classic tt races

to say i'm excited would be a bit of an understatement, thirty-one years since my last visit to the mecca of road-racing  that is the isle of man and all of a sudden it's approaching really fast, it seemed like an age ago back in february when i booked my ferry tickets, but, now it's less than a week away and i cannot wait to get over there, dangerous, chalky and sweary mick are sailing the day before on thursday, due to lack of annual leave and work commitments i'm going next friday morning on the first sailing from liverpool, it's going to be an early start, got to be up at 0300hrs, hopefully away just before four in the am, sailings at 0645 hrs which should get me onto the island for around 1030hours, now, do i go on the sporty or the ducati?..............

drunks, lovers, sinners and saints

 oh yeah, while we were down in welsh wales we met up with the legend that is mr des davies and stuck his ducati 350cc single race bike project in the van, des's instructions?, 'do what you want with it boyo' hello mr ducati, meet mr hacksaw............[cue manic laughing, like an old hammer movie, if you are my age you know what i mean, 'ha, hah, hhhhhaaaahhhh.............']

donington classic festival-part four

'ey up dangerous dave, i've had an idea' 'prey tell then timmy loveless, what idea do you have forsooth?' 'let's cut up both of sweary mick's aermacchi singles and make a twin out of them' 'timmy, you really are a blithering idiot sometimes, it's already been done, lino tonti, the famous italian designer responsible for benelli's, mondials, gilera's and bianchi's has already done it, he made a bike out of mostly stock aermacchi parts for the top-end with a one-off bottom end, realistically two singles twinned to give around 68 bhp @ nine thousand-thousand-eight-hundred revolutions-in-the-minute, a brilliant concept back in the day young lovey, what you saying?' 'fancy an ice cream dave?' 'don't mind if i do, two-flakes, raspberry sauce and chopped nuts on mine youth and by the way, read up on your italian race bike history, dickhead...........'

donington classic festival-part three

13 photos, 13 reasons why you have to go to the classic festival at donington park next year........

donington classic festival - part two

 there's exotic motorcycles and there's exotic, rare, racing motorcycles, i really couldn't believe my eyes at the standard of machines on show at donington park, the honda sixes, not one but two, are a brace of the george beale replica's re-made a good few years ago now, i can remember that they were offered up for sale at 100k a piece back then so what would they be worth now? these machines are not to be confused with the popular little baby 250 fireblade engined replicas, these are exact replicas of the works racers, an incredible engineering achievment and they sounded fantastic, the #10 bike is a genuine 250/4 works honda, the fairing is hand beaten aluminium and is a work of art, work's moto morini? mondial? , yep, they were there, as was ivan rhodes velocette the famous 'roarer', sammy miller had the moto guzzi v8 and the truly gorgeous 500 v-twin 'bicilindrica' on show, modern machinery was well represented too with everything from the ex- loris capirossi desmosedici ducati and something for the two-stroke smoker fans in the shape of an immaculate 'marlboro' yamaha, the great thing about this weekend was the fact that the bikes were being ridden around the track instead of them just being in a static show, i believe that's where they should be, out on the race track so you can hear them, smell the oil ,fumes and rubber and see them moving fluidly, after all, isn't that what it's all about?

donington classic festival - part one

 just back from the classic racing festival at donington park, what a brilliant day, held over three days, unfortunately i could only make today due to picking up the ducati on friday, returning the van and domestic's on saturday and to tell you the truth i was too knackered to go yesterday afternoon so spent that drinking tea, poking the ducati's [now then, that's got you wondering hasn't it?  i've only posted pictures of the 900ss, there's another one sitting up on the bench too] anyway, a proper 'family' day out today, sweary, chalky, dangerous, stu and yours truly had a blast, loads of exotica and pictures to follow, stay tuned race fan's, here's a little teaser for you, george formby and the 'shuttleworth snap' from the classic film about the tt races 'no limit' and then there's our dangerous assaulting eight times world champion phil read and trying to steal his leathers, you really couldn't make it up, planet loveless, orbiting a different sun.........

since i lost my head, it's awl-right.....

no suprises there then, i've been 'telegraphing' for the past week or so, the new addition to the loveless stable, air-cooled, twin cylinder, carbureted , 900cc ducati loveliness, totally un-molested bar carbon slip-on's, k+n airfilter, dynojet kit and oberon  mastercylinder, [complete with a dodgy red goodrich hose, excuse me, bile in the throat, soon fuck that off and get something a bit more tasteful] eleven thousand miles from new, brand spanking michelin pilot's, new belt's,  full service history and enthusiast owned, less than 15 miles per year for the last four years and that was only between the mot station for the annual ticket, well worth the 500 mile round trip just for the sound, going to try and keep this one as it is, except for perhaps a sprinkling of stainless and titanium fastener's, thats it except for some carbon doo-dad's, maybe some high level termi's, a 'superlight' seat would look nice, might make some rearsets too, the clip-on's are too high for me, they need to go for sure,  i heard that you can fit the marchesini wheel's off the later model's a piece of piss and lose loads of un-sprung weight, what about a set of 1098 forks and mono-block's? they would look the business, a long lever pazzo brake lever and short clutch lever would be nice too, whatever you do, keep it quiet and don't tell mr's b...........

road trip

 five hundred miles, i've driven five hundred miles today, i've laughed until i nearly cried, spunked over a hundred quid on diesel, dined on egg and cress and salmon and cucumber sanwiches, drank three bottles of water, drank a macdonalds coffee, a macdonalds tea, sang along to the rolling stones, oasis, sister sledge, the small faces, sly and the family stone and jimmy hendrix, eaten home-made jam sponge cake, sang along to lionel ritchie, the clash, some old school rave tunes, smiths, style council, bob marley, bought a bike and picked up a classic race bike along the way, seen some great scenery, sang along to some who, smashing pumpkins, steve hillage and roxy music, public enemy, pixies, paul weller and neneh cherry,pastot tl barrett and the youth for christ choir, days like this make it all worthwhile.....