ROLLIN' STONE

Well, I'm hardly a proper on the road hobo, but we are MOOO-VIN' tomorrow!

Can't wait. It's a crackin' house.  Lovely big garden for the kids, big kitchen for the missus, lovely big garage for me ;)

43 and at last I get me a man cave.  You lot will be among the 1st to see it (well after my crew come round tomorrow, wine for the wives, lager for us).

My sportster bread sits in the bank - gonna be spent wisely.  Stay tuned - summer's near and the time is right ...


Above is a tidy Hinckley.  Nice black n gold, proper JPS colours.

MONOCHROME SET

Beautiful CB cafe from the wrenchmonkees stable.

Wicked lines.

Blimey not again ... here's a coupla shots of my old tartster, owned 2010-2012; apologies to those who've seen it before, but I was inspired by seeing the Whiteline's tasty scalloped XL.

Deft application of autosol, carshop black and a very low budget equalled a whole lotta fun!

When it ran, that is, some people love 'em but for me the earlier (this is an '89 4 speed) evo sporties don't have the reliability I was lookin' for.

UP THE PIPE...

Oo -er missus, I love a good view 'up the pipe'...

I love a good old CB750 too. This one is nothing to do with me, just a shot taken from a cool angle I nicked as usual.

As to my own much missed CB... Hours I spent on that b*stard rear drum, cush drive (gluing bits of inner tube to pad it out, old dispatcher's trick .. gotta love a proper bodge-up job),missing bearing retainer that locked me wheel at 50 on the shakedown run... man that wheel assembly was a hobby in itself, albeit one that wanted to kill me.

Will I get another ... hmmm ... jury's out. Nice to look at tho', and when sorted they are a stonkin' ride.

INSPIRED

There's no question that the artwork of David Mann has inspired generations of bikers, builders and chopper lovers.  He's up there with the best of 'em.

The chopper is a uniquely American form of motorcycle - you either get them or not, there's no middle ground.  The way of life and mystique that surrounds them is entirely a product of the visionaries that helped create that scene.  Mann was at the vanguard.

His paintings really do say more than a thousand words.

BASS HEROES #1

I gotta say, it makes me feel VERY old that I'm entering my FOURTH decade of guitar pickin'
...

And I never really got anywhere with it, beyond hammering out many a good tune. But as they say, 'music is its own reward'...my '78 Les Paul and Fender acoustic bring hours of good times, admittedly only to me rather than the long suffering wife and kids!

So, my mates in 'The Crash Landings' have given me the honour of laying down some bass for them; they're pretty good and have a single out on iTunes at the mo'. Being a Rancid fan and all, I reckon bass could be the way forward... so I got loads of bass heroes from  Simenon to Cliff Burton to Matt Freeman to whoever... but before ANYONE else (apart maybe from Terry from Sabbath) was Lemmy.  He rules.

THE 'NEW' HARDTAIL?

I saw somewhere the other day that the HD 4-speed frame is the 'new hardtail'.

I also saw that the evo sporty is 'the new shovel'.

Man, there's too much 'new' stuff!

I'd say sporties and 4 speeds are totally out there in their own right, they don't have to be some stupid fad.

Whatever, check this great shot from the legendary 'with evo spo' site.  Cutting edge of the inspirational Japanese scene.