coals to newcastle...

One Magazine that survived my years of moving.

John Reed built this fabulous machine in 82' and took it to the 

Oakland Show...

A gold plated, Yamaha engined, spaghetti exhausted, lowrider

with a remote starter control!

... and won.

Its a fair cop?

Rowan's recent shannigans with Spanish Law reminded me of a time when something seemed to happen every couple of months.
Bushey park in Teddington, Middlesex was a short cut to Hampton Court via a very long straight road, impossible at that tender age of sticking to the 30mph speed limit.
And they were hiding in the bushes with their machine, no hand held radar job in those days. Just like an old Ogri cartoon sketch.
Grrrh.

Love from Phoenix

A box arrived from Phoenix Arizona, the sicker said it contained a VTwin Headlight, but inside was this loverly Tshirt

and some stickers!

Thanks Jeremiah

shovel of the week

Rufino (thats the pic name) from backstreet bucket blog

http://thebackstreetbucket.blogspot.com/

Drop bars cafe stylie, remote oil tank and  I love the reach for the sky gas tank

The cool ruler

RIP Gregory Isaacs

'I don't wanna see no doc
I need attendence from my nurse around the clock
'Cause there's no prescription for me
She's the one, the only remedy' 

We had some fine times Gregory, rest in peace.

its got the hole world...

 see its not just me - holy bars 

 whoah...thats not me 

its Nice! Motorcycles,  Japan

 

We support all of Motorcycles、 

until gasoline disappears from this world.. 

 -Nice! Motorcycle-

http://boltsaction.blogspot.com/

http://nicemc.com/

rear ventilation

Holy, holy, holy! 

for God's sake will someone take that pillar drill away from me

Shovel of the week

Nicks shovel @ Vise Grip in South Austin

http://visegripmc.blogspot.com/

A Better pic

bling bling

You know I'm having great difficulty in choosing one.

what do ya think?

Points covers from Irish Rich @ applied machete made by fabkev

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/

grinderman 2

Gasp, no its not the new Nick Cave masterpiece! 

Its part 2 of the tortuous rear mudguard - and now sissy saga.

  After some deliberation (beer is good) I cut a new side profile on the guard using the rear tyre as a guide. The eye is drawn to the curve of the tyre and so if the edge of the guard follows it then it looks right.

And as the mantra was repeated to me as a the studio junior
- if it looks right it is right.

The nuts welded onto the underneath of the guard for fixings were cut off and ground flat 

and the muddy support on the sissy cut off as its now too high 

 

and because I want the muddy to sit lower using the pre drilled mounting holes! 

buttonhead bolts now fix from underside of the rear guard through 6mm spacers to the support bracket pushing the muddy down to towards the tyre.

A new tighter profile and the tyre doesn't scrape the mudguard fasteners as before when fully adjusted.

Still gotta weld the sissy support bracket - that'll be fun

TIG machine req'd and new skill to learn.

New Profile 

Q. Guess whats missing...

Hmmm... nice empty hole where loads of shit could have got in the pump.
Why didn't I notice it (years) earlier, when I carefully taped up all those fittings. I guess from the side its not noticeable.
A. The Oil pressure Switch is missing.
Another little job.
So I'll add that to the missing Alternator Rotor
And the barrels to be re-powdercoated because someone didn't fit washers on the headbolt kit and cracked off the powdercoat.
Thanks, its my fault, I didn't supply the washers did I... and I should have checked it was all there...

hot hole shot

killer shovel pic, 
checkout the the head steady and bracket  
thats my holy - fix for today
from his majesty jeff wright @church of choppers

evil is good...

 Painted by Sonnyboy

 Air cleaner by chopperdave

Nice fucking Pan by evil spirit engineering
pics courtesy of ESE http://www.evilspiritengineering.com/

Bert Munro - movie and real life hero

WORLDS FASTEST INDIAN... 200+
Anyone catch the movie on Sunday? Brought a tear to me and missis eye.
Watching the movie, Ren pipes up 'You're doing something similar to Bert, building your bike in the kitchen, when we have no money, so'as you can fufill a dream and you can then go and have an adventure in next year - and you're hair's grey going white'.

Hmmm.
Well she's right about the hair.

shovel of the week - or not...

Freedom Machinery Bike

Shot in January, but recently retrieved from a hardrive 

from FMA blog @ http://choppedout.blogspot.com/

So not of the week per se

So a Holy Pan Shares the honours 

as outrageously theres no shovel worthy this week, and I'm partial to holes

from BuzzKiller

http://buzzkillerz.blogspot.com/

bitch

Done £50 so far on rebuild parts plus 2 drills @ £12 inc postage

I had to replace the mount pin and this kit required drilling the hole .625 to .635 inch max.

Well in my world that dont seem much so a 16mm drill = .630 inch  and its cheaper being metric!

I order that, offer it up to the new bushes I replaced and think thaats big and doesn't fit,

actually 5/8" is .625" and there's a 1mm difference.

So fuck it, I ordered the imperial.

Because I have no workshop stuff, all the drilling was done by smoke and mirrors, and I've juuuust got away with it.

Cos its running upside down i've drilled drainage holes and there may be more lightening stuff to do cos this is one heavy 'mo fo'.

Engraving next - Love, Hate!

Fuck, got to get the caliper piston out yet, to fit new seals.

Still, one day next year, may be, a guy'll say - 

'Hey maaan, thats a bitchin 'period' caliper'

Inspiration

Cycle Source Magazine came today. 

I buy a magazine a week, The Horse, DICE, BSH, GK to name a few, even 100% Biker when I'm desperate. The blogs I've joined are my daily reading matter, I'm consumed, I need my fix.

Finding 'the magazineman' got me addicted again, after all the dross in newsagents outside Soho.

Today I was reminded of a big storage box that had followed me from house to house through the years.  One day in 2005 I was loading a truck up, moving yet again, and there was no more room. 

My brother was there at the time and along with other stuff that would'nt fit in, said he would take it to the dump. I can't blame him, in fact in the seventies when I lived in Teddington he came down from Peterborough and picked up said box, when I was on the move yet again, and homeless. 

                                   

That box contained every magazine I had bought and kept since sixteen.
In 1970 my dad came home with a magazine, he worked for EMAP a big printers in Peterborough and it was the first proof of BIKE.
I remember walking back to school in my lunch break reading this, dodging lamposts. In it were fantastic pictures of the exotic creatures called 'choppers', Ray Leon was featured in that first mag. I used them and others as reference for my O'level Art Entry.
Anyway I bought Bike Magazine for few years after the free copies my Dad would bring home.

Later I would buy Custom Car Magazine, when I lived in London, naked women, cars and bikes, that timeless combination.
I followed that with Superbike. I did a few Adverts for Jake at 'Motique' in Chertsey where I got my Sporty in '77. He had started importing Drag Specialities in '78. The Ads were for Superbike, not many people were doing Ads for custom stuff from the states back in the day.

Then came Easyriders.
I was working in Marylebone High Street then and for some reason was in Debenhams store in Oxford Street. Browsing the magazines, and there it was - Easyriders 1978. Weird, in Debenhams!
Fuck I couldn't put it down. For years.

I first bought Supercycle and other naughty biker mags in California 79' - reading material for our road trip.
So apart from the mid eighties porche 911 yuppie period it was Easyriders and Supercycle all the way. Then along came Heavy Duty, a great British custom mag with Maz Harris to 96ish or so and the mags went off a bit in 2000 and so did I.

And now the wheel has turned full circle.

Fuck I'd love to go through that box.

hmmm... right and wrong

It dont look right, the shape that I blended followed the mudguard profile and looked good. But against the round of the wheel looks wrong in the middle. Fuck.
I scribed another cutline this time following the wheel shape but tapered and then checked the other side.
The other side looks OK! and is at least 5mm deeper in the middle where it meets the top frame member.
So where it was cut and welded is different. Fuck.
Or the mudguards distorted.
And I take more off the side its going to sit too high. Fuck

It doesnt have to be exactly right, so long as to the eye its OK
Gonna sleep on it

Autumn

Tidy up all those old weeds and compost!

Know what I mean Freddie?

Collect and gather up apples, chop them and fill the water butt

Drain juice through a filter, into a suitable container and add yeast and sugar

3 months = Six gallons of cider 

Makes your eyes water dont it ...

grinderman

 My mudguard had been cut in the middle and welded to achieve a tighter radius, consequently it had a fucking kink in the side profile

I scribed a line  on the sides with a set square following the curve of the top

and very gently used my new grinding flapper? disc bought at kempton

To achieve a nice smooth graduated curve.

 Not Bad, what are those dots for? you say  -  Not more fucking holes!

too much is enough - sometimes...

My  original 'L' Shaped Starter Bracket 

 Now a 'Holy Bracket' with ergonomic curve

I had a premonition, when I was drilling and shaping this bracket...

of riding along a road and hearing first a little popping noise 

...then a cracking sound 

followed by screaching and sparks 

and the bike collapsing with me sitting on a wheel holding onto the fucking handlebars - only! HaHaHa

like that pic of Rowan's when he was waiting for his frame!

.... Another fine mess Stanley

or one hole too many...

No Sissy Bars in evo land

Some high end custom bikes / choppers, no sissy bars.

Shaw HD had a stand with the AMD winning custom bike, no sissy bar,

  

 and here and there some hotrods and trikes, 

two rock bands and stages either end of Madeira drive, lots of venders and it was free (just give to the heart charity) and along with 

fantastic weather (we could be in the sarf of france ses Ren) 

made it a great day. 

 Nice Sporty but with fat rear end, look no sissy bar

What is it with evo riders and un baffled standard exhaust that sound really crap!

Didnt see a single shovel ridden there 

and no Sissy Bars!

(except the trumpet in the tent)

Brightona - on a bright sunny sunday in...

 Interesting, not everyone rides a chopper in Brighton

 thats true

 No crazy bikers?

It looks like a biker sunset

Ren, the dogs and bikers

sorry did johnny pee on your sandwich? 

 Where the fuck are we again?

 pig dog

 their words not mine

 cant get enough head(s)

 trumpet in the 'custom tent'

 oh yes

 oh no

 token chops

take off that muddy

 crazy people

bottoms up

 best in show - outside the tent on the pavement

timemachine, wrong time wrong place