car park? no, spectator's bikes parked up for the bhr meeting at mallory, that's it, i promise, no more post's about the bhr/mallory meeting, really, you should have been there, it's the coolest of cool places to be, forget trying to live life like you see it in 'dice' [don't get me wrong, i love dice and i've been there since day one, what makes me laugh is the 'scenester's' who have jumped on the bandwagon, twenty four, shaggy beard, searching out original 'selvedge', fuck-off, it;s a pair of old jean's for fuck's sake, forget shovelheads and pan's, old beezer's and bonny's, you wouldn't have a clue how to start them, sit back, observe and wait for the next 'trend' to come along, hey, who know's, what goes around comes around, 'vinyl' might be the new 'bates' sorry but i'm off on one, i really don't know where this anger comes from sometimes, i need to have a chat with myself] instead, get yourself down to a classic bike race meeting, all life is here.........

great set of photo's of the inaugural bears grid from mallory, posted on the british historic racing website by spectatorsview, check out ron maul #66 in the second photo on the boxer twin.

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immaculately prepared scooter racer i spotted in the paddock on sunday, water-cooled, twin radiator's, massive carb, aluminium seat subframe, honda rs125 race seat, [same item i had on the mz racer], the expansion chamber was a work of art, not blown like a lot of scooter exhausts, but made up of individual sections tigged together like a moto gp bike, carbon fibre parts, [check out the rear brake lever and the foot-boards and leg-shields], the water pump bracket, rearset's and exhaust bracket stand out a mile, very nice bike, good work fella.............

more from mallory, the plenum chamber attached to the goldstar exhaust is, the owner informed me, to allow the machine to pass the noise test, apparently the sound waves are reduced, not detectable to the human ear, but it 'fools' the noise testing machine without any loss in performance, the nsu was an interesting machine, many people just walked past it, but as i seem to be drawn to teutonic bikes i had to stop and have a closer look, it doesn't 'shout' like a lot of bikes, just simple looking but well engineered, the engine is used as a stressed member, no downtubes cradling the engine, leading link fork's, lovely aluminium tank with cut-out's for the one piece handlebars and a drilled steering damper, a really class little 250cc bike, the rigid ariel sounded brilliant and was being caned around the track, it went really well but looked a handful when he was trying to brake for the chicane, especially with that tiny little drum up and single leader up the sharp end.........

sitting in the shed tonight trying not to ponder too much the missing engine saga, i idly picked up the rear hub i purchased last week, hmm, it's a heavy old thing for sure, get the scales out, 3.6kg, i'm sure i can lose some important unsprung weight from the casting without compromising the strength, i study the casting, select a 1/4" drill bit and get medieval on it....................

more photo's from sunday's bhr meeting, i took load's of photo's but while watching the bikes and scooter's out on the track i kept spotting stuff that i'd missed in the paddock, the range of different machines is awe inspiring at these meeting's, one thing that a photo doesn't convey though is the sound, the single cylinder manx's, the velo's, the booming vincent's, the scream of the stroker's and the howl of the triple's 'on the pipe' yep, the sound and the smell, the methanol, the castrol r, hot rubber and the sickly sweet synthetic two-stroke, a heady mix for sure.....

sunday see's me and the girl-child jessica heading down to mallory park for the first round of the british historic racing series, it's sunny but very cold as we stump up the fifteen quid entry fee, i've primed jess, eighteen in two month's time, [under fourteen's get in for nowt, she pulls the hood up on her sweatshirt and fane's teenage dis-interest], result, both in and a programme for less than a twenty-spot, jess's eye's open, 'dad, can we race a sidecar, it look's brilliant, i could do that' we watch a couple of races from the shaw's hairpin/bus-stop/devil's elbow area and make our way over the bridge and into the paddock, we watch the inaugral bear's race from the esse's, fifteen rider's going for it, jess look's at me, my daughter's big, baby blue eye's staring in disbelief, 'oh my god dad, their so fast!'............................................................