i started this blog as a way of remembering things, holidays with my family, football matches, bike racing and shows, stuff i like and that gives me a buzz, images, music and inspiration, rides with mates, walks with my dogs, it was never intended to be a 'fashion' thing, i'm not selling anything, no tee shirts,no coffee table books,no stickers [i gave some away once], no dvd's or any kind of services, i took the name 'loveless' from the katherine bigelow movie of the same name, the 'engineering' bit was because that's what i'm interested in, when i realised people were interested in what i wrote that was great, like minded people who i had things in common with, i have never actively sort out 'follower's', 'terrible fucking name in my opinion, reminds me of the 'life of brian', 'he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy' etc] i have never censored or deleted ANY comments on this blog, positive or negative, funny, sad or blashphemous and i don't operate a 'subject to approval' posting option, it's everyones blog this, if you like what you see post, if you don't, still post, that's what's great about the internet and what it really was invented for, [yes, i know all about the military communication stuff], a frank and open arena, if you post up a blog you are open to criticism, that's being a human being, everyone has an opinion and is free to express it in my book, so, here we go, ever since trent reker from the bikermetric blog gave me a straightener about posting a couple of photo's of a jawa bobber up on the loveless blog it bugged me, i posted an apology about plagarising 'his' work, then i did a little research, there not 'his' photo's and he didn't build the bike, he posted them up on his blog, put a 'bm' i.d. over the images then wants a credit for it?, excuse me? am i missing something here, a little more research and mr reker wants 'world domination', [ooh err missus, someone wanted that in 1939 and got his arse royally reamed], won't allow anonymous comments, 'by order of the management' and 99,9% of his posts are of other peoples bikes, nothing he builds himself and he want's 'credit' for it? he get's paid for adverts on his blog and his tagline is 'sticking it to the corporate man?' i'm sorry but a little more research reveals he threatens to give someone a slap for posting negative comments, fuck me! it's a blog, it's supposed to be a bit of fun, like i said, an exchange of views, whether you like it or not, please, subscribe to mr rekers blog, he need's the 'follower's' and trent? lose the bandana mate, you look like a member of a dodgy nickleback tribute band............[i'm on vacation in the states again around october, possibly texas, if you want to meet up for a beer, you know how to contact me]

the ritmo sereno race-bike, i am obsessed with this bike, i'm a late comer to this machine, having been sent a link to it from stubbzy, [who is a fellow competitor and boxer racer in the b.e.a.r's series this year] i'm going to post more photo's of this machine in the future but i really can't take all the details in and have to look at one photo at a time instead of overloading and 'scanning', the engineering is absolutely the canines testicles, i'm a fucking amateur me, i wish my bike looked like this one............

never really happy with the footpegs, the more i looked at them the more i disliked them, something more 'traditional' needed m'thinks, got the stock set up and knurling tool on the vice and cut grooves into them every fifteen millimetres, got some engineering nylon stock from the newark 'jumble to turn up a couple of 'slider's' to hammer into the end's, [we got pulled up by an over enthusiastic jobsworth scrute at the last snetterton race meeting on the mz for not having them fitted so best be on the safe side, dangerous ended up shelling out twenty quid for a pair off the spares van so i could race, he's still bitching about that eighteen months down the line], i made a service plate up to mount the roughed out gear change pedal, makes it easier to mill up, got to get three six mm stainless female rosejoints and some six mm stainless roundstock from the local stockholders to make up the linkages for the gearchange and brake pedals, expensive, but worth it for the positive action you get on the levers and certainly cheaper than a blown engine through a sloppy gearchange....................

the rear brake saga continues, phosphorous bronze bush made previously is an interference fit into rearset mounting plate, the pivot spindle is just an off-cut of round steel stock, the 'top-hat' retaining bush clearanced and the brake lever itself drilled and tapped to accept six 3mm socket heads, this is to do two things, it locks the lever to the spindle to allow movement in the bronze bush and retains the lever itself and as an added bonus i can adjust the height of the lever itself to suit my riding position, 12mm ball mill down the length of the lever loses weight, keep's it strong and look's good.......

 sunday, i'm mostly making up brake lines, my fingers are bleeding where the braded hose is cutting me, i ordered a load of copper washers, ferrules and olives from earl's midweek, i had everything bar two banjo bolt's for the caliper's in stock, left-over's from previous project's, dropped on the rear brake, machined a new lever up and a phosphorus bronze bush, no fancy finishing this time, let's get it working properly first......

barse's shovelhead, it's the original transformer, top photo is from 2007, me and barse at the 'shires' show, 16 inch wheel's forward and aft, twenty inch apes, hardtail rigid frame, 'lace curtain' rattlecan spray job, bottom photo, today, back in the original frame, sporty front end, 21 inch front wheel, 'nasty' bar's, canked forward, uk sub's and punk sticker paint job, scrumptious and sizzling............

saturday see's the ram's playing host's to premiership opposition stoke city at pride park, stoke are currently eighth in the prem. while we are enjoying mid-table obscurity in eleventh in a league below them in the championship, a good chance then to see how we fair against a big, strong premiership team, in all honesty, we were well out of our depth and only had three shot's on goal all of the match, stoke are a big physical side and muscled derby out of the game, we certainly could have done without the histrionic's of the premiership player's going to ground at the slightest of touches and getting free kick's, appealing to the referee for our player's to be booked and the aforementioned mr clattenburg awarding the blatant offside goal by jerome, what really galled me was his little chat's, smiles, wink's and even pat's on the bottom with the stoke player's, we faced an uphill battle as it was without capitulation from the match officials, especially the two good penalty shout's for a 'last man' foul, [not even a booking, nevermind a sending off] and a more blatant handball in the area than i have ever seen, good game though and it show's just how far we have to go to stand a chance in the prem, stoke bought a really good following, over five thousand, bit dissapointed with the attendance overall though, especially as it was a cup match against a premiership side, 22,000, [still more than stoke get at home though], we had to sit in the west stand lower teir as our upper section was closed, presumably because of poor ticket sales, what was interesting was the amount of old school hooligan element in attendance, i clocked many 'old faces' from the old baseball ground 'c' stand crew, we were two row's down from the hospitality suites and i must admit, i did laugh when some suited and booted stoke city businessmen who were getting a bit loud through 'dutch-courage' got a straightner from one of the derby boy's, he stood up straight in front of them and gave it 'em double-barrelled stylee, 'fucking shut it you chip eating cunt's' they chose to watch the second half from behind the safety of the sliding glass door's in their box, fair play to stoke though, i hope they go on to do well in the cup and i thought their song was brilliant concerning their european tour in the europa league, 'we're going to valencia, you're going to peterborough...........' football humour at it's very best..............

 like i said before, mid to late 'seventy's saw young loveless caught between the sweet soul music and the punk and new wave camp's, one thing that was the same was searching out elitist vinyl releases, either northern soul rareities, white label dub platter's or home brewed, limited edition punk, i was an avid collector of the stiff record label's releases, this one from 1978 is from the lovely jane aire and the belvederes, [the backing band who featured amongst other's jon moss who later went on to become boy george's crush and member of culture club] there was a whole vibe at the time about the american city of akron, the rubber capital of the world, and stiff famously released a 'scratch and sniff' compilation album at the time featuring artists from ohio and smelling, not suprisingly of tyres, don't know about that but, i do know, it's a great record, i haven't played this for twenty year's but, it's.........fucking great!

 i had to check out the clip to see if it really was as funny as i remembered it, it is, scatological slapstick, comedy classic, just plain brilliant......

i used to love 'blue peter' when i was a kid, the presenters back then were valerie singleton, peter purvis and of course, my favourite, john noakes, i will never, ever forget the programme where they had a baby elephant lulu in the studio and it proceeded to run amok, shitting all over the floor whilst noaksy and the elephant keeper tried to restrain it, eventually slipping in the elephas maximus poo-pile and it dragging him through it, fucking hilarious! tonight, i feel like poor old john noakes, i'm in the shed almost everyday, putting up with dangerous and his mad-man ranting's, striving to build the racer for the new season, just like 'blue peter' really, cardboard cut-outs, sticky back plastic and sellotape, old washing-up squeezy bottles and pieces of string, the item at the top of the picture is the carefully milled brake lever, the item at the bottom of the photo is what it looked like, roughed out and ready for machining, the finished item at the top is scrap, i miscalculated the mounting hole and it's too long and fouls the socket head screws holding the footpeg mounting to the frame, that throw's the 'pull' ratio out and the brake will be ineffective, so, the elephant dumped on me tonight big-time, like valerie used to say, 'get an adult to help you......'