GOOSE

I built this little Suzuki Goose in 2005. A grey import with DR350 mechanicals they were renowned for superb handling but were a bit gutless. Among other things i rebuilt the motor with a 440cc piston and liner which together with a Web competition cam and a bit of a porting job on the head made for a load of fun.

BLOWING MY OWN TRUMPET

Its 13 years since i had a bike on BSH cover and centrespread, also a reverse head Triumph. Blue has done a crackin job with the feature in this months issue, on the shelves this coming Thursday.



I lost track of the Zeitgeist bike in about 2001, anyone know where it is ?









Double hard bastards, or Superleague as it is officially known kicked off last night with Rhinos stuffing Crusaders 34 - 6 in the snow. It was a lot closer than the scoreline would suggest though. Photo shows Keith chatting with Lee Gilmour during a Leeds/St Helens clash last year, plenty more of the same to come !

VIC

Al and i called in to see Vic yesterday, its about 15 years since Lin (now his wife) called in and introduced me to Vic and despite rubbing shoulders with the worlds most famous custom bike builders ( and celebs, see pic in this months BSH with Charley Boorman) he is just the same top bloke as he was then. Do you know he still calls mudguards, mudguards and i for one love him for that !

VIBES UK

In 2005 Vibes produced an english language edition of the magazine, i finally got a copy, cheers Paul



Up till now i only ever understood these pages.

FIRST RALLY

My first rally driving a Cortina GT on the Moonraker in 1972. This photo has been stuck on my workshop door for 20 yrs so is in about the same derelict state the car was in then. We came to a halt several times during the night due to rust in the fuel tank. A few months later i broke the car and sold it in bits, its rare ive sold any vehicle complete since then.

LUNCHEON AT ROBERTOS

If you are in Malton and have hunger, get yourself to Pasture Lane industrial estate, the home of Doctor Roberts food emporium. Tea and sausage 'n egg butty, cracking. Rob a fully trained chef and former gigolo, subscribes to the Eat the Rich easy life philosophy and forgoes the celebrity chef lifestyle in favour of serving top snacks and selling ice cream in summer.
Robs hobbies are rallying, travel and fit actresses in no particular order.

T120 part 3

The hardtail had always looked too long so with the help of Chris we chopped a couple of inches out of it and straight away it was the best it had ever looked. I fitted a 16" front wheel to match the rear, stripped and checked the motor again and fitted the ARD mag i had picked up along the way. The pipes and seat mount were made by Vic at Destiny Cycles and were awesome. Chris also made the superb primary cover. I had to narrow down another tractor seat as the original had been taken off at sometime. The tank was off a late 50s 3TA. The whole thing was treated to satin black powdercoat and i painted the tank and rear guard with gloss.
I had found a cool Australian website called Greasy Kulture that featured my style of bike so i sent some photos and he put them up on the site. I later found that GK man Guy was English and 7 yrs later he contacted me to say he now lives 15 miles away!
Part 4 coming soon....

WONDERWALL

Many years ago i decided it was a waste having all my old photos in a box, so i stuck 'em on the workshop wall so everyone can see them. Times change though and the way to exhibit now is to post them on here. So now i am un-gluing and taking down the ones that are'nt too badly faded and dirty which explains the poor quality of some of the things you are about to see. This is just the office, there's another 3 walls and 2 doors to go yet, sadly a lot of them are damaged by damp and beyond saving.

ROB STEVIE AND MORE FA

Li'l Rob called today to pick up his frame and brought Stevie along to photograph the occasion (look right for Steviemonster blogspot). Good to see you boys.




Found this while researching yesterdays Wild Willie post, Dave Hough in "Nanook" in 1971. Too good a photo to leave out.

WILD WILLIE

Whilst at school i used to read 3rd or 4th hand copies of Hot Rod magazine that someone had sent from the States, although i dont remember the rods of the time making a big impression i was left forever with memories of the fabulous photos of the fuel altered drag racers. One name always stuck in my mind, that of "Wild" Willie Borsch.
The late 60s was a boom time for US drag racing with people trying new things on almost a weekly basis and times came tumbling down as a result. The altereds in particular had motors that way exceeded their handling capabilities, other drivers used to say they Willie always drove 1/2 a mile on every run and always with only one hand on the wheel, he used to hold on to the side of the cars body with the other. These were proper back yard built cars, the original Marcellus and Borsch "Winged Express" used a model A steering box and front suspension designed for a car with a maximum speed of 60 mph. The rear wing they used was mounted on old steering rods. By the end of they 60s they were running mid 7s and in 1969 Willie actually qualified the car to run in the Top Fuel eliminations at the Winternationals. He took out Don Garlits in the first round but then the other drivers refused to race him and threatened to boycot the event, Garlits was reinstated but Fuel Altered history had another paragraph to add.
If the whole wild Winged Express show wasnt enough the driver also suffered from narcolepsy and would sometimes be found in the staging lanes with fire suit and helmet on fast asleep ! just try applying for a competition licence now and declaring that on your application form.
After defying death at the track on a regular basis for over 15 yrs Willie finally died of cancer in 1990, his friend and car owner Alvin Marcellus restored the car he originally built in the 60s and displayed it at a major meeting in 1991. Everyone was intrigued by a small trophy fastened to the dash, at the end of the day it was revealed that it contained Willies ashes.
The photo was taken in 1970 by Bob Mclurg, he was given intructions by his then boss " i dont care who comes to the line, even if its Don Garlits, you photograph Borsch".

TYRES

Pr 4.00 x 19" Blockley vintage racing tyres, 6 miles only from new on a 2CV kit car £120



Avon Roadrunner 130/80 x 16" been fitted to wheel then removed, as new £45 SOLD



Shinko whitewall 5.00 x 16" been fitted to a wheel then removed, as new with tube £110



Goodyear 5.00 x 16" very good condition, nice for Triumph as fitted width is less than Avon SM etc £35



Avon SM MK2, oldie but goodie. good tread £25 SOLD

Can post any for £10 UK mainland excl North Scotland. Contact me at tri650@live.co.uk

STAG PARTY

Incense. Shrinivas Bangalore
Straw hat. Glasto '05
Goggles. Frankie Dettori
Fur stole (real). My giddy Aunt

A10 CHOP

First bought this as the rolling chassis shown here about 9 yrs ago from Newark Autojumble, sold it to two brothers from Rochdale who put an A10 motor in it and nearly finished it but then had a fall out so i bought it back. I sold the engine and box then put the roller on my workshop roof for a while. I must've got short of cash as i sold it to a lad from Cheshire who took it to Benny at Boneshakers to have a XS650 engine fitted. Tidy bike.

TICKING BOXES

Got this '86 GSXR11 Streetfighter in for sale at the moment. Motorcycles should be big, fast, noisy and anti-social, i recon this ticks all those boxes. If you want something very special to upset the neighbours and frighten yourself with you know where to come. Dont expect Moto GP handling, do expect complaints.

JCC

"Thanks to that embryonic Bruce Lee
I’m a shadow of the person that I used to be
I can’t go back to Salford
the cops have got me marked
Enter the Dragon
Exit Johnny Clarke"

Kung Fu International 1978.

Legend.

DRAGGIN

Drag racing at Elvington '07 on Ugly Betty. After seing these photos i got rid of the Andy Pandy leathers and bought some black ones.

SWINGARM HEAVEN

To lower my Shovel i turned the swinging arm upside down chopped the chainguard and torque arm brackets off and welded them on again in the correct place, then got it powder coated. Then i got some other shocks that i wanted to use but they are 2" shorter than the originals (which were Konis and aparently 1" longer than standard although i didnt know it at the time) are you following ? and it was WAY too low. So i chopped the brackets off re-welded them on top but further back, then got it powder coated again, sat just right. Then Flywheel Bobby got in touch to say he had an early sixties tubular type swinging arm for me; better have it. It came yesterday, it is the bollocks, well tidy, now i just need to make up some bosses to mount the shock bottoms and some chain adjusters and some spacers to fit the ends of the spindle, and get it powder coated again. You know i might just bloody paint it !

If you want to buy a box section Shovelhead swinging arm with lowered mounts, powdercoated satin black and fitted with new bearings you know where to contact me. Only stands me at about £500 so i can do a good deal !

MR PEPPER

A good few years ago i got a call from Sean Pepper who wanted to trade a load of Triumph 650 stuff for some Ford V6 tuning parts i had for sale. Now Sean is a larger than life character who runs a small wooden garage with a very large sign bearing the legend "Mr Peppers SAAB Workshop", this is not on a scruffy back street or industrial estate but on a pleasant leafy road of tall town houses in the middle of Hull. Up and down the road and in neighbouring car parks are about 20 to 30 SAABs in varying stages of decay all belonging to Sean. He gets away with it partly because a good few of the houses are rented out to students, and also he is quite a big bloke.
Sean terrorised the streets of Hull with his chop in the 70s then took up drag racing with it, most people would have built it into a more suitable chassis but he weaved his way to low 14 second quarters at York Raceway still with slugged forks and forward controls, even ran it on methanol at one time.
Following its final blow up the mechanical parts were all thrown in a big green plastic bin in the corner of his dingy workshop while the chop lived in his mothers garden outside for over 20 years. I kept it in my garden for a year or two but because i cant leave anything alone stripped it and sold the parts that were worth selling. Wish i hadnt now.
Last time i saw him his health wasnt too good, if you get to read this Sean hope thing are going better for you now. Top man !

JUST IN

Bought yesterday from a man with a leather stetson and cowboy boots, of course as usual i didnt have my camera with me to take a photo of the beautiful A10 cafe racer he is building in his front room. Frame last had a unit T140 Triumph fitted. As usual if you see anything you fancy e mail me at tri650@live.co.uk FRAME SOLD.

VELOCITY STACKS

In stock now, velocity stacks for S&S Super E carb, £30 each including post to anywhere. E mail tri650@live.co.uk

T120 part 2

By the following summer i had done a bit more chroming, fitted a seat made from an old farm implement and found a rather splendid custard field to take photos in. My short span of attention was at its end though so i sold it to a guy from Teeside who fell off it losing a few toes in the process. I saw it again a couple of years later at the Farmyard Party looking pretty much the same with a new owner then lost touch with it.
In 2001 i was looking for a BMW boxer twin to build into a chop ( something i still havent done) and while browsing the Autotrader came accross my Triumph for sale in Hexham. It looked OK in the tiny photo but when i got there it was a bit of a mess, the owner had back problems and hadnt ridden it for a year, worse still he didnt have a garage either so the bike had been left outside over winter. Of course i bought it and as soon as i got home pulled it to bits again.......To be continued.......

T120 part 1

Most of the parts i used to build this Triumph came from a rolling project i bought from a girl in Leeds in 1991/2. Her husband had died leaving it in bits and so she had got his friends to put it together so she could sell it. She was eager to get rid as she was paranoid about someone coming and theiving it from the shed so it came quite cheap. The only thing she could tell me about it was that it had a belt drive primary, she had bought it for him for Christmas !
Just as well i stripped the motor when i got it back as it had no piston rings or cam wheels inside. Cant remember many details of the build but i do recall that everything i took to an "expert" to have done took forever. It made quite a good little chop and being my first hadtail at least made me aware of where all the manhole covers were in town....

MEET GAZ

This happy chap is Gary our dependable Parcelforce driver from Middlesborough. He likes Lambrettas, Mettalica, running a long way and supports the Boro, this involves telling eveyone who will listen what a load of shite they are. Gary is very popular with the ladies (and the boys) round Malton especially in summer when he wears a leopardskin thong and flipflops. Gary has a few vids on Youtube, search for "boro postman pat"

BIG SHOVE

My Shovel: 93ci S&S stroker crank,barrels and pistons, Sifton Warrior cam, twin plug heads, Dyna ignition, Super E carb. Sounds fit, lookin forward to spring !