MOTOR CHAT

[LikeClockwork]

Re: Re:

Were still talking lions here? :mrgreen:

To get this back on 'track' I really did used to build motorbike wheels for a living... Talon, some of you may have heard of them......

 

[Jamiedyer]

The talk of Speedway and got me thinking about my old machines, that and I didn't want anyone to think I was full of s**t, well, about this anyway

Up the loft I went digging. It was abit further back in time than I thought

Jamie

DSCN2259 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

DSC_1178 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr

 

[velomaniac]

Never won a trophy for anything cool in my life nor had anything cool to do with a vehicle. I am unworthy to grovel in your shadows.......

 

[Jamiedyer]

I may not be the quickest these days on my cycles but I was handy with a motor under me
A couple of old dusty boxes with trophies and sashes from racing doesn't really mean much in the end, that's the first time they have been out the box since I came here a long time ago. Its more the memories of a time , place and people it brings back. I wasn't being a big head or anything just that away from this thread someone alluded to the fact I may be embellishing things. I don't need to embellish my m/c days which was most of my life, I raced all forms off road, occasional road and had a workshop full of machines. I was a club racer with various bits of sponshorship at various times, usually just my long term sponsors shop whose classics I rode for the shop. Good gig, work on my bike during the week at the shop, show up on Saturday, practice, show up on Sunday and race the shops bikes. For speedway and dirt track was when I decided I wanted to ride a giant fourstroke and some speedway so went out on my own again and picked up various rides now and again for the speedway guys and for the motorcross series when someone wanted a rider to stand in race a new build etc. The speedway guys I knew from dirt tracking and my ride I used to have for my Friend on the Godden was a sweet thing. He was a race mechanic for years around Europe and helped develop many bikes and had a shed full of old machines. His nephew rode permanently for him in our club and he would often give myself and a friend Brian a ride. He was a magic old guy, he knew exactly what the bike needed by the sound of it. You would pull in the pit area and he would adjust something before you got off or could say anything, top the oil and send you back out for a lap and the thing would be flying. Anyway I am waffling again.
But trophies mean nothing, they are just tangible things to remind me of other times. This one is for third, and while I have done better it just reminds me of a great day and night when I made the final on a slider. we all do cool things and really I was just a club racer with a very big grin. I was happy but really inside I was just thinking, how the f**k did I end up here
Story of my life really
Jamie

 

[highlandsflyer]

Very cool.

 

[clubby]

That's what I love about this place, all these life stories that come out, after just one person posts about a new purchase.
Just shows how similar us lot are, no matter where we come from.

Fantastic.

 

[legrandefromage]

'clunk' 'crunch' clang clang rattle rattle rattle

yup, my turn.

http://www.mercedes.gen.in/WP35/mercede ... re-repair/

 

[k-rod]

Geez Boxxer, a man after my own pile of, er, 'projects'.. ..currently have six rebuilds on the go, though all old Jap bikes.

Why not just focus on one or two, and actually finish/complete them ... ??

 

[RobMac]

Geez Boxxer, a man after my own pile of, er, 'projects'.. ..currently have six rebuilds on the go, though all old Jap bikes.

Why not just focus on one or two, and actually finish/complete them ... ??

Hey, don't come into this section and start talking sensibly go on push off :mrgreen:

 

[highlandsflyer]

Geez Boxxer, a man after my own pile of, er, 'projects'.. ..currently have six rebuilds on the go, though all old Jap bikes.

Why not just focus on one or two, and actually finish/complete them ... ??

They get completed. Did anyone say they don't?

Just one project would be incredibly boring, and inefficient.

Economies of scale regarding time and everything else figure.

Often becomes apparent a part is needed once at a certain stage of stripping or rebuilding, and your one project is on hold until you source it; which often means ordering parts from very, very far, and taking parts to people who take very, very long processing them. That is not 'down time' when you have something else sitting there to work on.

I also have more than a half dozen project vehicles, as well as many other things I would describe as in 'project' stage.

It is a way of life. I would expect many users of this forum have a similar tendency.

Give you one example. Few years ago bought an old Argocat from neighbours. Bought another non runner for the mechanicals I needed. Ended up buying a third at a bargain price for use meanwhile, which I sold on after cleaning, servicing and painting it.

So I had three 'projects', and then sold one, made another good one from remaining two, and finally had local expert repair what was left and make a third. Played with it for a year and now it is living on cousins' farm. Technically all three were 'projects' at one point, but it was much easier have three projects than just fixing one at a time. Time spent tracking down parts was not 'duplicated', and what can be fairly complex work was repeated in short order, so skills were not lost over time, and routines were fresh in the mind. Ended up with a 'free' vehicle at the end of it too.

Four of the motorbikes I am stripping and rebuilding are more or less the same.

They will all be finished around the same time. No duplicate trips to the paint shop, no additional postage for parts I can order all together. Even the MOTS can all be booked the same morning. I just got a van I can put them all in together in to transport them.

Perhaps the question should be, why only one project people?