sometimes you get one of those days that just happens, let me elaborate, me and dangerous did the 360 garage article with gary inman for performance bike magazine, the article was published in the mag and a mate of dangerous, [who last saw dangerous nearly 40 years ago], recognises him and tracks us down through various old workmates, mick phones dangerous and they arrange to meet up at the loveless headquarters, [i'm at work by the way, somebody has to keep the country running], they hit it off straight away and mick invites us over to have a look at his bikes, today we followed up the invitation, dangerous introduces me to mick, we have a brew and a piece of homemade cake and make our way into the garden, mick opens up the first shed and i clock a hrd vincent, douglas, trident t150, vellocette variant and a silver jubilee bonneville, shed two is where it gets interesting, royal enfield racer, mick had raced it in the '70's and blown it up big stylee at mallory, i love this bike, rough as a junkyard dog, the sort of bike that would hurt you badly, next to it is an aermachi alodoro 250 racer in a rickman mettise chassis, last run 31 years ago, dangerous nearly co-co's and soils himself, it's his dream bike, we stand there without speaking, mick goes and makes us another brew and get's his shoes on, we are off to meet his mate who lives down the road, introductions out of the way and we are straight in the shed, john is a triumph man, bonny in a mettise frame, nourish, four valver in a wideline featherbed frame, he uses it for hillclimbing and sprinting, i feel very humble in the prescence of these men, i'm a fucking amateur, i'm playing at it, i know fuck all, what really hits home is when john say's 'what really worries me is when we are gone who's going to carry it on youth?, no-one gives a fuck about old bikes, you can't expect kid's to understand how we feel about this old shit.......'

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  1. Bloody Hell !!! I remember being shown similar "dens" back in my Vespa days, including a cellar in Worcs packed with NOS parts. Great places, true good old fashioned British shed engineers !! It's true about the future....my lad (17 yrs) just isn't interested, which really pisses me off !!

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