it wasn't all old junk at the classic bike show at stafford, there were some very, very nice bikes there especially on the owners club stands and particularly the classic racer paddock, yamaha's 50 year racing celebration was well represented with an impressive line up of former works machinery, phil read's lovely paton and john cooper's triple stood out, but, for me, the best bike was the incredible 1974 seeley-konig of dave hutchens and allen blasdell, i'm not sure if it was dave or allen who i spoke to but i must thank them for their patience as i bombarded them with questions about the remarkable 500cc flat four two-stroke, the story of it's restoration is inspiring, check out the full story here http://seeleykonig.info/, when i got home from the show i dug out my old copies of 'classic racer' to track down the story of kim newcombe's gp success, essentially he took on the factory riders and works bikes on a home built special using a marine outboard motor with considerable success, his posthumous second place in the 1973 500cc world championship testament to that fact.

went to bed friday night, couple of bottles of red, mr's b cooking up a nice vegetarian feast, flick through a couple of chapters of don lett's biography and night, night everybody, mr's b wakes me up at stupid 'o clock, 'can you hear that?', 'no, go to sleep',' can't you hear that?, sound's like a fox', the boy's start to chunter, low, growling at first, their not happy, i try to ignore them, their having none of it, i go down and let them out, half-past-two and they are in full-on terrier, kill, die, bastard, fuck-you, you are dead when we get hold of you mode, i'm trying to shush them up and i'm strutting around the back yard, stark bollock naked shouting at them to be quiet, [but making more noise than both of them], the rest of the night passes fitfully, my boy's growling, full-on barking, launching themselves at the back-door, i 've had enough by 0600 hours and get up to make a brew, both my dog's have that look in their eye's, i open the back door and they tear off down the garden, i catch a glimpse of the staffordshire bull terrier out of the corner of  my eye, i can't believe it at first, shit, he's a big old boy, i shout mr's b and she get's our boy's in the house, i call the staffy and he come's to me straight away, he's a big old boy, i notice straight away he has no collar, he's skinny, his rib's are sticking through his fur, mr's b bring's him out a couple of pouches of food and some dry dog food that he wolf's down, he's de-hydrated and finishes off a couple of bowls of water, i have a closer look at him, i reckon he's around two years old, he's got a big lump on his nose and loads of scarring on his face, i reckon some scum bag has had him for a fighting dog, he's as soft as shift and responds to kindness, i introduce him to my boy's and they are not feeling the love, ted, [who is probably the softest dog in the world] is curling his lip and giving it large, gus wag's his tail to suck him in and then nail's him big-style, i pull him off and mr's b takes my boy's home, i take the staffy next-door-but-one to my mum and we sit in the garden trying to decide what to do, we phone the police and they don't want to know, we eventually get the number for the out of hours dog warden, they scan him for a microchip and surpise, surprise, the mobile number is wrong and the land-line won't accept incoming call's, mr's b and my ma take him down to the kennel, they insist that he will be well cared for and that he won't be put down, i admit it, it's broken my heart, i feel that he came to me and i've let him down, i've shed a few........

classic bike show, stafford.

gunter bartusch, mz.

wes cooley

 whooo, whooo, call the police, warning! bank holiday approaching......

 sometimes you might as well just forget it, tonight should have been a simple, run of the mill, bolt on the rear sprocket, shorten the chain, bolt on the rear brake hanger plate and bleed the rear brake, first problem, the sprocket won't fit the locating flange on the rear wheel hub, set up the disc in the miller and bore it to size, bollocks, no mounting hardwear, make a note of the sizes for the classic bike show this weekend, [remember we are using metric where possible because it's easy to get from the local fastener supplier, unf and unc are rarer than a virgin in tiff's on a saturday night], right, make the brake line up, dig out the fittings and i'm two olives short, add it to the 'stafford' list, bollocks, the brake line is too short, add that to the 'stafford' list, i grind the rivet out of the chain after offering it up, drive out the pin with a centre pop and offer it up, round the front sprocket, pull tight around the rear sprocket and drop the rivet link in, the new chain looks the dog's doo-dah's, especially against the aluminium rear sprocket i've had made, stand back to admire and notice the chain is running dangerously close to the rear tyre, bollocks, i dig out a spacer from stock, stick it in the lathe and the jaws drop out, bollock's, too wide, return to the tried and tested shed bodge of draw filing by hand until it fit's, as i tidy up the shed i pick up an old copy of 'classic racer' that stu had been reading, i sit in the 'dog' chair and read the story of libero liberati.........

saturday at the loveless shed, we had a big spring clean today, cleaned down the miller and lathe, cleaned the tools and swept up, dragged the racer out and did a couple of job's on it ready for the trackdays i've booked, i can do three track days for the price of one weekends racing, ok, it's not racing but at least i can get out there and ride the bike, my mate of 35 years turned up for a brew and for me to measure up some wheel spacers and brake caliper mounting bushes, me and mucker go way back, two spotty teenage tosspots causing mayhem on our two-strokes, [steve has 'mayhem' tattooed across his stomach], we graduated to big four-strokes, [me a gs 1000 and steve a 900 honda], i can remember him ripping me mercilessly for buying a harley, i got my revenge when he bought one, he's got four now and i'm still ripping him back, went for a blast on his dyna today, when i got back i went out on the racer, totally illegal, no insurance, no mot, no tax, race bike on the road, i loved it, i know which one i prefer.........

 had some work done, japanese fighting cock's, [ok, let's get all the jokes out of the way, finished?, feel better now?], 'toriwase' is a japanese word that is used as a springtime word in 'haiku' or japanese poetry, i love spring, it's my favourite time of year and i wanted a tattoo to celebrate it, ben drew it up and lined them out, lot of work still to do but he's nailed it......