and then, there's the rear diff's, do i go with the [top photo] early stroke item with the lovely 'wasted' swing arm or, the [second photo] later model 'ribbed for pleasure' item? i'm timmy loveless, it's saturday night, i'm loaded on 'staropramen' czech lager and chardonnay, i'm wearing a white vest, i'm tattoeed and i've got a sharp knife on my person as i run up and down the road swearing at the neighbour's, must be a full-moon or something, either that or i haven't got a bike up and running.........
so, as i'm filing away, my mind turn's to wheels, i know that i want eighteen inch rims, front and rear, i pay a visit to my-ma's shed where the over-spill of bike bit's that i've accumulated over the years are stored, [uum, the mz 250 flat-tracker project i bought a few years ago in a drunken, saturday night e-bay frenzy, must get around to that one day, i fancy another dirty, smelly, loud stroker, did i mention my mate jase's spondon yamaha project by the way? wait 'til you see this bad-boy!] sorry, anyhoo, back to the wheel's, top, the chunky, late eighties, upside down peace sign thing's? second photo, the ubiquitous bmw, seventies 'snowflake' design? or last but by no means least, my favourite's the decade spanning ally rim and spoke combo, this has got to be the way to go for me, powdercoated satin black rim's, stainless spokes and the hub's, front and rear, hit with the milling machine like on the racer and powdercoated satin black, i'm waiting, your thought's greatfully received, might not take any notice but if you have an opinion chip in........
my third saturday shift in a row done, i walked the dog's and retired to the shed for some serious downtime, tea in hand, giles peterson show on radio 6, sorted, gus on 'his' chair, lord teddy taking an interest on the 'frame, surplus- bracket- removal- programme' one thing that cutting and filing gives you is the time to think, i enter that almost zen-like state where i am working metal, almost unconciously, all the time thinking about and planning the project in my head......
football, absolutely the best game in the world, brian clough, the father of our current manager nigel, steered derby to league champions, yep, same as man united, the top boy's in the english league, then he went down the road to our hated fucking neighbour's forest and won two european championships, [yep, same as man united], but, before all that, following a big bust up with the board at derby he famously took charge of another hated rival, 'dirty' fucking leed's united, [check out the brilliant book and film, 'the damned united' for the story of his 44 day tenure of the club], here, old big 'ead goes toe-to-toe with his rival don revie, [the bloke he took the job from], raw, live and reactionary, two heavyweight's slugging it out, this stuff fascinates me, proper, [oh yeah, had an e-mither saying that my video posting's aren't available on i-pad, yeah? so? have a look on your desktop or do your own searching you lazy fucker's!] it's really worth it, a snapshot of the seventies, a time before money, [you could buy a club for three million, nevermind a reserve goal-keeper] passion, hatred and more sub-plot's than 'son's of anarchy' football, a man's sport, not like those egg-chasing rugby poofter's, [everytime they pick the ball up i want to shout 'handball'] blood, gut's, pride in the shirt, real men, beer, fighting on the terraces, invading rival's town's, [oh yeah, and the 'football special's', stinking of piss, boarded up window's, no heating, games of koo-kan and gin-rummy, under the light, [if you were lucky] of a forty-watt bulb, ripped seats, faraway town's, 'got the time mate?' bang, you stuck out like a pimple on a pig's arse in an away town, cancelled train's, [anyone remember trying to get home from bristol in the mid seventy's? snow, battered by the local's we lost four-nil, two-hundred derby lad's causing havoc all the way home from the west country on local trains and buses, eventually getting home sunday night!] do i have any regret's? do i fuck, 'if your tired and weary, your heart will skip a beat............'
i really couldn't face another night of attacking the frame with hacksaw and file so turned my attention to stripping the honda vfr 750 forks that i recently scored at the stafford classic bike show, i really wanted a set of hefty forks in the front of this bike and these 41mm jobbies really look the part when i stuck them in the frame for a 'visual', i dropped the 'legs out of the yokes, [and there in lies another story, the steering stem and bearings will require surgery to fit the bmw headstock, no one ever said it was going to be easy] the pre-load adjuster's and fork caps showed sign of adjustable spanner rash from the efforts of a previous heavy handed owner, [why do they attempt to do job's without the proper tool's?]i dropped the correct size socket over the nut, gained a bit more leverage by slipping my trusty mz fork stanchion over bar and gently warmed it with the torch, the nut came free with barely any effort, much easier than bruising the aluminium or risking injury when the adjustable slips off, i can rescue the damaged fork caps with a little gentle 'massaging' on the miller, the fork seals proved a little harder, i tried to prise them out with an engineering hooked pick, but again, resorted to the torch, the metalflake gold finish wasn't to my taste anyway, with the fork seals out and a good soaking with wd40, the stanchions and the lowers came apart easily after removing the allen bolt in the bottom of the leg, the bronze and teflon split bushes had seen better day's and will be replaced along with all the seals and some decent fork-oil, a pleasant surprise was the discovery of a set of progressive hyperpro fork springs, a look at the stanchions revealed some pitting so these will eventually end up being hard-chromed, i've used this on a few bikes and it's much more durable than the o.e,m soft chrome for durability [and looks] and the fork lowers will need blasting to remove the chintzy gold finish, i tried a quick dab with the old 'nitromor's' paint remover but that proved ineffective, so, it's off to the blaster's along with the frame, as soon as i get the other redundant metal cut off it, back to the saw and file again tomorrow night then.....
we like jack russells in the bailey household, we've even got jack russell cushion's and a 'nothing here is worth your life' sticker on the front door, hard, loyal, spunky, loving, grumpy, loud, did i say hard? tenacious, willing to take on the world, hard, cuddly, smelly rabbit hunting, cat killing, hard little bastards, [and then there's the dog's too.....]
barse's shovelhead, back in the rigid frame for this year, 21 inch front wheel, 'transplant's' air filter, hand beaten ally seat, performance machine billet rear caliper and 'dresser' full mudguards front and rear, or, perhaps not, tougher than a very tough thing, tougher than barry gibb, tougher than knocking holly willoughby back, tougher than a saturday morning shift and almost as tough as joe pesci.......
caught up with a bike i've been wanting to check-out for a while, finally bagged some photo's at the recent darley moor c.r.m.c meeting, me and dangerous met the owner, john lovett at the festival of a thousand bikes last year at mallory park, the affable big geordie bloke had a look at our bike and told us about his own boxer racer project which he races in the c.r.m.c classic 1300 twin class, the bike is a monster, 1040cc worth of aircooled loveliness, packing big pumper dellorto's, breathing through a trick, two-into-one exhaust, maxton forks and rear shock's, trick ignition, off-set rear wheel, [to get some seriously wide rubber on the backend], braced frame, race caliper's and the brilliant touch of a bare, naked frame, no paint, we don't need no steenkin' paint, it just add's weight, brilliant bike, i love it me.....
two day's of sunshine and decent temperatures and then today? wet and cold, bugger, back in the shed then, saw, saw, saw, file, file, file, ted the terrier waiting to attack the file, happy day's......
when ben jones 'fessed up to him and 'digger dave' dressing up in their cut-off's to watch 'sons of anarchy' i must admit i did titter, that was until we went to texas last year and i spied this 'sons of'' t-shirt in walmart, i just had to have it, don't tell anyone, it's our little secret, but as soon as i put it on i just want to be one of the 'sons', i stand looking at myself in the big mirror in the hall and quote lines from the show, i wander into the shed and sit astride my hawg and i take photo's of myself and i play the lemonheads on my i-pod while i'm doing it, what you saying ben?
well, i've sat and looked at it for a couple of day's and today i decided i really couldn't live with it, you have to be true to...
early seventies at southgate secondary modern and the young loveless was getting his ear turned by black music, mostly motown and what later...