i don't get paid for my overtime [we had it 'bought out' allegedly years ago] i get into work and find out one of the drivers has managed to smash his numberplate and mounting off the back of his wagon, i scratch around and find some stock to make a new mounting, i need some numberplate mounting screws and there's none left in stock, my boss is moaning about a lorry being off the road so i jump in the trusty polo and head down to the local halfords, i hate halfords, they are really expensive but i need to get this lorry back on the road, pick up the plastic mounting screws and i spy the halfords' professional range' ratchet spanners, 80 quids worth of loveliness, lifetime guarantee, well, i needed them to fit the numberplate didn't i? my guvnor knew, he fixed me with that stare, i played it cool and gave him the receipt.......

 ozuma kaname.

ok, i admit it, i'm easily distracted, alway's got into trouble at school as a kid for it, same when i got to tech when i was an apprentice, [spent most of the lesson standing outside facing the wall because i was disruptive] should have seen their faces when i got the 'apprentice of the year award', same thing happened today, i was quite happy hacksawing and filing the excess flab from the beemer frame when i glanced across the shed and saw the spoked wheels i scored off barse, the rear is ok, the spokes are a little pitted and the rim needs some therapy to clean up the tyre iron marks, the front was sprayed matt black when barse ran it on his cut-down road bike, shame it's a 19 inch rim [i want to run 18's front and rear, good choice of tyres], i pick up the front wheel and mr hacksaw makes short work of the spokes, nitromors and a quick rub with some scotchbrite and and and and and and and, did i tell you i was easily distracted?

 i was delighted to find bill tuman's name on the daytona beach memorial that commemorates the historic 200 mile motorcycle races that took place on the beach itself  between 1902-1959 when the '200' was moved to the famous concrete banked international speedway, [the scene of bazza's infamous 170mph crash] ammo often told me the history of the indian motorcycle's race team during my regular thursday night machine shop lesson's,  the legendary 'wrecking crew', bill, along with bobby hill and ernie beckman ruled the roost in the late '40's and early '50's often rubbing their rivals from harley davidson noses quite literally in the dirt, one thing i didn't know was that before bill won the prestigious ama grand national #1 plate in 1953, [the last time an indian rider would win it as the factory folded the same year], was that he rode with the #51 plate, respect due bill.......

irezumi, thank's jan.

 friday at last, best day of the week, shift done and home, chain drill the footrest/exhaust mounting brackets and hacksaw to rough shape, my mum turns up with a freshly baked fruitcake, kettle on, me and dangerous sit in the shed, radio six providing the tunes, eating warm cake and drinking tea, we work away at the frame, filing and shaping, the scrap pile is growing......

 thursday already, start of the weekend, couple of vodka and tonic's then, but, before that, more serious stuff, cleaned the majority of thirty year's worth of road grime off the frame, select a brand new blade from my collection, 18 tpi and get freddy krueger like on the unwanted metal, first to go are the centre and sidestand castings on the bottom frame rails, i drill a hole in the radius of the casting to allow some serious hacksaw work, next to feel the effects of timmy's 'slimfast' diet are the footpeg/brake/exhaust hangers, remember kid's, freddy only attack's when you fall asleep........

 the swing arm is held in place by two 20mm threaded pins, you can't use a traditional swinging arm spindle because the shaft drive runs through it, hence the two pins held in place after adjusting the bearings by two 27mm nuts, the box spanner eventually turned up at work today, as soon as i got in from my shift i tried to slacken the lock nuts off, no chance, sprayed them with a release spray and walked the dog's to give it a chance to work, tried again to see if we had any 'solvent majik', nothing, gas bottle out and  warm them up, try again, the box spanner is deforming with the effort, get the drill out, centre drill in to mark the nut and give a lead in, hit it with a punch and success, same with the other side, wind the nuts off and drop an allen key into the adjuster's to remove the pins, bang, swingarm is free at last, serves me right i suppose, i took it for granted that the bike had come apart ok up to this stage, not suprising with hindsight, the bike's 30 years old and had 15 previous owners, my luck was going to run out sometime, that was tonight......

the 27mm box spanner that i have had to order to enable me to remove the swinging arm from the frame didn't turn up today despite paying for overnight delivery, typical, oh well back to the plot, rather than wasting the night i poke through the pile of bit's that i'm going to use on the racer, the first thing i pick up is the bottom yoke, it's not a bad looking item apart fom the pig-ugly casting flash which runs right around the centre of the yoke, i pick up a file and start to work away at the aluminium, the file run's straight off it, i think it must be hard anodised possibly to stop the control cables and various wires eroding the soft metal underneath, my thoughts are confirmed as after a few initial cut's with the file i start to work the flash away, some 120 coarse grit and it starts to take shape, lot of work to get it anything like but better than standing around waiting for that box spanner.....

 back to reality with a bump then, a couple of hour's work see's the bike down to the last of the component parts, i make two piles, stuff i need for the racer project and stuff that will never see the light of day again on this machine, the wiring loom, heavy 'snowflake' cast wheels, air box, handlebars, controls, footpegs, silencers and all the plastics, the seat, lights and all the other parts that are redundant, i box them up and move them to the secret loveless storage facility or my ma's shed next-door-but-one, i dig out the workbench and me and dangerous carry it round from the secret loveless, [ok, you get the picture], a quick tidy up, clean the tools down and put them away, sweep out the shed and set the bench up, engine out of the frame and get the frame and swingarm onto the bench, i go around the frame and mark with a white marker brackets and hangers that can be cut off, the brackets on the oval top tube under the tank, the rear footpeg/silencer hanger plates and especially the massive centre and sidestand castings, any weight possible will be removed even down to the steering head lock set, the frame shows it's obvious norton featherbed influences, the major difference being the bolt-on rear subframe rather than the norton's welded rear frame rails and shock mountings, right, that's it for tonight, i'm stumped by the fact that i haven't got a thinwall 27mm socket to drop the swinging arm out, i turn off the lights in the shed and turn to lock-up, then i go back in, put a spanking new blade in the hacksaw and cut the huge loop off the subframe, that's better.........

there's nothing more boring than somebody else's holiday photo's, but, i really don't care, this is me and mine, precious moment's, time spent together and laugh out loud moment's, from the hot-rod's of 'old town' to daytona beach a couple of day's after 'octoberfest', [i deliberately gave it a wide berth, didn't want to do the 'bro' thing], i didn't see one bike worth a photo, that's not good, typical factory bikes, no soul, no input, just stock harley's, what's a matter with you?, get your finger out and get building, raw big twin's can be picked up for a song and as for the 'ladies favourite' sporties?, dirt cheap, all it need's is a little poking with a stick, get a grip america, i love you but the majority of your bikes are stock, boring, out of the showroom, drop the bolt-on shop shit and get to work you lazy bastard's! on the other hand, we met some great people, [apart from the nob-head at a 'subway' who thought it was ok to give mr's b and jess some attitude, he had to receive a straightner, happy halloween motherfucker] v8's, universal studio's halloween horror night's, la costena nachos de chiles jalepeno's, farmer billy's choco - bacon bar's, watching the tiger's at busch gardens, chasing jessica around the villa, tracking hurricane rena on 'new's on the one's', air hockey, crazy golf, chilling around the [unheated] pool, reading book's, listening to music, oh yeah, drinking beer from a paper bag at the airport after we dropped the suburban off at the alamo car hire desk, no way i'm giving you yank's any beer for free, we alway's end up giving a load of left-over 'bud's away, not this time, we sat around drinking with an s.a.s soldier from hereford, just like a bunch of hobo's........that's it then, holiday over, back to work tomorrow, up at 5am, got to get cracking on the beemer after my shift..........welcome home i suppose.