Retrograde Mechanica: January 2013

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Of me 500, before the engine had a make over - like these pictures tho - as shot by Jake!

Still; prefer the engine in black, it's the right choice for the bike - should be back in the bike next week - whoop!

Polished Bare Steel

Rules!

Ok I couldn't leave the BSA frame alone - so 5 hours of wet & dry and it looks gorgeous and will patina/age up lovely.

Just the wheels to sort - all the rest should be winging it's way here this week thanks to the wonders of ebay and the internet.

Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor

Those who know, know.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Path Racer Progress

Going for a ratty bare metal (with some gold lacquer left on for good measure) look, scored a lovely copper and black Brooks, now just some nice bars and we're nearly a go!

Friday, 25 January 2013

FOLKLORE

Margo bought me one of Adi Gilbert's awesome Folklore brand T'Shirts. Cheers Love, and thanks Adi - your work is awesome as always mate.

Check out Adi's other stuff here!

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Danny's Carlton Racer

Danny popped round to me house with his nicely patina'd Carlton racer - nice bike, big cheesy proud grin!

Rescued and sorted by our mate Grant, just needs a nicely bedded in Brooks and done as done! Jealous mate.

Pathracer in the making

Friday, 11 January 2013

Swapsies

Starting to fancy a change but too lazy and don't really want to selll, if anyone fancies a swap with the nigh on mint low milage coooool CL400 let me know, love this bike but I'm too shallow to sell my Triumph's so it may just have to go.

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Strip down begins!

Danny and Nick popped round for 'Project Night' and the CB engine strip down began with beer in hand......slowly, two hours and the head still wasn't off! But thanks for the hand guys (I mainly took pics and smoked)
Drilling out seized bolts and fighting seized tappet covers took more time than anticipated, Still everything internally so far looks good, hopefully we'll pick this up again at the weekend then it's off to return those cases to their former glory.

And of course everything is photographed, bagged and tagged like a good boy!

Monday, 7 January 2013

Rock Solid Lighting

Our friend Hugo over at RockSolidMotorcycles in Portugal has been working on these beautiful hand made tail lights for a while now and they're about ready to go on sale, limited, exclusive and priced just right so real builders can get their mits on one. Check out the quality of RockSolid workmanship by clicking the link.

Lovely!

"Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it's some kind of a "knack" or some kind of "affinity for machines" in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a "short between the earphones," failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself"

"That's all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel. There's no part in it, no shape in it, that is not out of someone's mind — number three tappet is right on too. One more to go. This had better be it — .I've noticed that people who have never worked with steel have trouble seeing this...that the motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon. They associate metal with given shapes...pipes, rods, girders, tools, parts...all of them fixed and inviolable, and think of it as primarily physical. But a person who does machining or foundry work or forge work or welding sees "steel" as having no shape at all. Steel can be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any shape but the one you want if you are not. Shapes, like this tappet, are what you arrive at, what you give to the steel. Steel has no more shape than this old pile of dirt on the engine here. These shapes are all out of someone's mind. That's important to see. The steel? Hell, even the steel is out of someone's mind. There's no steel in nature. Anyone from the Bronze Age could have told you that. All nature has is a potential for steel. There's nothing else there. But what's "potential"? That's also in someone's mind! — Ghosts"