That bloody tank

And it's myriad layers of primer and paint. 8 hours graft and metal us eventually free, just.

The new seat...

... Has landed. Brilliant job done my an amazing upholsterer, who us a tru perfectionist and craftsman... Im happy as Larry this afternoon.

Wiring

Some goodies have landed today, ready to attack the ingnition and wiring... Looking at the wiring diagram it is not going to be a two minute job. Maybe 5 buy definitely not 2!

Wallpaper

Had a single print edition of Wallpaper run last year to sum up sum up the brilliant summer and it's been gathering dust ever since. Jetset bought me a matching frame for the poster print so it is ready for the wall on Saturday.

Bruiser sat and waited whilst I framed it.

Next to the desk are some treats for Saturday afty... Can't wait.

Tank stripping

After a long round trip to Cambridge today I swang into the DIY shop and stocked on some nitromorse, brushes, a stripping blade and dug out a pair of unused gloves.

After applying a thick coat to the top of the tank and top yoke I sat and waited, once blistered on went the second.

So an hour of waiting & scraping has removed most of the gold, the primer, the original red and the original primer is now exposed.



I want raw metal.

The Runner

Here's what's happened with the bike. In the last few weeks momentum has picked up (from the square root of 0) and things are a happening at last.

Uv gone from wanting to bin it to loving it and everything I'm learning along the way - probably about myself and lack if patience to be frank.... Which has been addressed ;-)

After this I am up to date and ready to keep on track in 'realtime'... Thank **** for that.

Last weekend without the seat and tank, note the old bars hanging off due to breaking a bloody bolt in the switch housing.

New bars, grips, switches, levers, speedo (now moved again since) and mock up seat

The shite I have removed form this bike to date, she is a lot better for it.

Beofre the new drop-bars went on.  note last years rattle can tank with petrol spill down it!

Note to self; you cannot make something tidy by simply bolting something new to it.  do not repeat.

Last years home-made improvised seat... it did the trick for a few months and will be missed

New skinnier seat layout ready for a good mate to cover it properly for me.

last weekend, getting there slowly.

and from the front, she is no lingerie model but I love her again & she getting there.

The last few months

To test this new app and get rid of the burden of a million pictures here is the last few months in graphic detail, a picture speaks a thousand words after all... so here they are, as I said; its been busy.

Home - The new decks

Work - London Rush hour traffic

Home - Sunday lunch for the horses

Home - Bonfire night

Home - Jetset bough goddam winter socks for Bruiser!

Home - Christmas day nativity (the deptford street version)

Home - sadly there is no more Tonic, now just Gin and Bruiser :-(

Home - sorting the stables

Home - a quiet drink at the local

Home - x2 new nieces :-)

Home - healthy detox food

Home - Jetset & company work off the vino

Home - The infamous Boxing Day Buffet, love it.

Home - the muts-nuts

Work - standstill almost, again.

Home - My lovely old nan with a good ol' british fish n chips (& she finished it!)

Work - hotel life after a VERY long day.

Work - more hotel life for one

Work - the -'skimming stone'

Home - Jetsets prints for my office, nice :-)

Home - teaching niece No1 some basics.

Home - the view from the hills

Home - doing the tourist trick in London for once, hilarious.

Its back

Ok, so it's been a while. I have fallen out of love with the bike... and then head over heels in love again. This bloody little machine has been driving me mad for months - sat there in rain, snow, rain and rain. However just as the nights have gotten a little lighter so the bug has bitten. So much has happened that the blog had come to a stop. It too is back now in flow, More posts to come

Signs

A favour was called in yesterday, the caller, who shall remain nameless,  asked me if I could give them an hour of time to apply some decals to a customers vehicle for them.

How could I refuse, an hour is not a lot of time..... if the things are prepped and ready before arirving that is.
They weren't.

An hour became several but hey-ho, the overall result was good and it was pretty much a fun morning getting the tape and pencil out instead of the laptop and spreadsheets, laughing with garymac at Lead Balloon, drinking Bobbys coffee..... and then getting soaked on the ride home!

Signs

I was in the local and went outside for a sneaky smoke, I was staring at the sign in the garden when I had a flashback that it was us that made it a few years ago!

There as a very old and weathered wooden one before that the owner rightly wanted to keep in style with the remake, after hours of scanning and tracing this is what we made up for him.

Think its pretty cool... brand spanking new but an exact replica of what once stood there for decades before computers arrived.

Jetset

After a few days in London last week I arrived home to be greeted on the driveway with Jetset and a gift of a framed poster from days-gone-by!!!

It now has pride of place on my office wall at home....

Awesome to be home x

GT550 - Next on the list

Next on the list is to attack the single tiny split pin that has yet to be rmeoved form the bike.  This annoying little thing is solely responsible for the delay in getting rid of the big 'n ugly centrestand.  Come tomorrow night its having it.  If the weather is good I iwll also wire up the nice new rear lamp and the indicator I broke.

Once Barca is done the search is then on to get the front end 'thinned'.  Needed for this to begin with is...

• Risers
• bars
• small speedo
• bates style lamp
• new grips.

Once these are bought and fitted I will then invest in some little micro switches for the electrics on the bars and also get a new barrel to have the ignition neatly tucked away somewhere. Along with some footpegs to get rid of the chunky rearsets, some new rear shocks, tyres and a thinner tank it is then ready for stripping and TLC applied to paint and metal.

Helmets

While the rain has been pouring I have been playing with my helmet and some paint.  Caught a video on Youtube (I will tag it later if I can find it) showing some painting and thought I would give it a go, broke out the old brushes and spent a couple of hours doodling.

Pretty pleased with the result and the cling film/firm brush trick to get a very weather beaten look seems to have been a good one.

This is a cheap helmet for playing about with and after a few more practice runs I will grab a lighter US version for daily use.