well, i said it might get a little messy saturday and it certainly did, went to football to watch the mighty rams play promotion candidates west brom at pride park, jack and me went in walkabout and watched the portsmouth v burnley match on the big screen, 'you having a pint dad', 'no mate, it's going to be a long day, orange j2o for me thank's', down the match and we go one-nil up, derby seem to play better against classier opposition, they equalise through a blatant hand-ball, cue lot's of juicy tackles, robbie savage running around like a fucking headless chicken, cannot fault the man's commitment, lee hendrie nearly gets arrested while warming up for winding up the baggies fans, then, they score on 89 minutes, pride park empties, i'm rooted to the spot, karma must rule here, the baggies fan's are giving it us big time when hendrie crosses the ball from the right deep into injury time and up pop's dj campbell, on loan from east midland rivals leicester city to nod the ball home, we go ape-shit, the baggies are stunned into silence and justice is served, pick jess up from work and her and jack get the bus home, i'm in the 'leaper having my first pint when barse and chrissy w turn up, three pints in and my daughters friend's dad who i've invited along turn's up, two more and it's round the corner to the venue, the old bell on saddlergate, couple of beers and support act, the sharks, come on, young lads from leamington turn a good tight set, next up are trashtalk from california, the singer is on a mission to damage himself, somersaulting off the low stage into the crowd and hanging off the pillars in the venue, mental, the gallows come on and the place erupts, hard and fast, absolutely blistering, frank comes out with the classic 'ain't never been to derby before but judging by the cobbled streets, high heel's and short skirts i've seen, there's going to be some bloody noses tonight!', no encore, stand and have a couple more fosters while we watch the roadies pack the gear away, i'm sweating and got tinitus and make my way to the door for some fresh air, i'm stood there reflecting on what i've just seen when five blokes turn up, 'can we come in mate', says one, they think i'm the doorman!, 'yes lads, it's two quid each' i say joking, [no one pays to drink in the bell], 'thanks mate' says matey and hand hands me a tenner!, back into the bar and time to block a couple before we skin out, chris is totally wankered and has lost the power of speech as we get in the taxi, i have to help him out and get him to the front door, luckily the door is open and i bundle him in to be confronted by his daughter emily and my daughter jess who is sleeping over, 'dad, are you ok?' say's emily, chris just stands there unable to speak, 'it's ok hon, he's had a dodgy packet of crisps', i say just as his missus is getting out of bed to see what the fuss is, i bale out sharpish, no way am i copping the fucking blame for that!

make no excuses for another photo of mark hanna's stunning suzuki super single 45o racer, raced by mike 'spike' edwards, thanks for the calendars mike and all the best for the new season.

new sporty on the harris stand at the nec, it's a road bike by the way, ohlins front and rear shocks, brembo brakes and lots of trick stuff, still a big old bike though compared to the old sporty's, more like an aprilia tuono in size, the guy in the background in the red sweatshirt was really helpful regarding our query on the racer project's disc that we are having trouble with, i want to run a 320mm full floater but we are having trouble matching the pcd on the carrier, hey, no-one said life was going to be easy.

bsa m33, thought it was a racer but must be daytime mot, it's got a tax disc on it!

mike 'spike' edwards suzuki 450 single cylinder racer, absolutely brilliant.

me and dangerous have been to the bike show at the nec today, strange day out, met some really interesting people and some total wankers, some really nice bikes but you had to search them out, this is one of them, rudge, four-valve single.

you know how it go's, you get to thursday, it's almost the weekend, friday is breakfast cob day, [the full bangaladesh, sausage, bacon, egg, beans, black pudding and brown sauce for you meat eaters, mushroom, beans and double egg for us veggies], we are down to the last hob-nob biscuit, so, it's a free for all.

went down to the stockholders to get a slab of dural for the top yoke for the racer, 10"x 5" x 35mm, [ok, i know, i'm mixing metric and imperial], "£74 plus vat mate", "you're having a laugh mate, i'll leave it ta", down the scrappy's and i get a 3 x 2 foot slab for 20 quid, drop it on the miller and it's good quality dural, result, me and dangerous are off to the nec tomorrow at birmingham, good day out, lot's of piss taking and sitting on the ducati's, love it when the salesmen squirm, going to nick loads of calenders off the carole nash stand and say 'have you seen me? to the girls who give them out, big weekend, home to west brom saturday and then off to see gallows at the bell after with the lads, got a feeling saturday might be a late one.

'and the award for the most blurry photo of the year goes to............. mr loveless!' you get the idea, lightened smoothed bottom yoke, needs a bit of filing and wet and dry to finish.

bottom yoke get's some therapy, the pig-ugly headlight mounting is gone and here the casting window is being milled because it lightens the yoke and it looks trick which must be worth a few bhp?

back in the shed and things are moving forward, been caning the mz racing site, cannot thank the lad's on the forum enough, really helpful, the whole dynamic of the build has changed from having a laugh to the realisation that we need to get this thing sorted properly, old habits die hard and i can't race a nail so finish work and into the shed to nitromors the shit brush painted fork bottoms, the casting seams in the foreground are history, dropped them on the miller and a couple of hour's with a bit of wet and dry and they look a bit more business like, just got to remember to rinse my toothbrush out before the morning............................................