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.

another week gone, scratting around in bakers scrapyard for aluminium stock after i've finished my shift, in the shed, eating at eleven pm, missus not talking to me, i'm on a mission.......

.......mounting hardware, [x2 and handed to each frame rail], lots and lots of brain power, cardboard templates, tantrums and scribbles on the bench before you even cut any metal and start to produce anything 'physical'......

......brackets mounted to frame, rubber from dangerous's mountain bike inner tube wrapped around the frame to stop the mountings moving, cross bracket drilled with lightening holes.....

.....used the biggest cutter in the arsenal to cut lightening holes in the seat base, 32mm x 8.....

..... i need to get a life me, the finished subframe mounted to the bike, all this work for something you don't even see, i tell dangerous it matters because if it was a lash up i would wake up at night worrying about it, dangerous is as bad as me, we tend to get obsessed with details, after i bolted this little beauty up i must admit i stood in the shed and gazed at it for an hour......

....so the 2004 honda rs125 seat unit is now mounted to the subframe, the seat unit is basically a thin fibreglass skin to aid streamlining, it's a race only piece, nowhere as thick as a road bike and certainly not strong enough to sit on without the subframe, with the subframe being a seperate item the glass fibre skin can now be replaced easily without any major drama in the event of a spill.