cracking beemer cafe racer, monoshock conversion is very smart, where's he hid the battery though? nipped over to see barse the other night to drop my broken expansion chamber off for chrissy w to work his welding alchemy on, trying to get the bike ready for the classic racer track day at cadwell early next month, even though our season is over i wouldn't mind getting a few hours more practice in before the winter shutdown, i've also had to let the yam sr500 project go, i just haven't got the time or money to do anything with it, shame, i know i'm going to regret in the future.

snetterton, 4th and 5th september.

guy martin, nipping down the shop on his 'girly' sportster for some teabags.

snetterton, four races, four finishes, knocked 5 seconds off my lap times, finished in last place every race, not my fault that people crashed, broke down or pulled out, i kept going, got another two signatures on my licence and had some great races, i broke my bike twice, the floats vibrated off, i've sprung a major leak and my stinger can has snapped off, i've seen the other side, i've rode harder than i have ever rode in my life, one of the greatest things was the marshalls applauding me after the last race, i think they knew how much it meant to me, thank you.

thursday night and final fettling on the mz racer ready for the weekend meeting at snetterton, made some crash bungs out of a pair of old skateboard wheels to protect the shock absorbers and hopefully the seat unit, on starting the bike i noticed that we had a leak from the exhaust manifold so we dropped the pipe off and cleaned up the jointing surface and fitted a new exhaust gasket, i had some exhaust wrap left over from the chopper project and decided to use it on the downpipe, i've been on a few two-stroke forums and the general opinion is that the warmer you can keep the exhaust downpipe the better as it encourages a cooler, [more dense] input of fuel/air mix and better cylinder scavenging, don't know if it will work but worth a try and if all else fails it will stop oil spewing all over the place from the leaking exhaust port, had a quick blast up and down the road, totally illegal i know but fuck it, the bike feels crisp and i pull back onto the drive as i'm blipping the throttle dangerous notices the throttle cable un-screwing itself from the carb body, we root around in the spares box and can't find a locknut so i tap a course thread 6mm out to 6mm fine thread and hand file it down to thin it out so we can lock it off, down to the lion garage for some 97 octane fuel, twenty-five quid's worth, i've pre-mixed some silkolene pro-2 race oil into three, five litre cans and i have another ten litre's of 'raw' '97' ready to mix at snetterton, stay tuned for more rock and roll........

health warning- smoking can seriously damage your health, holding area at cadwell, that's me, far right, [not in a political way you understand, just in the photo!]

i'm coming down with the flu or something, i've felt as rough as a badgers arse today so only one thing to do, get a brew on and spend the afternoon in front of the box watching the moto-gp, i realised today that roadbikes are such a compromise, you need tax discs, numberplates, insurance, lights, indicators, speedo's, [not the swimming trunks] and all the other road bollocks, racer's on the other hand are more purposeful, stripped down, light and anything you don't need to make it run fast, you chuck it in the bin, simple.

been to the match today, derby v queens park rangers, we are 2-nil up on 90 minutes, 3 points in the bag, board goes up, 4 minutes extra time, they pull one back, ref lets play go on for another 6 minutes, they get equaliser, deep joy, back to the vic for a pint, bad news, the landlord is calling it a day, he can't make a living anymore, the best old fashioned real pub in derby bites the dust, seen some great gigs here in the past, two weeks until the doors shut, another proper pub gone, will anyone take it over?, i get home and download the jim jones revue album, proper rock and roll, mc5 meets little richard with a side order of the cramps.....

sportsters rule baby!

the glamour that is club road racing in england continues with the loveless racing corporation attack on the final round of the bmcrc , [bemsee], 250 mz championship round at snetterton, saturday, 4th and 5th september.....

be careful out there this weekend, especially if you are out in derbyshire, the police are waiting for you! [small plates, black visors, noisy exhausts = points and fines], you have been warned!, like the prodigy said, fuck 'em and their laws.