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....