Black

The 54 Velo was looking shabby round the arse end. Too many winters and not enough oil leaks (no, really). So before this years winter activities I thought that it needed a spruce up (meaning a liberal covering in black Smoothrite).

The back end now looking a lot tidier:-

Rear wheel also saw the lick of the paint brush:-

And most of the rear carrier has been painted:-

Chainguard bracket has been welded back on (more weld than parent metal but I do love welding and grinding):-

Box of bits to be refitted:-

Things to be painted:-

Black - the colour a motorcycle should be.

Mind the Generation....Gap

I love 70s skateboards and have amassed a small collection of fairly battered Alvas, Benjyboards and a Fibreflex, all completes with various ACS and Tracker trucks and Road Rider and Kryptonic wheels. All of which I lusted after back in the day. But what was attainable, but never was attained, was a Supa Skuda. I've seen em on Ebay fetching stupid prices (for a cacky old low grade skoot plank). Imagine my surprise to see this little beauty for only £8 BIN:-

It was collection only. Would they post? Yes they would and at a very reasonable rate. So deal done and I wait for the parcel to arrive.

What turned up was a very nice example of a Supa Skuda. Its been used but its not battered to death.

Skinny trucks:-

And loose bearing wheels:-

Now I know that I was a lot smaller when I was 11, but this thing is tiny. Here it is next to my current stunt plank (Creature Stu Graham):-

How the hell did we ride them back then?

And If....

....you didn't understand the reference in my last post, heres the answer:-

Random Weekend Shite

Karen and Scarlet were away this weekend. Off to Eastbourne (and yes they went to Brighton, but not Hastings).

So, Saturday Luke at ATBShop sorted me out some skate bits and I managed to spend my unexpected SNAPS windfall.

I was a bit bored of Strictly Come X-Factor I thought I'd build my new stunt plank.

Usual ripped grip job:-

I've used a set of 61mm Cortechs, dyed with RIT. I actually wanted lime green but total failure to investigate resulted in Kelly Green. I already had some red.

I got a set of Spitfire Burners from ATB too. They come in a nice metal box:-

I got some Indy 169s Stage 10, which strangely have baseplates drilled for new skool and old skool patterns. I also got some Bones medium bushes:-

Trucks on with 1/8" risers. Deck is a Heroin Deerman BA:KU jobbie, 9.5" at its widest:-

The finished product just waiting for a sticker job and some dry weather. Gonna be ideal for MSN and Churchdown:-

So, that was Saturday.

Sunday dawned dull and wet. After watching the MotoGP I had a wander round Swindoom then back to the house and into the garage. My 1954 Velocette MAC is starting to look a bit shabby so I decided to clean the back end and give it a spot of paint (the restorers choice, Finnegans Smoothrite).

Back wheel out and starting to remove 15 years of mud, oil and crap:-

Its gonna take a bit of time but it should protect the old girl a bit. Its the bike I generally use during the winter so it gets a lot of salt corrosion.

Back wheel and brake drum:-

After degreasing myself I went to the DoomRamp and put up the new lights I got from Great Yarmouth. Last time I put them up they didn't work as the wires had worked loose from the crappy connectors. Choccy blocks soon sorted that out.

I have three double strip lights in the garage now, and what a difference it makes:-

(Notice ATBShop sticker Luke;-))

So I had a skate. The genny is a bit noisy and there is a whiff of 2-stroke exhaust but after a bit you don't notice it too much. Managed to drop in and get up on the opposite coping for the first time but dropping back in from an axle stall position eluded me. I had a couple of shoot-outs so its not just jumping off this time. I'll get it. Not so easy when you are cooped up in a little garage compared to the great wide-open.

And now its time for Animal Chin...

Return to the Past

My quest to catch up with the ghosts of skateboarding past have led me to this little beauty (on VHS of course)

Mini Mal(function)

Bent the fin on my mini mal while I was in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago. I not only snapped the tail fin but pulled out a fin plug too.

In the box of bits that came with the board I found a tube of Solarez - UV curing resin.

The glass round the hole had split in places so I though I'd best fix that first.

The clingfilm lets you work the resin into the damaged area then leaves it glassy smooth. It only took five minutes for the resin to set once it was out in the sun light.

Next I got out the Black and Decker Powerfile and filed the fin plug back so it would go into the hole without snagging. I filed a lot of grooves in the plug as well so the resin had something to grip to.

I'd bought a new set of fins to replace the broken one:-

All that was needed was to fill the hole half full with Solarez, apply some to the fin plug and push it home using the new fin to make sure the plug was lined up:-

Once it had set I removed the fin, sanded the repair back a bit and put another coat of resin on to make sure there were no holes.

Ready for action this weekend.

Kernow Weekend

Cracking weekend with Whip, Bob and Antony. Beers were drunk, skateboards were ridden, fires were lit and surfing occurred.

St Ives beach:-

Nice surf in lovely clear water. Couldn't get parked there later in the day so we went to Tuckingmill skootpark. Antony and the little bowl:-

Sunday morning surf was at Godrevy, another nice beach and much better than it had looked at high tide the day before. I had a mishap with the mini mal:-

Got some fixin to do.

Breakfast afterwards at Hells Mouth Cafe and then a 200 mile drive back to Swindon.

The Death of an Autojumble

Went to Netley Marsh autojumble on Saturday - what a load of crap.

Netley used to be crammed full of jumble, loads of stalls, loads of interesting bikes. This year the stalls were half the number I remembered last time I went with not a great deal of old stuff. Plently of Japanese modern stuff but not much old British stuff.

And there were next to no punters. On a very sunny Saturday. I can't see how it can survive like this.

Oddly enough, one of the few bikes which caught my eye was this:-

I won't be going again.

Rant #1

So I'm in Oxfam in Royal Wooton Bassett. I like charity shops and spend a fair bit in them, and donate a fair bit too. Oxfam always has vinyl records so I'm looking through what they've got. I find this:-

Sleeve looks reasonable, bit worn round the edges. The record is well scraped. Not even sure it would play properly but if it did there'd be a fair few `character' clicks and pops. Oxfam wants £9.99.

Nine pounds fuckin 99!! For a shagged record!! Now if it was a couple of quid I might have taken a chance but nearly a tenner. Sorry. No.

Oxfam - listen up - you get all of this stuff donated and I appreciate that you want to raise money, but stop using the Record Collectors Guide and pricing records as Mint when they clearly ain't anywhere near. You lost a sale from me cos instead of taking a chance for a couple or three quid I went home and bought it offa Ebay for only a little bit more and it was pristine.

End of rant.

(Ain't that the best 80's record sleeve ever?)

Surfboards and Velocettes

Parte The Second.

Had a weeks holiday in Croyde so I thought I'd try surfing (again). I booked two lessons for the Sunday. Sunday morning - basics on the beach then into the water. Got up and rode in after a few goes on the 10ft softboard the surf school gave me. The afternoon was much the same. Not too hard. Every wave I tried for I caught easily.

The next day I could hardly move. Must be getting old.

Later in the week I wheeled out the Down The Line 7-6 minimal I bought last year. Could I catch waves? Only with the greatest difficulty, and standing up was almost impossible. I managed better in bigger waves at Croyde than I did the next day on little'uns at Saunton. Looks like I've got a lot to learn but I'll keep with it. Kernow in September with Bobster should be fun.

My minimal:-

Now I'm back in The Doom and with a wet bank holiday weekend looming, I thought I best get on and repair the paint on the Velocette tank. The tank had split and been welded, fortunately with minimal damage to the paint. Feathered the edges and started on the high build primer coats to make up the depth. Cotswold Night Trail will be here soon enough and the Velo is the only bike I have with lights that work in the dark.

Dye-nasty

Haven't posted for a while so heres a double header.

Parte The Firste - I got a set of 61mm Cortechs offa MAS and thought I'd dye them. Plan was red and lime green like old skool Kryps. Didn't quite turn out that way.

Cortechs:-

This time I suspended them using locking wire and a bit of stainless:-

Then sat them in a heated dye solution for half an hour:-

The result - a lot darker than I was hoping for but as they dried they brighened up a bit:-

Appearing on a stunkplank near you very soon.

A Clean Engine

...is a happy engine:-

But not this one - the crank is still refusing to turn and the metal moths have been at the underside of the cases:-

Fortunately this is the worst bit and the rest of the cases and the engine are in good order. Its off to Scotland now for a touch of TLC.

20 Engine Strip

So I soaked the engine for a bit longer. Managed to loosen off the valve caps so I could remove the valves and springs, which need to be out of the way to get to two of the barrel base nuts.

Now this engine has sat a long while and I was a little worried that the barrel and piston would be shagged, cos finding replacements would be impossible.

The barrel came off easily, which was a relief:-

Feeling inside the bore and its nice and smooth - no scoring or rust damage. Thank fuck for that.

Removing the barrel revealed a nice cast iron piston in great nick:-

Gotta be really careful with this one cos they are pretty fragile.

The big end moves OK with no signs of wear but the crank won't turn. I reckon the main bearing is rusted to hell. Still can't get the bottom studs out so will need to point the drill again.

Nearly there...

Hairy Hole

I've been trying to get the two seized studs out of the crankcases without shagging the cases even more than they already are. I managed to get the exhaust off, which helps a bit, but the bottom two ain't budging. After breaking two more drill bits it was time to step back and put the old girl in to soak.

Diesel bathtime:-

Maybe its time I got on with my 28 instead...

Dye Another Day

Heard lots from Alec about dying stuntplank wheels with RIT, and saw Trawlers blog doing the same, so I thought I'd have a go.

The wheels after scrubbing (Spitfire Trujillo Parkburners):-

I wanted to dye half of each wheel red:-

The wheels after soaking for 30 mins in very hot dye:-

Not quite what I expected but close enough. They look better back on the board :-

Think I need a small pan to suspend the wheels in so I can keep the dye hot.

Next is a set of red and green Cortechs.

Tankfest

As the name suggests, Tankfest is a festival of tanks. Access to the museum at Bovington plus a fair few stands to look round and loads and loads of tanks being driven round the parade ring.

Saw this nice Kubelwagen when we got there:-

And a belting 1917 Matchless v-twin complete with a machine gun:-

But there was plenty of tanks. Tiger 1 in the parade ground:-

Plus all the tanks in the museum. King Tiger:-

And this is a Challenger 2 heading home:-

All in all a good day out despite the WW1 mock battle being a bit tame. The sun shone and it was fun.