn’t) by one of the top humour, satire and horror comics-and-everything-else artists?
I remember that Motorbikes, choppers especially , were more of a mainstay in much album cover-art.
Made me fall in love with the classic “long-fork” choppers BAD!
All my pocket-money (all weekly Fl 2,50) went into pictures and toys of them. Remember “Britains” -cast iron toy-motorcycles? It had the penultimate long-fork in it’s gamma. I saved like 4 months for it, became a regular Scrooge… this is the one…
It just seems to me he changed her face. I know hair can change how someone looks, but somehow, her face… eyes just look softer. Is it me or is there something different about her face?
Or is he just so awesome he can change a character’s “aura”. She is older, wiser and calmer. I can totally sense that. But its just so weird and unnerving how it’s not the same Shelly… yet is.
PAUL! I just saw today’s wapsi… I want, no let me be concise, I NEED to have this as a TShirt. What do I have to do to get one in my size? (preferably 3X or larger)…
Sweet! Are we in for a week of awesome poses?
Oooh, I hope so!
The week of lounging.
Did Shelly add a rear-seat (not using the vulgar term) since last we saw her hog?
Well, Justin needs somewhere to put his buns…
you forgot the rimshot…
Sorry.
Will this do, instead?
Or this maybe – I favor number 2 meself
http://www.virtualrimshot.com/
Shelly looks like she’s travelling fast while standing still.
big fan to the right of the picture out of view
*joining Paula, handing her a latte ,to admire together*
Probably a photo shoot for Amanda for MSP Harley.
Engine isn’t Harley, Yamaha mebbe?
Looks similar to an old indian model actually
that bke is a 2006-09 honda shadow areo 750cc
I got pizza and cookies!
Ummm – what’s holding it up?
a magician
Centrifugal force – the bike’s in motion (no visible spokes).
“Put a helmet on, young lady – no, not there!”
If so, it must possess some sort of cruise control. Strange, her eyes seem to be narrowed to slits and she must have a death wish letting her hair dangle so close to the wheel.
Other than that, I guess it’s just your average ex-sphinx out for an easy cruise to oblivion … and back.
re: cruise control. while it may have one, if she is actually in motion, her right calf is on the throttle, and by sliding her leg slightly forward and back can roll off and on the throttle as desired. @ NOTDilbert, re: spokes. mag wheels are a distinct possibility. whether or not the bike is in motion, only Paul knows…
And as ever, Great work Paul!
…and then there are wheels like the bikes in Tron: Legacy had – no spokes at all. Just empty space.
Like Yhis one.
Of course, that’s a Really Stupid Design – the amount of trail that that fork geometry creats is going to make it Hard To Steer … and the drive to the rear wheel is by a friction wheel that runs on the center of the tire.
Not only would i not trust that arrangement in the slightest bit of wet, it’ll wear out tires fast – not the visible wear along the centerline of the tire.
And i’m not sure how well it would handle hard braking.
NOT something to actually ride much/hard, i would think. (Of course, i could be wrong, since i don’t ride motorcycles.)
More something to put in shows for the rubes to gawk over.
Yurgh. “This one”.
OTOH, still on the subject of spokeless/hubless wheels…
(Click the center thumbnail under the image to see the thing’s interior. You’ll never be able to look a bottle of Pepto-Bismol in the face again…)
Holy Batmobiles! that’s pretty effin sweet design! tho you’re probably right about the tires..
I’m getting old. I took one look and the first thing that came to mind was Isadora Duncan.
Yeah. Me too.
Well, not absolutely the first thing – but pretty close.
Yeah, if her hair gets caught I can only imagine the severe damage it would do to the wheel. And if she wiped out, she’d totally demolish yards of public roadway. Utterly irresponsible.
no I’m fairly certain she would be dead. dead dead. Her invulnerability was not on the list of skills or abilities that came with her sphinxness
Right, that plus the fact she could not die only while in the Time Tree Forest. Even if she transformed into a sphinx now, I belive she still could be killed while on earth.
I wonder though if she could have died in the TTF if some other sphinx killed her? The story says she could not die while there, but that could simply mean she could not die from the passage of time.
Wheels are probably cast aluminum and the kick stand is on the left side and therefore not needed for a classy ‘Art Shot’.
Tepoz is standing behind the drive wheel…
I’m guessing solid aluminum wheels. Most big cruiser bikes have some variation of them nowadays. No visible kickstand so I’d say Shelly’s holding it up with her left foot braced against the wall, which, along with the rest of the background, has been blanked out. Artistic liscence and all that.
Yup^^ Agreed.
Well, whichever of these theories is true (in motion/not in motion, spokes/solid wheels) I’m still impressed.
The kickstand on the left of the bike isn’t visible at this angle. I should have drawn it in anyways.
Yeah – it looked as if it was standing too upright to be on the kickstand at first glance.
Disk wheels?
The two biggest problems with art (after the whole creative process of course) are: how much is enough? and how much is too much?
Whoo-Hoo! Nice job on the Harley Davidson! It’s sweet! Coming from a rider- It’s done well_ Thanks!
Engine is neither Sportster nor big twin. Couldn’t find what model but looks Japanese.
Kinda looks like your typical Evo engine to me, but whaddaIknow- I ride a Yamaha FJR1300…
It’s a Honda Shadow Aero 750. I used to own one, I ride a Harley XL-1200N now.
Gotta give Paul props for the illustration, it is DEAD ON accurate. I miss my Shadow!
Here are some reference pics of the actual bike:
http://tinyurl.com/3uv76qq
I didn’t mean THE ACTUAL bike in the picture, I meant to say it’s a link to a picture of MY Shadow 750.
Was just trying to show a photo reference. Google Honda Shadow Aero 750 any year between 2004 and now.
It’s a GREAT model, very popular because Honda doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for them and while they’re 750cc’s they look like the much bigger Harley Big Twins in appearance, like a Softail Deluxe.
*sigh* i keep seeing this motorbike-thing (not sure if its a proper bike but looks like one) in a shop when my bus goes past it.
i cant ride a bike
dont know anyone who can ride a bike
but its soo pretty i wants it
(loves looking at motorbikes – and fast cars sometimes..even if i have no wish to buy the fast cars…barring the odd one which look soo georgous…)
There’s a McDonalds near here. (Exit 16, Ga 400/US 19)
It has a number of classic bikes in its window.
Including one lovely suicide-shift Indian Chief. Which, to judge from the fact that they keep a drip pan under its crankcase, may well be in ridable condition.
I have no idea how to ride a suicide-shift bike – and only barely any idea how to ride a more modern bike.
But i can dream.
I can ride both. Suicide-shift is….interesting. That name didn’t pop-out of no-where suddenly.
Especially the really old ones, preferred double-clutching..interesting experience..but not something I’d like to try again anytime soon
Let’s just say I’ll never complain about un-smooth shifting again. Suicide clutching and shifting makes a 50′s Norton feel smooth..
Yeah – but a 1940s Indian…
Speaking of Nortons:
A guy i knew back in the 1980s (a mechanic) owned three Nortons.
And at least one of them was running at almost any given moment.
He was considered a sort of minor deity among Atlanta area Norton fans.
You know why he had three? Because older Nortons were notorious for needing re-tightening&re-servicing everything after 100 miles… Gets old after a while ,so it’s handy to have a replacement available
Well, yes. That was what i was driving at…
You know why the English drink warm beer? Because Lucas makes refrigerators too. (Old joke stemming from the classic Triumph and MG sports cars and the notoriously horrible wiring.)
A guy named McCoy had 5 Nortons and rented them out to some of his buds, like my dad. But that was before ’74.
Speaking about suicide shifts and double-clutching – i can’t find a copy online, but Gil Shelton, who was obviously as much of a motorhead as he was an underground cartoonist, did a strip in which Fat Freddy decided to buy a chopper.
Well, the lot had a suicide-shift Harley chopper that was owned by a little old lady Hell’s Angel who only rode it to church on Sundays, and invited Fat Freddy to take a test ride.
All was going well until he came to a red light and discovered that there was something wrong, and it wouldn’t go into neutral.
Which meant that he couldn’t take his foot off the clutch.
“Which means,” he said to himself, that if it decided to start to tip the wrong way…
Which, of course, it does.
Following which there is a panel showing a large dust cloud like a comic-strip fight, with arms, legs, wheels and the like sticking out in various directions…
I will never forget the panel of Fat Freddy on the bike, upright with the horizon line tilted as the bike was going over…
Yup. Dat de one.
“It’s a Mo-Ped. I’m gonna make a chopper out of it.”
While we’re at it, what is this thing about the high handlebars? What IS the point of that stupidity? Must be uncomfortable after a short time.
High bars expose the maximum amount of skin to the wind, causing rapid cooling even in 110°F heat. Not that I have tested that personally.
Even if that’s true, i’ll guarantee that the majority of bikes that have ape-hangers are just ’cause the Cool Guys have ‘em on their bikes…
Another thing that is incredibly stupid, which i just heard for the first time about a year or so ago is “suicide shift” conversions for modern bikes…
Fairportfan- That goes well beyond just stupid, well into suicide.
I had a 1980 Superglide with the stock buckhorn handlebars. I made a short trip (30 miles) and back and my back was killing me. Shortly after that I traded someone for a set of drag bars with 4.5in risers and loved them. Look at a picture of the movie Easyrider and see the difference between Peter Fonda’s and Dennis Hopper’s handlebars.
Well, looks as if Shelly isn’t quite so moody and withdrawn as it’s looked sometimes over the last few days.
Hooray! It’s the Summer Swimsuit Issue! BooYah!
She’s back in the saddle again.
Out where the Indian’s our friend…
Bear Whizz Beer!
+10
Lap it up, big fellow!
OOH, MAMMA!
I approve.
The only improvement would be if she still had the tattoo…
Maybe…I’d actually rather her be inked with a design of her own choosing. I’d be pretty interested to see what that would be actually.
Well she does like playing TAG with a two story panther on that bike, so I’d bet she’s just having a fun ride out where she can ‘let her hair down’.
Okay Are we in for a week of Pinups… ? Will the GGG girls be in one together or will each one get a page?
I approve, too, but I would like to see the guys, too. Nothing special… just in the picture ….bare chested
I guess they are off camera
PBH
Oooo…guy pinups…I LIKE that idea!
And I’d hope that the GGGs would be posed individually since they are now so very distinct and less of a matched set.
If we include enough persons, we could have a two- or three-week long Pinup Week. . . .
That is not a Harley. That s a Honda. Look at the airfilter cover…
Billet “teardrop” airfilters are a dime-a-dozen, same goes for oil-tank/battery covers. Doesn’t mean a whole lot. The oil-cooler is more of a Honda-ish give-away. Although I wouldn’t put it beyond Shelly to find that after putting on high-compression heads on her hog, and flowing all of it, she needed an oil-cooler.
Pretty standard neccessitiy when tuning big-bore long strokers.
That is true…but would anyone change the comletely iconic Harley air filter cover for one that is like the one on a Honda? I just don’t think I would.
It also seems to have the rear drum brakes from the Shadow Aero as well…..
Shelly would certainly have the fab skills to use what she considers the best parts from various manufacturers. Her bike is probably a subtle custom. A Frankenbike, if you will, that only real motorheads would be able to spot as such. To every one else, it’s just one more cruiser. Car guys do it all the time to biuld “sleepers”. Cars that look stock, but will eat your lunch for you and ask for seconds.
I can vouch for that. my cousins down in the NYC go racing. Then I saw what they drove, a honda civic, and a toyota corolla, both were high gloss red. I laughed for a few minutes, thinking that they were joking. Then they lifted the hoods… I don’t think there was a single stock part in either car…
*smiles*
I do so Love Shelly’s hair long. And it is fitting with her hog, most all of my “aunts” growing up had long hair. So biker girls with long hair is the only way to go in my mind.
Is Shelly’s bike still a Honda?
Ooooh my…! That’s not good for my sensitive constitution.. Too.Much.Awesome.
I gather we will have each wapsi-girl posing in/on an appropriate accessory the coming week??
(please, pretty please???)
So Tina will be perched atop a giant Espresso machine?
Nah, sitting on the counter.
Wearing a grin.
…and not much else… (No!! Bad Jay, BAD bad Jay…)
I am shocked – shocked!, i say – that such a thought would even cross your mind!
Yes, I know..I am utterly ashamed…. ‘S the demon-parts of Tina that get those evil thoughts in my head…
*nod ,nod* That’s it! Has nothing to do with the fact that latina’s make me…ehrmm.. ‘nervous’..
You should move to San Antonio, where I live, you’d be nervous ALL the time…
I thought that was the intent of the phrase.
Archimedes, the well known truth-seeker,
Jumping out of his bath, cried “Eureka!”
He ran half a mile,
Wearing only a smile,
And became the very first streaker.
(The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean–
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.)
BIKINI! bad boy! mumbles ‘that boy never could keep his mouth shut.’
Sweet motorcycle mama! Looks like a little eye-candy is on the menu for this week.
I am curious, however, as to what Shelly’s dad is going to think when his daughter turns up with 80,000 years (well, at least 10 months) of hair growth overnight…
Motorcycle mama, huh?
Chee – the things i learn doing comments on comics.
How many one-hit wonders do you know of whose hit was the title track of a concept album, with cover art (which i knew about) and gatefold art (which i didn’t) by one of the top humour, satire and horror comics-and-everything-else artists?
I remember that Motorbikes, choppers especially , were more of a mainstay in much album cover-art.
Made me fall in love with the classic “long-fork” choppers BAD!
All my pocket-money (all weekly Fl 2,50) went into pictures and toys of them. Remember “Britains” -cast iron toy-motorcycles? It had the penultimate long-fork in it’s gamma. I saved like 4 months for it, became a regular Scrooge… this is the one…
I miss her short hair.
I know most everyone is discussing the bike, but I love her hair now!! The long Sphinx-hair suits her really well!!! Simply gorgeous.
I like her hair both ways. Only the “shaven-up” look was a bit too much for me. The “short mop” with strands sticking-out was cute too..
I do like her hair long again
I’ve never really seen the hot girl/motorcycle connection but this … DAMN!
Aww! I’ve missed Shelly’s long hair. It’s so awesome she can pull off both looks.
Driving & Crying has a song “Scarred but Smarter” that sums up Shelly’s entire experience up to now.
Or at least I think it does when I think about it.
The aforementioned song…
http://youtu.be/RXoHlYOmKlY
And Dave Edmonds…
http://youtu.be/cpNSzYmXQ8w
And Arlo Guthrie…
http://youtu.be/MQCKgf8gTnw
Aaaand Nervous Norvus…
http://youtu.be/EKgyzs_R0nI
Commander Cody did a killer version of “Transfusion”
… and Reckless Kelly…
A cat on a hog? She needs a side car for CG.
NICE!
Just gotta love mystic hotties on motorcycles! LOL XD
I look forward to seeing this on E-bay or maybe even a print when I get outbid on the original.
Purchased…
1024×768
Some minor fixes in the future…couldn’t get a reference photo while I was at work.
Doh!
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/older1024.png/
oooohh.. groovy background. Obviously inspired by many a 70′ album that sported choppers in one form or another on their fronts.. nice..
I was looking for something groovy-ish. I need to learn how to do the vector curly things…
yup
defo awesome background
and colouring
It just seems to me he changed her face. I know hair can change how someone looks, but somehow, her face… eyes just look softer. Is it me or is there something different about her face?
Or is he just so awesome he can change a character’s “aura”. She is older, wiser and calmer. I can totally sense that. But its just so weird and unnerving how it’s not the same Shelly… yet is.
PAUL! I just saw today’s wapsi… I want, no let me be concise, I NEED to have this as a TShirt. What do I have to do to get one in my size? (preferably 3X or larger)…
Uh-Oh.. trouble in wordpress-land.. comments are disappearing… Like my last two ones.. Crud!
I think your cookies may have expired, re-enter your data. I noticed that your web site was missing from the last comment.
Summertiiiiiiiime and the livin’ is eaaaaazzzzyyyyy
Happy Summer all!
Why did the Buck Bothers song, “Girls Skirts Boots Bikes” just pop into my head. Now, it won’t go away!