ffffffffffforks...

1981 Narrowglide forks. polished top yoke, chromed bottom yoke, reflectors machined off legs and legs polished
by matts engineering in 1997.

Ok. This week the target is to obtain some extended fork legs.
Left a 'post' on 'flywheel' and Benny kindly replied saying he may have what I want
Went to Canterbury to visit my mate Johnny for long weekend.
Guess what theyve been sold!
Fuck, heres me thinking I'm the only one going for a narrow look frontend
and lets face it 35mm forks are not exactly the latest stuff.
But thats exactly it.
Open any american chop mag and the're they are on a lot of bikes
- and thats the look, narrow maaaan!
Anyway, had a good chat with Benny and he suggested a couple of sources, and evilbay.
Whooooa...
Guess what I found lurking amongst the dross. One set of fork tubes 35mm and 8" over -Yeeeha
Steady, lets see if my bid is accepted....

dusting off ma wheels...

I had these rebuilt in October 96' by Richard Bros in Cardiff for the sum of £569.88.
Stainless Rims and Spokes, and the Hubs stove enamelled Red. WHY?
To match the frame and ancillary parts which cost £270.00 to powdercoat
Ferrarri Red.
Sounds good doesn't it.
Well let me tell you, in the fucking flesh its orangey red! So what did I do ?
Have everything beadblasted and then left to rust in various storage and sheds for the next fucking fifteen years!
Except the wheels cos they needed taking apart to get at the hubs.
So a year later I took them apart and had the hubs blasted and powdercoated a nice silver grey. Then sent the wheels back to Richards Bros and had them rebuilt.
You probably can begin to see why this build took so long.

Mr FC

Heres the man himself, Mr Fenland Choppers, Joe White. He kindly spent a great deal of time (thanks mate) taking me through the process of deciding on a custom frame shape and style plus ancillary parts. Evidently my forks are 35mm dia and would not suit extending by 10", evidently too much flex. So we agree on 6" and 35 degree rake on frame neck. I want to use my forks as Ive had work done on them and I like the narrow glide look. But I do need new tubes, hopefully sourced secondhand, unfortunately not something that popular these days as all later models (and fashion) have thicker forks.

So after arriving at 10.30am, I left at 2.30pm and joe breathed a sigh of relief!

Fenland Choppers

Saturday, left at 8am and arrived at FC Wisbech 10.30, not bad .

I wasn't the only visitor, one chap was already there, another guy turned up on spec from Woking, his mum lives locally, I went partly because it was near where I used to live and family still do. So I'm killing time having a cup of tea and then fuck me this guy Johnno turns up on his evo chop, all the way from Watford, his daughter lives in the village.

I think we had a little X FILE Moment - what is it about Wisbech?

Johnno is hardcore chop man, I had already come across him on bennys blog D-T-T-P , (boneshaker choppers) where he'd done around trip of 220 miles to visit them. Johnno said that what wasnt mentioned was that he left at 2pm, broke down and didnt get home till 11pm.

More about my visit later, build the fucking dream is on!

Look what I found in the shed

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Some essential reading matter

Just had a little chat with some chaps on flywheel (boneshakerstv.ning.com) and the consensus of opinion is build a rigid and damn the fucking torpedoes! (my words)

Another shitty day in paradise

Here's a pic (taken today) of of a sorry tale

Rule one.

Do not take your bike apart (1996)

Why?

Events dear boy, events (mcmillan was right)

The said events not necessarily in order of occurence:-

2/3 years later I collected all the bits from Matts in wales (why 2/3 years? see above)

hate colour I had powdercoated (ferrari red, yuk)

so have it all blasted off, very sensible idea that, not! still now that rust is fashionable...

then its year 2000, I know lets build an extension to house !

we run a small design company from the garage, it seemed like a good idea.

well as you can see it became a rather (due to planning permission) large conservatory .

Ok now everythings really great, nice patio, lets finish the bike...

No I cant do that,

Lets really fuck up the next few years and SELL THE HOUSE (and office)

So...

We move everything to my Fathers house and storage in Peterboro so we can buy in Rutland shire

But we bought a small rental property in chertsey for investment (live 6 months) rent out

And then we bought a slightly larger one (live 9 months) rent out

Looks like we changed our mind on Rutland!

And then another house larger, but still no garage. Move everything back, except the the big plants as they were all dead, and loads of other stuff that went to the dump, office, computers etc

Renovate the property, me myself, now that I'm a property developer!

You can keep graphic design, too easy!

The lads down the pub now recognise me as one of them (must be the brick dust)

We communicate, drink lots of beer and play golf.

3 Years later its sold, or so we think and we've moved back to the small house so the buyer can move in quick, just like they wanted

They pull out.

The shit hits the fan, prices down 20%

I rent it out, bankers fuck up the world

2 years and 2 failed property deals later, we and the two dogs are back

Intoducing Frankie and Johnnie

I've now got a (as in small) cleaning company (rental properties need professional cleaning!)

Of course there is virtually no work, recession what recession.

And my lovely wife has been dicing with breast cancer.

aaaaaaand ggggggguess wwwwwwhat?

its today and at last I'm looking at my collection of rusting parts (I'm talking about the bike)

Its gonna be a no money build...

whats new.

Ive called joe at fenland choppers and go up on saturday with my frame (yes up there again)

and I'll let him talk me into having a hardtail chop frame and

BUILD THE FUCKING DREAM

later