A Sunday Outing to the Diamond Empire...

National Chopper Club

Took the Mrs with me and we had a great time at this low key event.

At the Queens Head just outside Windsor on the way to Maidenhead, good music with a small stage and a band, barbyQ and some stalls - we got the Tshirts!

A chap turned up on a neat little red sporty chop. Guess who built the frame? MrFC. We had a good chat with Paul, his first build - took eighteen months of hard lessons. So I extracted as much info as poss and got his email to keep in touch. Plus he had a few parts leftover that may take the last of the money that I really don't have and should be sensible and not buy! Anyway he just called me - he won best in show!

Who let that fat bloke sit on my bike?

'In my mind I'm going to california'

55 going on 25

What a comfortable ride position, even with the stretch.

Funny she don't look so big anymore.

I think I got it dead right, what do ya think peoples?

June and summers here at last...

LONG BIKE TIME

and fuck all those chunky bobbers

And a new pristine white background for the summer dudes.

On friday I went to fenland, taking my old 'glide style' bars so Joe could have his back.

They were only so we could move the bike, but man they looked so right - so fuck the Z BARS

AND then I sat on my bike.

Whoahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Not only does it look right but she sits right, even with the stretch.

A lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng bike.

Fuck it I'm going to stick a jockey shift on.

and I'm having a fork brace made out of twisted bar to match the sissy.

Funny how priorities change and some how you can find the extra wedge.

I've gone from a no money to spend 'weld on hard tail' on my old frame to a full on chop.

Still life's getting on the shorter side and you've got to get your priorities right.

Billy has gone on the final ride

Mr Blue Velvet, cowboy hipster, rebel with a cause.

What does your brother do on a summers night?

Hot riding hothead

Mr Marvin and Mr Kerouac brought together for a unique gig.

My brother painted this Sensational Art and gave it to me one Christmas.

It also features that infamous pic of one of the 'wild ones' at hollister (not).

A treasured possession.

Love Devotion Surrender...

Passion Killer

Now thats a sissy...

too much is not enough

Loud fast rules

When Zep ruled

Gotta be the loudest band I ever saw. I remember being on the ground floor with my mates and not upstairs.

Ive just started listening seriously again and started with Zep ONE on my pod. Everybody used to play Zep TWO at the parties. I'm up to Physical Graffitti now. My mate Jimmy bought that when I first moved to the smoke, sweet 19.

Well not so sweet.

listen up woman. your time is gonna come...

Sissy time

Got something for you baby.

Its 26" higher than your mudguard.

Made of twisted bar with a six inch kickback.

Makes your eyes water just thinking about it.

Sometimes too much is not enough.

naughty naughty

Shit, I forgot your helmet, lets just ride, and we'll pick it up on the way. Nearly made it too.

Dragon Slayers

Freezing our nuts off in Wales '78

Not one of our Neal's brightest ideas. the Dragon Rally, Mount Snowdon in February?

One Guy didn't make it back to his tent, the brandy unfortunately doesn't stop hypothermia.

Exile on Main revisited...

When 'Keef' was the coolest dude on earth

Re-released this weekend 'Exile' is one of their dirty best, recorded on the Cote d'Azur when old harold wilson put the tax rate to 90%. I don't recall the earls court gig being that good. But me and the lads saw them at Knebworth and after a very long day, bonfires were lit. Just after ten pm the first chords of Midnight Rambler hit the air, as Mick in black catsuit with silver snakes up it stalked the big walkway.

Bloody Fucking Great.

I drove back, with my mates Neal and John asleep and my last two 'No6' for company.

By the way Ren tells me she met Charlie and Bill in the Restaurant Bar she waitressed at in Tourette sur Loup, in the hills above Nice in early eighties. Nice Chaps.

Oh dear what have I done

90's Recession Workhorse

Gone but not forgotten, carrying a little too much weight, a little like its owner. She cost me £4000 in '88 having just sold my 'yuppie 911' and I've spent a couple more upto this pic and another four again in the late nineties on my earlier 'non' build. Engine, gearbox, wheels, powdercoating, chrome etc.

Anyway as you've seen her 2010 incarnation is well and truly on its way.

From forgotten and deserted to admired and cherished.

I know that good times are coming.

The dinero is raising its ugly head and I think the old frame, fatbobs and whats left of the FXE are for evilbay. It will make a good project for a shovel bobber.

like a burst of dirty thunder...

A little light bedtime reading

Dusted off this little gem, looking for something I'd misplaced.

Written by Mr Hunter Thompson, the darling of the NME in the 7o's, 'GONZO' journalism.

I lent the best book he wrote,'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' to a friend, never to be seen again.

The first line went something like this - 'WE WERE SOMEWHERE OUT OF BARSTOW WHEN THE DRUGS TOOK HOLD'.

I was hooked.

Incidently I was looking for a bag of nuts and bolts, that came with a car trailer I bought. I sold the only fucking trailer on ebay without an axle, on tuesday!

(Ren had her pushbike nicked 2 years ago, we traded the Insurance Halfords Voucher for the trailer which came in two large boxs that I didn't unpack for over a year and GUESS what was missing.

The Guy that bought it turned out to be Mr G a Harley Man whose elder brother is in the London HA.

Coincidence???

Exhausting...

A liddle sketch for Joe

I'd like something like this but the dinero's rule. I'm leaving the tank as is and moving the petcock instead so's she can suck up the last of that measly tankful!

On the road '76

France, Spain and Blighty

My flat mate Neil wanted a bike to get to work, he asked me which bike I'd choose out of the feature in the magazine. I went for the 'Harley' Cagiva 250. He bought it, I liked it and decided I had to have one too. And that was the start, we went bloody everywhere, including a 3 weeker to northern Spain. There's absolutely nothing like being on the road and thats legal.

Gimmee gimmee gimmee...

And on the 23rd day of christmas...

Check out the date, life was good, everybody should buy themselves a Harley for Christmas

Age twenty three.

'Sand digger'

Daytona beach '78

I was given this book as a thank you by the studio we used to freelance at in Knightsbridge that christmas. Ten quid an hour on weekends, and a book too!

Yeah baby...

time waits for no one...

ooohh just look at the lines of this seventies icon

Shovel. black. stripped to the bone.

and checkout the graffiti!