Eddie Pinchbeck on his remaining Royal Enfield 1965 motorbike after his Norton Commando 1971 was stolen.

Hi Blog, sorry I've been away so long!!! Went to Istanbul, very interesting, been back to Warton on business, having a day off today to do something with Dan (not sure what yet and he is still in bed!).

Next Friday we are booked to go to the Motorcycle Show at the NEC with Charles from work, should be good fun.

The following report is from the local paper, the Andover Advertiser, if anyone has any news on the stolen bike, leave a comment.

Ram raiders steal rare Norton bike
3:40pm Thursday 27th November 2008

A RARE motorcycle worth up to £7,000 has been stolen in a ram raid on Pinchbeck and Sons garage in Abbotts Ann.

The 1971 black Norton Commando with gold piping is the pride and joy of garage owner Eddie Pinchbeck who has offered a £3,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of the thieves.

He said: “I feel bad. I was brought up that if something’s happened it’s happened, but I would not like to tell you what I would do if I found them.”

Mr Pinchbeck, who has owned his main garage in Middle Wallop for 45 years and raced motorcycle and sidecar for 20 years, said he bought the machine in bits from Norton Villiers about seven years ago and restored it. The Norton Commando make has a very special place in his heart because he ended up racing them. His speciality was speedway, but he also ice-raced in Canada.

It was the only vintage machine at his second-hand car showroom in Abbotts Ann but it was a determined raid.

Not only did the intruders ram-raid the offices to get in, they had to lift the 392lbs machine into the back of the van because the wheels were chained and locked.

Police say that a man who keeps an eye on the site and lives in a mobile home next door woke as the van crashed into the premises at 1.20am on 20 November.

He saw two men get into the white Transit and speed off towards Salisbury.

All things to do with sales and business on tv...

I've not mentioned this before on my blog's, but I will now....I have a fascination for any TV programme to do with sales/business/entrepreneurs etc etc. For example The Apprentice on BBC is a must when it's on(the first series was the best to learn from), the US version of The Apprentice, BBC's Dragon's Den, Peter Jones's attempt at the Apprentice (Tycoon, not that great), the recent Natural Born Sellers (moved to a late slot by ITV and therefore killed, a good, down to earth series, with a travesty of a winner), and now, The Last Millionaire on BBC3. Sounds like a lot of TV but when mixed with the hours of X this and Get Me Out of that a minimum amount of time really.

I guess I like to try and learn from all the show's how to sell, and I've read quite a few books over the years on sales techniques from all sorts of people (avoid Richard Branson's book Screw It, Let's Do It). And that's what I have been trying to do more of over the last few weeks (sell, not read books), hence the lack of blog's.

Bike's also been parked up, although not for the whole winter, I hope. No time this weekend for a ride, and I am off to Istanbul (for the first time) Wednesday, so unlikely to use it this week. Julie, Tash and Margaret Snr are off on a last minute holiday to the sun on Sunday, leaving me and Dan to fend for ourselves. Should be fun!

Hi Blog...no that's not a picture of me, I would not ride without all the protective clothing on!

Can't believe that I have not done anything for over a week! Back end of last week I went to Birmingham/Cambridge for work, managed to get into Hitchcocks (Enfield parts) and buy a rear carrier and crash bars for the Bullet, as Christmas presents to me! It was a very interesting place, a right mecca for Enfield fans, in fact I met two of the local RE owners club members in there, completely by co-incidence!

Weekend was busy but quiet, if you see what I mean. Went to Tidworth for Remembrance Sunday with the Scouts, did some radio work as well. Pretty foul weather, went for a very muddy walk Saturday, and Sunday afternoon Dan and I walked to the Media centre. It rained so hard Julie came and picked us up!
Finally got round to taking pic's of both the bike and the car, note they both end in CFS, both from Scotland, another co-incidence.

Baz will be doing Bluez and Zuzz tonite, our turn in December. Other things going on at home included big upset between Tash and her (now ex) boyfriend, and Dan has a bursary from the Army, if we can complete the paperwork!

Lovely sunny day today, after yesterdays monsoon rain, so brought the bike in. Doug's trying to fix and flog the Moto Guzzi (don't think he likes it), and has bought a Triumph 750 of some sort. I quite like the Triumph Tiger (newish type, see pic from Ebay). Sort of poor man's BMW, maybe one day....

Pretty average weekend....except for the F1!

..with some incredibly wet and wild weather on the Saturday (we went to Basingstoke, mostly indoor shopping), and a grey Sunday.

Saturday morning after the radio show I washed both cars (quickly!), then had to go back up to the media centre to fix the logging. Then we went shopping.

Sunday was slow, grey weather, took the bike of for a short spin but it was cold and rainy. Pig to start (at least 12 kicks), when we were climbing the hill out of Tidworth it was pinking, so timing is out. Must attend to that soon.

Sunday afternoon watched the Brazil F1 final leg, Hamilton came fifth by a whisker, good enough to be world champ by one point. Pretty boring race except for that last 30 seconds when Hamilton had lost the world championship until Glock slowed and Hamilton passed him for 5th with 18 seconds to go to the chequered flag! Weird.

Found this Enfield report on the web, quite interesting what they have to say about reliability. Mine hardly travels anywhere except work and back, hopefully will get some pleasure out of it next summer, but it sounds like I ought to knuckle down and get some work done over the winter.



1995 Enfield Bullet 500

"Life with a classic bike isn't always straightforward. Steve Hickling has more than his fair share of problems with his Bullet (and it's not even very old)...

When he passed his bike test in 2002, Steve Hickling decided that he'd like a traditional motorcycle, one which 'looks like a bike should, with a kick-start and right foot gearchange.' So he bought a 1995 Indian-built Bullet which, if we're being honest about it, doesn't come from a period when the factory's build standard was particularly high. Bullets from this era are infamous for needing considerable owner input. And Steve knew next to nothing about bike mechanics. But the Bullet appeared to be unmodified and in 'very good' condition. And it cost less than a grand!

The first issue was minor but tracking down perished carb rubbers 'caused this biking virgin a few problems'. The Amal concentric was 'too complicated and temperamental.' However, a clogged carb was the least of Steve's trouble - his learning curve suddenly steepened when the piston disintegrated while travelling down the A11. 'I started doing the work myself but quickly realised it was beyond me. So the engine was rebuilt by Dave Wicks in Norfolk.' Good thinking, that man!"

For the rest of the story go to http://www.realclassic.co.uk/bullet08020100.html