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MrWolf

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Everything posted by MrWolf

  1. What would be the point of that? If you could even get a drugs marker put on the car, chances are all they'd get is a cannabis warning, or if charged with DUI and banned (if indeed the f'tards have ever held a license) they'll just buy another junker and drive it around until they get pulled again. The most likely result in court is being bound over or maybe a suspended sentence. If you think the police are indifferent to such behaviour, it's largely the fault of the utterly inept justice system. Last year I was helping a friend clear some land behind another friend's house which was so overgrown you could only see one of the three garages on site. We'd replaced the lock on the brick garage to store our tools, but after just four days someone crowbarred the door and stole two Stihl petrol brush cutters and a chainsaw. I called 999 to be told that unless the burglary was in progress I should call 101. An hour later, I got through and was asked if the burglary was in the house? No. The garage. Is the garage attached to the house? No. Then we can't attend. About an hour later we were hacking into the creepers at the back of the next garage and found the items in bin liners hidden between the garages under a large ivy plant. Obviously the thieves were intending on coming back with transport and probably had loot from other outbuildings. I called 101 again to fill them in on what we'd found and ask if they would like to catch the culprits as there had been a spate of burglaries, all they would need to do is keep watch. The answer, as you might have guessed by now was no. So I offered to assist, what if four ex military types secreted themselves nearby that night? I was then sternly told that it would be we who would be in trouble with the law. Exasperated, I suggested that the desk jockey should prepare for mayhem and hung up. We took all our tools home and decided that breaking and entering for the purposes of theft must now be legal, but we missed the press release.
  2. I believe it was the Bauhaus school of design who stated that form should follow function.
  3. Interesting beast and one that could tell today's manufacturers a thing or two about creating a stable mazak casting.
  4. MrWolf

    Little Muddle

    To paraphrase Blazing Saddles: "Don't shoot 'im, you'll just make 'im mad!..."
  5. Likewise, I learned to ride (ish!) when I was twelve, around the school grounds on a knackered orange Vespa Ciao, about as uncool as you can get, followed by various scrap Honda Cubs around the local fields. First road bike was a Puch Sports 50, bought from someone who had dismantled the engine and bu66ered it up. I followed that with a CB100N, (Are there any left?) CG125, a rigid Francis Barnett in trials trim, a 350 "upright" Panther, (Forks modified with Triumph springs and I don't recall seeing another 350.) and the first big bike was a 1960 BSA A10 caff racer with 1958 Rocket engine, a "proper" greaser's bike at last. 😆
  6. Exactly like that! I can't remember if it was that model or more likely an even older B2 that he bought from a fellow apprentice who was heading back to Wales and whose mother would have had a fit if he turned up on a motorcycle, but another tale was of getting the bike running. Father had just returned from a test drive and was making some adjustments when a passer by told him that he had an identical bike in his back garden he'd been meaning to give the scrap man and he was welcome to it. As for butchers getting near motorcycles, it seems far from uncommon. Whoever last worked on the 1953 C11 evidently only possessed an adjustable spanner, a hammer and a chisel. Even the little slotted screw securing the distributor clamp to the crank case has been chiselled to death. I'm replacing the damaged fasteners with better used ones from my stash, even though I'm thinking of moving this one on.
  7. Out for a chug through the countryside today on our motorcycles we found ourselves filtering through traffic and up ahead is a VW Golf with clouds of armpit smelling weed smoke coming out of the windows. Coming into the next town on our round trip we pass a Ford Focus, different car, same problem, both drivers oblivious to what was going on around them. It occurred to me that dropping a grenade into the driver's footwell might wake him up. For about four seconds anyway...
  8. The ETZ is still a good entry level bike and looks like a bike. I rather pity today's teenagers who are faced with a choice of rev and pray plastic scooters. The Achilles heel of MZs was the archaic charging system that was a halfway house between dynamo and alternator and after the end of the GDR rectifiers became hard to find. There were plenty of awful / unrepairable bikes built elsewhere in the 70s and 80s and it was the cost or non availability of parts that got me more interested in old British machines which could be kept going as I really should have been after an RD125LC given my age. There is quite a bit of interest in vintage Japanese bikes, but they suffer from the same problem as British bikes, in than it can cost as much to restore a 125 as a 650 and those costs are far higher with Japanese bikes. I quite agree that badges sell, the names of many of our old makes have survived on paper or been revived to trade on reputation. Otherwise, imitation being the best form of flattery, rivals follow in the footsteps of the famous, Rover gave us the Land Rover, from which we got the first versions of the Mercedes GelandeWagen and the Toyota Land Cruiser.
  9. Not at all, I've had TS125 / 150 / 250 over the years. Any bike that can be dragged out of a shed for £20 and put back on the road with a new fuse holder and a universal brake lamp switch to replace the one inside the rear hub has to be a winner, that was a 1977 TS150. Great bikes, if they could have modernised production, they might still be with us.
  10. That doesn't explain the worldwide following for them though does it? We did at one time make the best and most popular bikes in the world, as Japan does now. Other machines from Europe and America tended to be much more expensive and wars with Italy and Germany didn't help sales either, other than cheap lightweights. Quite a few British companies did get a start by fitting Peugeot engines and other French makes into their own frames. So it's not rose tinted daydreaming of the old empire that has some of us riding old British bikes, we ride them because we like them. I've owned and ridden lots of Japanese bikes, Moto Guzzi, Mobylette, BMW and once even a Harley Davidson (But I don't like to talk about what became named the Push Bike.) I'd love to own an MV Agusta, as my childhood hero was Agostini, but I simply can't afford one and that's that.
  11. Post 1956/7 I would have to agree, particularly those powered by the Piatti derived Villiers engines. They really should have paid more attention to what the Germans were developing, we've made that mistake a few times and it could have cost us dearly when the powers that be were so dismissive about the development of jet engines in the thirties. Motorcycle snobs like to sneer at the MZ, but Japanese manufacturers realised back in the fifties that it was only their parent country's regime that was holding them back from becoming world beaters. (Shudder...) Just plain awful. BSA should have taken the Dandy, stood it alongside a Honda Cub and had a jolly good word with themselves. Not so many years ago, I ended up with a running Tina, another in bits and a bunch of NOS brightwork and other parts for £80. I think that tells you all you need to know. I suspect the engine and transmission would be better off powering a record player... Then there was the BSA Ariel Three...
  12. They certainly were slow, ideal for chugging around town or on the back lanes at 40mph, but avoid bypasses and motorways! The one I had very nearly got scrapped by a dealer for its girder forks as they fit the desirable models from the thirties. The vendor has been offered X amount over the phone by someone I knew of, so I turned up with a van and the asking price, which was still a bargain. I fettled it up and ran it more or less as found, with new tyres, brakes and wiring loom. When my other half passed her test she used it to get used to the foot controls being on the proper side until hitting 25 when she could get much cheaper classic insurance on the Speed Twin. The falling off incident was at a stop line on a very steep hill opposite the city grammar school (Yes they do still exist!) She'd pulled up at the line and thanks to a generous application of diesel and rain her foot went one way and the front wheel the other. As always happens at such embarrassing moments there was an audience of school kids, doubtless with their phones out, as she was trying to heave the bike upright. Frustrated, hot and bothered with the weight of the bike making it slide towards the junction she took off her helmet. At this point about a dozen boys rushed over in full Lancelot mode, picked up the bike and set it upright on the pavement so she could restart it. There's definitely advantages to being female. In a typical case of "The more there were, the less there are" as American collectors put it, the little ride to work bikes from the thirties and forties are pretty thin on the ground compared to expensive and sporting machines. Back in the fifties my father had a lot of 250 and 350 bikes such as B21 and B22 models which were often available for £2 or less, which he fixed up and put the profits towards a 1954 Norton 88. I often think that a time machine would be handy!
  13. When it comes to early motor vans a dark grey or black top would suggest Rexine or painted canvas over wadding and wooden slats as the form of roof construction, whereas a body coloured roof would suggest aluminium or steel sheet over a wooden frame.
  14. This kind of thing? I searched for BSA silencer clip on eBay, there's assorted sizes: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371505475557
  15. Definitely not, especially as we are all our own worst critics, if we're proud of what we've done, it must be good. Besides, we build these models to please ourselves and create a scene we enjoy looking at. So I'd say you've hit the bullseye.
  16. As promised, pictures of today's haul, found literally across the road from a friend's house. They've been in pieces since 1980 and before that had spent years dumped behind another garage. They're both 250cc BSA C11 models. One is a 1951 3 speed example with the 40's style speedometer in the fuel tank. The other is a 1953 4 speed with the B31 style tank with the chrome speed stripes on the tank sides. I'm planning on reassembling the 1953 bike as it's more complete into something that will at least kick over and moving it on. The 1951 bike will be subject to a full restoration once I have finished the Star Twin, it is currently returning, phoenix like from the ashes of last summer's fire. We used to have a girder fork C10 and often regret selling it. (Despite the fact that Miss R fell off it while at walking pace!) Frame, forks and odds for the '53. Ditto for the '51. ZC11 engine for the '51, complete bar the carburettor and it turns over freely. Front mudguard for the '51, the 4 speed box for the '53 and various cycle parts. Lots of bits of the '53 along with some extras. BC11 engine and various bits of tinwork for the '53. How the 1951 bike should look: How the 1953 bike should look: The only major part missing is the fuel tank for the 1953 model if anyone knows where there is one?
  17. MrWolf

    EBay madness

    The better remembered Hurst transmissions could boil the road in first gear and were enjoyed by both sexes.
  18. MrWolf

    Little Muddle

    At the point of "You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" he realised he'd been standing too close and nearly blown his knob off too....
  19. MrWolf

    EBay madness

    The original badge was a dead giveaway with its bomber motif.
  20. MrWolf

    Little Muddle

    Or boasting of some other prowess? Seriously though, he looks like he should be standing on a dockside coiling up a rope.
  21. I have acquired a pile of rust which allegedly contains two motorcycles. I'm collecting / digging them out tomorrow, so I'll post some pictures of the haul.
  22. MrWolf

    Little Muddle

    Ditto, twenty years.
  23. MrWolf

    EBay madness

    I suspect that we're no longer allowed to ask?
  24. MrWolf

    EBay madness

    It's possibly made from some evil form of plastic that doesn't like glue. Or: Repairing it may impinge upon the profit margin.
  25. MrWolf

    EBay madness

    It might be free postage, but it's still around double what you'd expect to pay for this beater: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305409392237
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