call that clean… this is clean...

Masked my parts up, which took some time...

and had them bead blast cleaned...

 

by Darren who specialises in parts cleaning...

 at Suffolk blast Clean in Stonham Aspall

Wow, glad I didn't opt for vapour blast, the parts would not have looked real, almost as though they had been powder coated - with this the parts have a matt textured finish.

a couple of weeks ago ...

 back in the day...

about four foot...

don't look to bad - yet.. 

Phillip piled stuff up in his office but still got damp  

creeping up... 

very high tide... 

and two hours later…

welcome to my world...

funny I laughed a lot when I viewed this for the first time, 
I really don't remember doing the voiceover much...

and tales from a cold garage workshop...

and some bits on the bench…

my cam bearing puller tool...

 worked!...

 shit or bust*...

a little heat helps here...

and flushed with success and I'm not so cold now…

* a favourite saying of the old mechanic 

in the bike shop where I earned pocket money after school

NB 

 A claw hammer is made of hard brittle steel… It is hard so striking nails won't wear out the head.

It's head is much harder that a mechanics hammer… And it will chip when it is used on mechanics

chisels, punches ect… And the chip will try and put out an eye, or at least embed itself in your hide.

thanks to Larry  luckybastards-mc.com

doggy in the window...

Hmm...

whats that...

 

noise...

best have another look...

hmmmmm...

its behind you... 

or was... got some new shovel art but sadly had to remove them from the hearth to my new workbench as its getting a touch nippy here and her ladyship would like a fire...

build it and they will come...

another shelf built for all those essential mayonnaise pots...

and that daggy light in the even more daggy kitchen...

 looks bitchin in the garage...

moved the original light forward, now there are no shadows...

 and out of the mess and gloom a chopper appeared...

next time, kick the bitch hard

or she will kick you

Just left Krazy Horse where she started beautifully first kick,

thought I would get some gas

and pussy kicked her - and didn't follow through...

and did she kick me back!

funny how much you need and use two legs to get about...

a well made item to save my ass and some shitty pics of a shit full garage...

 My new seat bracket from SUMO @ Vintage Chop

Finally that piece of shit I had repaired broke

so only the best will do now

Believe me, this looks a lot better than it was

theres a chopper in there somewhere

Bench and shelving had to be done  

a lot better and cheaper than those 'big dug' shelving sets advertised 

that would not of fitted anyways

now just got to sell that less than essential piece of equipment 

- the dishwasher

and there should be room for the next build...

3pm on a sunday, and its time to leave...

me at the trip out by blue

Oh dear, a little red in the face from too much sun... or is it beer...

now how the fuck do I get out of here...

funny thats exactly what I had planned to do 

my new loud horn 

cannot be mounted as the other one, 
precisely because it makes them inoperative

and this time I managed to not get lost
 a little round trip of ninety miles over to SO LOW Choppers on Saturday
following a similar trip to Krazy Horse the previous weekend.

Clive who with his son Jay run the show made me very welcome
and we had a good long chat over a couple of coffees.
Evidently they went to the BSH EXtreme Show at Donnington
and Scott's Shovel won Best Traditional Chopper

bugger, I really wanted that...

my mate Nick won this gorgeous Kick pedal at the Trip Out

designed and made by

Mark Artisan Uprising 

for his lovely little green iron head

Grrrrrrrrrrrr....

and that is all I have to say about the trip out...

This vid kinda somes it all up for me 

We bumped into these two guys on a roundabout just ten miles from the Trip Out

They had come all the way from Germany and the trans had blown just short of nirvana.

Sorry I can't remember your name fellas but my heads a little hazy...

and the righteous did get well and truly pissed on for 30 miles from Bury St Edmunds and then dried out in my mate Nicks tumble dryer in Cambridge and off we went with Spike to have some fun...

and for now all can say is...

the Widows Lounge 2am on the friday night

you just had to have been there

love you fellas

you mad fuckers

blessed are the righteous?

well sometimes...

the rain has cleared here

rain scheduled in orford this afternoon and in bedfordshire this morning

its warm and humid

and we are off to 

THE TRIP OUT

tune in and turn on...

so lost to so low so wot...

A trip to So Low Choppers So Wot Bash on Saturday

So I think a little cross country route would be nice over across 'the 12' to

Wickham - MarketEaston - Kettlebury - Earl Soham -Thorndon -

where the fucks Thorndon!....

and so it became a where the fuck am I number...

Heres a Scott's 90" Shovel bike on an earlier visit

(young american over here on service for his country) 

 Its moved on from this a lot, but he has some long days 

and nights if thats going to be ready for the Trip Out

He also played in the band at the show

Got fucking lost on the way back too...

coming into orford on the 'regardless'...

a little trip around havergate island and the ness

and back on the good ship 'regardless' 

with mrs arcadian on our anniversary

fields of gold...

floating through suralistic fields of gold 

at this time of the year in suffolk

over to 'Krazy Horse' to meet my mate nick (half way) from Cambridge who is building a fine shovel, hopefully in time for the Trip Out

while there we met 'Studs' who started the whole Krazy thing and now living in South Africa

and bumped into a couple of fellas like Rob and Stephen who I normally only meet at one of those 'events'

border crossing...

Door graffiti - seems I've been here before, haha

Some people I know have bought from them and so I

took a ride across the border into Norfolk to visit
Michael and Stephen (Deds) of Weatherleys Motorcycles

and the good guys made me welcome

a few shovs amongst brits and japs they've imported from the states

solo to so-low

Saturday to So-low Choppers near Bury St Edmunds

another 100 mile round trip

Made welcome by Mark as Clive the head honcho was off to pick up 

an ebastard find. 

I bumped into Steve who had been knocked off his bike by a post office van. 

They were fixing it up for him, in their rather dusty workshop, the paint an prep area and engineering are in the same large warehouse. 

Amazing damage at fifteen miles an hour, including that  £2000 quid 

Pageant paint OUCH!

AHEM

Christine has stopped puking!

The S&S Breather gear did the trick and later I swopped the feed and vent hoses on the oil tank, an inch and half can make difference! (they are together at the top right of the tank and have no tubes inside)

The new Mufflers required a jet change so now running 29.5 Intermediate which makes in run a lot smoother at low revs and no coughs at closed throttle from the carb. And as I had gone up two sizes, I've gone up one to 70 on the main jet, although she wasn't complaining the plugs are now the right colour. Amazing how drag pipes can cause a such rich condition.

drool, drool, drool...

Andy Tiernans classic bike emporium in Framlinghm

I called in to buy some 50wt oil he sells for £16 quid, 

that he had made up to his spec, strictly cash only...

and while there had a good nose around, meeting dave in the workshop.

I found this place about 17 years ago and went back a few times but could not locate it.

Turns out Andy rented the showroom out to a bed shop, so thats how we missed it.

Funny, I bought a victorian wrought iron and brass bed from Ben Goodfrey who owns the bed shop in 1990, but his premises then was an old barn!

small world...

lurking in deepest darkest suffolk...

in Andy Tiernans classic bike shop in Framlingham Suffolk

lurks a chopper from another time...

check out andys pics

back in the day
built by Gibert Sills of the Crettingham Crank Company

sunday lunch with NCC Suffolk

Jay, son of Mr So-Low Chopper's lovely 650 Yam 

show winner...

loaded with extras...

a few triumph chops...

sunday lunch with the suffolk NCC...

nice...

early rider...

great country band with legs...

and found Ms Blue chilling on the grass

Her mum was at the Friston Classic Car and Bike Show... 

a lovely laid back early evening event on the village green 
that we went to on Thursday the 11th
full of gems that had seen some use. 

(Pic nicked from Andy Tiernans Classic Bike)

why so many vids? - that is all my camera will take...

quiet you bitch part deux

finally they are on, 

mrs arcadian thinks the bitch is louder!

certainly feels smoother

got to get used to the funny little snuffly sounds they make on overrun

and Rob, I know they worked for you but she didn't start any easier!

How to spend two and a half days fitting two mufflers...

 for those of us without a lathe and an out door workshop, dont waste time (hours) filing your spacer to fit (cut from the old exhaust)..

 cut the spacer in half...

 looking goooood, now thats one done, 

one to go but a bit quicker next time....

 find somewhere to locate the bracket and cut and drill to size...

 then discover the mufflers are not a push fit 

and need spacers and a clamp which will need to be ordered...

 used a bit of silicone plastic tube as a cut guide and a saw to finish the cut...

 but now the front pipe has no tab or bracket to fix it...

my spacer solution came from a piston ring compressor tool... 

and my bracket for the front pipe made from a bit of daggy old angle iron, note the allen bolt drilled and tapped to stop the bracket moving on the original frame tab, fucking neat heh...

so that then had to be painted and as you may have noticed the camera has decided to fuck its self...

so dear reader part deux to come...