mad john the painter brought my stuff back today, he decided that the seat unit wasn't up to his standard and put it back into his motor to respray, me and dangerous looked and looked and tried to find something wrong with it but couldn't, we set up the trusty workmate to machine polish the cut-down front aprilia mudguard, i'm holding it and mad john's polishing away, cutting compound, water, polish, water, cutting compound, polish, he's at it for twenty minutes, i'm covered in compound, mad john decides he's going to have a roll-up, i put the kettle on for a brew, i hear the polishing mop start up, then the sound of the mop picking up the towel that the 'guard is sitting on, the guard spins up the garden, contacting on the path in two places, the dog's, who are sunbathing in the milky sunshine scatter as the 'guard lands between them, mad john turns off the mop and winds up the lead, i hand him his tea and we don't say a word as he throw's the guard in the car boot, the tank though?, well, the tank is a different story, i drill out the holes for the screws, mad john has put so much lacquer on the tank that the screws won't fit, i tape up the 7mm spanner to hold the screws in place and fit the gasket and filler, i stand back and.......

i love this bike, everytime i open the shed door and see it i get a buzz, started life as £300, dog rough, commuter bike, me and dangerous cut it to bit's, made stuff for it, argued to the point of fisticuff's and i ended up racing it for real, i'm not very good but i love the underdog, when i talk to people about bike's they just dismiss it and ask why i don't get something faster, better handling and more reliable, they just don't get it do they?

rear brake pivot, made from stainless, from the left, this is to space the footpeg away from the bottom high-level supertrapp that runs from the rear cylinder, the middle section acts as a bush to stop the pivot 'picking up' on the aluminium mounting plate, [dis-similar metal, you have two metals of the same physical make up and they will pick up on each contact surface], the right hand, [tapped thread] section sits in the aluminium mounting plate  and is locked off with the original castellated nut to duplicate the original mounting, small piece of work, loads of time, essential if you want your rear brake to work, always a bonus that, even though i only use my rear brake if i'm on wet grass......

had a few shed break-in's locally over the last few weeks, we got done a few years back before i had the dog's, they broke into the house while we were in bed, jemmied the front lounge window open, they were in the kitchen when i woke up, down the stairs in my boxers, i chased them up the street, large kitchen knife in hand, they had  a head start on me and ran into the field at the end of the road, i was barefoot and my feet were bleeding from running on the tarmac, i swear if i had caught them i would have cheerfully cut their throats, mr's b phoned the ob and told them i was after them with a large stabbing implement, they were on the scene within seconds, funny how they can get there so quickly to protect the scum who rob peoples houses, to be fair, they released the police dogs on the bastards and the german ripped the shit out of matey's arse when he caught him, they had pinched mrs b's purse, [with the grand total of fourteen quid in it and our four pay-as-you-go phones, mr's b contacted our telephone company and they provided us with a list of the phone numbers that the cheeky twat who got away had used our phones to ring, let's just say, i had a lot a fun with that one, pizza?, concrete delivery?, funeral service?, phone calls at stupid-a-clock? double glazing?, that's why i put the sign on my back gate, you try and get in my shed, you get hurt, simples.

onwards and upwards then, edges of the mounting plate milled clean, dangerous rads the edges by hand with a file, [i like to keep his feet on the ground and make him go back to basics every now and again], i turn up four bushes from stock and drill them after centring them on the lathe, the bushes are to space the mounting plate off the crankcases, mount the right footpeg, the master cylinder, rear brake lever and brake fluid reservoir, it's also got to give clearance for the chain run in one direction and clearance for the high level supertrapp exhaust system in the other, so, a bit of juggling to do, we offer the plate up and it fits ok, chain clearance looks ok, try the down pipe on the rear cylinder and ..... it fouls the plate, bollocks...