got to get my finger out and pick up the sr500 from my mate's, he's really fed up with me, don't know which way to go with it, racer or bratstyle bobber?, been doing some research and there's lots of cool bikes out there, found this seeley racer recently, got me thinking......

keith amor's zero emission treble six tt ride, should be good for 130mph, you can't knock that, good for the planet, no carbon footprint, no noise, no noise?, when i ride my bikes i want to hear that engine, i want to hear the induction noise, i want to hear the exhaust bouncing off the stone wall's, i want to frighten little kids and pensioners, i want to make dogs bark and horses bolt, i want to gun it away from the lights and be anti-social, i don't want to go 'fffffzzzzzzzzzzzz', fuck that, fuck the planet, i want to go bbbbbllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, bbbbbbbbblllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbblllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..............

rear brake master cylinder mounted to rearset, footpeg still needs work to lighten it off, don't know whether to knurl them or chop them away with a ball-end miller.

master cylinder for back brake mounted to rearset, toolmakers clamp to position cylinder to reverse of rearset, spot through, drill and tap 6mm, drilled and tapped blind so set screw can't be seen from the front, not as easy as it sounds, had to work out lever to actuating arm ratio, pivot on brake lever had to altered so the swingarm doen't hit it when suspension is under compression.

got rear sprockets off rob at racing lines, this little beauty is a renthal aluminium one, weighs ounces, when we measured the chain run we found out we were 2mm off-centre so had to make new spacer for offside and mill down the nearside one to bring the wheel into line, good news was that reversing the sprocket gave perfect chain alignment with the front sprocket, bad news was that we had to alter the rear caliper mounting bracket because the pads were binding on the disc, hate those chain adjusters, got to sort them out, fucking horrible, looking at the dangerous sport classic ducati i'm thinking along copying those, lot's of work mind but they have to be better than these.

my last two days holiday entitlement for last year, if i don't take them before may 1st i lose them so i book thursday and friday off, thursday is a lovely day, i'm working in the garden with my son jack and the dogs, as fast as i plant my bulbs the little fuckers are digging them up again, phone rings, 'ey up bastard, some wankers cancelled for my first slot friday morning, do you want an hour session?, 'yeah ben, i'll be there at 9.30, make sure the kettle's on', smart, get an hour on my on-going work, 10.30, phone rings, 'sorry mate can't make it today....', 'might as well carry on then mate...'

.....the phone rings and it's ben's 12 'o clock appointment, 'sorry mate, can't make it today..', 'might as well bash on and get a bit of tattooing done then', says ben, out with the sharpie and he's free-handing for twenty minutes before rubbing it out and starting again, 'let's drop two flowers in there and add to the wind bars.......'

......so, we just get plugging away, when you do a long session you just chill, it just sort of flows, your body just gets used to the abuse that you are inflicting on it and the endorphins kick in, it's simillar to when i used to fight, you didn't feel anything until you stopped.

detail of the hoo-bird, [japanese phoenix], we decided not to add the red to it and leave it as a simple black and grey piece.

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.