i'm out of here for a couple of week's, off to america for a holiday, worked my arse off for the last year and need a break with the family, not all the family though, my boy's are in the kennel's, i watched 'shawshank redemption' with them last night and they still didn't get the telegraph, early morning, [very early morning shift],get home and we go out for a big walk, i'm telling them i'm sorry for leaving them, they know something's different, they are picking up on the vibe, it feel's like a kiss from judas as i drive them to the kennel's, they think their going for a walk around casington reservoir, i feel like a total bastard.......

so many amazing bikes at stafford, the 'work's' norton's, lovely, remember, they are only 28 and a half grand each, bargain, the engines punt out around eight bee-h-pee more than the summerfield motor's, the racefit bikes stop me in my track's, the 'freddie' bike with the suzuki gsxr motor, well cheeky, the kawasaki?, boom booom, shake, shake the room......

after my early morning walk, leisurely breakfast and a quick shower, dangerous turned up to pick me up for the classic mechanic's bike show at stafford, traditionally the season ending excursion, i've got a shopping list in my pocket, dangerous is bikeless and stu is still pissed from saturday night so we are in the dangerous vw, 45 minutes later and we are in the showground, doesn't feel like six month's ago that we were here for the classic bike show, probably the best show of it's kind in the world, doesn't seem too busy today and asking a couple of the regular vendor's confirm's that it was very, very busy on saturday, bump into nick and get the skinny on his guzzi project, gary from sideburn fill's us in with the detail's about the 'rollerburn' event, november 19th, check out the website for details, www.sideburnmagazine.com, i purchase a slimline manx norton seat unit for the beemer project, i've taken the measurment's off the beemer's subframe and i'm worried that i won't find a seat unit that will fit, my fear's are unfounded as i remember that bmw based their frame design on the famous featherbed frame, i check my measurements and the seat is perfect, result, i give my list of 'want's' for the missing copies of 'classic racer' to the bloke on the 'pigfarmer' magazine stand, i don't do too well this time and turn up three copies that i haven't got, we check out the race paddock, alway's the best part of the show for me, the new , 'work's' norton race bikes are lovely, at twenty eight and a half ground ready to race i really don't think that they are bad value, i will never have that sort of money to spend on a bike, but, i know a couple of mate's who have spent that much bolting stuff to their harley's for the same amount of money, so....., i clock the triumph, bllllllooooooody hell!, the sage green frame, the lovely aluminium tank, shaped around the frame rail's and then, the the aluminium fairing, work of art, folded, stretched and formed, no hammer mark's, perfection................

sunday morning, it's a beautiful autumn day and i'm out with the dog's before it get's light, my body-clock doesn't switch off at the weekend's and i'm awake at 0500hrs, quick brew and off we go, there's not a breath of wind and it's cold, we walk for miles as the sun rises i stop to watch some pigeons flap their way out of the broken tiles on a barn and preen themselves, there's not another person around, i love it.....

bought radioheads tkol rmx  album today, i love radiohead, their pushing the boundary's of music, [must say though, after revisiting the mighty mark e smith and fall albums   , so are they], by chance i discovered a dj set by thom yorke on 'boiler room', free pod-cast, download and enjoy, i bought my radiohead album from hmv which makes me a bit angry and sad, at one time, derby, had loads of record shops, especially independent's, then the internet kicked in, amazon, and i-fucking tunes and there you go, it's just too easy to buy music at the click of a button, whatever happened to the 'music experience' , used to love going home on the bus, looking at the album artwork, devouring every detail, the producer, where it was mixed, the studio, the band line-up etc, but, on the up side, you can get amazing stuff like this for free off the internet, support your local pirate station matey, fuck the mainstream and hmv, punk rock is alive and well........

ozuma kaname, artist, love his work, makes me wish i could start again.........

the forkleg's are covered in what i thought was black paint, but on closer inspection, looks like underseal, i nitomor's the 'leg's, scrape them and hit 'em with a wirebrush, that's better, i can see the machinining marks now so have something to work at, couple of hour;s with a riffla file and wet and dry, [used dry] and the shape is starting to come, back on the miller and take out the date castings, loads of work still to do to finish but their looking better than the standard items already.

'

ladies and gentlemen, the award for the most ugly forkleg in history goes to......bmw for their airhead boxer twins', they really are horrible, it must have been great to have been in a styling meeting listening to the designers, 'we must incorporate a reflector into the side of the fork-leg lower casting, let's make it nasty!' anything you do to them is going to make them look better, prise the plastic reflector out of the casting and things only get worse, let's get it on the miller and remove some material, file and sand to shape, they are never going to be 'nice' but you have to try and get some shape into them, the mudguard mounting's bite the dust, i bought a norton wraparound type fibreglass copy at cadwell at the british historic racing meeting and that is where i'm going to be racing next season, the bhr are running a b.e.a.r.'s series, [british, european and american race series], no japper's, no new manx norton's or g50's and no honda fucking hailwood replicas, all production based racer's with a 25 year history, [the beemer is 30 year's old so fit's in ok], why do i spend so much time fettling old bikes and taking off almost immeasurable weight from them?, i've been on some of the power to weight ratio sites and believe it or not, 7lb in weight is equal to 1 free horsepower, like my old grandad used to say, 'look after the ounces and the pound's will look after themselve's youth.....'

dickie dale, bmw, paddock stand...

 ritmo sereno beemer,' ooh yeah, who do you think you are?, mr big stuff......'

mike krauser, famous for his 4-valve head's for boxer engines, his mkm trick framed specials and more mundanely, his motorcycle luggage system's, mike was also a great racer in his own right, i must admit i lost interest in sidecar racing after the death of the late, great jock taylor, i've always appreciated the technology and engineering involved in the outfits, the ultimate must have been the lcr/worm outfit's of the mid to late '80's, my interest has been sparked again when i've been to spectate at the bhr meetings at mallory and cadwell, especially the kneeler vs big wheeler vs morgan battles, all good stuff, what fascinates me about this photo is the 'tilted. outfit, i've seen the picture many times before but only tonight noticed the passenger 'steering wheel'....