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.......'

wheels. my wheels have finally arrived, been a long time coming, even last night it was drama, the spokes in the rear wheel had to be taken back out and 2.5mm more thread hand tapped onto them to give enough adjustment to true it up, [there's 40 spokes in a sporty rim], as the wheel was being laced the powdercoating on the hubs was pinging off, rush back to the powdercoaters for blasting and recoating, the hubs were still warm when we got them back, the powdercoating was so thick i spent the rest of the afternoon hand sanding 10 thou off to get the disc to fit on the hub, the caliper needs spacing with a disc shim because the spokes are hitting the front brake caliper, only problem is i haven't got a disc shim, kev has but that's a fifty mile round trip, why do i bother?, i should just buy a japper, keep it standard and ride it, put a carbon fibre tax disc on it, a race can and some rim tape, no, fuck that.....

friday's, love them, i've got load's of annual leave to take but we've been so busy i've not taken my holiday's, silly really, don't know if my job's safe but i still feel guilty about having a day off, what's that all about?, work my bollock's off for a firm for nearly 25 years and the directors sell us down the river, their sunning themselves in their holiday homes with a big pay off, [3 million pounds for 'professional fee's'?], the rest of us are left trying to pick up the pieces and justify our jobs, called in to see 'the world's most handsome man', ben 'fucking' jones, i made a carbon point's cover for his bike, first time i've seen it in the flesh, ben's half way through tattooing phil, phil is one of ben's regulars, legend in derby, original hardman, fighter and badboyyy, he's getting his nose tattooed, big sneeze, greeny all over ben, much laughing follows, facial tattoos are a massive commitment, i've got no 'public' flesh, all my tattoos i can hide, i'm not ashamed of them, just sometimes i don't want to show them off, i can wear a polo shirt and no one knows i have any, phil is different, he really doesn't give a fuck, [i like to think i don't,  but...], the bloke has worked on tarmac gangs all his life, he's in poor health now but in the 50's, 60's and 70's he was a force to be reckoned with, he walks with a stick and he's slowly losing his fingers through poor circulation, the man is so proud, he really is the original punk, the only thing that matters to phil is his family, nothing wrong with that then, i love tattoo shops, there full of characters and they still feel a dangerous place to be, back in the day they smelt of alcohol, cigarettes and fear, soldiers, sailors, fighters and hardmen, lost souls and lovers, rebels, bikers, skins, punks and ravers, i got a taste of the old days today, mint......

pentti salonen, motorcycle racer, photograph looks like it was taken in the paddock, early season judging by the snow on the ground!

things getting a little strained in the loveless shed tonight, sometimes them's the breaks, trying to set up the rear brake/master cylinder/brake lever/fluid reservoir up, we are arguing like fuck, that's what happens when you care i guess?

puch, vs 50d, my first road legal bike, bought for the grand total of £35 off my old man's mate, it was the summer of 1975 and i was 16, i felt the world was out there for me to discover, my mates brian fennelly, [yamaha fs1e, six months later i bought it off him for twenty brick after he had right royally seized it], des reddy, [garelli tiger] and fraz, [nsu quickly], were out every night, up to the priest house pub at castle donington and swimming in the river, up to the john thompson and trying our luck to buy four halves of mild, ['not tonight lad's, have a nice coca-cola..'.], down the chip shop in allenton, yeah, we used to ride around on the fields on mark wildman's, dad's, panther outfit and barry fould's brother's lambretta, [that's why i was so fast back in the day on my puch, three speed, hand change, yeah, whatever!], but, the puch?, i loved it, the half chrome tank, the aluminium on the flywheel /fan cover, the dinky tool boxes under the seat........

sometimes, always

power to weight ratio, that's what it's all about, trimming the weight from your motorcycles components is the most cost efficient way of gaining performance, it's not rocket science, the less weight your given propulsion unit has to propel the faster it will go, i've been pretty brutal in my trimming of the sporty, no headlight, all the unecessary flab like the steering lock, exhaust hanger brackets and original wiring harness junked, the cam cover cut down, the original mag wheels changed for lighter alloy rims and spokes, [when they actually arrive, sore point], i've junked the twin disc, twin brembo caliper's i was running for a single disc/caliper, [more weight, more braking power needed, less weight, less braking power needed],  might need to make a forkbrace to stop the forks twisting when using this set-up, but it's still lighter than a twin disc/caliper set-up like i said , simple, egg/chicken thing, also, less unsprung weight, lighter wheels and one less disc?, i've cut weight everywhere, used carbon instead of alloy, everything on a harley is heavy, check out the original rear master cylinder/ fluid reservoir compared to the cagiva mito breaker item and plastic fluid reservoir, junking the standard drive pulleys and belt has saved a massive amount of weight compared to the chain and sprockets i'm going to run, no ignition barrel, no indicators, race seat, junked original speedo, replaced with lightweight trailtech unit, even dropping down to seven-eight's bars, [with japper clutch/brake lever combo], no switch gear, bar-end mirror instead of two heavy stock items, holes drilled in everything and ball milled everything else, no padding on the seat, race foam only, cut it down, make it lighter.........