fastbob

The real reason I happen to have plastic cutlery is that my motorcycle camping kit is derived from my cycling camping kit . The item in the picture is actually a children's fork stolen from the restaurant in IKEA . Great places to stuff your pockets full of HP Sauce sachets prior to a camping trip .

No . Horrible things .

Well surely you've eaten noodles before . They don't all come in a pot . By pure chance I had noodles and tuna for my tea today because I wanted to get cracking on the Triumph .

Meanwhile , in a shed somewhere in England , a mere 4.8 miles from where it was created some 55 years ago , a motorcycle is beginning to emerge . A couple of weekends of fettling and I reckon there will be signs of life .

I don't like my noodles swimming in soup so I hydrate them in boiling water and then drain them before adding the semi poisonous contents of the various sachets followed by a can of Mackerel or Tuna . Carbs and protein in well under five minutes with my Go Outdoors imitation Jetboil . For a more leisurely lunch some chicken and vegetables cooked separately and combined with the noodles . All eaten with a plastic fork to further enhance the enjoyment .

Let's look at Karl's take on the Helmet Laws . ( Watch the whole thing )

Some shiny bits ready to go back on . I've torqued the head to 18 ft / lbs but it somehow just didn't seem like nearly enough . I actually had to back off some bolts because my preliminary tightening had already exceeded the torque setting . I'm going to verify with another torque wrench at its upper setting because I used my big torque wrench at its lowest setting .

Just continuing a British tradition .

The last picture is not a small bike .

Nothing but tinfoil . I think there is a lot of nonsense attached to this practice . All that's happening is that the rust spots are being knocked off by a material that is softer than chrome and therefore dosen't scratch . The Coke , Diet Coke , salt water bit I simply don't get .

My Dad told me that in 1978 . I'm still rebelling now .

Back to the matter in hand . A good bit of work this evening . Pushrods in and rockers lightly bolted down . The engine turns over freely , the valves go up and down nicely and the oil pump is working . So now it's just a case of torquing it all down and fitting the external oil feed . After that I took the silencers indoors and decided to try the tinfoil method of cleaning up the chrome . Wow ! What a result . Absolutely brilliant . These are stamped as Campbell's Replacement Silencers so this is vintage British chrome.

A good place to find one is the ER5 Facebook group .

Get an ER5 . Marvelous bikes and plenty around for £800 .

I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it .

FFS !

Unfortunately for you the Cafe Racer / Brat / Rat / Hipster craze has swallowed up every available 70's and 80's 125 . It turns my stomach to see a CG 125 stripped to the bone with the regulation brown seat being sold for £2,000 + . I rebuilt 9 CG 125s about 16 years ago . The most I ever paid was £200 and the least I ever paid was £20 . I even got given one for free . What you could try is putting wanted ads in newsagents and grocery stores asking for a scrap bent or blown bike , anything considered . This way you might just avoid the greedy f*****s on eBay .

" Is that a GSXR 750 ? " " No mate , it's a GSXR 1100 " It was worth buying just to be able to say that . I've never really made a rational decision about a bike other than it had to be bigger and faster than the last one .( Until recently )

I took part in numerous MAG Demos in the 80's where Fred Hill was present including one where Trafalgar Square was taken over by motorbikes . I've no idea when the pic was taken , could be around '85 . I had a few false starts to my biking journey due to mechanical issues, changes to the learner laws , poverty and run ins with the law .

I took a few prescription sea sickness pills then went mackerel fishing off Teignmouth in a flat calm . During the trip we necked a couple of litres of local cider . It was a very pleasant trip and when I got ashore I can honestly say that I was the most serenely f****d up I have ever been . I've no idea what was in those pills but I bet they have a street value .

Nah . Don't forget , it's not my bike . Anyway I rather like them . They remind me of better days . Look at that grinning fool !

This isn't a restoration , it's putting an oily rag bike back on the road . For all I know it probably won't even smoke . This isn't a jap bike where everything is swimming in oil . The rocker shafts are fed internally and the majority of the surplus goes back down the pushrod tubes . We'll see .

Well they can always sort it out . It's only a few hours work with a hammer .

Probably not . This is what it should look like . I think someone took off the nacelle and fitted a Tacho .

I'm not too bothered . I'm enjoying myself and I'm refreshing my Brit Bike skills and knowledge . I can better appreciate the " Jap crap " tag . This thing is in a different league as far as materials go .