reflektor

so, me and dangerous tip up at the local bike night wednesday, dangerous superstylin' on the real bonneville, the original meriden triumph, [i can remember pressing my snotty nose against wilemans window on siddals road in derby as a callow youth and admiring the 'big' british twins], i'm trailing behind on the 'false' triumph, the hinckley, the podgy, awkward sister to the supermodel, we park up and immediately people flock around to look at the dangerous bonny, old blokes, 'i had one just like it youth, back in the day, let me tell you about the time me and my missus went to.....' bearded trendy boys, classic bike buffs even 'hedumakated' sports bike riders, all drooling over the loveliness that is the 'e' type grey, love-removal-machine that is the dangerous trump, i just take off my lid and go and get the cokes in, [proper coca-cola though, full sugar, served ice cold in a glass bottle, non of that syrupy shit behind the optics] as dangerous signs autographs, poses for photo's with the fan's, the grandkid's, young ladies, dignitaries and the local ukip candidate, answers numerous questions about his bike i go off for a wander around, all biking life is here, from turbo charged, lengthened swinging-armed, quick-shifting katana street legal drag racers, through to the local zip mounted scooter massive, the local h.a. turn up as do the r1 riding superbikers, all rubbing shoulders, smiling, no attitudes and getting along famously, it's all good and yet, somehow, it's not, i'm feeling rather uncomfortable with it all, don't get me wrong, i live for motorcycles, it's just that, erm, i don't really feel part of it all, i don't really fit in anywhere, i liked the ride there and i loved the ride back i just didn't like the bit in the middle...............

i'm out in the shed until 2300hrs saturday night trying to programme the speedo, in the end the wine and fatigue take their toll and i sack it and go to bed, i'm awake early doors, brain trying to figure out how to set the bloody thing up, a half-hearted look mid morning sunday and i just put the seat and tank back on, fuck it, too nice to be dicking about in the shed, the bikes taxed, mrs b did it on-line for me, i just don't have a disc to display, so, only thing to do is stick the reg plate on with some double-sided tape, [so much neater than drilling it and using plastic screws]. i cram my jacket pockets with a selection of allen keys and spanners and off to shake the bike down. i head across town to call in and see ben at roadhouse tattoo, it's only fifteen miles, a quick brew and catch up and stop for some fuel, the petrol in the tank is eight months old so some fresh octane is in order. i'm being very cautious as i am with any newly re-built bike, hey, we are all human, people forget stuff, one of the best things i ever learned was always, but always, tighten up fasteners to the correct torque setting whenever you put one in, even if it's only temporary, even so, i have that nagging doubt that there may be a fastener just finger tight, no loctite, just waiting to vibrate out and send me down the road. after the all too brief four-laps-of-the-village last weekend my initial impressions are good, yes, the bloody thing is still heavy, [the ducati feels like a 250 in comparison], even after shedding a load of weight, but, on the road, the handling is really good considering the nineteen inch front wheel, the front end is a little soft despite changing the oil for a heavier grade and swapping the springs for progressives, definetly going to invest in some cartridge emulators in the near future, the rear shocks? well, what a revelation, i really can't recommend the ram/realm shocks highly enough, great feel and damping, not too stiff or harsh, they soak up the pot-holed b roads with ease, the wide, harley sportster bars and rearsets are perfect for me, the bars offering loads of leverage and the rearsets not too high, just far enough back and offering a really natural riding position. the keihin 35mm smoothbores are just too good, the bike starts on a wiff of choke, knock it off as soon as the bike starts and it tick's over immediately, theres no coughing, farting or banging on the over-run, just brilliant performance from the get-go, the exhaust? umm, let's just say it's pretty loud even with the 'baffle' fitted, i'm laughing like the strange bloke who sits next to you on the bus as i wind it on and scatter cow's and sheep in the fields next to the road, juvenile? yep, you know's it, the weather deteriorates and big, heavy raindrops hit me in the face like ball-bearings, [open face helmet today, no visor] i turn onto a minor road and head for home, quick glance in the rearview, bugger, traffic car, bmw, where did he come from? i'm waiting for a tug, illegal black and silver plate, not only that but not legal dimensions, [too small] and i'm not displaying any tax, plus i don't have a clue how fast i'm going as the speedo is inoperative, he follows me for what seems an age, i reach a t junction and signal left, he turns right...........

the right string baby, but the wrong yo-yo

nearly there with the triumph project, just the speedo to sort, i get it out of the box this afto and my heart sinks, bollocks, this may be a tad challenging to a thick derby lad like me, reading the instructions and i soon suss that i need to mount some magnets in the disc bolts, [front or rear, doesn't matter] to enable the sensor to read the speed, a dummy run reveals the rear disc is the neatest option, drill the mounting bolts, epoxy resin the magnets into the heads and drill and mount the sensor into the caliper bracket, ahh, the speedo, mill up a bracket and mount that up to the top yoke, err, wires everywhere, i eventually work out what wire goes where to make the speedo work, result, except there are another nine wires that i need to connect to get a neutral light, oil light, fuel gauge, trip meter, indicator lights, blah, blah, blah, i just don't do electrickery majik, it's doing my head in, i decide to just tuck in the remaining wires into some heat shrink sleeving and tape it up, i offer up the original numberplate, oh dear, fucking massive and totally not in keeping with the bike, good job i've had a totally illegal, black and silver pre-'72 plate made, not sure what to do here, do i keep it legal or go with the more aesthetically pleasing illegal jobby? no contest, thats it then, all being well i'll be riding the 'false' triumph tomorrow, i push the bike into the shed and the magnets are catching the rear caliper mounting bracket, bloody fucking hell, the paddock stand won't fit properly because of the new exhaust, i use a piece of wood under the downtubes of the frame and jack the bike up in the alley between the house and shed, it's wobbling like a fat bird in greggs, i really don't like this, disaster is imminent, all i can see is the bike falling off the stand and getting damaged, bracket off, bolt onto service plate and mill the offending material away, all the time i'm running out to pump up the jack as it's shagged and keeps sinking making the whole plot even more unstable, fucking motorbikes, i'm struggling to get the rear spindle aligned, the spacers in and all of a sudden that fireblade on e-bay looks more and more attractive...........

tourist trophy

michael dunlop, another four tt wins this week including the big one, the senior tt six lapper, a fantastic performance from the man from ballymoney, he's fast becoming a legend in my eyes, who else would tell the mighty honda legend team to stick it up their arse and go their own way with an untried bike and team who had never seen monas isle before? fair play and more power to his elbow, in his own words, 'i'm not here to make friends, i'm here to win races'

boil some water, lot's of it, get clean towels and pass me the stanley knife.........

 after a great day yesterday to-ing and fro-ing between the counties of derbyshire, staffordshire, cheshire and shropshire on the ducati's, taking in some great roads, good tea, nice cake, the cat and fiddle public house, [travelling the most dangerous road in great britain to get there, so dangerous that the authorities have installed average speed cameras along the route to slow the thousands of motorcyclists who travel the route every weekend] it was time to stop dicking around and nail the keihin smoothbores onto the 'false' triumph, after a cursory inspection last weekend i knew that i needed a tee piece to connect the fuel lines up to the new carbs, the original triumph o.e.m items are fed off a single connection, i picked the tee piece up at oulton park last weekend and it was a simple job to splice it in, a little more tricky was routing the fuel lines so they didn't restrict the flow or 'fret' against the throttle mechanism, the standard cables fitted up easily and adjusted up ok to take out the slop. the beautifully machined adaptors proved more challenging, well not the adaptor rather the 'o' rings which kept rolling off the machined lip, in the end i just applied a dab of superglue to hold them in place while i made them in, a squirt of wd40 to ease the airbox back onto the carbs, bolted up, battery back on, rear mastercylinder reservoir re-mounted, tank and seat back on and a quick brew in the warm sunshine, helmet on, primed the carbs and press the button, bloody hell! it fires up straight away. the bark from the pipe is fruity to say the least, a lot different from the stifled standard pipe, jump on, select first and off for a highly illegal, no mot, no tax, no registration plate quick four laps of the village, initial thoughts? so different from the bike i bought, much more responsive, no farting, popping or holding back like the standard machine, it's got a definite kick up the arse rather than the bland, big honda superdream power delivery of the stocker, the brakes are more responsive, loads of feel and bite, the rear suspension is a hundred times better than before but it does show up the shortcomings of the standard, [bar heavier fork oil] front end and a set of cartridge fork emulators and a possible visit to a suspension specialist is deffo on the cards. it's definitely not the bike that i set out to build, don't get me wrong, i love it, the bike i set out to build was going to be a 'nice' bike, a bike to potter around the lanes on, go to the pub on and just be, well, 'nice' what's happened is that we have somehow created a bit of a frankenstein machine, a hot-rod in the truest sense of the word, dangerous jumped on it when i returned and with a total lack of respect for the law and the gentlefolk of the village, wearing the really sensible riding gear of shorts, a t-shirt, no-gloves and my two-sizes-too-big-arai-helmet rattling around on his head proceeded to rip four more, very fast, very loud laps off, grinning like a fucking idiot and 'whoo-hooing' everytime he went past. when i eventually persuaded dangerous back in to the sanctuary of the shed before someone called the cops i adjusted the tick-over and the bike just sat there, no hunting or surging, the carbs are a revelation, they really do work straight from the box and what a revelation, the clutch is slipping under hard acceleration, no drama there, just needs adjusting, a quick check reveals no fluid leaks, all in all a bit of a result then, stoked? you fucking bet..........................

tourist trophy

michael dunlop set out his intentions in todays opening superbike six-lapper, 20.5 seconds in front of second placed guy martin and manxman conor cummings taking a hard earned third place, incredibly bruce anstey became the fastest man around the tt course with an unbelievable 132mph lap, the day though belonged to michael, a fantastic performance to give bmw there first big race win at the tt since georg meier in the 1939 senior race.

these things will keep me loving you dear.

bank holiday monday, shall we head down to londinium for the bikeshed event, enjoy a barista coffee? perhaps a cocktail in the distinguished gentlemans lounge? view the latest 'custom' bikes in the beautiful tobacco dock location? we could always get a haircut from the on-site barber or perhaps even a tattoo? check out the cool, trendy geezers and geezerlets who have invented a new scene called 'motorcycles', swap business cards and mingle with the scene-setters, go-getters and men of letters, sneer at that 'not right selvedge' eat some 'street food' perhaps check out the clothes for sale, buy a belt-buckle or t-shirt for sixty quid?  nah, fuck that, hit the north, off to oulton park for the b.r.m.c race meeting and catch up with the mz racers and the lads racing in the lansdowne classic series, i've said it many times before on this blog, there's just something so perverse about racing a pre-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-ride-to-work commuter bike that i so admire, we caught up with andy smith who bought the loveless racer, [and who retained the original #51 as his race number, bless you andy x], andy sums up the mz racers, he was just swapping over engine number three, having blown his own two recently re-built motors, for a mates spare engine, two-strokes are a bitch thats for certain, likewise the lansdowne racers, why bother struggling to race an obsolete big 500cc single when you could just go and buy a 600cc yam/kwak/suzuki instead? let me tell you why, these people are real, their doing it for the love of it, not for the chance of raising their profile or getting 'linked-in' stick your profile up your arse, i'll take the real people thank you................

money 1 - football 0 [it's a funny old game.....]

i took loads of photo's yesterday, i tried to capture the day, waiting for the buses at derby bus station, the fan's, qpr and derby, drinking beer, singing, swearing, the feeling of belonging to something, the sense of occasion, my phone was ringing the second that zamora scored on 89 minutes, the leicester and forest fan's i know dying to give it me big-time, text's and a full mail-box, i looked through my pictures this morning and decided to post this one of richard keogh instead, it just sums up what me and thirty-eight thousand brilliant derby fan's are feeling today, but, you know what? football's a funny old game, for every low there's a high, i can't wait until next season me........

where is the what if the what is why?

ey up, got the triumph back from nige. here's some blurry pictures of the exhaust that he's made up for us. full stainless/inox, we talked through what i wanted for the bike, he wanted to run the header pipes at the same angle as the frame rails, i didn't, [the reason being i want to change the stock f'ugly oil cooler for a more period 'mocal' type seven-row item, if i hadn't changed the angle i wouldn't have had the room to fit it, [it will all make sense when it's fitted i promise....] anyhoo, take in the faultless workmanship, race style spring fasteners and the 'lobsterback' moto gp type can, totally at odd's with the rest of the bike but just oh so cheeky. i wanted the left-hand pipe sneaking through the gap between the engine and cradle frame, didn't think it was possible in reality but i reckon nige has nailed it, got my abbreviated front mudguard back off the painter too, new shocks mounted and base settings sorted, 13 pre-load settings and multi-adjustable damping to sort, that just leaves the keihin carbs to nail on, set up, re-jet and oh yeah, the simple job of mounting and splicing the new speedo into the wiring loom and i reckon i should be riding by august........