brinng, brinnng, briiiiing, bbbriiiinnnnngga, bbbbriiinnnggaaaa, briiiinnnngaaaaahaha, mz's, brilliant...

the daily grind. yep, cut, file, grind, file, wet and dry, laborious, time consuming but well worth the effort i reckon in the long run, the last cut was the steering lock, on the beemer it's hard to cut it out and make a decent job of cleaning up the headstock, [had to drop the frame on the miller to finish it off, it's a bugger to get a file in and clean it up, had a bit of a flashback and checked out the blog from a year ago, 17/11/10, i was doing the same job on the sportster, almost a year to the day, spooky......

bill tuman, wrecking crew, #51

 saw, grinder, file, wet and dry, no easy way, get the sounds on, mug of tea and get on with it, the dogs are snoozing in 'their' chair, lot of work for what most people wouldn't even see, the engine mountings cut down and shaped, check out the first photo, see the original footpeg mounting lug?, check out the second photo, [teddy is], it's gone, like tommy cooper used to say, 'just like that'......

every now and again you stumble across a classic picture, this is one of them, you can't fake this, it just oozes coolness, the bike, knucklehead motor, rigid frame, axed tank, gold metal-flake, chopper-pot's and the sissy bar? check out the cheeky angle for a start, the car in the background, the graffitied 'm' on the pavement and the oil stains, then there's the two dudes, mr plaid shirt, hair a little on the long side but still immaculate, wrist watch and no tattoos, his passenger, similarly attired in skinny leg salty dogs or wranglers and pointy chelsea boots, plain white t and straw feroda, flipping the one gun salute, beautiful.......

i don't get paid for my overtime [we had it 'bought out' allegedly years ago] i get into work and find out one of the drivers has managed to smash his numberplate and mounting off the back of his wagon, i scratch around and find some stock to make a new mounting, i need some numberplate mounting screws and there's none left in stock, my boss is moaning about a lorry being off the road so i jump in the trusty polo and head down to the local halfords, i hate halfords, they are really expensive but i need to get this lorry back on the road, pick up the plastic mounting screws and i spy the halfords' professional range' ratchet spanners, 80 quids worth of loveliness, lifetime guarantee, well, i needed them to fit the numberplate didn't i? my guvnor knew, he fixed me with that stare, i played it cool and gave him the receipt.......

 ozuma kaname.

ok, i admit it, i'm easily distracted, alway's got into trouble at school as a kid for it, same when i got to tech when i was an apprentice, [spent most of the lesson standing outside facing the wall because i was disruptive] should have seen their faces when i got the 'apprentice of the year award', same thing happened today, i was quite happy hacksawing and filing the excess flab from the beemer frame when i glanced across the shed and saw the spoked wheels i scored off barse, the rear is ok, the spokes are a little pitted and the rim needs some therapy to clean up the tyre iron marks, the front was sprayed matt black when barse ran it on his cut-down road bike, shame it's a 19 inch rim [i want to run 18's front and rear, good choice of tyres], i pick up the front wheel and mr hacksaw makes short work of the spokes, nitromors and a quick rub with some scotchbrite and and and and and and and, did i tell you i was easily distracted?

 i was delighted to find bill tuman's name on the daytona beach memorial that commemorates the historic 200 mile motorcycle races that took place on the beach itself  between 1902-1959 when the '200' was moved to the famous concrete banked international speedway, [the scene of bazza's infamous 170mph crash] ammo often told me the history of the indian motorcycle's race team during my regular thursday night machine shop lesson's,  the legendary 'wrecking crew', bill, along with bobby hill and ernie beckman ruled the roost in the late '40's and early '50's often rubbing their rivals from harley davidson noses quite literally in the dirt, one thing i didn't know was that before bill won the prestigious ama grand national #1 plate in 1953, [the last time an indian rider would win it as the factory folded the same year], was that he rode with the #51 plate, respect due bill.......

irezumi, thank's jan.