Isaac's blog
2015-10-17
Circular Hill House at St Ann’s Court
(Nick Dawe)
Raymond McGrath’s personal major building project was the modernist circular Hill House at St Ann’s Court in 1936. The house was built for the landscape architect Christopher Tunnard.
(Nick Dawe)
(Nick Dawe)
(Nick Dawe)
(Nick Dawe)
2000 refurbishment projected by Munkenbeck & Marshall.
Sources:
- Wikipedia
- The Modern House Today (Nick Dawe)
- The Round House Project (Sebastiaan Kaal)
- Stephen Marshall Architects
- cameronwebsterarchitects
2015-10-09
Buell 1125R
Magpul Industries
motorcycle
Pikes Peak
Ronin 47
A Ronin 47 at Pikes Peak
Most builders would be happy to sit on their laurels after such a successful launch, but not Magpul. They decided to turn the Ronin into a race weapon, and set their sights on the Pikes Peak hillclimb - one of the most difficult and dangerous competitions in the motorsport world.
The bike was christened Oishi Yoshio - after the samurai leader of the 47 Ronin - and was hand built by technician Johnny Schwaig and his team. And, as might be expected, every change to the production model was designed to reduce weight and maximize power.
Oishi Yoshio puts out a tremendous 185 bhp. And with a full load of fuel, weighs just 170kg. That’s 25kg less than the regular, road-going Ronin.
2015-10-08
Buell 1125R
Magpul Industries
motorcycle
Ronin 47
Magpul Ronin 47
In mid 2009, with the demise of the Buell brand by Harley-Davidson, the Buell 1125R went out of production. The founders of Ronin Motor Works, created the Ronin Concept Motorcycle. That initial Ronin Motorcycle concept is brought to life through the design and manufacturing efforts of Ronin Motor Works as a limited release of 47 bikes.
Taken from the Japanese word for a Samurai who lost his master, the name “Ronin” was chosen to signify Buell motorcycles that will continue on after the demise of the company. The Ronin concept featured a custom monoshock linkage suspension system, front-mounted radiator, unitized handlebar assembly, new ram air intake, cast aluminum tail section, and high-flow exhaust system. The features enhanced the bike’s ride while also decreasing the total weight by 21kg from stock.
The Rotax-designed motor—similar to one used by Aprilia—has been tuned to run cooler than the stock bike, and remapped to suit the Ronin’s free-flow intake and exhaust system.
On the production bike, many of the items were unitized into a single part (ie battery box and foot pegs are integrated into a single cast unit along with lights being housed within the fork legs and led indicators are seamlessly built into the handlebar ends). Several injection molds were specially made to produce less than 100 front grill housings, airboxes, indicator lights and tail lights. Standard key ignition was eliminated in lieu of a hidden RFID chip along with custom gauge and ECU.
The first 12 bikes released will be in the classic Black & Gray color of the original Ronin concept bike. Priced at $38,000 (USD) each, these bikes will be the most affordable of all Ronins released (and priced below the cost to produce them). The initial release of 12 will be followed by 10 all black versions at an increased price. After that, there will be a release of 8, then 6, then 4, and then 2 (all will have different color schemes and features). The remaining 5 bikes will be one-off designs from the factory and each will be unique. Each bike is named after one of the 47 Ronin warriors from Japanese legend. The name is engraved on the bike and on the bamboo toolbox that comes with every bike.