Saturday 25 July 2015

The Kid has finally finished his Tuono cafe racer

A couple of  years ago my son told me he was going to turn his Aprilia Tuono into a cafe racer. My first reaction was 'why?', followed by 'why?'. Anyway, he had a design commissioned by a custom bike shop but decided it would cost too much money, so proceeded to strip it down in his garage to do it himself. 
Remember this photo from a couple of years ago?
 Surprisingly he managed to source a number of parts including a nice nosecone, had a guy fabricate a seat unit for him, started to put it together then decided to get a bike shop finish it off for him. It just got finished this week, so he sent over this photo. Looks nice, don't you think? I can't wait to see it in the flesh, maybe have a little race...............


Evidently that exhaust is 'fairly loud'

Thursday 2 July 2015

A short note from Rome

I'm here in Rome for the third time in three months; after undergoing innumerable tests the hospital confirmed that my cancer has come back more aggressively, and spread to my bones and lymphatic system - which obviously wasn't what I wanted to hear! All the National Health system could offer was treatment to slow down the spread, which didn't seem like much of a treatment to me. I've spent some time researching alternative treatments, hence my visits to Rome.

On the positive side, it's warm and sunny all the time, there's every type of wheeled transport to stare at ( at least 10 million scooters, not all ridden by city gents in suits), and everyone I've met seems very friendly despite the slight language barrier, although many of them are starting to pick up English now! You can even get vegan pizza! How cool is that?

My health does seem to have deteriorated rapidly, but that may just be all the laying around in bed; whenever I do manage to go out for a walk I'm more like an octogenarian. Not to be beaten though, I've bought a motorcycle, the idea being that if I have one I'll have to get better and ride it. Nothing exciting, it's a K2 version of the Suzuki GSX1400, a little rough around the edges as befits a late night unconsidered e-bay purchase, my son has it at his place giving it a bit of a clean up (and riding it while his Aprilia is away being 'cafe-racered' - more on that Ill -conceived notion later).

So, I've got some photos of old buildings and scooters to add to the blog when I get home. Plus the boys cafe racer. Plus hopefully some good news about treatment; if not, I have another couple of possibilities to pursue before I give up and take the hospital treatment. Here's hoping my next blog post will be me out and about on my GSX! Take care!