Babe of the Day

:-)

... got lost somewhere...

One Cool Guzzi

Thanks Church of Choppers for the pic

Norton Commando Babe

One cool lookin' Norton

Santa was here

Santa was here and left this present outside my house.

Got all the bits - lookin' sweet and soundin' sweet...

He left a sheet that says 75bhp at the wheel... that's at least 20 more than the wee monster.

30% more ponies... should be able to hussle around the Isle quicker than 92mph.

She's tucked away, warm in the garage for the winter now. No more ice or salt (she was covered in it from the journey home) for this girl. Will break her out after March for a bit of testing/development and will see if she cooks as well as she looks.

Merry Christmas!

(thanks Gary at SDC Performance for the great build)

Hot legs

Flat Tracker back to DD

Done a bit of work on the old wrist-smashing Monster flat-tracker...

Converting her back to the race-winning Desmo-Due machine that she is.

Just need to sort the mullered quick-action throttle, the crash bung and fit the new tank. New tyres, a bit of trusty MD Racing suspension setup and she's good to go win more races!

Got a soft-spot for the old girl... going to hang onto her for now. Mabe a few rounds of the Desmo-Due championship for her in the new year?

We'll see.

Babe of the Day

2010 Race Licence

Got my 2010 Race Licence through the post...

You just to to tick the boxes for the different licences - same price... value!

No idea what "Track Racing Solo Rider" is for... sounded interesting when filling out the form.

MiniTwin is Happening

An update on the MiniTwin build...

Looking sweet!
I still feel like a bit of a sell-out... going Yapanese... and having someone else build my race bike for me. But... at least it's a twin...

I'll see how I feel when I take delivery of it.

Workshop Babe

This babe got loose...

To the Dark Side

After the running Mike's wee monster at this year's Manx GP successfully, but only as fast as the modest 60bhp would allow us, I asked the Manx MCC to make allowances for air-cooled twins in the Ultralightweight class and allow me to run a 696 or 800cc monster at next year's Manx GP (similar bhp to a 'Minitwin' Suzuki SV650). This request was turned down. Looks like as with the TT, the organizers make the rules to suit cookie-cutter racing... this of course makes it all easier for them to organise and police. Yep, another-fuckin-jix-ah-thou.

So... if you can't beat 'em. Join 'em.

Not having the time to build another race bike (I'm working away from home 5 days a week and have a flat-tracker project coming up...) I started looking for an SV race bike two weeks ago. It turns out that SDC Performance were building a couple... so I jumped.

Speaking to Gary at SDC on teh phone, it felt a bit weird 'ordering' your race bike. Engine tune... rear shock... frame color... wheel color... bodywork. Felt like I was in the garage on 'Need for Speed' scrolling through options and hitting the 'Select' button on bling go-fast doodabs... some just because they're cool.

Only 10 days ago the deposit was made and the build began.

Starting with pulling apart an el cheapo 2001 road bike...

Clean and prep all the bits. Full engine service, comp check, shim clearances...

Give it a lick of paint...

And then put it all back together again...

Some tasty custom SDC parts like front and rear subframes...

So far lookin' good. Got some updated pics from Gary today that I'll post later.

Feels strange that I'm burning the midnight oil over it in my garage. Like it's not really happening... like I'm reading some blokes blog about their bike build.

"Equilibrio precario"

News of the Ouroboros project on Sideburn.

Marco Belli stylin' it up!

One sweet looking machine!

Graziano Rossi: "We call it, in Italian, "Equilibrio precario". When you are drifting, you are in the corner and don't know if you live or not. It's a fantastic emotion."

Some of the folks involved in the Ousoboros development.

Thanks to Alberto Narduzzi for the pics and Gary Inman (Sideburn) for the G.Rossi words (article in Performance Bikes)

Jesus -The Light of the World

Roof of Africa 2009

The race from mah bruddah Igor and some pics from mah udder bruddah Nic...

(The bikes: 250 EXC two-smoke and the good 'ol 450 four-poke as backup)

(setting up base camp at the foot of the Lesotho Mountains)

"Looking at the official results they are not entirely accurate cos they are based on the time we got into the first DSP, not the second.

By the time we made it into the second the time bar was already in effect so the time keepers pack up their shit and leave."

(Pre-race focus...)

"Just looking at results there are a shed load of riders that came in after me at second DSP but were in front of me at the first., at a guess im prob around the 30th mark out of the 60 odd."

(Start line for 'Round the Houses')

(Finish of 'Round the Houses')

"The brider who held me up on Belakomo pass Manfred Hoerburger from Austria on a Husaberg 450 is listed as comming in befor me but in reality i got past him half way up the pass and i think i was sucking down ales long befor he got through. I asked him how Ertsburg compaired to the roof, he said "Ertsberg is not hard like dis""

(This gives a novice punter like me some hope for Erzberg in June next year...)

(Bringing it home on Day 1 Time Trial)

"I hooked up with about 6 other riders about 3/4 of the way up Belakomo and we all helped each other and when we got to the top i left them behind and made a run for the DSP, getting in there first and according to Nic a whole hour and a half after the rider infront of me, however results show that all the other 6 riders i was with got in befor me."

(Maintenance... the 250 two-smoke burst a fork seal on Day 1)

(...forks were swapped for the backup bike's)

"Nic s got a pic of myself and Frank Cogan the Aussie bullet at the second DSP, he was one of the guys i was with up the pass, tough old goat."

(Igor and Frank Cogan)

"Day two took me 9 hours to do 55 km, they were expecting the leader to get to the finish at 12:00, he only got in to the Last DSP at 16:30 which was 60 km short of the finish, they recon if the day wasnt shortned he would have got to the finish at around 20:00 at night after 14 hours of riding...nice and thats the leader, when did they expect us to get through....next week!!"

(The competitors fuel collection point - the fuel is collected and then carted across the mountains on a track to the DSP in a pickup truck. How many 'Approved' containers can you spot? Imagine this in the UK... The Brit authorities (ACU) would be shitting themselves!)

"But anyway the general consensus is that the whole event was a cock up beacause of the degree of dificulty, course changes etc etc. They recon 22 riders sleped in the mountains on friday night, some only getting back at 15:00 on Sat on horse back."

(Start of Day 2)

"And we had perfect weather, it would have been a complete fiasco if it rained.

Personaly i dont recon i will enter next year, cant justify the expence and effort, its just a race for the top 20 or 30 riders in the world."

(Day 2 - impossibly tough)

"Doing the event wouldnt have been possible without the help of Nic, who was invaluable as the man in charge of the general running around to DSPs, fuel, and of corse food."

(Nic was as invaluable at this year's Manx GP too!)

(Only 1 rider got up this pass unassisted - not quite an event for a motorbike!)

"An outstanding effort on his part, especialy the hours of waiting arround in the mountains for me. Thanks Chief !"

"As for the rest of my crew, ya... nuff said..."

(This is Africa)

Babe of the Day

Last Day in the Clay

Managed to get down the field last Sunday for a play in the clay... we got our dates wrong and our fun down there only ends in November for two months for huntin season.

It was wet 'n mushy...

We were a slippin' and a slidin' everywhere! Eventually we just plotted out a really snug oval in the grass (the wet grass gave far more traction!) and raced... flat-track style!

It was a hoot!

The 2 hours cleaning the shit off the bikes wasn't so much fun though.

Cruiser Babe

Phantom Bike

A wicked bike design, “Forkless – Cruiser” by Olli Erkkila. He built it for his graduation project at the Institute of Design in Lahti, Finland.

Babe of the Day

Thanks to my mate Meesta Juice for the pic!

AMA Flat Track Ducati

One super-cool flat-track Ducati racing in AMA.

A 748 motor wedged between the wheels... look how close the front cylinder is to the front tyre! This is one of the main reasons I've decided not to flat-track the monster next year. Some of the other problems are solvable... but the engine is just too long in the standard frame.

Some pics of the build...

Desmo-quattro belt drive... dry clutch... :-)

Thanks Sideburn for the lead on this awsome machine!

Built by Dale Lineaweaver and raced by Kurt Marmor. Nice one guys!