batman

i'm a massive batman fan so i'm revved to be going to see the dark night rises, the opening day of the film, our local cinema was sold out week's ago but i managed to get four ticket's for a showing in the city centre, it's jack's birthday today too [21], so we are going out for a pizza and a couple of port and lemon's to celebrate.........

festival of a 1000 bikes

 last post from mallory park festival of a 1000 bikes, sorry, i know i've banged on about it, but really, if you are interested in race bike history, there's no other choice, do yourself a favour, keep your eye out for next year's date, get your application in and get the trackday in on the saturday or, if you're a racer, book in for sunday, seriously, let's keep the noise and smell of classic bikes real, not polished and molly-coddled in a static, museum but, out on the track where they belong, disturbing the peace and sending the noise metering equipment into apoplexy, proper.............

festival of a 1000 bikes

benelli, 750, sei, pasolini replica at the festival, didn't see it out on the track this year but lapped it a couple of times last year on the mz, absolutely stunning in real life and wider than a very wide thing, why aren't there any green bikes anymore?.....

festival of a 1000 bikes

alway's been a sucker for the big, brutal, a.m.a inspired superbikes, when they burst onto the scene in england with croz and wayne gardener fighting the big fourstrokes around the track's against the two-stroke hoard's it sparked something in a generation of motorcycle racing fan's, here was something we could identify with, these bikes looked like our's, high barred, be-stickered, cut down seat's and the magic ingredient, a rattle can black engine, [a stone cold, guaranteed, extra 25 bhp, well it was on my gs 1000, ahem], all of a sudden, anyone could be just like eddie, the racer's were nothing like that, they were as carefully prepared as any race bike with thousands of dollar's of  investment, special frames, made to look like the standard road going version but thin wall, high strength tubing and added bracing, shock's re-angled and fork's pulled in tight at the headstock for better handling a million miles from the long, lazy handling road bikes, these two bikes are lovely and a credit to their owners and as worthy as any goldie or manx restoration, i had to sneak a photo in of a dirty, smelly, two-stroke to complete the kawasaki theme and is it just me, or are the astralites on the moriwaki bike and the 'stroker ace or what?...........

festival of a 1000 bikes

 tougher than a junkyard dog moto guzzi, sitting on astralite's and no, there's nothing in those megga's, 'you what? i heard that, pardon, half- past three'.................

festival of a 1000 bikes

looking for footage on you-tube of the irving vincent's at the festival of a 1000 bikes and i stumbled upon this gem, posted as 'ajs 7r and vellocette venom at the festival of a 1000 bike's', there was still a recovery van on the circuit, hence the slow start at the beginning of the footage as the travelling marshal's try to keep everyone in check, but check out the view and the sounds from the rider's point-of-view, of the racing heritage out on track, at 0302 the first of the irving vincent's makes an appearance, at 0318, your's truly appear's, [on the left of the camera bike], only racing the fucking norton tt bike, [on the right of the camera bike], and the second irving vinny at 0319, into the shaw's hairpin and matey on the norton goes in too hot and i pass him! [0330], this is 1500 hr's on sunday afternoon, most of the punter's are on the way home and we are out there, riding the bollock's off old bikes, we ought to have a chat with ourselves, check out the legend sammy miller at 0920, stood at the side of his van waiting to make a sharp exit from the paddock..........

festival of a 1000 bikes

 tucked against the armco barrier adjacent to the start and finish straight, we stumbled across this little gem, i thought it was a rob north framed trident on first peek, [hey, i was  thirty yard's away and the old eye's aren't what they used to be, give me a break], as we got closer i realised it was a 500cc twin tucked inside the frame rails, it really is a jewel like little bike, the engine sits high in the frame, only the primary chaincase protudes outside the genuine rob north frame rail's, the bike wasn't running, the bloke who own's it had just run out of time but was riding his other bike at the festival, he told us the story about he got the bike as a project, he was laid up in bed with a migraine and his mate came around to see him, his mate picked up a copy of 'classic racer' magazine and on flicking through it found the bike in the small ad's, he show's it matey's missus and she buy's it him for xmas! that's what's brilliant about the festival, it's not just the bikes, but the stories of the people behind them too..........

noise.

noise. pure noise from the jesus and mary chain, from a mad week back in the late 80's a trip down to llaaandahhn town, midweek to see the legendary big audio dynamite at the town and country club, next night saw me checking out the jesus and mary chain at the de-montford hall in leicster, my hearing has never been normal since, seen some loud band's in my time, motorhead?, whatever, the j.a.m.c gig stand's out as probably the loudest gig ever.....................

c.r.m.c. practice day

a week before the 'festival of a 1000 bikes' and the loveless equipe are at mallory park for some shakedown time with the boxer racer project, as you know, we spat out the crank seal seven lap's into our first session resulting in much burning of the midnight oil to get us to the festival, after i got changed, i had a wander around the paddock and found this outfit, it's an imp engine, full of goodies from the 'states, crammed in an original windle chassis, the driver and passenger are beavering away, spannering on the outfit, i stand and watch for maybe 20 minutes, matey pokes his head out from under the outfit, 'only managed a lap and a half in three season's but we'll get there eventually' his girlfriend/partner/wife offer's me a brew, fuck me, that's what it's all about, i ask why they persevere with it, ' what else you going to do at the weekend, we fuck about with bike's, get pissed and have a paaarrty......'

festival of a 1000 bikes

water-cooled........

festival of a 1000 bikes

 the festival of a 1000 bikes, i reckon it's the two-wheeled equivalent of glastonbury, all life is here that's for sure, from polished and pristine to oily rag, from concours perfection to barely legal, from ground up, nut and bolt resto job to step-through's, great then to see this couple of vespa px's, one the epitome of '80's scooter chic, matt green army paint-job and be-stickered and the de la soul,  '3 feet high and rising' daisy influenced paint job, big up's to the scooter boy's..........