DIRT QUAKE: WORK WITH WHAT YA GOT!

The fast approaching DIRT QUAKE race event is Joe Public's one-time opportunity to come racing....no strings attached. It will be a one night stand of exhilaration, fear and a true sense of accomplishment.

Whatever bike you can lay your hands on, we got a suitable class for you to race it in. Novice, street-tracker/street-scrambler, inappropriate road bike and chopper classes.

Here's what was lurking in my shed. Given to me over 15years ago... a crusty, unloved Suzuki GS750 hardtail chopper. I say 'hardtail' but what I really mean is 2 iron bars bolted into where the rear shocks should be.

My mates, PITSTOP PAUL and his lad PITSTOP KEV dropped by today to make initial steps to get her running for the big day. When I aquired the bike in the last century, it was running. However, it seems to be missing a rectifier and the wiring loom looks like it was put together over the phone by Peters and Lee. The overall standard of engineering is so poor and ham-fisted....it's almost perverse.

I'm not gonna race this bike personally. I'm already racing my Rotax in both the club meeting 11am-4pm and then in the GNC at 7pm which is more than enough considering I'm suffering with a hernia. The deal is if they can get it running then Pitstop Paul can race it in the Chopper class.....I'm positive I'll get far more pleasure watching a newbie at the helm representing SKOOTER FARM/SIDEBURN than riding it myself. If Paul decides not to race.....I already got a subsitute. A guy who's last legitimate occupation was being fired out of a cannon in a stunt show!

The Pitstoppers left undaunted with a small shopping list: coils, plugs, plug caps, air filters and a rectifier.
Work continues next week.

I hope this post inspires folks who toy with the romantic notion of being a motorcycle racer to stop fantasizing and make it a reality...even if it's just for one evening.

Remember....Ride it like you borrowed it!

DIRT QUAKE.....feel the rumble!!

Just announced...this will be a doozie! Lots of stuff planned but top of the heap for me is the UK's first ever dirt track chopper race. If it's heavy, hard to handle and totally unsuitable for track use...then it's in!
Pics are from a similar event that took place in Finland last year

SEVENTY-SIXTIES

Had a pretty crappy day today. I came home and cheered up when I found this cool set of pics I took in 1999 when US BOMBS came to stay with us for a couple of days.I gave the prints to Duane the next time I saw him at the Blackpool punk weekender in 2000 and the shots finally see the light of day on his official website http://duanepeters.net/
There is shots of our kitchen (hasn't changed at all) my chopper, the backyard ramp, my Evel Knievel BMX and even my little Honda CM200 flat tracker being built in the workshop!!

UPDATE:
I actually did a more indepth post about the time The U.S. Bombs came to stay when I first started this blog, Almost a year to the day!
Read it HERE

THE ORIGIN OF "SKOOTER FARM"......

On my recent trip to Finland I saw a lot of bicycle choppers being built. This made me think back to a project that me and Capt. Highside did between us back in the summer of 1995.

The Captain was actually recovering from a broken foot that was the result of his first and only vintage motocross race and to fill his downtime he began playing around with some old cycle parts.

When I saw what he was doing, I got involved and like most things I seem to do, the project "snowballed".

The Captain did all the engineering and I took care of sourcing parts, paint, cosmetics and graphics.

This bike was christened "Subversion" and I came up with the name SKOOTER FARM CYCLE CONCEPTS...little did I know this name would stick and that over a decade later would be the moniker for our fledgling dirt track team.

People ask me a lot what the name means..... so I'll try to explain:

"SKOOTER" is an outlaw biker term for a stripped down, purposeful motorcycle. Originally spelled "scooter" I decided to change the spelling to disassociate the word from Lambrettas and Vespas.

"FARM" is a word that suggests homegrown productivity, dirt, agriculture and hillbillies.

So I guess the jist of it is..... motocycles built in outhouses and then ridden around in fields by inbreds!! ha ha!

Anyway, back to the bike, the frame and forks are a heavily modified, stretched Raleigh Burner.

The front wheel was from a unicycle and the rear is from some old moped. Other trick parts are a Mongoose Supergoose stem, one-off custom seat, faux-springer forks and the bullet head light and tail light.

The little guy sat on the bike is the Captains nephew, Tom, aged 9, up at Sunday biker hangout Rivington Barn when the bike was first finished.

FINLAND TRIP pt.2 after the party

This is the morning afterthe party. Everybody was hung over, no loud music and the chance to chat to people.

I was very aware of the SCANDINAVIAN BIKER WAR in the late 90's between HELLS ANGELS MC and BANDIDOS MC. in which there was 11 murders and almost 100 woundings. Talking to Mitja, he told me the ROAD WEIRDOS was a neutral clubhouse that both Hells Angels and Bandidos visited from time to time when they wanted some fun. Apparently their own clubs have become too regimented and business-like. He added that the reason for the fun factor was a "No Guns" policy at this clubhouse....however, the thought crossed my mind as to how you could enforce such a policy!!

Talking to Kiatsu and Iikku I learned they really dug Raleigh Chopper bicycles and British TV shows ON THE BUSES, SAPPHIRE AND STEEL and KENNY EVERETT SHOW.....

Folks in the above shots, from the top of the page are:

Hese, Kiatsu, me with Mitja in the background, Iikku and Kiatsu, unknown Chopperdero member, Hese and ladyfriend, me in amongst some bikes, Mitja's bicycle chopper, 70's style Japanese-motored skooter.

FINLAND TRIP pt.1... Road Weirdos clubhouse party

First installment of pics from the trip I just took. I got a last minute opportunity to go to Finland for a few days to take in a chopper show in Helsinki with Fiddy from DAVIDA helmets.

This post is about the ROAD WEIRDOS clubhouse on the outskirts of the city. Its in a really green, leafy location and would be difficult to find if you didn't have someone take you there (thanks Antsu!)

The Road Weirdos did their own thing totally independent from the big chopper show. A small gathering of bikes and a swapmeet throughout the day...... followed by a party throughout the night!

Good food, lots of boozing and falling over, a traditional Finnish folk band and some crazy dancing. A highlight for me was witnessing the bikers and their mamas dancing to "Juke Box Jive" by The Rubettes at 4am.

Being stone cold sober, I had a couple of slightly scary moments and possibly the worst nights sleep I ever had on the clubhouses hard, wooden floor along with 15 or so other guys and no "Alcohol Pillow"

SHOW YOUR COLORS!

Wilkys fibreglass showin' some class with official "team issue" paint job........all set to go at Peterborough next weekend.

Pre BMX dirt bicycle 1978

Here is a bicycle that me and a school friend Mark Scully built in the summer of 1978. This was during the fallow years in between barrel-jumping on our Raleigh Choppers and scraping pocket money together to buy the first Puch Murray and Mongoose BMX bikes from Winstanleys pram and cycle shop in the High Street.

As I recall, the bike seemed to take all of the school holidays to build and relatively no expense was spared (for two 14 year olds!).

It originally had 26 inch skinny street rims and convenional front forks.....but we wanted it to be more like the size of a Raleigh Grifter....so those are what the wheels in the picture came off.

We had a real problem with the rear suspension. Every time the spring compressed the chain came off the sprockets!!

we kind of solved this by switching for a stronger shocker and fitting a derailleur gear set.....but it wasn't that successful.

I can remember the sinking feeling of taking the bike out on its first outing and feeling really disappointed with how it handled.

Heavy, slow, cumbersome, spongy. These are just some of the words I could use to describe it.

We had plans of jumping over 4 cars on this thing!

God knows what happened to the bike but before long it was tossed aside in the garden with a puncture and forgotten about as the BMX became everybodies daily ride!

Incidently the very first thing we did with our first BMX's was paint 'em Kawasaki green.

Here a picture of Mark Scully and me from 1974, when we were 10.

new workshop ..best deal ever!

Just won a sectional concrete garage on ebay for absolutely free!!

My main garage is stacked with all my bikes and I've been looking at the cheapest way of getting some more workspace to put my next bike project together. This is just great! The only thing is I gotta break it down and transport it home.....but thats OK!

Also quite a lot of hard work laying a concrete base, but once its all done, it will be a killer, secure pad.

My next build is gonna be a '79 GS 750. I was given this bike about 15 years ago.I've been planning to do this for years. When I got it, it was already mildly and very poorly chopped. I got next to no money to spend right now..so its gonna be a ratty bobber, something I will ride in the rain, just using what I got lying around in the sheds, warts and all. Luckily, that happens to include an old CYCLE HAVEN hardtail frame with ally slab yolks and a couple of choices for tanks and wheels.

The first job will be to get the donor bike running.. it did run when I first got it but that is a real long time ago. I don't have the logbook/title but I do have a registration plate so I don't think it will be too difficult to re-register.

Next big job is gonna be sitting the engine in the hardtail frame. If I remember correctly, the frame I wanna use originally had a Kawasaki z900 motor in it so its gonna need engine lugs welding in all the right places to take the Suzuki motor. I'm also thinking of de-raking the headstock, it maybe a little stretched out for how I'd really like to see the bike look. I don't know for sure, we'll see.

Anyways, got to build the workshop first and I also need to do quite a lot of work to my flat track race bike

before the start of the season in early April!