A little update.

Sorry been a lack of updates, the truth is, I haven’t had time to get on the bike and now every bike in the garage needs to be MOT’d. the little classic Suzuki is at my uncles for storage the now so no two wheels the now. This made me think, I love the bike for travelling and want to do more exploring with either my son, daughter or my wife on the back of the bike but it can be unfair when the others don’t see it, so whilst this blog is mainly for my bike travels and exploring, I might stick a couple of other posts on it for travelling and holiday wise as I have a few trips coming up, firstly I am away back down to Newquay in Cornwall which was my first blog story with Lymara and myself going down on the Pan-European but this time we are all going down for the surfing. I have been trying to do more Vlog stuff and trying to keep it to two different YouTube channels. One for the bike one for the family travels but thinking about combining them both for this blog. In November this year I have a different sort of trip. For Lymara’s birthday I bought a mystery holiday for 2 on Wowcher. Then I watched videos on YouTube after it when they were allocating the holidays and most videos had the same thing, the phone call taking a long time. Well, I can honestly say it was painless for me. Will post part one of that shortly as we got our destination which was only meant to be a Friday to Monday but the guy on the phone was amazing and gave us a 6-day holiday to Venice. Also had the little mini out at Croft racing circuit. Was a different kind of day where my window ended up with a bonnet sticking through it, was a great day before that happened.

Mayhem in Matlock

I am in a group on Facebook called Honda Deauville NT650/700v UK group. The groups admin Peter and Markie organised to have a meet up down in Matlock, they had one in 2022 but unfortunately I ended up in hospital due to stomach problems so had to miss it with being stuck in a hospital bed. In the end only 5 or 6 turned up, this year was different, it got a better response and as far as my memory serves it had around 24 bikes out on the Saturday run. Matlock is right in the middle of England and with me being in the middle of Scotland it took around 6 hours of riding to get there with mainly motorways to make up time to get down.

I started packing on the Wednesday night and thought I had plenty time to transfer my quad lock charger to the pan as my Deauville had ran out of mot and never noticed until it was to late so on the Thursday when I was due to leave I had both bikes stripped down swapping bits over and making a bracket for my phone to sit on when riding. I left around 11am and going through Glasgow I was greeted with beautiful blue skys, these lasted all the way until I crossed the border and boom, I was soaked to the rain that went right through my bike jacket, trousers, gloves and in to my boots, I pulled in to the services to put the poncho on my phone and set back off, after 10 mins of getting soaked the sun came back out which thankfully dried me back up, just after Manchester I headed in towards Matlock. I went across the cat and the fiddle which was crystal clear at the time and had some stunning views, the roads were good but hampered big time with the average speed cameras every where which are there due to bikes. I made it in to Matlock and continued up a big hill to the camp site which I completely missed so had to turn back around. As I made my way on the camp site I was greeted by Pete first then the other, I built my tent up which would be my home for 3 nights, we all mingled together as for many of us it was the first time meeting each other.

When I woke up on Friday for the ride out I was met nicely with rain which was going sideways, we met in Markies tent which had a big space for us all with our chairs where Ged met up with us, he was from that area and was going to be the lead rider for the weekend. There was another surprise for his as he was also made admin when he came up on Friday. We delayed the ride to see if the weather would break but it never gave way so only 5 decided to go out. Some of us that stayed decided to go for something to eat down in Matlock around lunch time as the rain stopped. Matlock can be described as a seaside town which has a river instead of a sea, we went to a little pub for a quick drink before Greggs. As we were heading back to the camp side the rain started again and soaked me right through, my jumper was soaked as was my jacket. On the Saturday we all decided to go the ride, we went through some good roads and just 15 miles in we were met by our first big puddle. The heavens opened and the front of the pack decided to pull in to a little thatgarage, I was on the bike just outside the canopy and getting soaked, my language was not the best at point as I just off the bike. When we got back on the route we seen a bright flash of lighting followed by a roar of thunder. We took a trip to a bike dam where the famous dam busters was. We got back to the camp site and we all fired our wet stuff in to the boiler room of the pub to dry out. Saturday was a good crack with a live singer. I had to leave early as my head was slipping, so went back to the tent, fired up the iPad and fell asleep watching Ted Lasso. When I woke up on. The Sunday I decided to head back down the road, originally I was going to stay to Monday and go for a ride out on the Sunday but with the rain coming back in I packed up when it was try and set off, it rained from Manchester to Blackpool with strong winds, once I just passed Ecelfecon the sun came up and manage to dry me out thankfully. Over all it was a good meet and I will be attending it in 2024 as well as the Deauvilles in Devon, the group is a great group and mainly English based. There is a lot of deauvilles in Scotland and have met many riders with them up here but I was the only Scottish rider that went down, in fairness there was martin who came from France to the event and I had traveled more miles from Falkirk than he had from France. The pace was a gentle easy going ride, a little slower than I was use to but overall good with a great bunch of guys and hoping to discus with the admin an event up here.

There is a wee video at the bottom

Nothing like a natural shower to clean the bike.

Quick stop at the dam busters, good food and good prices.

Some creature comforts to charge all the stuff

Here is a short video of the MiM Mayhem in Matlock!

Coming up

A Cold Damp day in April.

Ping ping ping, the group chat is pinging like mad, it’s all the baw bags on whats app that are trying to figure something up for a run, we had agreed at our last meal we had together that we were going to go a run on the last weekend of The month, this was meant to be a camping weekend but due to the predicted weather the chat was just saying a run-on Saturday. Only one big drawback, my bike and my dad’s bike were still sitting in Stirling at my dad’s work and unfortunately my dad’s health is not been the best, he gave me and Watty a run through to pick it up, we also had some one extra in the car going through, when he found out we were picking the bikes up he grabbed his new helmet, jacket and his gloves. We arrived in Stirling and pushed the bikes out, it was at that point I remembered how much of a heavy beast my dad’s pan was, that fired up straight away and the V4 just ticked over like it should. Then I pushed out the Deauville, I tried to start her, but she wouldn’t spark to life, just turned over and over, I tried the choke off but nothing. My dad causally walked across after noticing my stupid mistake. I had forgot to turn the fuel on! A proper blonde moment. I got Declan all set up and ready to go, I was more concerned about getting him ready I completely missed strapping my helmet up, whoops. We ran them back; Watty took my Deauville back to the house and I took the pan with Declan on the back. It was a good we blast back but wasn’t enough to blow the cobwebs off. Then I looked at my phone when we got back to garage..

Deauville looks amazing when you catch it in the mirror.

We were all meeting up at McDonald’s at 11am, the only downside was I was working until 11. This meant me leaving the house at 5:30 on the bike, something I haven’t done since I started back as a HGV mechanic. Surprisingly it was dry and not to cold, I thought this would be a great day out on the bike then, just, after I brought the bike in to the workshop to check the tyre pressures, the heavens opened. I got on the bike, had a quick splash and dash and seen them all at the Golden Arches enjoying the breakfast, I was 10 mins to slow and missed the breakfast menu. I was gutted, we left and headed up to Kinross, I stupidly put the sat map on my head phone’s and did not refresh after Kinross, for the next 40 mins after we passed there it kept redirecting me to go back, this drove me insane, luckily I was following Watty and Callum as I was at the back, Watty got lost which meant we stopped for a min to look about, I turned the sat map off then noticed Swifty, I shouted Watty to follow me and caught up with then. We had another quick stop to empty the tank, this is where Calum ended up hugging his bike to put his hands on the engine casings, sports grips vs heated grips,I will be sticking with the heated grips. We then headed up towards Pitlochry down some awesome jaw dropping roads which were smooth and just so flowing from corner to corner.

When we stopped at Pitlochry and went for a quick bite to eat at a small café. I ended up getting a toasty and most of the others had soup. We had a joke about the toilets as you do, then it turned to the conversation of getting a heat in us, as we were all froozen when we stopped. When I managed to get in to the only bathroom in the café, I was thinking about putting my boots in to the hand dryer as my toes were going numb, luckily for me, my toes were the only part that were uncomfortably numb. We ended up in mountain warehouse when some of us bought jumpers and socks, I never, I did change my riding position which lifted my toes away from the air flow.

After we left it was on the the way back home, we rode through Aberfeldy we we passed at least 12 Austin 7’s, these where cool like vintage cars, I must say I was jealous except from the guy who passed in an Austin 7 convertible with the roof down, he was just as cold as us with a big hat on. We made our way down to Callander and stopped for a quick Costa then jumped on to the motorway for the final leg of our run which we all started parting ways at separate exits to get home, the bike was finally home to rest in the freshly painted garage.

Here is a short 15 min clip of our ride down below, please make sure to subscribe to this blog and the YouTube channel which me and Declan are planning to do other things on, just hopefully get the time for it all.

Itchy Time!!

No I don’t mean that itchy time where you need go see the doctor for some antibiotics because of the weekend before, I mean the time where all you can think about is riding and prep, where you are driving to work looking at the road saying its perfect day to wrap up and get out on the bike.

The plans I have for this year is to do as many weekends away as I can on the bike but this time it will be with someone else on tow. Drum roll please. (insert drum roll) Declan (9 years old) will be coming with me on the back to do wild camping trips and adventures, we are planning to go out ourselves and maybe hit a few bike shows or rallies plus go along with the group that I ride with, We have a group chat on WhatsApp what I started with my Dad and an old family friend Kevin, we started doing a chippy run on Friday nights and then started going away for weekend runs, this year will be a little different. Everyone will have to make a run each and take charge of that weekend like camping spots etc which I am really looking forward to. I am researching runs down in Dumfries direction as some of the roads down there are amazing. We also have the GoPros which me and Declan will hopefully master, I am currently editing our Scottish bike show video which I have discovered is a long process on a slow computer.

As I mentioned the Scottish bike show happened in march! I took my old Suzuki A100 up in my works van, have you ever had to put a bike in a van that is just a tiny bit taller than the bike, which was a tight fit, I had to fold the front passenger seat down but luckily had the middle seat up. I unloaded the bike and seen some of the guys and girls from the central vintage and classic motorcycle club and parked my bike. We were going for a camping theme. On the Saturday I brought the family along, I was going to try and do more in front of the camera to make a vlog but being the shy guy that I am, well lets just say, I chickened out but my daughter very happily took the camera and had a good go at it as well as my son Declan, they had a great time and even went up and down the climbing wall, we looked at helmets for Declan as well as jackets, Unforturantly there is not a lot of kids clothing for bikes at the show so will most likely end up at J&S for more for him. When were back at the club stand I was very happy to see how well my little bike was received, I had a few offers to buy the bike and a lot of people reminiscing about the old times when they had one of those themselves. Turns out a lot of people had the same type of bike when they were younger. Its nice to see all the old classics but know if I see an old bike like what my dad had or something that brings back memories then I more likely to stop and admire it. I even met a guy from LARBERT who had one and nearly bought another after seeing one on the road about a year or 2 ago, I happily informed him that it was a high chance it was me on the little bike.

On the Sunday me and Declan went up ourselves and tried more vlogging. It was a good day and we ended up buying Declan a helmet and jacket. I also bought a helmet but it was mainly just to sit on my bike as it had a classic helmet look and matched the colours, this got quite a few comments and looked good hanging on my handlebars. It came to packing up time and that’s when it all turned a bit sore for myself. We could not get the van in to the car park that is close so had to carry out 4 big heavy barriers which had a nice lump of cement on the bottom to keep them from toppling over, I had to carry them one by one back and forth up on my shoulder, I was in pain afterwards then I knew I still had to fit my bike in, Declan ended up taking his helmet from the van and back to the bike so we could just ride it down to the van instead of pushing it but when I tried to start it I just couldn’t get it fired up, then I looked and noticed I had turned the key to full beam which is to much drain on the electoral system to fire up. When I discovered what I had done I had flooded it, it did fire up but was not running right, hey it was still running so thought was riding it! When I got out Jock from the club asked if I could pop down and grab keys for his Goldwing. I done that and the bike was clearing itself… Just. We ran it round to the van and I will be honest, it felt great to be out on A bike, just being on two wheels was enough to bring a smile to my face and Declan’s. it felt even better being on that little hundred cc where that bike has most likely in a long way shaped my life, it got my dad in to motorcycle which got me in to motorcycles and got my kids in to motorcycles and hopefully that will continue. I dare say Emily and Declan will both be fighting over who gets the bike when they get older. Declan gave me a hand to put the bike in to the van and strap it up, this meant he was in the middle seat of the van which was nice and cosy for him! After I got home the bike sat in the van for a while before I dropped it back at my uncles where it is getting stored due to the garage getting done up. Over all a great weekend with a great bunch of folk and hopefully will do the Ayr bike show with the club as well, just getting all the dates together for the year as so far this year is booking up fast with different events.

On other news I ended up booking an audience with Carl Fogarty, I booked the VIP for 2 people. When I told my wife she asked who I was taking, ummm I thought it would have been a good night for us but I don’t think that will be happening so I am now looking for a someone to come with me! Carl was a big hero growing up as I loved the WSB as that was my go to, even over the MotoGP, it was real bikes that you seen on the road (well sort of) and looked like normal blokes racing, albeit their fitness was much greater than average. Carl had a great mentality to race and was the first autobiography that I ever read.

The White pan is still in progress, I haven’t really touched it as I have been busy with my work, being a gymnastics coach and our print and embroidery business GLED Print. My dad has done so far an amazing job on it and cant wait to see it when its finished, until then it will be the Deauville. I still say the Deauville is an amazing bike, its not underrated, just misunderstood, one of the others in the group went and bought one for him and his wife to go away on.

We also had a trip up the transport museum in Glasgow, which I saw Ewan McGregor’s long way round bike and long way down bike. It was the 2 shows that he done that made me want to go on adventures on bikes and ruff it. If you have not seen these shows watch them in order, round, down and now up, Lymara and myself are watching the long way up the now which is on electric Harleys. It’s a good challenge to watch but I did prefer the big old BMW’s they had in the first two.

Any ways, loads planned for this year, hopefully I will keep up to date on the blog and start doing motoVlogs with Declan as well, 2022 was not the best with health wise but its on the mend and hopefully out as much as I can. Bellow is a short video before editing the video.

Sorry folks!!!!

Sorry folks, I have been busy lately and not had much of a chance to blog, I do have a couple I have typed up but still to publish, some involving electric motorcycle and my thoughts of them, my plans for this years motorcycle trips, the classic bike club I am involved in which I will update with my time at the bike show with them, that is happening soon and also the bawbags I go out with on my bike.

I thought I would share some news about what my son and I are planning. We are planning to do some motoVlog stuff on youtube as well as normal vlog stuff for our adventures, he was to go away long weekends on the bike and have good father son weekends like I had with my father and hope to do again soon on the bikes. I bought the new GoPro hero 11 black media creator pack and feel in love with it, I ended up buy a GoPro for Declan as well so we can get a dad view and kid view. He will be coming with me to the bike show so can hopefully do our first Motor related video Vlog. Hopefully we can maybe go up there on the Saturday on the bike but we will wait and see the weather.

The mini has been out a few times after the last blog about it, every time it goes out it get faster with all the little bits done to it, now I have passenger seat and harness but still need to take a willing victim or passenger.

A little update.

Sorry folks not posted for the last 2 weeks due to being a tad busy lately. If you read my race past story you would see that at the bottom, I was on a track day in a mini cooper S that I have been working on. I spent most of that weekend up at Knockhill with fireworks night on the Saturday then the track day on the Sunday. I also go my new GoPro which I have been playing with a lot so have a little video of the fireworks then one of the trackdays.

We had gone to Knockhill for the past 2 bonfire nights, and both have been fantastic, cold but still a great night, they have many displays out from legends, drifting, Mini Motos and much more, lots of cars and trucks to go and check out as well as kids activities to keep them entertained as well. It brings back some memories for me as a kid on my bike Infront of the crowds.

A little video of the event for fireworks night.

The track day was like going back to racing, the day before was a bit last minute finishing things off, I had to finish off repairing my trailer to take the car there, replace the brake fluid, fit front lights for the wet, all small stuff… Opps.

The track day started at 11am, so this of course this meant I got up at 6am and made my way to the garage for 7am, luckily, I went early as I forgot to change the jockey wheel and check the lights, turned out the blue wire didn’t go to the blue wire, it went to the black wire, another small hiccup that day. My friend Colin was going in his mini as well, he arrived around half 8, think I was a little early.

We set off and towing the minis and got there for around 10.15, we unloaded them warming them up knowing we were to be at the drivers briefing for 10,45 as in typical Gary style, was late for that so had to wait a little longer which made my nerves go through the roof.

I got out and done a few laps then the red flag came out which gave me time to double check oil levels etc. everything was good so I went back out and done about another 7 laps then, after that it went a bit wrong, just as I got to butchers the car deid, I pulled in to the grass and kept hitting the hazards but they never worked, as I sat on the grass I could smell something, like an electrical fire, it was only after about 20 seconds I thought oooo fudge, it’s on fire, I quickly removed my harness and dived out the car, if you watch the next video you will see it half way through. One of my battery leads had dropped on to the exhaust melting it and shorting the vehicle out, it was only after it when we had the car jacked up fixing it, I seen the fire was right at the petrol tank. lucky one. We managed to fire it in the pits with help from a few people I work with and got back out. I had done about another 50 laps then the black flag came out, my front right brake was rubbing cause my disc to glow red constantly round the track. I was planning to come off as my clutch was slipping like mad by this point. Overall a great day and a good shake down knowing what I repair. Enjoy the video bellow and watch me in the car as the smoke came in.

Knockhill trackday

Racing.

The good, the bad and the very ugly

This post is going to be an extremely hard one to write. My racing life or in another way my racing addiction can from an early age, and it is hard to pinpoint when I first became hooked. I would say when I was young, I did not have a competitive nature until I hit the double digits, I was not the best at school but did always try at some things there. As I previously said on “why motorcycles” I had been going on the back of my dad’s bike for a while and been going to Knockhill to watch the bike racing. When I first got a shot of a minibike, I was not the fastest at Ingliston, but I manage to control the bike in a way I was passing everybody in the corner and that became a way of mine but will tell you more about that later.

After we got my first minibike, a Polini 910 6.2hp 40cc water cooled bike, we had gone to Aberdeen Kart start and quickly realised I had a challenge in-front of me. During that day we got quicker and quicker but noticed when I got out with the faster kids and adults, on a straight they were pulling away with ease and me being a beginner, they pulled away on corners as well. I quickly developed a buzz for trying to go as fast as getting a bike to the point where it was on the edge, something that for years I could never get out of the habit of to enjoy something.

If you are on your phone or tablet you might need to click on the pictures for the full picture and not a cropped corner.

My dad tweeking the bike on its first run

A little history of the minibike, if you follow Moto GP, you will see stars like Valentino Rossi, Marc Marqez, Dani Pedrosa, and a lot of others talk about minibikes. For a motorcycle racer, the minibike or minimotos is like a go kart. It teaches you how to race from braking to acceleration, corning to crashing and most importantly to myself as an adult now, it teaches race etiquette which will help some of the young races mature into future stars. If you are ever searching for racing, it goes under a lot of different names like pocket bike racing, minibike, mini moto etc.

This next part is taken from Wiki

Pocket bikes are small, two wheeled recreational vehicles approximately one-quarter the size of a regular motorcycles and are powered by two-stroke internal combustion engines of between 40 and 50 cc. Pocket bikes maintain the look of full-sized sport bikes and are known for racing on specialty tracks designed for small Power Sport machines. These specialized models, designed for competition, produce up to seventeen hp, and have front and rear suspension akin to larger sport bikes. Most consumer models are far less powerful, usually below 3hp,[1] and do not feature suspension, relying on the tires alone for shock-absorption. Weight for most machines are approximately 50 lb (23 kg). The usual height is less than 50 cm (20 in), and up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) length.

The Pocket bike racing, known as Minimotos, is a professional, internationally sectioned sport. It is raced by both youth and adults, on specialized, high-performance machines. Several notable MotoGP racers and champions first raced in Minimotos, including Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi, Nobuatsu Aoki, and Daijiro Kato.[13] The sport of Minimotos originated in Japan in the 1960s, expanding as a professional sport in the 1970s, before spreading to Italy in the 1980s and most of Europe in the 1990s.

Me and my dad, my go to guy for everything

We raced the rest of that year across Scotland at Knockhill, Raceland’s in Tranent, Kart start Kirkcaldy and Aberdeen, Crail and Larkhall. We struggled a lot that year due to our budget compared to others, my dad and I use to work in the garage most nights cleaning it and just trying to find that little extra speed for the weekend changing the gearing to dropping the forks an extra 1mm etc but we could never keep up, we put a different exhaust system on the bike which helped a lot. As that year went on the people who got the 910s for the year moved to the 911’s. These bikes were more advanced with better handling, easier power and speed and we struggled to keep up, when it came to a corner I could pass on the brakes, stay in front all corner then they would zip by again on the power, this became a bit disheartening for us.

We had two practice tracks we used, we used a place in Larbert which we would set a few cones up and do it in clockwise and anticlockwise just practice. Think this was the only time my mum came to see me on a bike, and I am sure I came off it that day. That track was not much but I loved going there at night times with my dad, Lee use to practice there as well. Back in these days no one had really seen a minibike so you would get cars stopping to watch and would never get a hassle from the police as the invasion of these cheap Chinese minibike that people flew about the streets were not invented then. We also used a track called Matthews minimotos, they ran a fleet of Polini’s as well but allowed owners to arrive and drive for £10 that day. At Matthews, there were not many owner drivers so when people went to bike rite they seem you flying about in a set of full leathers knee sliding round the corners, it attracted more people to hire the bikes, they had two riders who raced in the Scottish who worked for them, I still remember me leading a session and they two were all over me at the back, they called me a maniac to my dad as the back of my bike was all over the place bouncing about, drifting and sliding, I knew I was just pushing it and as long as my front tyre was where I wanted it I was fine. They even had an open day at bike rite and the minibikes done the same there, they had a parent’s race where all the parents jumped on the hired bikes, about 4-5 parents out there, my dad grabbed my bike. He shot off out the pits and went in to the first corner, this is a memory that I hope will always stay with me, he stopped at the corner, picked the bike up to turn in then went to the next corner and repeated with the stop, lift, turn, and go.

We continued to race in the Scottish that year and when we went to Knockhill to race all sort of things happened that meeting. I had been going well that day and managed to pass a couple people at the end of the straight into a hairpin. My uncle Watty came with us to that meeting and him and my dad were watching my next move at the same hair pin, it was four wide and I got shoved on to the grass on the inside. I never shut the throttle off and was still trying to pass. As I re-joined the track in front of the other 3 my dad and Watty had jumped on the fence with their arms waving like mad men, then disaster strikes, I say my dad and Watty go flying as the fence broke to which I lost focus on what I was doing and lost the control on the corner resulting on me going in to the tyres and finishing a few places down, I also done something similar at Raceland’s and the end of that straight, my carb played up and got stuck on full throttle, when I managed to get the power off I was just about in to the tyres, I went flying over my handle bars in to the tyres that day and crawled very badly out of there. I would wait after a Scottish round waiting for the mail with the points coming through. I still have all these copies in the house. Unfortunately, I do not have many photos from them as I gave some photos to a friend for his talk at school who raced with me and never got them back.

The end of 2003 came and we had to return the bike, I know now how much this tore up my mum and dad and when this happened it left me chasing a fix to race, I know some people who have gave up racing from mini bike to even big bikes and unfortunately know how they chase their fix, thankfully I never went down that path. This left a big whole in my life and found that I would try and ride any bike available for the next few years on any track legally or illegally down fields were we were not meant to be.

In 2012 I went back to minibike racing; I started building an open class bike and had a bike which was a power demon. Me and my dad spent many weeks building it to get it ready for the first round of the Scottish that year and spent a lot of money. My wife and daughter came to watch that race meeting were I had nothing but problems, my bike was spitting the chain off, brake failures, more spitting chains, then when starting my last race in the reverse grid, sitting in pole my bike stalled and I couldn’t get it started again until the rest had finished their first lap. Was not the weekend we wanted. We continued racing that year, even buying a production class bike to race in the heavy weight class where I finished second that year. I was five points short of winning but missed the first two rounds, so it was achievable. I went back as an adult paying for it myself and relying on just me and my dad, it was the best racing season I have ever done, this brought me and my dad closer. We went on to race in 2013 but again budget hit as people were leaving the Polini’s behind and going to another better brand and we struggled to keep up, but we still enjoyed it. James Williamson still raced this year again and we had some great battles on the old Polini’s. When the last race came, we packed up the bikes and they have sat in the garage since. We went to the dinner/price giving that year and sat with James and Stuart Anderson who won that year. Stuart was a talented racer who should be up in the BSB racing but never got a break. I did not know this would be the last time I would have seen James, he was a good friend at the racing, even though when we were on the track it was a constant battle, after the race we always shook hands and shared a pit together. He passed away due to the injuries he sustained when he was out on his big bike on the road.

I hope to one day have a shot of another minibike, maybe next year I will try and do an enduro with them, maybe a blog feature. I always hoped my kids would go into racing, but my daughter does to well at gymnastics to pull her from that to race and my son does not seem to be interested. Who knows what I will be on track with next.

Overall, would if I were to go back and know what I know about racing would I, YES definitely, in a heartbeat.

Me lifting my Proddy back due to a crash.

My first 910, Lee’s was sitting next to mine on their first time out

Some one crash and burst there rad. I slid and burnt my leg on the exhaust

A video of me racing at Annan on both bikes, never done well that week as I was looking after the bike myself

Racing blog coming soon.

La Honda Deauville

During lock down I had ignited my love for motorcycles again, to the point I bought a 2002 Honda Deauville nt650v for £200, it was a nonrunner and I thought I could either get it running and sell or keep for myself or strip it and sell the parts that were ok if it was terminal. The guy said the bike had been into a garage and they thought it was something to do with the starter but for 200 we couldn’t complain. We trailered it back and within 30 minutes of getting it off the trailer we had the engine running. Turns out the battery was fitted in the wrong was turning the starter motor the wrong way, luckily the only damage done was the voltage regulator blow.

The bike was a lovely blue colour, not original colours plus had a lot of royal transport corps which I believe the guy I bought it from was in. The bike was not in the corps.

The bike was in a sorry state, it had been painted blue which was a rather nice blue and a fantastic finish to the paint, but the garage had broken a panel to get in to check something, the thought of repairing the panel and painting it to match it was not on the cards as the bike was originally white. The wiring was a mess with what can only be described as household wire from a hoover been added to run his lights. There was a lot of other things that just were not right like the engine and wheels been painted black.

We stripped it right down and decided to rebuild it and make it right, new bearings, seals, and paint job among a lot of other things. I also bought the bottom belly pan for it as I thought it finished the bike off.

The paint job was agricultural white paint which left a nice shine on it, all the engine, final drive, forks etc where done in alloy wheel silver from rattle cans.

Painting that day. We were wearing masks. Everything in that garage has still white speckles of overspray

I want to give a big shout out to my dad, Watty and Kevin as with out them the bike would still be in bits, we spent many Saturday’s building and repairing things.

Luckily there is a Honda Deauville breaker in The Law not far from us who was a god send for parts, Thank you Alan.

After we got it, all built up after the winter we stuck it in for mot, we were pleased it passed first time and have enjoyed many outings on it.

The Deauville is a very underrated bike, it’s a touring bike which has plenty space, perfect for a quick blast up the town to pick up your shopping to going away on bike rallies.