pre-tt classic

bill swallow riding a 350 aermacchi, won the pre-tt classic race on the billown course on saturday afternoon, congratulations to bill on his 15th victory.....

boxer racer project

i wasn't happy with the coil bracket/heat sink mounting that i fitted yesterday so i had a re-think, a piece of 20mm stainless flat stock, drilled the mounting holes, drilled some 10mm holes to lighten it off, two 10mm ally spacers and the coils and heat sink sit between the frame rails and the tank cut out, much neater, nothing visible from the side and easier to wire up, [bottom picture shows the starter, theres still a cover to fit over that, could lose loads of weight without it but shaft drive bikes don't like starter rollers very much and if you stall it you're knackered, i reckon the few kilo's you could save isn't worth the cost of shelling out for roller's, a big battery to drive it and the loss of convenience of losing the starter motor], talking of wiring, thats the next job on the list..........

ben

i wasted an hour of my life posting boring pictures of the coil bracket for the boxer racer project tonight, then i deleted them, here's some photo's of ben instead, much more interesting, ben nipped in for a brew, refused my offer of tea made with soya milk, had a glass of pineapple juice and bang, off we go, ben is like a rollercoaster ride,  he spent less than an hour with us and in that time we discussed my daughter jess's tattoo, ben's 'interesting' sphincter control, [or lack of it, serves you right for riding a hardly dangerous], customer's pissing themselves, fart's, the boxer race project and numerous other things, check out ben's ride, who but ben would go to racefit, the purveyors of exhaust pipes to every wannabe bsb road going sport bike rider and have a set made up in titanium for a fucking ditch-pump harley? 'los bastardos de la muerte? the bastards of death, i was having a legendary friday afternoon tattoo session, four, maybe five hours in, i'm nearly fainting, ben's hammering my rib's with the old j.b. [so offensive i can't tell you what that mean's, every tattoo artist is now pissing themseves or recoiling in horror, don't blame me, i didn't invent it], 'extremely fucking loud pipes' brilliant, anti-social, anti-fashion, anti everything, ladies and gentlemen, ben jones..............[roadhouse tattoo, derby, yes it hurt's, no, you can't wash it off]..............................

my brother from another mother.....

called in to see barse today, me and barse have been around the block a few times in the past twenty two years, birth's, death's, parties, rallys, raves and punk rock concerts, rides and builds, chops, racers, cafe racers we've shared beer's and tears, beer's and spliff's, beer's and tent's, the ride's down to kent for the glory years, nostalgia drags, on the bumper cars at three in the morning off our heads, dancing like mad men in the pigpen to the emporium sound system, tattoo's and bruises, fall out's and fight's, helping kev build the rock and blues shovelhead in front of an audience of thousands, prodigy gig's, dancing to the fire alarm, underworld dj darren emerson, crashes, demo run's, sharing part's, laughing until i've nearly been sick, eating mars bars when we've had the munchies, countless cup's of tea, the deftones, massive attack, the uk sub's and the grit, converse, maglight's and stone circles, pixie hats, yellow shades, fairground rides, belgian girls, belgian chocolate and belgian bikes, sitting in barses garden in a cut down triumph herald rear end, drinking tea and laughing with dangerous, barse, gordy and mandy, it all just seemed to make sense, my brother from another mother.........

hard days night

after a hard week, long hour's at work, [fifteen hour shift thursday] a wild bee swarm in the house, [cost me £120 to call out the pest control people to get rid of the bastard's, sweeping up dead bodies until 2200hrs and then up for another shift at 0500hrs] another no-show from the geezer who is supposed to be wiring the boxer racer, no phone call, another evening wasted, sometimes you wonder what life is all about, after last weekends hypothermia episode it really couldn't have been more different, 'cracking the flags' as we say in derbyshire, in other word's, sunny, hot and dry, fuck the racebike project, let's ride, dangerous trap's around 1030hrs and we are off, springtime in england, there's nowhere finer..............

sportster

i really don't know if i like the 'new' sporty's or not, the xr1200's look massive compared to the 'traditional' sportster's, almost like harley davidson have tried to 'upscale' the bike to appeal to the european market, trying to appeal to the un-faired market, [think aprillia tuono, triumph street's and ducati monsters] they look too heavy and ungainly and yet i keep stumbling across bikes on the interweb that make me go yeah..... one of our regular stops is the harley dealership in chesterfield, we usually stop for a 'comfort break' and a brew if the tea wagon is present to tell you the truth, [as well as taking the piss out of the hoggie's with their fake back-patches and attitudes, as dangerous as a fucking sheep with no teeth] today i saw a bike that stopped me in my track's, a proper ex-bsb support race bike, apparently bought from harley by the governor at the shop to do trackday's on, [and road legal to boot], the quality of the harris race part's from the full ohlin's suspension, the pipes and the exquisite adjustable yokes, yeah, i've made my mind up, i do like the new sporty's......

tourist trophy

it's that time of year, i watch last year's highlight's over and over again, as soon as the races finish, through the autumn, even boxing day, after everyone else has gone to bed, at least once a week, i watch the footage, i know every corner, every bump, every braking point and jump and yet, i know nothing, i've ridden the tt course many times on a road bike, but nothing, not anything else in the world is like the isle of man tt races, these photo's are for real, that really is a stone wall that bill swallow is ducking out of the way of on a 350, john mcguiness is really out there between the stone wall's, telegraph poles and kerb's of the mountain course, god-speed ladies and gentlemen,the ones who are competing over the next fortnight, please, whatever faith you may be, spare a thought and as the late, great dave allen used to say, 'may your god go with you'........

into dust

mazzy star, hope sandovel on vocal, oh shit..........

converse

 sailor jerry limited edition converse i bought these in the  'states years ago, i hate tatty shoes, you look like a tramp wearing them, but, you know what? all-stars, the tattier they are the better, like a pair of 501's or 514's. the older. worn. and more beat up they are the better..........

racer

after my post on david emde the other day i got an update and some photo's from scott in the 'states who was a longtime emde race fan, he didn't say if the pic's are his but they really are great, the top photo of david on the yoshimura gs1000 suzuki is brilliant, i thought i had seen most of the photo's of this era of american superbike history but this is a new one on me, check out the rake on the rear shock's, stock i reckon it must have been 22.5 degrees, i think these must be around 45 degrees, top mounting straight off the rear triangulation of the frame, must have been almost like riding a rigid chop, look at the size of the bloody thing's, absolutely massive, a big unit to chuck around for sure, the photo's of emde on the san jose bmw are so atmosheric too, capturing a time when it was a joy to race rather than being a piece of the corporate jigsaw that makes up the 'modern' racer, 'i would like to thank, blah, blah, blah.............................'

boxer racer project

 nipped out during my dinner hour to the local hose stockist in town, got a three metre, end of roll, high quality 1/4" fuel delivery hose, seven clamp rings and a 1/4" tee piece for six quid, result, the hose is much better than the green plastic stuff from the local car accessory shop that we all know and love, this stuff won't go brittle like the cheapo stuff and is ethanol proof too, the clamp ring's are much neater than jubilee clip's, you just position the clamp where you want it, square it up and gently clamp the 'ear's' with a pair of side cutter's, you can use a pair of plier's but the side cutter's make a neater job i reckon................