V - Twin Rally - 2013

Had a ride down to the V- Twin Rally at Fordingbridge,Hampshire, just south of Salisbury on Saturday.The Skies were full of grey cloud all day but apart from a few spots of rain on the way home it stayed dry.
Sadly, there is not so much in the way of tonti framed bikes in evidence these days, either standard or modified. Here are a few others that caught my eye

A rare sight - Andy's Hesketh Vampire

and Janine's Magni

This attracted a lot of attention.

A young lad's learner Chinese made Skyteam 125cc

A regular visitor to the rally

Paul's had this for many many years and it always looks immaculate.
A few years back,for safety reasons, he had to replace some of the rivets on the Astralite's with bolts
after a few of them popped giving him a inner tube trying to escape out of the centre of the rim.

Bristol Bike Show - 2013

Yesterday was the Bristol Bike Show which is organised by the local MAG group.
 There was a reasonable turn out considering the threat of heavy rain, which as it turned out stayed mostly dry. Very little in the way of Classic bikes / Specials, but still a few that caught my eye.

A friend,Bedwyr's, Panhead ?  

Andy of Ultimate Bike Paint,Keynsham own build including the frame.
100bhp,100lb of torque and 145mph

My Friend Joe

 Made me laugh anyway, but I think he needs a little more practise. 

Quick visit to Poole Harbour

Last Sunday I took a trip out on the Guzzi Cafe Racer that I have up for sale. It's a round trip of approx. 150 miles going via Shaftesbury (old home of the V-twin rally) taking in a mixture of A and B road.'s. The bike ran beautifully and I really enjoy riding it.The low slung clip ons and relatively high rear sets take 20 years off your life but make your back think it's 65 and not 55. Actually,that's not really true as that sort of distance isn't a problem.

There's a few top end yacht builders here

The old Customs House. Quite appropriate really as it's now a Bar/Restaurant and it's a custom to drink beer
and a bigger custom to pay a lot of Tax on it !

In the Summer months,on a Tuesday night, this street is exclusively a Bike night with,apparently,
1500 plus turning up 

I love this part of the South where Wiltshire meets Dorset

Stopped off,on the way back in Shaftesbury, for a quick look round a free small
Classic car show

Home from home, as it had a settee,sideboard,stove and washbasin 

They didn't really make them big enough did they !

Mustang Automatic for sale at £15,000

I remember Mum and Dad hiring one of these on a couple of occasions,back in the 60's
to go away on holiday with

Guzzi Cafe Racer project

This Guzzi project hasn't moved on at all for ages but as Madelyn is away for a week or more I thought that I'd drag it out from against the wall,in the dining area, where it's been sat and start getting a few minor jobs done. The frame needs a couple of brackets welding on, so that the back wings of the fairing can be secured. Now that it's all accessible I can also measure up for wheel spacers etc. 
  Thinking I might use Conti style silencers. These are off of my touring Guzzi though maybe splash out on some new exact s/s replicas

Month's ago I cut out a section of the drilled alloy surround which I am happier with
but not 100% so might do another 

Bill Little Motorcycles Open Day

Last Saturday a few of us went off to Bill Little's annual open day meeting up approx 12 miles outside of Bristol at 1.30pm. I / We all knew that there was a chance of showers but for some reason none of us really took much notice of the forecast.I guess,because we all left home in bright sunshine with the odd puff of white cloud floating harmlessly around.

My favourite !

Off back to London

 We set off and within less than 10 minutes we were in a heavy shower. Straight away, in my old non waterproof textile jacket I was wet through on my arms and front of my T-shirt. Oh well,only another 20+ miles to go which turned out to be continual stop / start heavy showers.
  By the time we got there most other visitors had left and the last of the few autojumble stalls was packing up.
   Still,it's a nicely atmospheric barn,complete with mostly Classic bikes and nostalgic paraphernalia scattered about and hanging from the rafters to spend an hour walking around.
  It had also stopped raining in the time that we were there, but sure enough as soon as we got back on the bikes the first few drops started again and once again within 10 minutes it was a deluge. So having dried out over the previous hour we were all soaked again and once again it was so hard it hurt.
The return journey was actually a lot wetter,consequently colder and quite a relief to get home.
 I must say that my leather jeans which I have previously treated with 'Bone Dry NZ' did not let any water through apart from a very small amount in the crotch area. Well impressed !