Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Norton update...


Saturday the sun came out and Jimmy came over – we worked on the Norton again, a bit hungover though cause we'd all been at my show at the Wunderbar the night before. Jimmy's metal-sprayed my clutch center and has started fitting it to the splines on the mainshaft. It's looking like it's gonna go on there rock-solid now. So tight we need this puller Jimmy made up to get the thing off again.

While Jimmy was working on that I pulled out my oil tank and flushed it out. Man was it full of some fucked up shit! Gonna try and clean out some of the oil lines too. What is this shit!? Grey sludge. How the hell did it get in here? Worried it's finely ground aluminium!? Any advice greatly appreciated. Jimmy also showed me how to anneal my copper washers to try and fix up some of the oil leaks. This shit was fun, I love burning stuff! Oh yeah and Malcolm was down for Bike Night and for our gig so he watched and him and Jimmy tried to figure out who was tougher...


Sunday, June 24, 2012

Bike Night Thurs. 21 June 2012



Bike night at Smash Palace last week... another great night, not so many bikes this night but a real good vibe as everyone is starting to get to know everyone a bit better, and also PZ and Greg were pulling apart the Speed Twin. Malcolm came down from Auckland just to see what the fuss was about, Paddy had another one of his Indians there, I got mustard in my beard,... good times in general.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Kick ass Hinkley Triumph


Hanging out with the Quake City Rumblers this weekend made me really wanna chop something up a lot more! I don't think I can bear to chop my matching numbers Norton (as much as I'd like to!?), so been thinking about pushing my Triumph into another world? I'm real happy with my breadbox tank, but it kinda makes the rest of the bike look too 'new' and outta place or something. Also I'm not real happy with the new seat I made. Nadine, my girlfriend who rides pillion a lot, stopped me chopping it down as much as I would have liked to... but then seeing Joska's little seat in the weekend (the Honda in the post below this one) made me think mine looked like a bloody couch or something! I'm also realising I'm really gonna have to get a bigger front wheel – one off a Bonnie. The Thruxton one is just too small... maybe a new rear as well? Fuck I'm going down some vortex... and I only just got the Triumph on the road again. Maybe when the Norton's going I'll pull down the Triumph and fuck about with it good and proper... [sigh]

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Cold ride to Oxford


Was really hanging out to get out on the open road this weekend. Yesterday it rained all day and then cleared at night so there was one of the hardest frosts I've seen in a long time this morning. Waited til lunchtime to go for a ride, but it was still insanely bloody cold! Met Joska, Makoto, Lee and Dave outside Smash Palace and then fucked about in traffic for what felt like ages. Finally got out on the old Tram Road to Oxford which was nice, but I forgot how bloody straight it is. Had to go real fast so as not to get bored! When we slowed down we realised Joska had got left behind... he eventually showed up running on 3 cylinders. Wasn't til we left Oxford that Joska discovered his broken high tension lead! Lucky he's got 4 cylinders. We also lost Lee and Dave somewhere. Lee's speedo cable had popped out and they stopped to sort it and then took a wrong turn. (Lee's had his wheels and spokes painted black, they look pretty mean, and go especially well with his black engine.) We totally froze riding back, it was pretty nuts. Beautiful little road from Oxford across to the West Coast rd though, great views of the snow-covered mountains... gotta figure out how to take photos 'from' the bike?

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Bike night in the 'Listener' this week!


Well sort of... the article's actually about Johnny's trouble getting the bar, Smash Palace, up and running. But the photos were taken on Bike Night a couple of weeks back. Thanks Johnny for opening such a choice bar that we can actually ride our bikes right into the thing!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Me on Kim Hill



Listening to Kim Hill this morning and reminded myself to stash this here for future reference. Was supposed to be talking about The National Grid in this interview but Kim was more interested in Head Full of Snakes... this was a live interview on 6 August 2011.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Russ Meyer's 'Motor Psycho'


Not much of a 'motorcycle' movie really, especially since they ditch their scooters for a Toyota Landcruiser! But thought it was worth stashing here anyway... especially for the Quake City Rumblers.