That's better

What a bummer! There I was, looking forward to constantly admiring my new (expensive) Hagon shock, complete with red spring and shiny body, when I realised it's hidden away in the bowels of the bike and will never be seen again. The attached poor-excuse-of a photo shows a final glimpse of it. On the positive side, the bike now goes over bumps with a gentle rising motion rather than the shuddering crash of before.

Thanks must go to young Nick of Revolution Bike Tech in Kingston, who not only fitted it in double-quick time, but bled the front brake, cleaned up the pads and brought the braking up to an almost adequate standard. We'll be back there for more improvements quite soon.

Shifty

For me, one of the best bits of riding a bike is that feeling that you're part of a small select group of 'different' people; for example, I recently started a new job, most of my new work collegues are fairly unfriendly except for the small group of guys who ride bikes, we've all become 'instant friends'. Of these, I like Dennis the most. Partly because he calls me 'young man', which gives you an idea of his age, but mostly because he's always got time to talk about motorbikes. He doesn't ride any more, but always has a wistful look in his eye when he talks about his old bikes, both racing and road. He recently brought in some photos of one of his more unusual bikes - 'Shifty'. He bought it after being impressed by an article in Motorcycle Sport April 1980, the idea of a Laverda frame and parts mated to a Fiat 127 engine and gearbox proving irresistable. One of only 3 imported from Italy, he reports it went well in a straight line and was OK around town but a bit of a pig on faster twisty-bits, but due to its rarity always attracted a crowd of interested onlookers.

I tried to upload the photos he gave me but without any luck - here are some of the same bike I downloaded from the web. I can't imagine riding the thing, but am glad I know someone who did.

And they say size doesn't matter.....

If you look very closely you can see a pannier – a very small pannier



I’m suffering from a case of penis-envy. In preparation for my upcoming European tour I decided to buy some panniers for the bike. The e-bay vendors’ photos were skilfully taken with no other objects in view; this meant that I had no way of judging their size. Of course dimensions were provided, but I convinced myself they were wrong as the bags would be unfeasibly small. As you can see, they are unfeasibly small. In fact, they’re about the size of a 5 year-olds’ lunch box. Oh well, guess I’ll be packing light, then.

By the way....

....if anyone asks you to go to see the latest Brad Pitt/Sean Penn movie "The Tree of Life", give them a slap round the face to bring them to their senses. Boring claptrap would be a polite description. Sean Penn's 'tortured soul' impression made Jack Blacks' flatulent Mexican priest in 'Nacho Libre' worthy of an Oscar. Better to spend two and a half hours standing in a corner banging your head against the wall than going to see this film.

This was a public service announcement.

God bless engineers everywhere.....

Guess what this is...

 No, it is not an eye patch,
No, it is not a head band,
No, it is not a knee brace,
No, it is not a medical support,
It is from France ...........and it is


A SPRING LOADED BATHING SUIT!!



REALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not recommended for water skiing, surfing or diving!










            GOD BLESS ENGINEERS EVERYWHERE!!!

E-bay, my friend

Ever since I got my driving licence, I've been mad about cars and bikes. My first love will always be hotrods/customs, followed by bikes. The idea of taking a car that you like the shape of, then fitting a modern powerful engine, uprating the brakes and suspension, re-doing the bodywork and paint until you end up with (hopefully) your perfect car has always seemed the ultimate combination of back-yard engineering (I can make a better car in my shed than a car manufacturer) and personal aesthetics (my colour scheme is better than the factory's). Of course there's always more failures than successes, witness small front-wheel drive hatchbacks fitted with giant wheels and lurid paintjobs, but that's down to experience and capability.

Anyway, one of the things that attracted me back to biking was the perception that it was much cheaper to modify or create a motorbike that more closely matched my ideals than it was with a car - a perception that has gradually turned into a misconception. Each bike I've owned has had (expensive) bits bolted to it and minor modifications made to try and make it a better fit to my needs. The latest bike is a perfect example - an e-bay "bargain", I knew it needed a couple of faults fixing. The brakes were the first problem to deal with; I bit the bullet and ordered an expensive brake upgrade kit, unfortunately they were out of stock, so I found an e-bay bike breaker who had a low-mileage Thunderbird. I bought  master cylinders and calipers front and back from them; fitted them and now the brakes work a bit better. I then fitted new fork seals, chain and sprockets, got new tyres, fitted another e-bay purchase of (newer) stainless exhaust down pipes, a chrome water pipe and a nice polished ally backrest.

So after a considerable outlay I now have...a standard bike. In fact, for the total amount I've spent, I could have bought an 'overpriced' perfect condition low-mileage model. Mind you, that probably says more about my naivety in buying off e-bay than anything else. Anyway, as I sent off payment for yet another shiny piece of metal today I realised...

Answers on a postcard, please.

                                                              Nice backrest

                                               New exhausts going blue already!

                         Lovely polished stainless dash plate - now I can see the warning lights.

Serengeti or Richmond park?

Health and Safety, wot 'ealth an' safety?

Memories...

Me and LF went to Hammersmith Apollo last night to a brilliant concert by Juan Luis Guerra, the place was heaving, it seemed as if every ex-pat South American in London was there. As soon as he played his first song, I got a terrific sense of deja vu (again) - the first song I learned the words to in Spanish was Burbujas De Amor  when I was working in the Venezuelan oilfields and wanted to impress the lovely brown-eyed waitress at the little shack we used for lunch down in Campo Boscan. Turns out I was a rich Gringo and only had to open my wallet for her to be impressed, but I was young(ish) and hadn't fathomed out why beautiful young women would want to be with ugly old men.

Anyway, back to the present and I have to say not only was it a great concert but there were more beautiful Latin women in Hammersmith last night - including of course LF in case she should read this - than I have seen for a long time (Mrs ex-El D No. 2 may even have been there, as she was also a fiery Latina with flashing brown eyes, if they had a seating area for psychotic manic-depressives).

Everyone was up dancing, and stayed that way all night. The years fell away, and I gyrated with LF, singing away at the top of my voice. This morning I woke up with a buzzing in my ears, both knees hurting like hell and a sore throat.....still got those memories though.