cal.

classic racer, i reckon it's the best motorcycle magazine available, been up to worksop in the week to pick up 62 copies off a bloke who was selling them on e-bay, they are immaculate, all the stickers, posters and supplements included, felt sorry for him, he was 'downsizing', moving to a bungalow and his mr's said he had to get rid of his collection as they wouldn't have room in the new house, got chatting to him and he raced a 500 triumph back in the day, really nice bloke, he had loads of stories to tell but all i wanted to do was get home, it was snowing heavily, i was tired and i felt guilty that i didn't take up his offer of a brew, wasted opportunity, i'm a twat me, could have learnt a lot.

i really thought that i would make the brands hatch meeting in early march, perhaps snetterton at the end of march but realistically we are looking at pembrey, may bank holiday as the first race, i seriously underestimated the amount of funds, brain-power and time needed to build a racer, shake it down and make the necessary adjustments just to get it to run, never mind be competitive, instead of feeling sorry for myself and waiting for the powder-coating to come back so we could get a rolling chassis i decided to crack on with some of the job's which still need doing, junk the oil pump cover, bribe sue at works husband to raid the scrap bin for carbon-fibre off-cuts and make a new cover and.......

chop the ignition cover to make it into something a bit more presentable, the original, [ok it's not the original, it's got holes drilled in it and the cover has already been cut back and chamfered, i'm only human, i sometimes forget to take 'work in progress' shots if i get sucked into the project, sorry], heavy and ugly, [ and that's just the rider], needs some therapy, [and that's just the rider too], lets think about how we can make it lighter and better looking, [note to rider, diet, exercise, get my teeth whitened, sunbed, sharp suit, fuck me, i'm george michael].

cut the back of the ignition cover/gearbox sprocket cover back to the webbing which provides the weather protection to the ignition unit, clean up on the miller and dress with a file and wet and dry to finish, note chamfered cover.

the standard cover needs chamfering to allow greater ground clearance, cut the cover back to 21 degrees and re-weld, clean up with some wet and dry and fly cut the distorted 'mz' casting off the cover.

the hacked cover bolted up over the pvl ignition, going to cut a circle of carbon-fibre out and araldite it onto the cover to hide the cuts, the carbon gearbox sprocket cover needs drilling and a little more shaping to finish, might mill some slots across it too, it weighs a few grammes so no weight saving, just looks flash.

"the triumphs and the harleys were pretty well matched in '67 but 1968 was the year that harley davidson raised their game, triumph rider gary nixon was less than pleased, we were running 135mph and the harleys were running 150, i told them they needed to put a mirror on the fuckers so i could see which side they were going by me"

"what people need to know is that if ever there was a motorcycle racer who was fearless, it was cal rayborn, he always had that great smile, but cal rayborn was a different breed of cat"

cal rayborn, picked up a copy of classic racer magazine on the way home from the match, [got beat one-nil by swansea, bad tempered game, both teams reduced to ten men, swansea played a good game, frustrated the rams into making rash challenges and getting cards, poor officials, ref made a rod for his own back, dishing out cards rather than talking to the players, twat,], me and jack had a pint while waiting for the bus and i started reading the rayborn story, legend.

early start this morning, i was up at the darley moor circuit for my c.t.c [competitor training course], arrived around 0830hours, darley moor is a god-forsaken place even in summer, today it was freezing, about thirty of us huddled in what i can best describe as a barn, two little propane heaters did nothing to warm the vast space, cup of tea and two biscuits and down to business, multi choice question paper at the end, got my c.t.c certificate signed off, got to post it to bemsee for stamping, they send it off to the acu and licence should follow soon.