Retrograde Mechanica

Monday, 26 November 2012

Barnsley Shaun's

Took a Drive up to Barnsley Shaun's to pick up a spare frame to play around with before making any Mods to the CB, always nice to catch up - and huge thanks for the fame bud! and thanks for the nose around your cb450 and brat evo - lovely work.

Friday, 23 November 2012

CB350 Inspiration

Some inspiration for my CB350 build?

Rock Solid

Hugo sent me some pics of my RetrogradeMechanica stickers up his his workshop.

Proud to have something stuck up in one of my favourite bike builders shops - if you haven't checked out RockSolid motorcycles check em out here, great guys and amazing work!

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Fresh Meat to the Cleaver?

.....Well I don't know - it's such a pretty little thing.
1969 CB350 - I was intending to do a full on BratStyle Cafe build with this, but it's just sitting there quietly charming me - some of the chassis components sure are quirky.

Anyway had a great day picking it up - Thanks to Greg for running me up and to Jonnie & his Wife for selling me the bike, generally being great and for letting me nose around your awesome farm, take photo's and play with the dogs.

Now anyone got any ideas?

And Home....

Monday, 19 November 2012

(not so) Rusty Gold

Spent yesterday millin' round Newark Autojumble, not much to write home about, only coming back with several cans of WD40 and an old spot light, but a nice day none-the-less.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Hell On Wheels Moto Rally - RideApart

"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"