went to see the brilliant play 'meeting joe strummer' on tuesday night, two actors, no special effects, simple and heartfelt, laugh out loud and sad in equal measure, try and catch the remaining dates or visit http://www.the-future-is-unwritten.co.uk/

got my entry for festival of a thousand bikes at mallory park accepted this week, got three track sessions booked, access all areas passes and camping for three days for £85, bargain, i'm in the 'p' class, medium fast race bikes, i'm happy with that, at least i have a date to work to now, don't know if i'll be ready, [it's july for fuck's sake!], don't know if i will have enough money for my tyres but if i do manage to get out on the track then it will all have been worthwhile.

mounting needs wet and drying to fit frame rail, then piece of 20mm round stock cut to fill gap between bracket and seat, drill and tap 6mm, tap 6mm stud and loctite into mounting, tighten round stock onto it, drill seat base, drill and tap round stock, drill fibreglass unit and fasten on with 6mm dome heads, drill and tap bottom of mounting, make cross strap and fasten between frame rails to stop subframe moving, starting to get the amount of work you need to build something like this yet?

need two more mounting points for the front of the subframe, the cobra's are no good in hindsight, scrap that idea, need to make two mountings to fit , problem, the frame rails are 'dropping' and they are angled in towards the tank mounting, measure the angle, 12 degrees, set up the miller vice and bore two holes to wrap around the frame, this is where the time goes, hours of work for something that you wouldn't even notice yet when it's done it could save a load of time at the track, damage the fibreglass unit and it's a simple task to just mount it to the subframe.

had to change tack this week, checked out petrol tank and the tank sealer kit actually worked, [as a result of this i now have to stand in the market place in derby and expose my arse as dangerous keeps reminding me], so, the rearsets and controls were left so i could mount the seat and get the paintwork sorted by mad john, [paint fumes, thinners, licking tack rags = mad john], so, knock up a subframe for the '04 honda race seat to sit on, can't mount it on the frame rails as the seat to rearset height is too low so the seat hight has to be raised to suit hence the subframe, the back mountings are easy, two pieces of 20mm round stock, drilled and tapped 6mm, drill the cross-bracing on the frame and mount, cardboard template to match the profile of the fibreglass seat milled to shape, right, how do we mount the front of the seat?, nick two 25mm cobra clips from work, clip onto the frame rail, easy, hold on a minute, whats to stop the seat 'yawning' backwards under acceleration or wheelies or sliding forward under braking?, ummm, rethink required.

'just what is it that you want to do?, we want to be free, we want to be free to do what we want to do, we want to get loaded and we want to have a good time and that's what we are going to do'

girls dig mz's, you might have the latest in japanese technology, horny italian superbikes or, heaven forbid a haraaleyfuckin'davidsonhellyeah!, but nothing, and i mean nothing scores so highly in the cool points as an east german commuter bike, power to the people.

lil' slugger, baseball stuffed into the bellmouth on my sporty, me and dangerous did a nice 120 mile ride this afternoon, first 'real' warm spring day, dry roads, not much traffic, only one police 'accident prevention camera', [111 motorcycle deaths on derbyshire roads last year, too many wifes without husbands, kid's without dad's and family's heartache, when you look into it like i did most were 'single vehicle' accidents, not dozy fucking motorists pulling out on some poor. unsuspecting bike rider but the bike rider losing control of their bike and crashing into walls or similar due to either lack of experience or reckless riding], one life lost is too many but i heard a story this week that really got my goat, a mate of mine has been stopped by derbyshire plod three times in as many weeks, they ran his details through the pnc before stopping him and knew he was legal, he was taxed, insured and had current mot, when they pulled him over they asked him if they thought he may be 'contributing to the death and accident toll on derbyshire roads due to the fact that he wasn't wearing conspicous clothing?', they then gave him a hi-vis jacket with the legend' be safe-be seen' emblazoned upon it and a day-glo rucksack bearing the same message! boycott derbyshire roads at the weekend, you are going to get done for minor stuff like visors, exhausts and numberplates, ride the great roads mid-week or late afternoon, fuck 'em and their laws.

dangerous, what can you say about him?, ex road race champion back in the day, [he was winning races on a 250 ducati back in 1964, hopelessly down on power against the aermacchi's so he had to stuff them in the wet], brilliant engineer, superfit, [running marathons, new york, london, etc, etc], legend, this is his sport classic, zard pipes, oberon clutch, pazzo levers, [shorty brake, long clutch], loads of one-off's that are too subtle to mention, love to see people's faces when he cracks this up, it's loud as....

gus.

real, not retro, these are the patches that survived my all-nighters and all-dayers, sown onto my 'niter' bag, the bags were essential, containing spare t shirts to change into when the one you were wearing became a little too sweat soaked through epic dancing sessions, toothbrush and toothpaste for that 8am 'brush-up' along with soap, towel and deoderant to keep everything fresh, of course, talcum powder, not for any personal grooming, just to spread on the floor to aid spins when dancing, chewing gum and somewhere to stash those elusive 7 inch vinyl gems, bank holidays were particularly hard, cleo's, derby 'til one am, mail train to sheffield for samantha's all-nighter, back into derby and onto the market to check out 'd.j.b's' new releases, home, bath, out to the 'jorrock's' for a pie and a couple of pints before watching the mighty rams, home, bath, off to wirrina stadium at peterboro' or st ive's recreation centre for the 'nighter, home sunday morning, tiffany's derby 'nighter sunday night and bank holiday monday would be either nott's palais or the pavillion at matlock bath, keep the faith.......