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............................................

my mate adam who i work with, has just had second sitting on his tattoo, it's a copy of a japanese woodblock scene from the 47 ronin, he's having four scenes from the book around his [little fat thigh's!], he went straight from work' [still got his hi-vis on], i was next in having some work done on my chest panel, ben, our tattooist wiped his leg down and we had the crack about him enjoying it a little too much, not a good idea when you are just about to get drilled, he hammered the fuck out of my collarbone, i love tattoo's!

mint honda step-through custom, thanks stuka! check out his blogspot, arsehole customs, lot's of cool shit going on here!

i love people who are passionate and driven, that commitment to pushing the limits regardless of pain, expense or regard for personal safety, the people who strive to succeed, it's simple to take the easy option, flip on 'x-factor' or 'i'm a wannabe celebrity, get me outta here' on the tv, or spend long nights in the shed building something like this and pursuing their dream, lady's and gentlemen, i have great pleasure in introducing you to a blown vw, placed the wrong way round in a frame that became known as 'the flying bedstead'

drag-waye, the incredible 1450cc vw supercharged dragster built by clive waye and howard german and ridden by dave lecoq, it ran a stunning 9.815 standing quarter, totally mental!

had to get a mock-up today to ease the disapointment of not getting a lot done, one of the things that really surprised me was the amount of rake on the standard forks, it's actually more than the sportster!, ok for cruising but no good on the track, the standard top yoke is a pig-ugly 'stepped' affair so dropping the forks through the yokes reduces the rake angle and reduces the trail which should increase the steering response, the problem with this though is that the stability may be affected because the reduction in trail happens faster than than the change in the rake, this means i have a lot of work to do setting the bike up, mz racers generally use shorter shocks which again will alter the rake and trail and the front height has to be adjusted to give the same geometry, the angle of the swinging arm will be affected which will also affect the angle of the chain run but we can change this by dropping the motor in the frame using spacers,[ the engine hangs from the frame, theres no under cradle which helps], lots and lots of head-scratching and beard tugging for sure. the clip-on's aren't the ones i'm using, they were fitted on the ducati when i got it so i just cut some rubber packers to get an idea what they would look like, one of the plus points amongst all the negatives i've discovered today is how nice it is not having to worry about mounting reg plates, lights, indicators and all the other road bike shit you have to consider on a road based project, i know it's only a little mz but i'm getting pretty revved about it now.

the lovely top yoke needs some therapy, its heavy, made from old russian t5 tanks i reckon, that headlamp mounting is going to meet the hacksaw and the centres will stand some milling to lighten them up a little, the grinding marks on the steering stem are where i've cut the steering lock off.

well, i got six hours in the shed today and i've got nothing done, it was all measuring and making lists of stuff we need, the wheel spindles are quarter pipe in the rear and 12mm threaded bar in the front, [remember me crowing about the rear wheel spindle fitting like a glove? serves me right, i slid it in and discovered it was about 80mm too short, how can that be?, well mz use a two-piece spindle, the missing 80mm bit is held in by a circlip to pick up the speedo drive on the rear wheel which means i have to go to the stockholders and get some decent stock to make front and rear spindles, deep joy], need some dural to make a top yoke but i'm going down to baker's the scrap yard to have a look, i need a piece 10"x5" x 30mm deep and thats going to cost a fortune from the stockholders so i know what i'm doing in my dinner hour tommorow.