british historic racing, b.e.a.r.s series.

beautiful  photo's of the recent british historic racing club meeting at mallory park, how cold was it? colder than a very cold thing, these shot's are from the b.e.a.r.s series, that's what i'm going to be racing in, well, when i say racing, i'll be the one at the back getting lapped by everyone, the one who you hear all the spectator's laughing at and saying 'why does he bother?', photo's from lee hollick photography aka spectatorsview via the bhr website.

the loveless vinyl vault, [aka skeletons in the cupboard]

this was a floor-filler in our neck of the wood's, from the opening wig-out early synth intro, that beating rhythm, saxie's honking sax, bass work out, hammond organ, it's got it all going on, tune..........

boxer racer project

did some work today.

bill lomas

saturday morning and me and dangerous are off down to central wheel's in birmingham to drop off the machined rear hub, i want an akront/morad flanged rim and stainless spokes lacing up to our hub to match the front, quick chat with a couple of lads at the shop, they haven't got my rim in stock, typical, a two week turn-around turn's into a, well, who know's how long job, oh well, it doesn't hold us up, we can run the standard rear configuration for now, we call in at the mcdonalds at basset't pole on the return journey for a caffeine fix and decide to visit sweary mick at hilton on the way back, mick is a real character, ex racer, owner of one of the best collection of classic bikes i've ever seen, vincent black shadow, triumph t150 trident, vellocette variant, triumph bonneviile 'jubilee' special, junkyard-dog 700 royal enfield racer and an aermacchi ala d'oro in a seeley frame, rarer than a very rare thing indeed, we got talking about racing and he mentioned bill lomas, bill was a world champion grand prix rider, he was from milford, the nearest village to me and a proper derbyshire youth, sweary mick dissapeared into his study, a treasure trove of all thing's to do with motorcycles, book's, baseball cap's, model's, magazines, poster's and pictures and handed me a copy of the book, 'bill lomas, world champion road racer' signed by the man himself, i've not put it down since.......

# 51

andy smith on the loveless built #51 mz racer running mid-pack at pembrey this weekend, sounds like he's having some fun, clipped by dean stimpson, the ex mz series champion, making a return to the mz's after a couple of years in the triumph 675 bsb support race series, off onto the grass but managed to stay shiny side up,  only his third race meeting and making great progress, keep it up andy.........

the loveless vinyl vault, [aka skeletons in the cupboard]

instrumental's have alway's played an important part in the northern soul scene, you tend to think as soul music as being a 'vocal' thing and indeed some of the soul sounds can reduce me to tear's with the absolute passion, heartbreak and well, just pure soul that jump's from the grooves of the records that i hold dear, the next three post's are just an example of northern instrumental's to show the diversity of the 'scene', the first is by frankie 'loveman' crocker and was a massive tune in the mid to late 70's frankie was a famous radio dj, his station wbls out of harlem was one of the most popular radio stations at the time and this was his 'outro' theme, i love this tune, when the girl singer shout's 'do it frankie, do it!' i just died and went to heaven, [or wherever.............]

the loveless vinyl vault, [aka skeletons in the cupboard]

in the strange world of northern soul music few people would have given travis wammack a second look, a 'big-boned' bearded white bloke, from walnut, mississippi, he cut this tune in 1963 and was the first guitarist to use 'fuzz-tone on his electric guitar, a real oddity, more garage/psyche/surf, but embraced by the northern soul scene, don't take anything away from travis though, he's played with some of the biggest soul legend's, how's about aretha franklin, wilson pickett and little richard for starters?...........

the loveless vinyl vault, [aka skeletons in the cupboard]

raw soul was the name of the houseband of the brockington and guess recording studio of norfolk, virginia, [lenis guess is also collectable as a solo artist in the northern soul world], this tune went massive in the late 70's and is an uncompromising slab of funk, popular with the 'traditional' soul boy's as it was with the up- and-coming blackpool mecca 'upstart's'.........

boxer racer project

sardines, in a tin, price of unleaded, roland alphonso, igor stimac, the silversun pick-up's, paint fumes?, they don't effect me horatio nelson, i can breath them in and they don't effect me, hello yoda, what are you doing here in my shed? kill all hippies, support normality, spray that paint, whhoah, i feel strange, must have been that bottle of mineral water, phhhhhhsh, sssspffff, upside down to clear the nozzle, shake, shake, shake, take and bake, sighting coat applied, mr toad......waiting for the paint to dry, i drilled and tapped the engine mounting stud's out to six -mill to mount an engine-oil catch tray under the racer to conform with the latest reg's, but, you know what? the pre 80's classes don't have to run oil containment, excuse me?, aren't they more likely to spill fluid's than '80's machines? go figure.......................................

friday night is funk night

opening up the trunk-of-funk is the legendary 'mr super fly' himself, 'pusherman' sampled by load's of folk from eminem to ice-t and everyone in-between, i love curtis mayfield, his voice is soul personified, he was a great producer, arranger and musician of the highest order, i love 'move on up' but there's just so much to the man than that one tune, dig deep brother's and sister's, dig deep.............

classic bike show, stafford

i admit it, the weather was so bad we took refuge in the show halls as soon as possible, as i said in a previous post most of the trader's were packing up, or, had already skinned out and no-one can blame them, the hall's were full of brilliant, brilliant machines, you really can't take it all in, [well i can't anyway], there really is just so much to look at, so many gem's from motorcycling history, as you may have noticed i've posted a few pictures of the triumph and b.s.a triple's, the top photo is a great example of an immaculate race bike, prepared by richi foss the scottish bike builder, [don't hold that against him though, ok, that's a jest, mr's b has the blue and white blood running through her vein's], the vintage new hudson 'tanker' hit the spot, as did the lovely ariel arrow, fond memories of these, one of the first 'proper' bikes i ever rode, thrashing the shit out of it on the field's where i was brought up, all summer that poor little bike had to suffer the abuse of a load of kid's, some barely able to reach the gearchange lever, revved beyond belief, crunching through the gears, clutch on fire, tyres almost jumping off the rim's, crashing it and suffering a horrible fate when it eventually seized solid,  thrown ten feet into the storm culvert at the back of elvaston castle, the four carb's are attached to the brilliant 'skinner special', single seater racing car on the amal stand and finally, the dmw two-stroke, the what? the dmw, produced in the heart of england, 'the black country', so called for by the amount of heavy industry in the area, the air often thick with the black smoke of the foundries, the dmw was a 499cc two sroke twin, basically a pair of 250cc villiers 'starmaker' heads and barrel's coupled by a common crankshaft and punting out a healthy 60bhp should have been more than competitive as a racer, unfortunately the project was shelved after some little teething problem's, the crowd's eventually thin out around 1530 hr's, i pick up my amal mk 2 smoothbore's up from surrey cycles, complete with long bell-mouth's, they look the business, even if they are the derided 'spanish' casting's, the pair i have are both left handed models, a real ball-ache on a british parallel twin where you can't get to the tick-over adjuster due to the frame spine, no problem on a bmw twin though where the cylinders stand out horizontally into the ether, i picked up a good selection of milling tool's, some stainless and aluminium stock and a mint copy, first edition, of the joey dunlop 'just joey' hardback book by jimmy walker for a paltry three english pound's, result.........