i wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about details, minutiae, the battery carrier for instance, the battery weighs nothing, a featherweight lighter than a light thing, why am i going to add weight to the carrier?, it becomes a trade off against [in my old, alcohol and substance abused brain], strength, [from an engineering point-of-view, i always tend to over-engineer stuff, my glass is always half full, i alway's have thought's of failure because stuff is not strong enough], i really am worried about the trick, one hundred and fifty pound lithium beauty battery shaking itself to death if i mount it on the top of the gear-box. so, it has to mount off the original mounting point's, rubber mounted, but, that throw's up a whole lot of different problem's in itself, no sleep again then.............

 i needed to make some number-plates up for the racer, i was washing the pot's as i realised this, as i washed the slow-cooker it came to me that the shape was just right, i traced around it onto an old bran flake packet, cut it out carefully and marked it out, [x2], onto some carbon off-cut's, i'm busy hacksawing and filing to shape when dangerous turn's up, 'are you trying to kill us or what? carbon fibre is highly toxic and carciogenic you twat', don't know if you realised it dangerous but when the bike is up and running it's me who's going to be risking life and limb, who's bothered about a bit of dust? .......

another trawl through the loveless vinyl vault and i plucked out this gem, to tell you the truth, i can't remember anything about buying this, great record, a tad overplayed me think's, but, i reckon it may be time for a black leather jeans with concho's, stetson;s and white boot revival...............

 saturday see's a late start in the loveless household, i wake up at the normal time of 0500hrs, realise it's a saturday, shift-free day and roll over for a lie-in, wake up at 0800hrs to find the dog's on the bed and mr's b downstairs baking fresh bread, cup of tea, stretch, breakfast, read a little of the bill lomas biography that dangerous has borrowed off his mate mick, more tea and time to brave the elephant's, sorry, i mean element's, it's a mild day in derbyshire but, raining and with a squally, northern wind, me and the boy's tuck a seven miler in, fight the beast's who are getting a little frisky, young bull's, inquisitive and jumping around, my boy's are straining at the bit, they want to fight, the beast's want to look at the little fella's, it's slippier than a greek cruise ship captain underfoot and i'm trying to keep it all under control, home, more tea, dangerous trap's around 1300 hrs, i hit the inside of the fairing with a rattle can, satin black, just to tidy up the bit's that the painter had missed, i clean up the rim of the rev-counter ready to spray and discover it's ally, quick rub with a scotch-brite pad, cut a epdm gasket out of a flange rubber i had in the shed and fix-it into the fairing with a big tie-wrap, bit more machining on the battery tray as we listen to the ram's on the radio, good point away from home against another promotion canditate, more tea, toasted tea cakes and a late afternoon walk with the boy's and mr's b........

 friday night and we take a flyer, up to the unit where the sprayer hobbit bloke ply's his trade, park up the trusty polo and tip-toe  into the flourescent lit cave, i'm peering into the half-light and then i hear it, 'oh my precious, oh my precious, blend 'ye colour shades, eye of newt, bladder of sheep, blacker than a black thing with extra added black, blacker than a goth's diary, blacker than the dirty red dog's chance's of maintaining championship status, black, black, black.......with some shine'  [not sunnnnnshiiine like an oasis track] but, shine, like, like, like, shiny black stuff, then, i spot him, he's cowering in a corner, swigging thinner's from a bottle, 'what you wanty?] 'ey up mate, bought you a tank fairing and seat in for a spray job the other week, you said it would be ready today?' 'never seen you before in my life' [manic laughing, another swig of thinner's] 'not me mate, my mate dangerous', i point at dangerous who is trying to work his way towards the door and do a runner, 'aaaah, i remember him, yes, done it, it's over here', i pay the man and we make a hasty retreat, painter's, rare, rare as a very rare thing, he snatches the cash money and goes back to his corner, 'thank you' i offer, 'do you want a swig of this mate' he say's, be rude not to..........

 we need a way of mounting the new lithium lightweight battery that i bought at the newark show, the little beauty weighs in at under a kilogram, it's in a carbon reinforced case, is sealed and can be mounted any- which- way up, they were originally for military use so are a tough bit of kit and the guy who we bought it from assured us it's not affected by vibration, as we were originally going to fit the big, heavy standard battery in the standard battery carrier i left the mounting points on the [now] powdercoated frame, this always gives us the option of using the standard battery and carrier in the event of a failure to the trick item, [i hope we don't get any failure though at 150+ olde englishe pounds a throw, otherwise a certain battery salesman will find it difficult walking around with one hanging out of his backdoors], sorry, got off topic there for a moment, anyway, not one to miss out on the chance to get the centre of gravity way on down, [and let's face it, totally over- engineer a new battery carrier, try out the new end mill and create loads of swarf to boot] so, a piece of 16mm flat stock, roughly hewn to shape with a hacksaw, [wish i had a bandsaw.....] battery measured, work marked out and start to mill a recess for the battery to sit in and mount off the top of the gearbox where the old air-box used to sit...........

                

every now and again you stumble on a site that literally takes your breath away, ben kingham and his dad tim's website is one of them, this is the story of two totally dedicated men who build and race the best looking vincent twin's you have ever seen, i have corresponded with ben a few times through the british historic racing site and he was kind enough to comment on the loveless blog and post us up a link, the egli machine is a real beauty, not some molly-coddled entry in a classic bike concourse competition where old duffer's will mark it down for having the wrong diameter 2ba washer behind the nut that holds the horn on, but, a full-on racing bike being used in anger on the track, just check out the site for the full skinny and be sure to have a look at the picture gallery and video's for maximum inspiration.............www.oldracer.co.uk [or click the link in my blog list in the right column]

 the project seem's to have stalled a little this week as we are waiting for paint and parts, there is alway's something to do though so i set too with a couple of little tidying-up jobs, the fairing mounting bracket bolted to the two weld bushes on the front of the headstock got a good kicking on the miller and shaped up with a couple of rad's top and bottom, [don't worry, i've cut the two grub-screws down a bit too], the end of the truncated subframe looked unfinished with two holes just left so dangerous turned up a couple of top-hat blanking plugs while i drilled and tapped the rear spindle to take a couple of paddock stand bobbin's, i know i'll have to find another way of supporting the bike when i'm changing tyres but with the shaftdrive and swinging arm tubing being different diameters there isn't really an easy way of getting the bike up onto the paddock stand otherwise...........

 sunday see's a session in the shed, slurping tea, sucking teeth, shouting, smoothing and setting -up the 'set's, sorting set screws, [bloody hell my old english teacher would be turning in her grave, 'loveless, i never thought you would have got the hang of alliteration , the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of word's or phrases, well done, now stop picking your nose and wiping it on the desk you horrible child' the 'peg's are spares that we made for the mz racer, why re-invent the wheel, they are light, easy to make and cheap, the black nylon 'crash' bobbin's are off the shelf items from racing lines in derby, fifty pence a throw, not the finished item yet, but we are getting there,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,