fingymoto

eventually caught up with the mountain of post from the last two and a bit weeks, delighted to find that ed, from the great blog fingymoto, had sent me some stickers for the race bike, thanks ed, everyone who likes racing bikes, traditional road racing, trials riding, interesting projects and photo's of beautiful county sligo do yourselves a favour and check out http://fingymoto.blogspot.co.uk/

classic racer

ian dury once said, 'knock me down wiv a fev-ver' got my new copy of 'classic racer' today, i have it delivered to work because the 'boy's' tend to take offence at anything coming through the letterbox, [it's already cost me a copy of 'sideburn']so, imagine my surprise when flicking idly through it to see my ugly mug grinning out from the hallowed pages, mike yiend, the motorsport photographer took the picture at darley moor and we had a chat about the bike, [i'm sure he was just being polite as the entries for the bear's class was pretty disappointing and i was really just making up the numbers anyway].......

aermacchi

solvol, rag's, solvol, rag's, solvol, tea, toasted teacakes, hot, buttered teacakes, solvol, rag's, tea......

weekend warrior

on the epic trip to the mall for the traditional binge-fest, [ok, i admit it, i got a new pair of converse from the outlet shop and a pair of levi 514's, so, beat me up]i'm sitting outside soaking up the sunshine while the family are raiding a trendy store, it's called 'ecko' the girls love it and jack? well, let's just say it's his holy grail, the stuff cost's a small fortune in the uk, so, light the blue touchpaper and watch them go, i wander off for a pee, grab a coke and reclaim my seat on the bench, it's hot, i'm soaking up the ray's, storing them up for the forthcoming dark-ages, half life that is england in winter, the family emerge, blinking, into the light, arm's full of 'bargains' jack opens a carrier and whips out a 'weekend warrior' felt pendant, 'here you go dad, thought you might like this, we spent over fifty dollars so we got to choose a pendant for free' whoooa shorty! how do they get away with this? is it me or does this design look a little like a certain outlaw motorcycle club's backpatch? i mention this and the family tell me the shop is full of various items carrying variations on a theme, i check it out myself and yep, it does,i'll just stick with my seven and a half dollar 'sons of anarchy' walmart t-shirt thank's..........

mushmouth shoutin'

testing, testing, one-two, one-two, 'fredricksburg' post re-posted, scroll backwards to catch it, should make more sense now.....

aermacchi

right, enough already, all that holiday stuff's over, back to reality, [that's reality, not realty, for the benefit of our american reader's] back to all the important stuff, motorcycles, dangerous turn's up, we have a brew and we offer up the famous aermacchi 'double bubble' fairing that he's picked up from sweary mick sometime in the last fortnight, looks brilliant, we discuss working the pig-ugly front fairing mounting, work that out, make a couple of sketches and dump it out of harms way, next step, engine out, absolute doddle, the engine weigh's nothing, check dangerous cradling it in his arm's, yep, dangerous has had a baby.......

cheap sunglasses

for anyone interested,the gruene, texas post has been re-posted, just scroll backward's to see the original y'all...

say it loud, i'm a luddite and proud! [with apologies to the hardest working man in showbusiness]

the mind is a funny thing, i like to push myself, physically and mentally, i've been awake around 30 hours now, san antonio to chicago, pizza and beer, chicago, it's raining and i don't even get a glimpse of lake michigan, gutted, 'sweet home chicago' on the 'pod, chicago to manchester on the overnight, red eye, cattle class flight,0300 hrs uk time, my brain is saying sleep, 2100 hrs texas time my heads saying, 'it's time for a beer y'all' home, land, taxi, i just want the world to stop moving, i have terminal wind, [is that what you get in airports or is it just me?] the taxi driver decides to take us home via the scenic route, over the cat and fiddle, buxton, via- gellia, a6, belper, absolutely brilliant on a bike, but now? i'm craving straight roads so i can just go to sleep,my head is cracking into the window on the left, fuck! i'm driving! no i'm not, everything is back to front and upside down, home, shower, pick the dogs up, tea, toast, white bread, proper, butter, stick the new magnets on the fridge [a traditional bailey family ritual] wander into the shed, dangerous has slackened off the mounting bolts for the engine on the aermacchi, there's a brand spanking new pair of lockwire pliers, a classic race tomaselli throttle assembly and a snotty handwritten 'welcome home' message, jessica's moving out today too, got a rent with her boyfriend,i fire up my old desk-top, bollock's, i've been posting off my i-pad, brilliant, unless you are rocking old-school, luddite computer-stylee, here's to all the luddite's, i've just realised that the holiday post's will mean nothing to almost everyone, so, i'm re-posting them, first one is 'gasoline' please, bear with me, i'm a luddite, [the post's will probably make more sense when re-posted, sorry, normal service, blah, blah, blah......

It's all gone a little blurry....

Well, that's all folks, just as we were starting to settle into the holiday after Princess Jessica's kidney drama, we have finally ran out of time,as I post this we are sitting waiting in the departure lounge at San Antonio for our two and a half hour flight to Chicago, then another couple of hours wait for our connecting flight to Manchester, eight and a half hours night flight sees us into Manchester around 0750 hrs on Friday morning, then straight off to fetch the dynamic duo from the kennels, looking forward to getting licked to death, especially after a day and night travelling. Plenty of time to think about the Aermacchi project and the forthcoming rebuild that's for sure, got to get my head around the boxer racer too, I still have some unfinished business with that one, at the moment, I'm thinking of going 750, possibly short-stroke, so that we can get it revving, I've had a look at the Siebenrock website (link here if you want a butchers http://www.siebenrock.com/en/) they do some really nice kits for the boxer engines but, even Ron Maul is struggling to get the bhp to compete with the big Guzzi's and Laverda's and is getting a K series in-line four BMW built for next season, so, I reckon the way may be to go 750 which gives me the option to race it in either the BEARS series with the BHR, or the post-classic 750 series with the CRMC, like i said, a lot to think about and I've not even mentioned my plans for the Sporty yet, oh, I just have done......

Show Me the Monkey

Hello, Mr's B here, big shopping day today, we hit the mall's, Mr B's panicking because he was worried we might not make it home to watch 'Sons of Anarchy' and guess what? We get home and the old fart goes to sleep and misses it anyway!

Don't Mess With Texas

Bandera, a real life cowboy town, deep in the heart of Texas, for me, one of those life defining moments, just a quick recap, I was born in 1959, yep, a long time ago, I was born into a family from mining stock, my dad was a ww2 veteran, he got blown up on the beaches during D-Day, got a direct hit from Geman aircraft as he was moving a lorry that was blocking the exit from a beach in France, he was shipped back to England and re-deployed in the Pacific fighting the Japanese, my old man was an old school dad, never talked too much, never took me to a football match or kicked a ball on the park, but, he was still my dad, I can remember watching films on a Saturday afternoon, usually old John Wayne and other cowboy films, waiting for my dad to get home from work, he would get in, take off his boots and watch the end of the film with me, often speaking the script before the actors, ( an annoying habit I've picked up, just ask my kids) cowboys and indians, six-shooters and bows and arrows, cattle, ranches and creeks, today, I was in a real cowboy town, un-bloody-believable.....