midnights s+s shovelhead chop, it's developed over the last few years into this, simple, understated, hardcore bike, no lairy paint just subtle little touches, there's a couple of loveless parts on it too.........

jeff decker's bronze sculpture of joe petrali, one of the all time great motorcycle racers, i really didn't know much about the racers from the twenties and thirties until i picked up a book in america and started to read up on some of these truly hard men, it put's my little project into perspective, i'm bitching and moaning because i bought a chain too short or i've had to work on the bike late and missed my tea, big fucking deal, these men were getting ripped to shreds on the wooden boardtracks riding big capacity harley's and indians bolted in a pushbike frame and wearing a jumper and leather flying helmet for protection.

the loveless sidecar racer project has hit a bit of a problem, i told dangerous that we had to much fuel in the tank and that it might effect the handling. all that petrol so high up was a recipe for disaster........

thumb choke fitted to left-hand bar, takes a bit of working out where to position it so you don't foul the clutch-lever, just got to figure out how to operate clutch and thumb -choke at same time, while i'm trying to sort this out dangerous has whipped the front number-plate off and is drilling lightening holes in the mounting bracket, i had to bolt it on to stop it floating away.

rad 02 ducati, sorry no photo's of the project ths week, i'm in the shed every night doing lots of the essential but mundane jobs that need doing, setting up the throttle cables, changing jets and needles and generally fettling the carb, fitting the thumb choke and setting that up, two strokes run extra lean at the end of a long straight when you shut off so a quick dab on the thumb choke richens up the mixture and helps to stop seizures, gp racing? world superbike, boring, thumb chokes- it's the way forward.

bottom photo is the home page of east shropshire national chopper club 'shires' show, can't believe it's ten year's old already, had some really good weekends there and the ncc lad's are always up for the crack and friendly, got a lot of time for the chopper club, they work hard to promote custom bikes and their show's are always friendly, laid back events, chuffed then that they chose my sporty chop 'salt racer' to head their homepage for the event held last weekend, thank you, the top photo is a 'work in progress' shot that barse took in december 2006, as you can see the original matt black spray can paint job got ditched for a bare steel 'salt racer' look, one night after a bottle of red wine i took a tin of nitromors to it and finished it off with a scotchbrite pad, i rattle-canned the black racing stripes on and people just seemed to like it, it didn't matter if it got wet or scratched i just cleaned it up with a scotchbrite pad, i liked the 'organic' look of the bike, the way the stripes chipped and faded and how you got a thin coat of surface rust on it overnight on a rally, open the zipper on the tent , quick brew, bungee a kitbag on the tank and off you go, no worries about scratching the paint.

ncr ducati 16rr, 145kg's, 200bhp, carbon frame, wheels, bodywork etc, titanium goodies everywhere from the exhaust to every last nut and bolt, we have just had one sent over from italy to the loveless shed so we can take it apart and find out how we can make it better for them.

boxer racer, very smart.

click, wiiiirrrrrrrr, that's the sound of the loveless brain booting up, found these two lovely sr's today, got to pick mine up from my mate's shed. i really need another project at the moment...