Mike 'the Bike' Hailwood at Spa

Found this great clip of Mike Hailwood on a lap of old Spa. Never heard him speak before - a treat!



Love the leathers that are as thick as my tee-shirt, pudding bowl helmet and no gloves! So... according to Mike 'the Bike', when you come of a motorsickle you just lose a bit of skin here and there. Where can I get some of those super-protective leathers and invisible gloves?

Awsome Paintjob

Check out this stunning paintjob:

Pity the bike's only made out of cardboard...

Thanks Alen of Cro-moto for the link.

Manx GP - Never Easy

This is the 6th year I'm going for the Manx GP. Every year I've done it has had it's challenges... and those years that I haven't managed to get to that first lap on closed roads (2007 & 2008) the challenges just were just too great.

This year is no different - work has been a bit of a bastard the last few weeks... I'm away from home 5 days in 7 and have just moved. The moving part is positive... but has sucked the last 3 weekends (and some of this coming weekend) away. The folks at work are still not allowing me to take unpaid time off for the Manx. They don't realize that I work so that I can do the Manx. Screw them - I'm doing it. 

The good news is the Ultralightweight bike (Bazooki SV) and the Senior bike (BAMF/Candy) are both just about ready. The Bazooki just needs a few things like fitting brake pads, a soopa-doopa Durbahn battery, a bit of paint (too much red!), numberboards and a gearing change... oh... and lots of lockwire. The BAMF just needs a dB killer. A couple hours on each and they'll be good to go.

Flattracker Build - Tasty Bits

The Duke II Flattracker is currently in MOT trim. Believe it or not, I got another year of street legality with this morphing machine.

Due to my house move, all bikey activities have been on hold. But there is some activity... been collecting some tasty bits...

Those Talon wheels and Co-Built yolks are absolutely gorgeous! Works of art! I wanted black-on-black-on-black. Sick!

Bars and clamps arrived last week (black too... mabe too much black...). Can't wait to spend a little time in my new garage and get all of this stuff fitted. Having it all done in time for the next round at Buxton in 10 days might be a bridge too far... especially as I can only work on teh bikes for part of this weekend. We'll see...

American Muscle Racing

Wow! Found a brilliant clip on Church of Chopper blog - classic American racing:



Pontiac GTOs, Firebirds, AMX Javelin, Mustangs, Challengers and some beeee-atchin' Comaros! Check out these muscle cars driftin', big Vee eights roarring, girls in wee clothes, a hot-rod and kid on a Monkey-bike! Gotta love it!

Test at Snetterton

Took some time out from my house move on Sunday to test the little Suzuki SV and the BAMF at a Snetterton trackday. I got there early but the organization was piss-poor. Queued for 1/2 an hour to sign only to be told I have to go to the room next door and fill out some forms. At signing on there was only one staff member... and she was taking cash. Both bikes also had to be noise tested.

Early morning start with a Chevy packed with house contents and dragging 2 race bikes to Norfolk

They only started noise testing 45 minutes before the first session... of course they had the compulsory riders briefing during this time. Another queue. My session starts and I'm still waiting to be noise tested - I get out for 2 laps before the end of the session. It was run by a well known trackday company called 'No Limits' - they're shit.

Between sessions I queued again to get the BAMF noise tested. Despite the exhaust being repacked, she failed miserably. Limit: 105 dB. BAMF: 107 dB. Not good.

Got out on the Suzuki for 3 more sessions before lunch. She was great! She's a bit slow down the straight for the fast group - late model 1000cc superbikes would fly past and gap me by 50 yards before we got to the end of the longest straight on British soil. I'd then claw some back all the way to the chicane and they'd gap me again on the next straight. There were a couple of really fast boys out there... but most of the riders didn't get too far away from the 9 year old SV which had less than 1/2 the horespower than just about all of them and was on Pirelli road tyres.

Finally managed to get some air-ride suspension fitted to the Chev-dawg last week. You just load her up and pump up the pressure... fully loaded trailering 2 bikes she just eats up the bumps at 90mph! Brilliant!

During lunch I tried to botch a dB-killer on the BAMF - but wasn't accepted by the noise tester. :-( Got out for another session on the SV after lunch, but wasn't learning anything new. As Colin Edwards once said: If you're not riding at 110%, your just wearing out the machinery. Besides... I had a house-move to continue. So I skedaddled.

I was very happy with what I'd learned on the SV. It's dead-easy to ride quickly. Very forgiving. A bit slow, but quite a bit quicker than the Wee Monster. On standard road gearing I was still revving her out before braking - so need to sort that for the ultra-long straights on the Isle of Man. She's a lot lighter than the Wee Monster and easier to throw around, but still has worse brakes (no Brembos!) - got some new Performance Friction pads waiting for her so should be a bit better. Nothing broke or fell off. No surprises. Lovely! The bloke who built it, Gary at SDC Performance did a good job. :-)

The well mannered little SV and the fire-breathing Badd Ass

I was bit disappointed not to give the BAMF and run with her new-found horses and magnesium rear wheel - she's just been one disappointment after another since the rebuild - but I have faith that we'll get the old gal right.

Landed Gentry

I've been mighty busy the last few weeks trying to buy a house. It finally all went through last Wednesday and I am now a homeowner for the first time :-)

I think I'm also going to be skint :-( Haven't dared look at my bank balances yet!

The main reason for doing this: I needed a bigger garage!

Check out my new 'blank canvas':

Needs some work to turn it into a workshop... but I can see myself spending many hours in here building bikes... and mabe even a cool car!

Spent this last weekend moving in... only about half done. The move was held up while I went on a trackday at Snetterton to test the BAMF and little Suzuki SV to be wielded at the Manx GP in August - but that's for another post... did I mention I bought a house... with a double garage!

It came to me... on a ray of light!

I hope to finish the move this weekend so I'm going to miss the next round of Flattrack racin' at Stoke. But, no worries... I am sooooooo pleased with the space! Been dreaming of this many years.

I am now landed gentry!

:-)