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Hasselblad Heaven

dave.gt

Well-known member
Is that a Road King?
Yes, it is. After a 17-year relationship with the RK with so many memories, it is now at a new home, somewhere. I miss that ride!:(

Image from the same day, on my last ride. Not an MF image but I am including it to give a better idea of what the bike is:
Dave's 2000 Road King in Brooks, Ga Low Res.jpg
 

dave.gt

Well-known member
The Hasselblad V System is an enduring classic with not just aesthetic charm but also a mesmerizing experience.:)

Eschewing the current trend to go small, I say,

Go BIG, or go home!!!:grin:

I will forever remember the V experience. However, I do regret one thing, and that was my failure to do a long tour on the RK with the 503 riding safely in the tour pac. The dream was to get lost in the moment capturing iconic images across this wonderful country. Savannah to Key West to New Orleans would have been the first leg.:)

Then, maybe a Blues tour through the Mississippi Delta regions. Then, well, you know how dreams are...

But they will remain as dreams. At least I can work toward obtaining another 503 system. After all, going BIG is a dream realized in itself!:thumbup:
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Lovely Road King! Not my style in motorbikes, but always a beautiful sight on the road.

I am reading your posts, dave, which all have the past in them. Did you sell off all these lovely things recently due to some catastrophe or something? Health problems? If so, my thoughts are with you, and hopes for recovery and return to what you love to do. I've been through a good bit of that myself, and there are few moments in my memory that are as sweet as getting back on a motorcycle and bicycle once I'd fought my way back to being able to do so. And picking up the Hasselblad 500CM after not using it for ages feels much the same ... :D

Onwards, ever onwards, until Time ends and it no longer matters!

G


GDG & Moto Guzzi V7III Racer in Spring - Santa Clara 2018
Light L16
 

JoelM

Well-known member
Sold this one a few years ago. Now riding a more upright Duc (Streetfighter S). Perhaps we need to add bikes to the "Trains, planes, and automobile" thread.

JoelDuc033014.jpg
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Sold this one a few years ago. Now riding a more upright Duc (Streetfighter S). Perhaps we need to add bikes to the "Trains, planes, and automobile" thread.
One thing I love about GetDPI is how a thread about one topic can for awhile branch out to include others and no one gets all hot and bothered about it. It feels like a natural conversation with friends.

While I have never owned a HD, I've ridden many of them over the past 20+ years (including several Road Kings), usually when I was out riding with friends and we swapped bikes to try a different riding experience.

Re Guzzis and Ducatis...I've owned one Ducati and always hoped to own a Guzzi someday. The Ducati was a silver 1998 900FE (Final Edition). I sold it about 10 years ago. It is one of the few motorcycles I've sold and I REALLY regret that now. Unfortunately, my garage can only hold about ten motorcycles and so two had to go. I should have sold one of the others, but never the Ducati.

As the person who started the "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" thread in 2009, I can confidently say that posting photos of motorcycles there is also good. In fact Jack posted a photo of a HD on the very first page of that thread.

On the topic of the Hasselblad V-series cameras....here are a few of mine.

Gary

Three Swedish Beauties
 

bensonga

Well-known member
Two of our ten motorcycles. The W650 (a parallel twin with a gear driven overhead cam) was only sold in the USA in 2000 and 2001. These are the bikes that my wife and I often ride on a "hot" (70-75F) summer day in Alaska. The "cruiser" style riding position doesn't work for me, but this gives me that same feeling, although the bikes are also fairly nimble and fun to ride on a winding mountain road. Her W650 is on the left and has the higher and wider bars that came on bikes sold in the American market. Mine is on the right and has the lower and narrower "European" handlebars.

I'm very fortunate to have a wife who rides her own bikes (and does it VERY well), since I don't really enjoy carrying a passenger when I ride.

Gary

 

bensonga

Well-known member
My wife is only 5'4", but she can confidently ride my 1996 BMW R1100RT and 1998 Honda VFR800, although she prefers her Ninja 650s (one in Alaska and one in Washington) or her BMW 650GS.

 

dave.gt

Well-known member
Breaking my heart remembering my new 2004 LT and the many thousands of joy-filled miles. :(

Another one would make a great accessory for a new Hasselblad 503CW, don't ya think?:thumbs:
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I'm long past the "always six motorcycles in the garage" phase of life, but I remember those days fondly. :) Quite content with just Racer now, and my 500CM.

Current mad project in progress is to fit an Instax SQ processing unit to the back of the 500CM for the best possible instant film camera. Well along into the design and bits acquisition phase now... :D

G
 

Mark C

Well-known member
Great thread! I've never owned a motorcycle, but I've had cars which were about as close as you can get. This was my last one, a Caterham (nee Lotus) 7 Superlight R400 modified to produce around 225 hp and weighing about 550kgs, banned from my nearest race track as it exceeded the drive by noise limit!

R400 by Mark, on Flickr
 

dave.gt

Well-known member
Oh, Mark,

Love those cars!

How many times did I try to pull a trigger on a Lotus 7 or a Caterham? Sadly, they were always out of reach and the prices skyrocketed. Maybe that was a good thing. Never got a chance to figure out where to store a Hasselblad in that car either!!!:)

The closest I came to that was our 35th Wedding Anniversary... my wife could no longer ride a motorcycle so we sold it and bought a 51 MGTD to take on anniversary tour in the Smoky Mountains, with a Nikon D2x kit that we used for weddings. There was ample room inside for what we needed on day trips, but I made a custom wood trunk with matching leather to fit on the rack above the front bumper. THAT was pure vintage touring!

It would catch up with a Caterham and even pass it, eventually, if the drive was far enough and my job allowed an extra day or two.:ROTFL:

Ah, but if I had only kept that car and my first Hasselblad...
 

dave.gt

Well-known member
It is with deep reflection and considered thought that I mention this:

The Hasselblad V system is freedom.:thumbup:

For me at least. It is always ready with no constraints. I can leave it in a bag for months/years, and pick it up, carry it with me and shoot as many rolls as I want with no thought about charging batteries. Or computers. Or processing really. I just drop the film off at my buddy's shop and pick them up the next day. Or develop them myself.

Harley is touted as the freedom machine. Yeah, right. I love my Harley(s) of the past! But they require a lot of money to purchase, operate and maintain and, that requires a job or an alternate income stream. In hard times, either the motorcycle gets sold or stored away to await better days.

Photography allows me the ability to express myself. But, it takes money like everything else. That is how life works. But the disposable nature of modern cameras hardly helps the search for freedom.

Everyone is different and I am certainly an oddity.:) Give me one camera and allow me the freedom to be happy with shooting a Medium Format camera, and it would be the V system.

One day, though, I suspect if I live long enough, that I will be remembered as the old man walking around like before, with only a small old-fashioned camera around his neck (with engraving on the top) and seen loading a film cartridge in the bottom of it occasionally. If so, it too, will have no batteries.

Another freedom machine.:thumbup:
 

B L

Well-known member
Dave,
This thread is a quite little corner for cuddling Hasselblads.
I got my SWC,SWCM and 503CX marry to P21 and P30. Any blashphemy done? :p
 

Mark C

Well-known member
Oh, Mark,

Love those cars!

How many times did I try to pull a trigger on a Lotus 7 or a Caterham? Sadly, they were always out of reach and the prices skyrocketed. Maybe that was a good thing. Never got a chance to figure out where to store a Hasselblad in that car either!!!:)

The closest I came to that was our 35th Wedding Anniversary... my wife could no longer ride a motorcycle so we sold it and bought a 51 MGTD to take on anniversary tour in the Smoky Mountains, with a Nikon D2x kit that we used for weddings. There was ample room inside for what we needed on day trips, but I made a custom wood trunk with matching leather to fit on the rack above the front bumper. THAT was pure vintage touring!

It would catch up with a Caterham and even pass it, eventually, if the drive was far enough and my job allowed an extra day or two.:ROTFL:

Ah, but if I had only kept that car and my first Hasselblad...
That MG sounds like fun, Dave. As for the storage, same as a motorcycle, it's amazing what you can fit into a small space with a bit of forward planning.
 

cerett

Member
One thing I love about GetDPI is how a thread about one topic can for awhile branch out to include others and no one gets all hot and bothered about it. It feels like a natural conversation with friends.

While I have never owned a HD, I've ridden many of them over the past 20+ years (including several Road Kings), usually when I was out riding with friends and we swapped bikes to try a different riding experience.

Re Guzzis and Ducatis...I've owned one Ducati and always hoped to own a Guzzi someday. The Ducati was a silver 1998 900FE (Final Edition). I sold it about 10 years ago. It is one of the few motorcycles I've sold and I REALLY regret that now. Unfortunately, my garage can only hold about ten motorcycles and so two had to go. I should have sold one of the others, but never the Ducati.

As the person who started the "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" thread in 2009, I can confidently say that posting photos of motorcycles there is also good. In fact Jack posted a photo of a HD on the very first page of that thread.

On the topic of the Hasselblad V-series cameras....here are a few of mine.

Gary



Three Swedish Beauties
Thank you. Brings back a lot of memories, maybe of a better time.
 

bensonga

Well-known member
I'm enjoying this trip down memory lane also, both for Hasselblads and the interesting machines that might be used to transport them.
It is a beautiful sunny spring day here in Anchorage. I'd certainly rather be outside than in the office office crunching numbers for the month-end close. Needed a little break, so of course I thought to check in on GetDPI.

Maybe I'll pull out one of the 'blads, load some film and spend a little quality time getting reacquainted in the next week or so. In the meantime, here are a few more photos of one of my favorites. A black 503CW with the CW winder. Also known as the 503 Borg model. :toocool:

Ok, back to work.

Gary





 
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