saturday afternoon see's chalky, sweary mick, dangerous and me making the hazourdous journey into enemy territory, we sneaked across the border into nottinghamshire from god's own county, derbyshire, we were on a raiding mission, total black op's, undercover, trying to blend in with the locals as we made our way through mansfield, chalky going as far as licking the rear offside window so that we didn't raise any suspicion of not being 'local', our destination was a small industrial estate in bilsthorpe, the home of d+m engineering, the classic race preperation workshop run by dave greenham, we were here to pick up a pvl ignition system for the 'macchi, the pvl's are a self generating system so we can scrap the heavy battery and once you fit them that's it, [we ran one on our mz racer and the bike started easily and ran perfectly, even when some toss-pot inadvertently forgot to tighten up the stator plate, ahem], dave was a real gem, he's raced at the highest level and after he retired worked for numerous factory team's as a mechanic, he patiently listened to our questions and pointed us in the right direction, all over a decent brew, when you are building something like the aermacchi there's no such thing as a 'bolt on' everything has to be modified to suit an application, it's all about long hours, sometimes day's, spent trying different option's, dave know's this and offered us loads of help, even dipping into his own personal stash to chip in with backing plates for the stator, all on trust, before today we hadn't even met, 'take it and try it, if it's no good for what you want drop it off next time your over this way' brilliant, oh yeah, next door to daves unit is nrp exhausts, they make bespoke exhaust systems, mostly one-off's, mostly for race bikes, all beautifully made in stainless, aluminium or titanium, i showed nige a couple of photos on my camera of the 'macchi exhaust as it is now and enquired if he could modify it to fit a silencer to get the db's down to the noise limit levels for english racetrack's, 'yeah, cause i can', that's it then, i just need to work out the angle of the dangle, make up a cardboard pattern and send chalky and sweary mick up on monday to get it fabbed up, sorted, my faith in people has been restored today, a wealth of knowledge, given freely and with no agenda other than getting old bikes out on the track, [still glad to make it home back over the border, 'chalky, keep licking that window youth, i reckon we've got away with it and the dozy fucker's ain't sussed us yet'.....
saturday afternoon see's chalky, sweary mick, dangerous and me making the hazourdous journey into enemy territory, we sneaked across the border into nottinghamshire from god's own county, derbyshire, we were on a raiding mission, total black op's, undercover, trying to blend in with the locals as we made our way through mansfield, chalky going as far as licking the rear offside window so that we didn't raise any suspicion of not being 'local', our destination was a small industrial estate in bilsthorpe, the home of d+m engineering, the classic race preperation workshop run by dave greenham, we were here to pick up a pvl ignition system for the 'macchi, the pvl's are a self generating system so we can scrap the heavy battery and once you fit them that's it, [we ran one on our mz racer and the bike started easily and ran perfectly, even when some toss-pot inadvertently forgot to tighten up the stator plate, ahem], dave was a real gem, he's raced at the highest level and after he retired worked for numerous factory team's as a mechanic, he patiently listened to our questions and pointed us in the right direction, all over a decent brew, when you are building something like the aermacchi there's no such thing as a 'bolt on' everything has to be modified to suit an application, it's all about long hours, sometimes day's, spent trying different option's, dave know's this and offered us loads of help, even dipping into his own personal stash to chip in with backing plates for the stator, all on trust, before today we hadn't even met, 'take it and try it, if it's no good for what you want drop it off next time your over this way' brilliant, oh yeah, next door to daves unit is nrp exhausts, they make bespoke exhaust systems, mostly one-off's, mostly for race bikes, all beautifully made in stainless, aluminium or titanium, i showed nige a couple of photos on my camera of the 'macchi exhaust as it is now and enquired if he could modify it to fit a silencer to get the db's down to the noise limit levels for english racetrack's, 'yeah, cause i can', that's it then, i just need to work out the angle of the dangle, make up a cardboard pattern and send chalky and sweary mick up on monday to get it fabbed up, sorted, my faith in people has been restored today, a wealth of knowledge, given freely and with no agenda other than getting old bikes out on the track, [still glad to make it home back over the border, 'chalky, keep licking that window youth, i reckon we've got away with it and the dozy fucker's ain't sussed us yet'.....
WOW, that megaphone exhaust in the first pic is a wonderous thing of beauty. I know what you mean aboot Nottingham, I've done loads of site jobs up there installing kit, never staightforward!
ReplyDeleteJust curious, are those Hondas in the same class you'll be racing the 'Macchi in? Nice looking work on display there.
ReplyDeletehi jan, i bet you couldn't wait to get home to kernow after working in 'snottingham! yeah, the workmanship in these little honda's is amazing, dangerous said talk about taking a pig's ear and turning it into a silk purse!, if you think about it, the humble little honda k4 was a ride-to-work 'grey porridge' bike, to turn them into machines like this is a labour of love for sure, to answer your question larry, these bikes are pure road racer's, set up for one purpose only, to get around the isle of man tt course as fast as possible, they will be raced at this years classic tt, [or the manx grand prix as it was previously known], so no, they aren't in the same class as the 'macchi, but i'll be at the manx this year watching these little beauty's race.
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