telford [part 4]

as well as all the bike's to lust after, telford hosts a sizeable autojumble and a lot of traders plying their good's, my eye's nearly popped out of my head when i spotted this aermacchi 350 engine sitting on a paste table in a corner of one of the hall's, on first examination everything looked promising, the point's and condenser were tie-wrapped to the motor in a ziploc bag, all the fin's on the barrel and cylinder head were intact, the motor was grimy and showed signs of sitting unloved in a damp shed for many years, but, i've only ever seen one for sale once before and that was offered as a spare with a complete, but dog rough bike, i lifted the motor onto it's side and a rusty water/oily emulsion mix spilled out onto the table, closer inspection revealed the valves heavily corroded into the head, not so good after all, the engine wouldn't turn over, seized piston?, knackered crank?, who know's, but for the 500 quid the vendor was asking, it was just one of those times when it seemed more prudent just to walk on.....

telford [part 3]

earlier in the day it was almost impossible to get near enough to have a good look around walter zeller's 500cc, 1954, rennsport bmw that he rode to second place in the grand prix's in 1956, later on, as the show visitors thinned out i was able to have a good look around this legendary machine, i'd seen a 500cc rennsport before at the solvang motorcycle museum in california but what really struck me again was the diminutive size of the machine and of course, i'd never heard one actually running, when they started it up and let it warm up before giving it some serious rev's the noise was amazing and it actually drew a spontaneous round of applause from the watching crowd, just a lovely, lovely thing indeed......

telford [part two]

telford isn't just about road racer's, in fact, i reckon the race bikes only made up about of a third of the show, classic scrambles bikes, trials bikes, dragracer's and speedway bikes were all represented, i don't really know much about the classic moto-x, scrambles and trials scenes, but, like roadracing, there appears to be a whole cottage industry based on spares and parts for these machines, there were frame manufacturer's, wheel builders, replica graffix designers and a whole load of other small businesses present at the show and all seemed to be doing a brisk trade, the three halls that host the show were bursting at the seams and it all got a little claustrophobic around mid afternoon, we found somewhere to sit, have a sandwich and grab another java and the throng's seemed to ease a little, by 1500hrs it was back to a comfortable level and we split up so that i could get some pictures and poke my nose over some of the two strokes that dangerous hates with a vengeance, i love them, to me the two -strokes were racing bikes, he just stands there moaning and making comments about 'those dirty, smelly bloody things!' every so often the quiet contemplation of mechanical excellence was literally shattered as race machines were started, the rennsport bmw, sammy miller's v8 moto guzzi, the unmistakeable 'crobba, crobba' of a manx norton and the high revving scream of the 'bloody 'stroker's', brilliant, especially as the confines of the hall seemed to amplify the sound, as well as letting you enjoy the heady mix of castrol 'r', hot engines and of course, the sweet, sweet smell of two-stroke oil...

northern soul

sam williams, 'love slipped through my fingers'. soul music.

ballad of dorothy parker

tune.

searching....

i can't believe the dishonesty of people, when a trendy blog post's stuff about motorcycles that they obviously know fuck all about it really get's my goat, yes, you passed your test two year's ago via a direct-access course, you've jumped on the motorcycle bandwagon and decided to court the fashionable people, bought a steve mcqueen wax cotton jacket, [fuck me, i can remember when if you turned up at a pub on a bike they actually asked you to take your jacket off so you didn't make a mess on the seat's and piss off the the regular punter's, as for a leather jacket?, don't even go there...] but, when you post stuff with basic error's, well, you make yourself look like a twat, please, do a little research, everybody know's that the cam in a bmw is actually located in the crankcases, not in the rocker-cover. now, tell me again about what 'pushrod's' do?.....

telford [part one]

i've got a confession to make, for some reason me and dangerouus have never been to telford for the off-road, racing and twin shock show, usually we are snowed in at this time of year and going by the early morning sleet as i walked the dog's thing's weren't looking very promising, dangerous picked me up at 10,00 hrs and as we made our journey west things were looking decidedly ominous, i've never seen weather warning's displayed above the motorway before but today i have, we made the journey in ninety minutes and believe it or not, we couldn't find a maccee d's on route to get a cup of java, i'd done a little research beforehand and got directions to a multi-story carpark fifty metres from the exhibition centre where the show was being held, it saved us loads of hassle trying to park at the venue and a parking ticket, [on the way home a lot of the punters who had decided to park on the dual carriageway grass verges were displaying a sixty quid parking fine envelope on their windscreen's] once in the show we met up with chaky, sweary mick and goldy rob, had a coffee and went about attacking the show, bloody hell, there's some serious race tackle here alright.....

sporty

one of those week's where everyday life just seem's to get in the way of everything that actually matter's, since booking for the mgp i've become aware that i need to get my finger out and get the sporty sorted, i've had to do a lot of soul searching recently, my heart say's fuck it, i want to run a bike on the road as close to the legal limits as i can get away with, no indicator's, no light's, loud pipe, totally anti-fucking-social and as far away as possible from 'normal' life as i can get away with, thinking with my head, i need a bike with light's, [fuck the indicator's, i can flick a hand signal if i can be arsed to show my intention's of changing lanes, i'm faster than the vast majority of road users anyway so why would they notice?], so, headlamp sorted, i'm going back to fork gaiters, i know there not fashionable but i just can't live with the thousand acres of exposed chrome fork leg, i got a pair off the dreaded e-bay and they just look the bollock's, the bike look's a lot tougher and it look's like i've dropped the front end, [which i have actually, by 5mm, to reduce the trail and try and improve the feel from the front end] i can't believe i ever considered selling this bike, it did me good to have a look at the alternatives, you know what? there's a thousand other bikes i would swap this one for, but, when it all comes down to it? naaah, i'll stick with this one thank's.....

sporty

whooah, where's the week gone?, friday night, post-shift, i notice a few 'bleb's' in the paint on the sporty, just around the newton equipe quick filler, i have to have a closer look, my heart sink's, it's the paint lifting from the tank, ten minutes later, fuel cap removed and the full extent of the damage is revealed, fucking bastard ethanol, basically, the tank need's repainting, expense i can well do without at this moment with a race engine for the boxer to fund....

aermacchi

wednesday night, dangerous and stu, bench racing...

aermacchi

cleaned up the fairing mounting bracket and mounted it up with some stainless domeheads, it's packed off the frame mounting plate with a strip of rubber between them to cut down the vibration on the tacho, just need a bracket making up to carry the tacho now, seat mounted up tonight too, totally over the top bracket, i need to get out more really....