Been away for a few days...

...to Manchester, for a visit to a small Broadcast exhibition. Lot's of miles, the sat nav said 222 when we set off to come home, and that was to Frimley!

Did Radio Saturday morning, then Christmas shopping in Basingstoke, that's it, not doing it again.....

Managed to get to wash the car off following our visit to the farm to get the RRRR trailer, not looking forward to going out there again in December. Might get the trailer out in the morning and put it back the following day, at least then I can see what I am doing.

Spent a little while on the Enfields gearbox/kick start problem, found that the spring was stuck in the hole, not lost in the gearbox. Nearly got it back together when I ran out of time.



Brought the Yamaha to work this morning, it feels a little rough, needs some TLC. We may be going to the NEC next Saturday, for the bike show live, me and Dan, Charles and Andy. Should be fun...



See you soon....

Remembrance for 2011

Went down to Ludgershall for the Remembrance Day ceremony, it was OK, just OK........



Saturday spent all day teaching Day In Radio, it was good, bit busy trying to edit the interviews and get them ready to go on air! Well done to the students, including Dan.

Talking of Dan he had an interview today, British Heart Foundation, as a stores type labourer. Will see what comes of it.

Andy and I are off on a work trip up North later this week, should be fun. Expect to be back Friday night, probably quiet late.....might make radio on Saturday, will have to see.



Pic is of the latest incarnation of the Classic Chrome Enfield, very nice...

Enfields still not fixed, my fault, got back from the garden centre yesterday afternoon with plenty of time to do it, but fell asleep with a funny headache instead. Brought Yamaha in this morning, saw six other bikes, at one point was in convey with two of them, three of the others were learners and an instructor.

VERY dark and VERY cold and misty now, will be fun on the way home......

Well hallo...

...sorry about that, started to blog again and then stopped...

Perhaps it's because we have been pretty busy, not sure where to go back to.....well we went to Natasha's Foxy Me launch two weeks ago, it was busy with girls giving out ballons and stuff, hopefully the business will get going between now and Christmas.



Go to www.foxyme.co.uk to book treatments at Foxy Me.

Julie went to the NEC to a craft show last Saturday, the day before we spent in Southampton, meeting Pat and Bill with Julie's mum, and Dan came to.

Been pretty busy (too busy!) with radio, lot's going on, another meeting tonight. Will be doing Day In Radio course this Saturday, and will go down to the memorial in Ludgershall on Sunday.

Enfield is still not mobile, need to fix the kickstart, have the bits but not made the time to do it.



Quiet like the look of the RE above, it started out all black with full seat, just like mine.


By for now..

Theft of Vivi Mallock war memorial statue from Tidworth

This statue has been stolen by thieves in the early hours of Monday morning, the 17th October, from the war memorial at Pennings Road in Tidworth. The offenders, thought to have arrived in a white vehicle, removed the Vivi Mallock statue between 2.40am and 3.19am.

Wiltshire Police are appealing for anyone with information regarding the theft or its whereabouts to contact Acting Sergeant Andy Willcox on 101.

This theft feels quiet personal to me, we (1st Tidworth Scouts) attended the Remembrance Day ceremonies that were held around this statue, and I remember actually being involved with cleaning it a few times. So if anyone has any info at all please contact Wiltshire Police.

Thank you.

Petrol prices..

...this was on Yahoo this morning, along with more news of electricity, oil and gas price rises. I was already depressed after a naff Sunday!

According to the AA, the UK has the eighth-highest petrol price in Europe and the second-highest diesel price (behind Norway). This is largely due to very high UK taxes, which explains why fuel costs more than twice as much here as it does in the USA (62p a litre for unleaded petrol).

What's more, despite the oil price falling back from its 2011 peak of $127 a barrel, fuel prices have barely budged. This is partly due to a weaker pound, because oil is priced in US dollars. As a result, drivers struggle to pay 140p for a litre of diesel and 136p/litre for petrol. To save on fuel, visit www.petrolprices.com. You will have to sign up, but it does seem to work. It does tell you that you only have 19 searches left, maybe they will charge after that.

Took the kickstart apart on the Enfield over the weekend, kickstart spring is broke, have another one on order with rugbydilly on Ebay, cost 2.99 plus P&P. Hope it comes soon...



Yamaha clocked 25K on the way home Friday, just took a photo as I came in today. Wore all my leathers for the first time and I am still cooling down some 30 minutes later.

Bye for now....

Broken Enfield...

...tried to bring in the Enfield today, got it out, put on all the bike gear, kicked it over to get it ready, turned on ignition, kicked, no start, kicked again and the kickstart just went right down without turning over the engine. Oh dear it must be a broken spring or something. Put it back in the garage and had a nice ride in on the Yamaha instead.



On Tuesday HRH The Duke of York visited The Wellington Academy and performed the official opening. He visited the sports centre but did not make it as far as the radio, which is a shame, since we sent some hours painting it! Oh well, it needed doing...

More soon...

Weekend....

...was OK, ish, did radio show and then painting of the studios till 1pm, had lunch, cut the grass at home, went to Basingstoke, met Tash and Simon at Pizza Hut, which was noisy.



Then we went to see Johnny English Reborn, which was funny in a school-boy ish way with some laugh out loud moments.

Looked in Basingstoke Curry's at ovens, nothing much we liked except a built-in one, which needs a seperate hob and new work-tops.

Also went into Mott's Motorcycles, to get a free paper. We were very attracted to this Suzuki SV650S, since found out that there are loads going round for sale.



It was priced at £3,995.00 by the way, Dan wanted a 8 grand plus bike (for me, not him), Julie reckoned I should by the Suzuki....won't be doing either of those things...

Sunday prep'd dinner for me, Julie, Tash, Dan and Nan. Strimmed some grass round the allotment, changed Tashies tyres front to rear whilst they were out, washed Yamaha and then did Gym. Got really tired so went to bed around 8pm.

So that was my weekend.......

1952 Royal Enfield/Indian Tomahawk-Woodsman

After many years in a private collection, this beautifully restored 1952 Royal Enfield Bullet has surfaced to find a new home. Spectacularly restored 20 years ago at the cost of more than $8,000 the present owner purchased the bike off of the showroom floor at Mean Marshall's in 1993! Although not run in many years, it has been consistently registered and insured in California and has current tags today.
This 500cc thumper served as the prototype for the eventual Indian Woodsman that was marketed by Indian starting in 1955. Though by that time it had lost its cool lightweight alloy fenders and the gorgeous alloy headlight nacelle.



Many Art Deco designs and lines can be found in this very cool old machine. The colors, polished alloy cases and especially the striped chrome rims really set this bike apart from a lot of the other bikes that one sees on display in your typical retail window, restaurant, or living room. With the economy doing what it has been doing, old vehicles are proving to be one of the more safer investments while providing wonderful eye candy in the interim.



Posting update: September 16, 2011 Wow, what a tool the internet is! In the past 18 hours we have learned so much more about this bike it is amazing! The owner of the U.S. Royal Enfield Blog called us and subsequently put us in touch with the President of the U.K. Royal Enfield Owners Club who own most of the dispatch ledgers from the Royal Enfield factory in Redditch. It appears that this bike is more appropriately an Indian and not a Royal Enfield even though for all intents and purposes they are the same bike anyway since Indian was buying Royal Enfields and putting their own name on them and re-selling them as Indians. But I thought that it would be helpful to add the following additional history that has now surfaced as well: The frame number of 5T-4792 is actually an Indian Tomahawk frame for export to the U.S. that was dispatched on the 15th of December 1955, making this bike technically a 1956 and the engine number of Js15124 is from an Indian Woodsman 500cc engine dispatched on the 15th of February 1956.



These dates reflect when they went to the Brockhouse depot at West Bromwich in the U.K. and not when they actually left for the U.S. The Brockhouse Corporation had taken over Indian in the early 1950s terminating production of motorcycles at Springfield and they marketed Royal Enfields (and others) under the Indian brand name between 1955 and 1959. AMC then took over in 1960 selling their own Matchless machines using Indian model names, but not re-badged. They did, however, take 200 Royal Enfield Indian Chief models that year, presumably the remainder of a Brockhouse order they inherited. So, in a way I guess what you have before you is a '1956 Indian Woodshawk' and as often happens with old motorcycles the titling paperwork won't support that at this point in time but, if one wanted to do battle with the DMV I suppose you could provide the appropriate copies of the documentation in England to get the DMV to update the records to reflect the Indian brand.

Since the Indians were just re-badged Royal Enfields anyway the paperwork detail and/or tank decal update would be an ego thing! But, for now the title reflects a 1952 build year and a Royal branding. Now, since you know the rest of the story, you would technically own an Indian motorcycle! September 20th UPDATE!!! Today put in fresh gas and it started perfectly on the second kick!! Went right to a beautiful idle and once warmed up, wonderful!! This is truly one very fine machine!

Made it two days in a row...

...on the Enfield, two days in a row. It's a pain to start but once it's running it seems to be nice and healthy. Ended up with no gears on a roundabout yesterday morning but better this morning if ur careful!

Pictures not great, it was taken from the office window with my 'phone on maximum zoom. My bikes at the back, with Doug's Triumph looking good at the front.

Meeting last night at the radio and Bluez N Zuz Tidworth tonite, still tired from the weekend.

Must go, work to do,,,,,,,,,,,,

Jay Leno's Thruxton Velocette

Tis lovely, well worth a look. 1971 Velocette Thruxton - Photo Gallery 1971 Velocette Thruxton - Video - Jay Leno's Garage

Well the Enfield passed it's test..

..back on Wednesday afternoon, it ran OK, although the MOT tester did not even start it otherwise I would have heard it!

So I celebrated by taking a few photo's..

Took it for a ride and here we are when I got back...

Bikes been off the road since November 1998, until now, October 2011. Anyway, we are off out now so must go...will tell you where next time.

Bargain RE Bullet...

If I hadn't of bought my 500 Bullet I might have gone for this one.....

Quiet a bargain, really, might not have liked the bobber look but it sold with all the bits to put it back to look like this...

Could have sold off the bobber bits and brought the price down a bit, it went for £1,201.00 for a 2003 Electric start right hand shift Bullet, with 2,900 miles from new. Concidering mine was 850.00 pounds for a 1992 kick start left shift with 15K miles, it was a real bargain....still, you never can tell with Ebay what might happen...the price could have been driven up even higher. I still like my black Enfield though, hope to MOT it tomorrow, 5th October. will have to let you know how I get on.

Pic shows it in the garage on Sunday, I did put it together and got it to start, and took a quick spin on it. And it started again yesterday, hence the high hopes to get it MOT'd.

Sunday 25th October....

...we went to Shalbourne Manor for a classic car and bike show, and very nice it was, too.

There were a few bikes, lot's of cars from vintage to fairly modern, and a lovely garden to look round.

Weather was ok, it showered once quiet hard, but we managed to shelter in a barn.

When we got home we (me, Julie, Tash and Simon) were all knackered! Weathers been realy nice and hot these last few days, breaking records for the hottest day in September then doing it again for the hottest day in October, some 29 odd degrees! For some reason we have not really taken advantage of it, doing some cleaning round the mother in laws on Saturday. In the evening we went to Mine's a TReble by the Bellinger Players at the Memorial Hall, and very good it was too. Did some gardening Sunday morning and bike work in the afternoon. (because it was too hot!). Managed to get the Enfield going on Sunday, I had taken the timing cover off, and the carb and the electronic ignition. Fitted a new plug, when it started it gave out plumes of white smoke! Took it up and down the road, in shorts, T shirt and no gloves, felt a right rebel, it ran OK but backfired when I shut the throttle, also struggled to find neutral. Yamaha is off the road as well with a front puncture, have an inner tube on it's way from Ebay. So no bikes at the moment. Just did an hour of the weekday morning show, Rick is on leave, not sure when I can do it again, depends on Dan's work I guess. That's all for this quick catch-up, will do more soon...

Ok....well here we go.......

Having written last time about the Honda, I have gone and sold it.....personally I blame Ebay. No but really any of you that have been reading this since way back will know I went back to bikes by buying a Enfield Bullet, well I have gone a bought another one, and the Honda had to go to make way for it. As usual I found and bought the Enfield before selling the Honda, but I was lucky. The pic below is the Enfield on Ebay.

Having bought/sold the bikes I had one busy weekend on the 2nd/3rd September when I went and collected a single motorbike trailer from Upavon and then went (with Dan) to Caerphilly in Wales to collect the Enfield from Lucas Bori, who turned out to be a very tall Polish motorcyclist. Lucas had bought it from a guy in Poole, Dorset, just some months before. I think he had quickly realised that the Enfield was too small for him, and he had bought a sports-bike instead. Loading the Bullet in Wales.

The bike was brought out of the shed, and he even started it. I thought it looked great, it looks older than it is (1992), all black and no chrome. After a cup of tea and a chat with Lucas and his wife Dan and I set off home, which was about 100 miles away. The bike on the trailer behaved just fine, and we got home without incident. After unloading the bike I hid the trailer in our unit at the business park, and went to bed. The pic shows all three bikes in the garage "for one night only".

Sunday it was time to take the Honda to it's new owner, who happened to live in Stockbridge, some 10 miles away. Only is was raining! Anyway, gear on, I took the bike with Julie following in the car off to it's new owner. Now his shed was full of Honda's and a Ducati Monster, very nice! The Honda just before passing it to it's new owner.

After delivering the bike Julie and I had a walk through Stockbridge and then lunch at the pub there, The White Hart Inn, which was very nice, then a walk along the River Test. When I got home I had a very brief look at the Enfield but then had to think about the pending trip to Amsterdam for IBC, which took me away for nine days. When I got back from Amsterdam I had a look at the Enfield, and tried to start it, which of course I could not do. I had charged the battery but it was prefty knackered, so I ordered a new one. I had started the Enfield by jumping it from the Yamaha battery. and I had gone up the road and back, but it was jerking when it ran and did not seem happy. But It was great riding it! The new battery arrived, after adding acid and fitting it last night, I tried to start it, and it's no better. Plan is to spend some time on it tomorrow (Saturday), Julie is going out for the day with her mum. Fingers crossed. I need to look at: Earthing, clean the carb, timing (although it has electronic ignition), fuel mixture, my technique. Once I can get it to start properly I can get it MOT'd and taxed and use it, although winter is drawing in, as they say. Meanwhile I had found out a lot more history, including the contact for the guy who sold it to Lucas. But more about that on the next blog. Here's a picture from the owner before Lucas, this is how he got it.

New/Old Honda passed it's MOT!

Must think of something better to call it. Took the Honda CB550 in to MOT Supercentre and it passed, with no advisories. One comment, it has the dip and main wired back to front, must have a look at that one day, next time I am in the headlamp shell. Pic shows the bike at work before the MOT, it does not look any different now it's passed.



All I did to get it through was left front fork seal, the seller gave me the seal (which I think is still leaking), and sorted out the horn (bought a relay and waterproof switch on Ebay, total cost 4.13). MOT cost 29.00 pounds, Road tax (when I get it, today hopefully) is 53.00 pounds per year or 29.15 for six months. Pretty cheap bike to get on the road!



Riding it in this morning it still felt slow in the lower gears at lower rev's, open it up though and it is fast, nearly went to 70mph, did not want to risk it so early in my relationship with it. Will now try and spend time cleaning it, need a passenger grab handle or rack for it (V rare on Ebay and expensive), have got tickets to display it at the Oare Steam Show on the 12th (http://www.wapg.co.uk/rally-public.html), which will be an early Fathers Day treat (tempted to take it to Shipton Bellinger Fete the day before, but have to tow the RRRR as well).

If I am luck it might not rain today, although it is in the wind. Long weekend again, Monday is BH, nothing planned. Tash has announced she is moving out, her last day at H4H today, she is going to work at a beauty salon other side of Basingstoke, and live with Simon and his mum until they can afford a place of their own. Dan's waiting for his last try at selection, sometime early July.

Radio is, to be honest, getting on my nerve's, too much politics/organising/budgets, not enough fun. Did get a 5 year extension from OFCOM which was good news, and the new studio build is under way. Couple of fete's comming up soon, so that will be good. And we are off on hol's as well, to Ibeza, can't wait.

Bye for now......

Royal Enfield Video from Jay Leno's garage...

Found this great Royal Enfield at Jay Leno's Garage, bit drawn out but worth watching for the test ride at the end...

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/at-the-garage/motorcycles/2011-royal-enfield-bullet-g5-deluxe/

Just cut and paste the link into a new browser window, all the other types of copying links did not work for some reason.



Quick update on the CB550, the horn button was nearly sorted last weekend, I know what to do and how to fix it, had it working with a spare relay, decided to order a new relay off Ebay. Hope to get it sorted when I get back form this work trip to Sweden. Have already got a pass for the bike to go to the big bike meet at Popham in August, have applied to take the bike to the steam show at Oare next month, and if it's ready may even take it to the Shipton Bellinger Fete.

Bye for now....

Video of a CB750 test ride

Hope mine goes as well, although mine is a 550, and his is a 750....very nice it is to!

Oh, by the way, got it home OK on Royal Wedding Day (29th April), sorted the leaky fork seal on Monday 2nd May, just waiting for a horn switch to get it ready for an MOT. Been using the S10 for work these last two day's, sun is out but it is chilly, everyones praying for rain!

Well just look at the date!

Don't know what happened but I just stopped blogging, it feels like ages ago! Anyway, I'm back, with a new bike project!



It's a 1979 CB550 Supersport, or at least that's what it say's on the Ebay advert. Bid on it and lost it last Sunday, I went up to 655.00 and a mysterious other bidder won at 675.00. But then the winner did not want it (so the seller said) and contacted me, I went and saw it yesterday, made my original offer of 400.00, and it was accepted!



It's a bit rougher than it looks, with a high mileage, 60K engine, and a rusty frame. Hopefully I can do it as a running project. Why did I buy it, well partly as a reaction to the fact that I manoeuvred myself into not being able to go to the Super Tenere national meet, which is in Yorkshire this weekend, and partly because I still harbour this idea of attending classic bike shows, and the Super Tenere does not fit that mold.



I am saying at the moment that I will fix up this Honda (at least it's running, unlike the military CB250 I bought, and sold at a profit last year), and, once it's MOT'd and taxed, run it for a bit, and see it I like it/can live with it. The Super Tenere has 69BHP and run's like a train, the CB has 50BHP and is an unknown.....I shall probably sell one or the other later this year, although second hand bike prices are a bit depressed.



Anyway as usual have to dash, should be doing something else, radio stuff, and then there is the Royal Wedding, and the bike to go and collect......although it is Sorned, not MOT'd or insured, and I should be getting the trailer out......