wake up and smell the two-stroke...

made the annual pilgramage to the post-xmas show / auto-jumble / gathering of the tribes at newark today, oh dear, attendances well down on last year, i reckon around half the exhibitor's / trade stand's, all the bikes that sparked any interest in my old bones were two-strokes, from the beatles themed vespa px200, absoluteley brilliant air-brushed art work, right down to the shea-stadium concert ticket on the inside of the legshield, the horatio nelson themed, 'victory' lambretta, [couln't get any pics due to the crap lighting i'm afraid, but a great bike nevertheless], the bimota vee-duo 500, the closest thing to a road going 'stroker gp bike for the road, ok, the pipes aren't original, [should be stacked, sitting on the o/s of the bike] but, the underseat items are much neater, exposing the swing-arm and carbon-fibre seat unit, lush, the cobra lammy street racers, [the number 13 bike particularly, dropped headset, drilled out kick-start lever and stinger pipe, oh my] the widowmaker h2 kwak, bloodyfuckinghell, memories of davique motique, turn up on a 250 'learner' yam rd and take a fucking 750 lethal two-stroke, wank braked death machine out on a test ride? no wonder the government legislated us out off existance, then, well, i've posted pics of this bike before, rg suzuki, check it out, barry sheene raced one of these, enough said? well, almost, here's a note to the people who run the show's, don't charge the vendor's to stand at your show's, without the stall's, the stand's and the vendor's you really haven't got a show, i wanted to buy a load of stainless fasterners for my bikes today, i was pissed off as my usual contact wasn't attending, so, i rang him at home and placed my order because you charge too much to stand at your show, duh? go figure, let's cut out the middle man, we don't need your show, without the vendor's and us, the show goer's who come to the show's to buy stuff? charge the punters to get in, let the vendors have their pitch for nowt, everybody's happy there you go, ain't rocket science is it you greedy fucker's.....?

keep on keepin' on

i'm sorry, no, really i'm sorry, alcohol and music is a powerful thing, especially when you throw in a healthy dose of sarcasm, 'been there. done that', cynicsism, passion and 'fuck-you' into the mix, one of my new year resolutions is to be nice to people, i'm really going to try and see the best in everyone, not upset anyone and listen to everyones point of view, everyone who is trying to scratch a living from their blog-posts, all the people promoting 'merch', employing professional photographers, re-posting bollocks and not actually doing anything, to all the folk with fuck-all to say, no soul, no passion and no-brain's, i salute you, no, really i do, see, i told you, i'm really trying, anyway, been reading one of my book's that the boy jack got me for xmas, david nowells 'the story of northern soul' absolute essential reading, people with passion, people with commitment, people with soul, i'm proud to have been a part of that, you dig? well, perhaps you do, perhaps you don't, i-pod on 'shuffle' and sea-sick steve's 'keep on keepin' on' comes on, well, bugger me, never heard this before, it's certainly not 'northern soul' but, it just fit's what i'm thinking tonight,  anyway, here's some photo's of the progress on the headsteady, [with a pic of the weedy, wimpy, bent-in-a-vice pressed steel o.e.m 'ting and 'ting compared with the loveless replacements] here's to the shed-dweller's, the dog owner's, the ugly, the awkward, the truthful and the soulful.......

loveless. 2013 report [don't, don't, don't believe the hype]

happy new year from the loveless blog, here's a re-cap of 2013 for you, bought a 900 ducati, sold my sporty, bought a 'fake bonneville' got my race bike back, [amazing, sound's like a two-stroke], went to the isle of man for the inauagral classic tt, first visit in over thirty years, had the best holiday ever with team bailey in the u.s.a. rode sweary's aermacchi at the festival and the mighty ram's are second in the division, created loads of aluminium swarf, burnt a lot of cutting oil, drank around one-thousand-five-hundred-and-eight cups of tea, 500 bottles of peroni or staro or stella, wore my suit three times [one funeral and two court appearences, ahem] all this without selling a t-shirt, a wax cotton tool roll, coffee table 'limited edition' book or participating in a 'distinguished gentlemans' ride out, didn't attract any 'pop-up' gallery attention, didn't sell-out, and didn't try to make a profit out of motorcycles,  a trendy shoreditch 'show' or any of that other fucking bollock's, we just posted real stuff, stuff that just was 'stuff', no agenda's, no promotion, just real stuff, not trying to sell 'product'  all for free,  oh yeah, please, don't ever use 'keep on keeping on' you don't know what it means and you never will...........

barnsley, away.

sunday afternoon. halfway between xmas and the new year,  what else is there to do but go and watch your team, deep in enemy territory in yorkshirestan, [actually the biggest county in merrye olde england] today six thousand derby fan's made the short trip up to south yarkshire, [the home team could only muster ten thousand hardy souls, that put's the away attendance in to perspective] two-one to the ram's, not a great performance by derby but three points in the bag and see's us into second place to little leicester, automatic promotion place, 'cheer up billy davis' smoke flares, arrests for pitch invasions, derby fan's in the home end spark's a flurry of activety from the police and stewards, [barnsley and south yorkshire police wouldn't sell anymore tickets to away, [derby] supporters so the derby fans just bought tickets in the home end of the ground anyway] happy day's, 'i want to go home, i want to go home, barnsley's a shit-hole, i want to go home' job done and big up's to the six-thousand derby fan's who travelled today..............

saturday

saturday. saturday between christmas and new year. late nights and late mornings. no work, well, no day job. lazy, tea drinking sofa saturday. hot toast and cuddly dogs and tea. more tea. boots on. the dogs tell me when its time to go. plastic ducks and duck, 'me duck, carved into tree branches. mossy walls and squirrel hunters. freezing fog, mossy walls and muddy lanes. spot-faced brackets, grub screws and cutting oil. milling stock, taking stock and leaping stiles. saturday.

happy days toy town

 those pesky kids eh? fancy photo-shopping my face onto the picture of that daft bloke wearing his mr's 'onesy' and joke feet slipper's, i mean, as if i would ever wear anything like that and expose it to the blogosphere, ahem, anyway, heres a quick look at my gifts received on xmas day from my family and friends, the 'loveless's bar' neon sign was a stroke of genius by mr's b, the jarno saarinen dvd brilliant, i'm a sucker for books too, [i read everything thats put in front of me, always have, always will i guess, i even read the back of the porridge box every morning whilst i'm waiting for the microwave to 'ping'] the casey stoner book, the johnny cash autobiography, dennis hopper's amazing story should prove to be an eye-popper, two northern soul books, [so many memories] and 'that near-death experience' the story of four riders competing at the world's greatest roadrace, the isle of man tourist trophy races, then there's the music, led zeppelin's classic live bbc sessions,  previously only available as poor quality bootleg's sold on at record fairs, finally given the release they deserve, a double eels live release, [saw 'e' live earlier at rock city in nottingham with jess, a great gig indeed] and some blues from old seasick steve himself, and then? well, that only leaves the dvd 'the miners campaign tapes' a 'secret' collection of video tape footage that a group of independent film makers took back in 1984 at the height of the strike, fascinating viewing to those of us who lived through those dark days and certainly not easy to watch, from the picket lines to the marches to the infamous 'battle of orgreave' to quote david peace from an article published in the 'new statesman' from 1st march, 2004, it may give you a taste of why i feel so passionate about this slice of british history........'twenty years ago, there was sacfrifice. twenty years ago there was selflessness. not in a novel. not in a film. but in great britain. in this country. in 1984...in great britain, in 1984, people might have done things differently, but the past is not a foreign country. the people who lived and died there are not strangers. they are our people, us and it is our country. then and now, right or wrong, we are shoulder to shoulder.'