aermacchi

blimey, two week's 'til christmas, where's the year gone? got my race licence application through the post today for next season, digging through the rest of the mail and the application for the festival of a 1000 bikes 2013 is here too, we are aiming to take three bikes next year, the sweary mick racing equipe aermacchi's and the bmw boxer, i'm looking at riding the boxer and sweary mick's 350 'macchi, dangerous want's to ride the 250 aermacchi mettise, it's complicated, me and dangerous want to ride the aermacchi's in the same three session's on sunday, [race bike day], i've got to put in two application's for a ride, [one for the boxer, one for the 'macchi], dangerous has to join the vmcc, apply for the festival, [i get priority because i'm a vmcc member, i race with the bhr, affiliated with the vmcc and i've ridden at the festival three times before] but, if i put in two applications, i may get allocated two rides in the same session! bollock's, here's some pictures of the mettise seat, when we picked up the bike off sweary mick it had an early yamaha, air-cooled race seat fitted, [yds1?] after looking at the metisse's on the rickman stand, i remember that i have a seat unit in my stash somewhere, rooting through my ma's shed reveal's the said item, bollock's, i can't remember cutting it to mount a rear tail-light and numberplate but there you go, offering it up and it look's ok, but not quite right, i chain drill a series of holes in an arc that i drew around a roll of duct tape, hacksaw it out, hand shape with a file and some wet and dry, over to dangerous who 'glasses in the tail light-numberplate holes, waft with a can of primer to see if there's any sinkage, that's better.......

motorcycle live

i don't know if it's just me or does anyone else feel's lonely in a crowd? that feeling of 'not quite belonging?', had that yesterday at the 'motorcycle live' show at the nec in birmingham, me and dangerous decided not to go week's ago and yet, a last minute descision friday night saw us following the crowd's to the premier bike show of the year, don't know if it's because we usually do it on a week day rather than the weekend and so it's not so busy, or rather, is it me being a miserable cynical old bastard, looking around i wonder what i have in common with the majority of these people, the brutal truth is not a lot really, yes we all love motorcycles, or do we?, have they just become a must have accessory like the latest phone, the trendy pair of jean's or swearing your undying love for this year's premiership champions? [even though you were born and bred in derby, or leed's or heaven forbid that shithole down the a52, at least they support their local team, but only because they are to stupid to jump on the latest bandwagon]back to the plot, the rickman stand, me and dangerous are stalking like a pair of britney spear's fan's, perving over the steve mcqueen grey triumph, the oil-in frame t140, [same 41.3mm fork's and yokes as on the aermacchi] we are the 'motorcycling live' version of beavis and butthead,the bloke on the stand check's out our frame number, it's a 1968 frame, supplied to the legendary lawton and wilson in june / july, originally as a 350, so, what happened inbetween and how come it ended up with a 250 rammed up it? fascinating stuff, other bikes that hit me were the batham's, tony rutter kawasaki, the yamaha rd 250 white and red 'speedblocked' 'stroker, the baron's speedshop triumph, beautiful, then there's the detail's, the gold nitrited, ohlin's forked and brembo mono-block calipers on leon haslam's wsb bmw, the 'bling' street fighter with the honda fireblade cast aluminium sub frame, subtle as a lady trump, the honda legend's endurance racer, brilliant, fly-blown, filthy and kentucky fried greasy, just as it finished the race, nothing compares to a used racebike, nothing, had a good look at the kawasaki concept bike, liking it in theory, but, it didn't quite do it for me, the flat-plank monkee seat and the billet headlamp rim jarred, loved the pipes though, the last port of call was the norton stand, i know stuart easton has had some shit in the past but at least he's trying to take the norton legend forward, 'macker's' tt bike still does it for me, my lasting impression of the show? there were a lot of people, not many were spending any money, [time's are hard] lot's of people walking around with 'carole nash' calenders and other freebies, not many people can afford a new bike, in my opinion that's good, there are so many donor part's and old bikes that just need some fettling without having to spend a fortune on a 'toy' that will spend the majority of it's life standing in a shed....

talcum soul

me and dangerous trapped down to the motorcycle live show at the nec in birmingham today, a last minute, friday night, two peroni's down, i'm bang up for it, getting up at 0630 hrs on my first saturday off in three weeks, it didn't seem such a good idea, show report to follow, tonight, mr's b want's to watch the x-factor, i'm tired and emotional, i'm listening to some marvin gaye, massive attack, bobby womack, gil scott herron and northern soul, i'm looking at these tosser's on the tv, invading my front room of a saturday night, manufactured wank, a full scale argument breaks out, i'm vocal, singing along to some talcum soul, mr's b is pissed, i'm giving it the big one about louis walsh, boyband bollock's, just fuck right off, playing on peoples feeling's, giving them a brief glimpse of success, tell me one act on this crock of shit who you can name? i'm waiting...... there you go, plastic, not real and then? there's people still seeking out rare soul, still dancing to it, the original all night, all soul, all killer, no filler music, i need to get my lazy arse down to a 'nighter instead of just talking about it.....

the bravest man in the universe

bobby womack.

friday night.

two-stroke

somewhere, back in the deep recess of the loveless memory, i can remember adverts for a shop which i think was called hadley custom? they used to run adverts in the bike press back in the '70's and very early ,'80's they had a range of tuning part's for, if i remember correctly, [give me a fucking break, i'm old] four-stroke tuning stuff for the four stroke monsters from back in the day, cb 750's, early zed's and the gs range of suzuki's, their advert's used to boast the tagline, 'help stamp out two-strokes] i wish i could find a copy of the original ad's but i guess it was only me who can remember them, i hated hadley custom with a passion back then, i was a yamaha riding two stroke fan, that's what my heroes rode, from the much maligned, [back in the day] fsie 50, through a 125, rd 250, [or three, ahem] to my beautiful white and red speedblocked rd 400, [i bought it just as everyone else was buying the elsies], here's a nasty two stroke, don't know anything about it, it could be a 250, 400, h1 500 or legendary h2 750, but, who gives a fuck, just a bad bike, hardtail frame, no front brake, ball-milled fork leg's, loving it, especially those expansion chamber's, rrrinngg-aaa-dinnggah, rinnnnngg-aaaahh dinnnngggg......

racing

the grand prix from CSR brno, 1956, three years before yours truly entered this world, franta, cobbled streets, pudding basin helmets, dustbin fairings, massive crowd's lining the streets, no armco, no straw bales, no air catch fences,  just concrete posts ready to maim and hurt any mortal who overcooked it, brilliant, especially with the chezch commentary and the eastern european rock and roll soundtrack......

aermacchi

sunday afternoon disappears, it fades into the ether, into history, tea drinking, eating dark chocolate hobnob's, chatting with the barseman on the phone, catching up with stu, drinking peroni, reading motorcycle news, watching some footy on the telly, oh yeah, we did a bit on the aermacchi too, new torque arm, drilled for lightness, polished up the rear wheel, sprayed the venting mesh with some wilco gold i had left over from painting one of my ma's picture frames, measured up some new spacers for the wheel because the originals were binding on the swingarm and turning the swingarm into a rigid, no suspension, no good on a race bike, sunday....

o.g.

gordy and me, farmyard party, many moon's ago, original gangster's.....

bike magazine

post shift, saturday morning, home from work after another 0600am start, walk the dog's through the steady drizzle, match this afto, at home to birmingham city, 1720pm kick off, 1720? what the fuck is that all about?, sky tv, that's what it's all about, fitting in with the television schedule, [we don't have a home match, 1500hr's kick-off until the new year, fuck sky, you are killing football] couple of hours to kill before the game, so, i have a brew in the shed, radio 6 on and a general tidy up, i have a big stack of magazines, motorcyle new's, old bike mart, classic racer, sideburn, dice and performance bikes, mojo music magazine, tattooo magazine's and all the other old malarkey i tend to buy on a whim, right, let's be brutal, big mag cull, i load up the recycling with a right load, i stop for another brew and start idly flicking through a copy of 'bike' magazine from 1971, absolute brilliance, excuse the poor photo's......