stu, dangerous and me went to stafford to the classic bike show yesterday, really good day, some lovely bikes there, prices ranged from reasonable to truly ridiculous, lot's of foreigner's spending money, i got 30 back issues of classic racer off pigfarmer for a quid a piece and bought some aluminium round stock for a couple of quid, today, i got some more work done on the hoo bird down my left-hand side, couple of more three hour sittings should see it done, then start on filling in around it.

dkw racer, hand-beaten aluminium petrol tank, the ball-pein marks are priceless, real history.

the incredible dkw three-cylinder, 350cc two-stroke racer from 1953,the middle cylinder was inclined at 75 degrees to the outer cylinders, originally run as a rotary valve, this was abandoned and run as a more conventional piston ported engine.

love the triumph mill but i'm sorry, the 'unapproachable norton' still does it for me.....

seeley framed norton racer, i had a commando and that's not a 'big' bike by modern standards but this thing was tiny, about the same size as my mz racer.

lovely triumph parked outside the wall of death at stafford, seen this before up at the ncc show at pomeroy, details are brilliant, great bike.

the amazing bert frouen racer, four cylinder two stroke racer, built in a shed and raced at the tt in the '60's, he retired at the bottom of bray hill, less than a mile from the start line but that doesn't matter, a bloke in a shed built this, he had the vision and commitment to try, that's what matters, i'm humbled by that, respect due.