Retrograde Mechanica

Monday, 11 March 2013

Beaulieu

The good lass took me down to the New Forest for the weekend as a Birthday Treat, so the Sensible thing was to hit Beaulieu and the Sammy Miller Museum - Awesome!

Here's Beaulieu...

Friday, 8 March 2013

As the Nickel Triumph's engine is nearly together it was time to start sorting the other details that've been bothering me - the main one being getting that front end dirty low, a few hours in the shed and all is looking good!

2.5" extra in the damping Sleeves and a 2" spring cut seems to have sorted that right out - Cheers for the help and the sleeves Tom!

Original length...

Disassembly.....

Little Lathe time....

Untidy Bench.....

Springs Cut and shaped

The new front ride height!

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Robbie Maddison

This is how Tom rides in his head.......

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Even Further

Another great vid from the Edwin/Kingdom of Kicks lot.

FURTHER II from Edwin Europe on Vimeo.

CB350

Finally trawled my ass out to the garage and started on the CB350 front end, still going for a bit of a factory look, so shaving the ears off the headlight mounts, filler and paint and a bit of a re-chrome and the forks will look something like this......now just gotta tidy the place up after a few months of neglect.

Sunday, 24 February 2013

Further

Another great short showing the Kingdom of Kicks lads from last years Wheels & Waves - so jealous I didn't get to experience this first hand.

FURTHER I from Edwin Europe on Vimeo.

Sunday, 10 February 2013

The way of The Desert Sled

The idea was to sell the Honda 400 Scrambler to get something a bit more capable of disappearing into Europe on this summer, maybe a Yamaha Tenere or the like.......well now it looks like I'm after a Hinkley Triumph to compliment my two Meriden ones thanks to this Short on the Jack Pine Scrambler, enough poke to do some decent miles, and looks cool to boot!

Johns Place

Spent the morning round my mate Johns place, ogling his amazing bikes and listening to Manx TT tales...he's raced it 13 times don't ya know. Good way to spend a rainy Sunday.

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

For Sale

My Cool mint condition, mildly customised Cl400 (XR400 Engine Street Scrambler), quality bike - shout me on 07854116505 or email if you want it!

Alternatively I'm after either a newish Tenere or a KTM 640 Adventure if anyone fancies a PX?

"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"