Wall Flowers

Apart from Tornado Smith's wife Doris aka Marjoie Dare, Maureen Swift used to ride with him. He used to bill his female riders as 'Gymkhana Girls' and 'Girl Protegees'

Hot Rod Drags

Had a great time at the Hot Rod Drags at Long Marston last September. Weather couldn't have been better......

The Test of Time

One of my fave pics....double bubble

Lyric for the day

I went down to the corner, just to meet my gal,
I found her standing on the sidewalk, talking to my pal,
I strolled back to the bar room, to get another drink of gin,
The first thing I knew I was reelin', rocking and drunk again.

I kept drinkin gin and liquor, till way up in the night,
When my pal came to the bar room, we had an awful fight,
I reached down for my razor, and then we knocked around,
But when I pulled my pistol, I quickly smoked him down.

The gambling bar room blues.

Jimmie Rodgers - Gambling Bar Room Blues

First heard this on a compiltion of Country drinking songs. Blew me away. No-one can yodel as melancholy as The Singing Brakeman.

The Test of Time

Would a rice burning crotch rocket look as good as this in fifty years?
I rest my case!

Ashford Bike Jumble

Elk Promotions put on a few jumbles and shows throughout the year but the best is the Ashford Classic Motorcycle Show and Bike Jumble on Easter Monday 5th April 2010. Always well attended and the car park is always just as a good as the show. It's a bit of a clique with the usual rivet counters and beardies looking down their nose at a butchered Trump but worth going all the same.
At the Ashford Livestock Market just of the M20.

Wall Flowers

Yvonne Stagg, the first female owner of a Wall of Death. She started at the fairground as a rock seller and after riding the Wall on the handlebars she was hooked. She eventually rode on the one and only Tornado Smith's Wall at Kursaal in Southend. She ended up buying Tornado's Wall and took it to Dreamland in Margate where I saw it as a kid. At first she only had BSAs but eventually got her hands on an Indian Scout. Her life ended in controversy as her husband was convicted for stabbing her lover and she committed suicide in the New year of 1976/77 following a long battle with alcohol.

Lyric for the day

Said, the little fish, big fish swimmin' in the water
Come back, man, and gimme my quarter
Hey-hey-hey, you salty dog

Said, the scaredest I ever was in my life
Uncle Bud like to caught me kissin' his wife
Hey-hey, you salty dog

Salty Dog - Mississippi John Hurt

When asked for the meaning of "salty dog", Hurt sheepishly replied, "To tell you the truth, I never thought about it"

Nuff said...he's a lord!!

Proper Gander

I love this bike. After seeing the Knuck in a VL frame Guy posted on Dirty Bobbers I was intrigued to see if anyone else had done it.

Check this out, a bored out Knucklehead engine that he fitted with a high-performance cam and dual carbs. A 1931 Harley VL frame, stretched by an inch to fit the larger engine.

The fuel tank has been modified to carry petrol only in the left half; the right half is oil tank, battery, and coil.

Sweet as....

Proper Gander

Speed over safety in what was the closest experience yet to the Rome Gladiatorial Colosseum. Board track bikes of its era had no brakes, clutch, or throttle (carbs were run wide open, with the only control of the engine speed being an ignition cut-out). Glorious deathtraps!

In 1916, Indian introduced the Model H racer, and was offered to the public at $350. It featured overhead-valve heads with four valves per cylinder, and was easily capable of speeds of over 120 mph. In various forms, it was raced on the dirt track as well as on the boards with very great success. It is unknown how many of the 8-valve racers were manufactured, but production was very small; most were ridden either by factory riders or were "loaned" to promising riders.

Lyric for the day

My facade is just a fake
Shock horror no escape
Sensationalism for the feed
Caricatures are what you breed

Anti-art was the start
Establishments like a laugh
Yes we're very entertaining
Overtones can be betraying

I am a poseur and I don't care
I like to make people stare
I am a poseur and I don't care
I like to make people stare

I am a poseur - X Ray Spex

When I was young we relocated from Folkestone to Merseyside and being a southerner the locals loved to take the pish out of my accent. 'Go on say somthing' ...'What?'...'What mate...what mate' he's a fookin cockney...good job e aint a geordie cos we we 'ate fookin geordies!' ...a geezer called 'owen' who had no front teeth was an orange haired punk. I aint never seen a punk so despite my cockny affliction I started hangin round with punks. The Pistols, Clash, Damned, Stiff Littel Fingers and all but the one that really got me was Poly Styrene of the X Ray Spex. My little Dansette played the shit out of Germ Free Adolecence....on Top Of The Pops she looked more way out than the Pistols and all of them! Showin me age now!!

Wall Flowers

Many Wall of Death 'shows' had women as their main attraction. I loved this about fairground rides. Ignored social convention to make a buck but at the same time unwittingly challenged current beliefs.
In 1894, Agnes was the second of nine girls born into honest-livin’, hard-workin’ Catholic family standards. She christened herself Lillian LaFrance and quickly shook the dust of her Kansas hometown from her boots sometime around 1916, and roared off to create the life she had always dreamt of, carving it raw as she went along. She began Motordrome riding in 1924, and left a brilliant legacy behind.
Many of the UK dromes had female stars also and some started very young...

Lyric for the day

gimme danger, little stranger
and I'll give you a piece
gimme danger, little stranger
and I'll feel your disease

there's nothing in my dreams
Just some ugly memories
kiss me like the ocean breeze

Gimme Danger - The Stooges

The album Raw Power as largely ignored but without it there would be no punk rock. Iggy and the Stooges have had a huge impact on the bands I have played in over the years. The 'fk u this is my art' attitude helped defeat the doubt when you playing your guts out to sometimes less than grateful punters. As Iggy once said 'If I don't terrorize, I'm not Pop'
....and yeah he could have chose a better 'product' to endorse than the devils industry, like he could have chosen butter or summat!

The Test of Time

Can't get enough of old pics of bikes, cars and trucks.

Bonneville Thoughts?

Thinking about tearing down my Bonnie. It is a 1978 T140 and had the engine re-built by John and Steve at Roadstar Cycles. She is a sweet little runner and can keep up with the pack. With her being OIF it gives some concerns about styling. Rob on Flywheel posted some pics of his T120 OIF and I think he has done a sound job with the lines. The sort of look I am thinking of is along the lines of a Trump pulled from Born Loser MC blog which used to be owned by Mike. First pics as she is, second of Robs T120 and third Born Loser inspiration pics.

Lyric for the day

I remember the time
Just before the war
Colored man used to
Hunt him out chips 'n straw
But now, bless God
Old master's dead
Colored man plumb fool
About feather bed

Feather Bed - Gus Cannon


Cannon was the son of slaves, born in Memphis in 1883. He made his first banjo from a guitar neck and a bread pan. Famous to some as the Jug Stompers and others for Walk Right In covered by the Grateful dead. As all great bluesmen he died poor, The Lovin' Spoonful played at a benefit concert in Memphis as a final salute to Cannon to raise money for Cannon's tombstone when he died in 1979.
Gus I salute ya!

Proper Gander

Ave a proper gander at this!
It was roped off in a car museum with little info and the geezer asks if it was for sale and the owner said yes!! Wasn't til he took it apart that he knew he a something. Drilled, lightened and polished rods (KR Harley rods), engine cases were modified to run ball bearings on the pinion and drive sides, the Schunk cams were square, the carburetor was a Linkert M3 ‘Bomb Sight’ model used on Harley racers, the pistons had all the meat hogged out of the insides and the intake ports were larger than on a 74-inch Chief. After investigation it was found to have been raced by Ed Kretz.
Not to be confused with the 1948 Big Base Scouts, the 1939 engines are the only ones that were sand cast and these five 1939 Big Base engines were sent to various handpicked riders to compete in Class C racing (sort of cheating).
Here's the even cooler bit...the bike, after changing hands a few times and still raced it was eventually sold to the racer Pate Killian who knew Von Dutch and had him paint the tanks three different times — the last Von Dutch paint job is still on it!!

Ah, this last fair deal goin' down,
it's the last fair deal goin' down
This' the last fair deal goin' down, good Lord,
on this Gulfport Island Road

Robert Johnson - Last Fair Deal Gone Down

Linkert Attacks 2010

Johnny put up the poster on DB. Looking forward to this!!

Proper Gander

check this out on US evil bay at the moment!!

1932 Harley 350cc Hillclimber

Built by Antique Motorcycle Works in Oregon City. The bike has a stretched original frame,

original wheels, front end, and rear brake. The engine has the original crankcase and transmission. The barrel and upper end has been reproduced by AMW's. The handlebars have been custom made for this motorcycle in the fashion of the Hillclimbers of this era.

WOW!!