Whats it all about ?????

Over 30 years of buying, breaking, building, cutting, welding, riding and selling greasy old mo'sickles. Bare bones bikes from the middle of nowhere!

Wednesday, 31 March 2010

Bonneville Bellytank Racer


Bobby Green from the Old Crow Speedshop just got in touch via the Chout Blog, hes just bought Herb Kepharts old Chout rolling chassis. He sent me links to his blog and website, I spent most of night drooling all over my PC following the build up and watching his 4 banger bellytank LSR racer at Bonneville.

Sunday, 28 March 2010

Twindian

My mate Grizz sent me a link to this Indian V4 special - awesome!
More info here Twindian

Wednesday, 24 March 2010

Flattrack Nortons





Been looking for pics of early flattrack Nortons, cant find any pre Commando ones out there!!!

Thursday, 4 March 2010

BlackBob goes forth

Well, that pretty much brings the story up to date, BB comes out to play most weekends, sometimes gets used for the run up to work at Achnasheen and gets taken to the Loch Ness run and sometimes the Helmsdale Run (both organised by the Highland CMCC) Always ridden hard and fast, always draws a crowd when its parked up, gets mixed reactions from the public, everything from thumbs up to shaked fists (that always cracks me up!)

So what next, down the line, sometime I want to put together a stroker motor, I read about a fella in Oz who put together a 940cc bonnie motor using a Norton Commando crank in T140 cases, but that'll have to wait til Ive finished all the Indian projects!

One thing's for sure, BlackBob aint for sale!

BlackBob part 5



So 2007 came n went with a succession of modern bikes that never quite filled the gap, I got sent a pic that by a mate who'd seen BB down at a bike show in Aldershot.

Tail end of the year I got a call from Adam, he'd decided to sell BB, would I be interested?
So by selling a few Indian spares and the modern bike of the moment, I rustled up the asking price (less than he'd paid) I sorted out a man wiv a van to bring the beastie north and a week later BB was back in the lockup.
Adam had made some minor changes, the pipes were shorter and now had a kick up at the rear, which I liked, but they needed something - so I wrapped them! He'd changed the speedway bars for a narrower set and had machined up some low risers, otherwise BB was pretty much the same bike to look at.

The motor wasn't the same tho........... it started fine and would tick over, but all through the midrange there was a stuttering misfire, tried the Mag, new condenser, new coil, still the same!

Over the winter the top end got stripped down and checked over, I decided to fit a Morgo 750cc big bore kit, and a Cobb Racing sidedraft Mikuni kit from the states. These fitted early Summer 2008 BB was back on the road, the Mikuni wasnt quite running right, so I took it along to Highland MC Dyno's, just along the road from me and they got it running pretty sweet. Still a bit iffy when cold but once warmed up the motor pulls strong.

BlackBob part 4



2007 wasnt a great year! I'd had a whole lot of phonecalls from a guy called Adam down in Hampshire who really wanted to buy BlackBob, pretty much asking me to name my price, at first the answer was a definate NO! but as the winter months kicked in and the bills kept coming I was kinda getting forced towards selling him the bike. I was gathering the parts for the Stroker Scout build at this time and something had to go!
In a moment of madness, I called Adam and told him a price, he agreed (didnt expect that!) and early 2007 I met him at Abindon Services and we did the deal, a wad of cash and the remains ofthe ex Chris Knibbs T140 Flattracker came north with me, and BlackBob went south with Adam - I was gutted!

BlackBob part 3


2006 Some minor changes, I managed to persuade Pete to part with the open primary cover that he had kept hold of, coulldnt afford the ARD mag set up but to be honest I kinda like the way the Hunt hangs out there, EVERYONE asks what happens if I crash the bike on that side???!!!! dunno why, I suppose it must look kinda vulnerabloe, but at the end of the day if you bin a bike its gonna need fixed innit!