Tag Archives: Aircooled

The truth is out there…

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…and on here, welcome to OSS…and what the fuck are you all about?

Obviously you’ve RTFR and are about to post your project in the relevant section, you’ve proofread it, (extra points for those for whom English isn’t their primary language, oh and wraith) pictures are all correctly oriented…and all that jazzz….and up it goes.

Sometimes it’s soggy cabbages, rotten tomatoes, a false leg, burnt out plugs, oily rags….etc etc and sometimes it’s not, but I liked this guys project intro, I save my cabbages for this kinda thing, a goal, a vintage caferacer with manly* parts of the 70s.

*mainly

It’s an aircooled gs750 (awesome) a fine looking thing, and without venturing far from the overall original silhouette it’s still easy on the eye, subtlety modified with period style. No ridiculous angry stance, unnecessary extras or affiliations. It’s definitely not trying to be anything other than what it is, a really kool airkooled gs750..it’s got an attitude, a good attitude, and I’m guessing by the way he can volley a soggy cabbage, so has Hariii.

He obviously cares about what he does with his time as it shows from your build to your posts… (check out the quality of his images)…a certain way in a certain style, and plenty of effort. A forgotten  queen rescued by a king of hearts, the only king without a moustache so you can see he speaks the truth, love, a fine reflection with a brown seat…..an orange tank….standard running gear….cabbages….rotten tomatoes…. yeah I’d happily own it, and ride it, it looks like it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Congratulations Hariii, not only on BOTM, but for your fine attitude and confidence to speak the truth, go, go and race from cafe to cafe on the Traveler.

Thanks for the inspiration, viz.

Discuss here

Buildthread here

How To – Plastic Welding

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Long term member from across the water, nightrider had a touch at a salvage auction with a Suzuki GS1100ES  bearing some cosmetic damage. Nothing that can’t be fixed, right? Right!

Here, he takes us through his tried and tested approach to plastic repairs.

I have been plastic welding for almost three decades now. I started in an old skool moto shop back in the 90’s. The old timers back then hated sportbikes so it was up to the young buck (me) to figure out how to fix those annoying fairings with that smelly Mac tools Plasti-welder. Through trial and error I weeded out what worked best for thin motorcycle plastics. Later I went on to repair Kayaks where the repairs were a bit more critical.

That being said, plastic welding is a fairly easy process.

Most mistakes I see is from people just smearing the filler rod material on the crack like glue. It’s best to think of it as welding. You have to get the filler material to penetrate and mix with the plastic being repaired. If you think of it more like really slow oxy acetylene welding you will have more luck.

First off, you are going to have to spend some money.

Yes, you could modify a soldering iron. Perhaps braze a foot on it?  But if you purchase a Plasti-welder you will find it handy for fixing all sorts of things (like any other welder). I’ve had the same Polyvance Mini-Weld Model 6 for over 10 years. There is a Model 7 now. They can be found on Fleabay or Amazon.

Don’t bother with the flat welding material. You will need the ABS R3 filler rod.

Once you have your Mini-Welder and R3 rods you’re ready to go.  Generally speaking you will only need to weld on one side. If your bodywork still has good paint you will want to weld on the inside (I typically always weld on the hidden side of the bodywork).

First off I place a piece of foil tape on the outside as a heat sink (this helps to keep the crack from puckering with the heat).

Next you will want to crank up the heat on your welder.

With ABS material I tend to just crank it all the way up to 11 but you might want to stick to the R3 setting if you’re dealing with y2000+ bike fairings as modern fairings tend to be pretty thin.

Once it’s heated up you will want to “stitch” the crack. This both tacks your weld and makes it easier to mix the filler rod with the fairing plastic in the next step.

Put your finger under the area you are welding and drive the toe of the welding iron into the plastic. You’re going to want to drive about 3/4 the way through the material you are welding at a fairly steep angle.

With your finger on the other side you can feel how hot the plastic is getting. Too hot for you, too hot for the plastic.

After you have done that you are ready to start filling.

Stick the rod through the cylinder on the welder.

With a wiggling motion, draw the welder across the stitch line while pushing the melting rod material into the little pockets in your stitches. Try to blend the two materials together (wiggling motion).

After that go back over your weld using the foot of the welder and melt down the excess and blend it into the surface. (This ensures that the outer edges of the weld are bonded and it makes it look a lot better). Take care to not get it too hot or you will ruin the paint job on the other side.

Peel off tape and Bobs your uncle.

With any luck you will barely even see the crack!

… and your shed will reek and Missus will be fuming and the neighbors will bitch and…

 

Huge thanks to nightrider! It’s all about the .info 

Read nightrider’s build thread on the forum here

Have you got any tried and tested techniques you can share? (Keep it clean, please!) >>>> here

Bike of the month March 2018

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There’s many reasons to start your own build, with “because I want to” coming first and “because I can” second. (If the person taking on this project actually can, is something different, but more on that some other time)

Other reasons are aplenty but there’s two that carry much more load than any other reason I can think of. One; building the dream bike of a lost friend. Two; being asked to build that dream bike, by said lost friend.

This Katana was trusted upon Pete by Dave “Swingarm” Roberts, member of old and builder of one of the very few actually cool Bandits in history. Dave was lost to a horrible disease and the Katana for which he already had most of the parts, was left to Pete to finish.

Pete took it upon himself to finish the bike to a standard we rarely see outside of OSS. With a general idea of what Dave wanted the bike to be, he set to work.

Built over the course of less than a year, the Katana was entered in the Newark Show as its first public outing this January, it promptly won a award.

The Kat turned out, arguably, better than the Yoshimura-1135R Pete posted up as the end goal for the build and it’s received praise far and wide.

A fitting tribute to a lost friend, I tip my hat to you Pete; the Katana is this month’s BOTM.

More here

 

 

 

 

Bike of the Month October 2017

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The king of Babylon, his fingers and the number of the beast…..

….and oxygen, and allotropes of carbon, and Leary’s model, cervical nerves, a byte, a fully lit seven-segment display, an ‘mericun cup, the Dharmacakra..and…urm i’ll stop with how i started before i start listing all that is weird up the Corinthian caulicole of religious curiosities, that’s right this episodes B.OT.M. is brought to you by the number 8.

Although no longer an ‘8 valver’ doubling them up obviously (and mathematically) takes nothing away from this black suited 80’s doorman of a bike, man it’s got some presence, it looks purposeful yet somehow simple……..urm again i’ll stop before them two billett 6 ‘duckle knusters’ crack me in the yokes. don’t stare too long is all i’m saying. It’s an awesome clean looking ol’skool eighty’s air cooled muscle bike, uncluttered and understated with a stance all of its own, like one of Hyatt’s numero’ VIII balls rolling across the cloth into the pack, whether you’re watching in full colour high def or on your nan’s black and white, you know which one it is, which one is king, the eighth king, the king of Babylon, ol’ jake himself.

I gaze upon this bike as i imagine a rabbi gazes upon a jewish males 8th day, thinking ‘almost perfect, now we’ll just trim a little bit off the end’.

Congratulations on BOTM R1guy, an awesome build.

Read the project thread here.

Discuss this article here.

The number 8, a slightly defective number, a tweak away from perfection, come on, if i’d said octopus you’d have got it straight away…wouldn’t you?…..jeez…..am i the only one doing an eight-ball on an (ol’)skool night?

We Love Projects

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Projects, we fucking love them here on OSS! We can’t get enough of them… sharing build progress, inspiring others, building great OSS bikes, solving problems, unique solutions, riding the finished article etc is what OSS is all about. Or are they ever really finished? Just like when you were at skool, the end result will only get you so many marks… we like to see your working out too!

Fact is, the Projects section of the OSS forum is by far the most posted in section of them all and for good reason too. At the time of writing there are over 15,000 posts! Air cooled, oil cooled, water cooled, trick framed, forced induction and various combinations of those mixed up. Serious OSS porn-in-progress is just a click away and often the inspiration for your next build or even just the solution for that head-scratching problem for your current build you’ve had for a while can be found in there.

We keep a close eye on this section and as well as inspiring all of us and providing great interest it’s also where we primarily look for potential BOTMs (Bikes Of The Month) too. So, we urge you to do the decent thing and have a browse through the project section if you haven’t done so recently and if you are building something, no matter how humble or how trick… as long as it’s OSS we’d love to see your project thread up there. Who knows, it could be BOTM one day soon…

You can find the Projects section here.

Bike of the Month September 2017

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Goodbyes are never easy but they make for a good occasion to honour something or someone that has done OSS (very) proud. Let me fill you in…

Maxwin stumbled on the scene in January 2016 mid-development of his 750ET after having competed in the 2015 season of the Earlystocks championship. Having cobbled together the bike for 2015, the early days of 2016 were there to fine tune the bike and get it all working a bit better, looking a bit nicer and going a bit faster.

As with pretty much every build I’ve ever seen on OSS, thing spun a bit out of control with lots of clever engineering, pole positions and ultimately, big crashes. If you’re not crashing, you’re not racing. There’s no argument to say our friend Maxwin didn’t try his very best.

One of the very first to be promoted to OSS Winged Hammer, he has kept us up to date with all the ins and outs of the ET, plenty of pictures and YouTube videos for us to ogle over and wish for it to be us on the clipons and having a go ourselves.

Personally, I’d love to go racing, but lack of talent/balls/money will see me get my fix trying to hassle my bike around during rookie-level trackdays, dreaming of keeping up with the likes of Maxwin and his Earlystocks-compadres.

But, this is a goodbye, and for OSS an instance to honour someone who in turn honoured our request to fly the Winged Hammer flag and do his part for our little community. After a few heavy crashes, our friend choose to follow the path of progression (as you do with racing) and that progression sees the ET and Maxwin parting ways, with a water-cooled 600 of a not-to-be-named brand waiting in the wings to bring new highs in the career of our friend.

Update: It will be a Slabby 750 for next year, hurray! The ET will stay and progress, for Maxwin keeping it and let his dad have a go.

If you’re not crashing, you’re not racing. If you’re not trying to take things to another level, you’re not racing. If you’re not out to get that next second off your lap time, you’re not racing.

Maxwin chose racing and thus, we must say goodbye but not before we award him with the BOTM September 2017.

You sir, have truly done us all a big favour by letting us enjoy your updates and it makes me personally very proud to see our stickers on bikes used as intended and doing a bloody good job at it too! Thank you, I hope you return into our fold at some time in the future, for now, all the best 🙂

Congratulations on Bike Of The Month September 2017

Buildtread here

Bike of the Month June 2017

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Build it, run it, break it, fix it then repeat. The life of a drag racer can easily be likened to that of a drug addict. They spend all of their available cash and time working towards their next fix, even if it means ignoring the trivial things like food, clothing and sleep. The principle difference is that while a drug addict wants the hit to last longer, the drag racer does all that they can to shorten the experience. I’m reliably informed that once you’ve tried it, you either love it or you’re wrong.

Our bike of the month for June goes to Gary Hester AKA et1170. Gary has been evolving and racing this bike since he bought it nearly 7 years ago. Starting life as an 1100ET the bike now sports Katana styled bodywork. Gary was one of our first Winged Hammers and I like to think Hanma-Shin has had a hand in his results this year.

What I love about this bike and Gary’s story is that he has clearly never had serious money to throw at it. His success is a steady one. Carefully building on the previous years results with the parts that he could get. There are no turbos, no nitrous, no mega bucks cylinder head work- just oldskool, DIY air-cooled engine tuning in a shed. That, said if you read Gary’s thread you get the sense that Gary’s addiction will inevitably lead to forced induction and more…

Congratulations Gary you are June’s Bike of the Month.

Members discuss this here

 

Bike of the month January 2017

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botm-january-2017A stylish beast of burden.

Style, we all want it….don’t we? but at what cost?

The thing about developing your own style is it takes time and effort…and a total disregard for excuses. An idea that you feed with whatever it needs and 99% of the feedback is negative…or a positive negative. The time and effort spent on the various ways of how not to do it is far from wasted.

More failures than success, but once you hit that sweet spot you make it look so effortless and flowing….but then comes the crux as the audience offers praise and, undoubtedly critique, your mindset has changed….more, more, more.

I have no idea how many times Blower1 failed to succeed in his style, but style he has. Congratulations on bike of the month.

It’s not important what you think but how you think, the mind is a beast….feed it in anyway you can.

Viz

Follow the build here

Discuss here

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

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711-in-the-sunWhat comes to my mind when someone mentions a motorcycle road trip around Europe? A large capacity sports tourer with hard luggage and a gel seat? Perhaps it’s an adventure bike with unlimited luggage capacity and the finest Gortex multilayer touring gear?

This story is about a motorcycle road trip that is the polar opposite of what you might normally associate with motorcycle touring. In contrast to the norm, this story is about toughing it out, without compromise, on a two wheeled, air-cooled weapon of choice.  This story is about an almost Zen like minimalism all wrapped up in a “fuck you” sense of style. The bike and the rider are motorcycle touring nonetheless, because nobody told them they shouldn’t or couldn’t, and if they had,  I don’t think they would have been heard over the sound of one Suzuki’s finest engines being piped through a titanium Racefit growler.

mental

It all starts with a bike you would not normally associate with any kind of long range two wheeled odyssey. A 1230cc EFE powered Suzuki  ET special with a unique, tweaked and braced bare steel frame. It has no room for panniers. It has rear set foot pegs, a high level sub-frame and a single seat unit that comprises of little more than a thin layer of high -density seat foam.

The choice of equipment for the camping tour is both careful and clever. When you can’t carry very much you must choose carefully.

a-house

The choice of clothing consists of one pair of lace up boots, a set of one piece leathers from the 1970’s and a Simpson helmet. Not everyone’s choice of riding gear for such a long trip but now you might be beginning to understand what made this trip so interesting to me.

gear-on-the-bed

Welcome to the strange ways of frame building guru and OSS stalwart Alan (Strangewayz) Caven.  Alan called this trip Air-cooled, steel framed Anarchy! I think the trip sums up the uncompromising, meticulous, unique, creative and thoroughly considered approach that Mr Stragewayz brings to most things that he does.

14100380_1459524017407675_1274946120798466110_n

I had followed Alan’s trip over the summer through social media updates and I loved every instalment. There was very little narrative in his updates, mostly just pictures and one-liners but despite that the whole idea really appealed to me so I asked Alan if I could stitch it all together and get some background behind his motives for the trip. Here’s what he told me:

I went through a phase of not finishing any of my own builds due to always working on other people’s stuff, along the way I got tagged by a few people as falling into the category of enjoying building a bike more than actually riding it.

Nothing could be further from the truth; I don’t actually see the point in building something if it isn’t going to get some proper use. It’s the ultimate test of workmanship, seeing if the design, choice of components and execution were good enough.

Some people live for the dragstrip, track days or weekend ride outs… For me it’s all about a road trip, which has to be overseas and on something home built because that combination makes things edgier, takes you out of daily life home country comfort zones, tests both the bike and yourself physically and mentally (I broke both my elbows, right wrist and left ankle in a crash years ago so have a few war wounds to deal with).

I nailed my colours to the mast years ago – Air-cooled – Steel framed – Muscle bikes! Un-faired and loud is the way to roll.

Those of us that know Alan know that his unique take on Suzuki’s GSX 1100 ET was built as tribute to his late wife, who he tragically lost to cancer back in 2010.  Alan lost his last  remaining link to his wife when, not long ago, he also lost their dog Ozzy.  Alan explained that the bike and the trip were an important part of his climb out a pretty dark place.

gsx-tank

Whilst I built the 711 out of 7-Nov Rip Mrs Strangewayz with the intent to hit European streets with it, the real catalyst for this actual trip was when I also lost Ozzy – my Dobermann. The last link with my wife,as he’d been ours. He got me through some tough times he was always there for me. In that moment life was pretty shit, my whole world had gone and life didn’t actually make much sense – what was the point of it all if that was what was served up? I knew needed something positive to concentrate on.

The Provisional MotoGP calendar for 2016 came out with Austria GP & Czech Republic on consecutive weekends; that was it! I knew that by planning to travel minimal and mostly camp it would occupy my mind with how to actually do that. The easy route would be to leave mid-week and roll from Germany straight into Austria…. but that was too easy !!

Heard about Tavullia (Rossi’s home town) seemed a cool place, the man had a bar and pizza place so hey rock up over the alps and drop down into Italy before heading back up to Austria.

I just need an excuse to go and then join the dots up, I used (road) racing but as you can see the journey is more important than the destination, as is what you choose to do the trip on (bike).

The Icing on the cake was that the dates would work to end up back in the Isle of Man for the Classic TT Races. Game on!

I knew this was going to be a busy year because I was also going to the NW200 Road Races mid-May and the TT Races start of June.

Whilst I had some serious reasons for planning the trip, the trip itself was an adventure with a lot of spontaneous stuff going on.

This was how the actual route ended up :

Sat Day 1             Northampton to Bastogne in Belgium

Sun Day 2            Bastogne to Lake Constance (Germany)

Mon Day 3          Lake Constance to Riva Del Garda (Lake Garda – Italy)

Tue Day 4            Riva Del Garda to Tavullia (Rimini near San Marino)

Wed Day 5          Tavullia to Spielburg (Redbull Ring – Austria)

Thur – Fri – Sat – Sun all Moto GP

Mon Day 10        Spielburg to Linz (Austria – OSS Greg Sochor)

Tue Day 11          Linz to Brno (Czech Repb) Chance of a pit pass J

Wed Day 12        Brno to Prague (Czech Repb) no pit pass lol..

Thur Day 13        Prague to Brno (loose keys….)

Fri – Sat – Sun     all Moto GP

Mon Day 17        Brno to Nuremburg (Germany)

Tue Day 18          Nuremburg to Etalle (Belgium)

Wed Day 19        Etalle to Northampton (England !)

Thur Day 20        Northampton to Isle of Man

Fri – Sat – Sun – Mon all Classic TT Races

Tue Day 25          Isle of Man to Northampton

Wed                      Back to work….

map

After speaking to Alan I realised the best way to recount this tale was in the way that I had first experienced it on social media, so I have chosen my favourite updates he made during the trip  below and embedded any words as he used at the time.

 

Early start this morning 4am ish… Neighbours love the sound of a Racefit exhaust clearing it’s throat..

160 miles later it was ferry time, off & the down the road a bit now. Just had a broken English sign language ‘you look like the Stig’ moment…….

Long time since I did a 400 miler, good to be back t it.First night stop over, clues on the bar.

Lol worst camping pitch I ever had, lucky I got a 3/4 Thermarest + Jungle Juice & a Balaclava to survive the midges by Lake Constance as I put tent up in the dark last night. Strangewayz 1 – Midges 0

Think I’m in a different world… The locals are going to love the sound of the 711 clearing it’s throat Racefit style…

Rocking late 70’s Dainese one piece, genuine retro race gearI scored off Italian eBay last year. Just these & a pair of shorts, non armoured so not as bulky as modern stuff. Looks cool as on the 711

Kriega Hydro 3, wouldn’t be without it. I buy a 1tr bottle of water each day & throw it in. Leaves space for other easy grab gear & so light it’s feels like wearing nothing. Has bladder pocket + 1 other zipped side pocket & the elastic string on the back. The mouth piece is easy to use whilst riding.

Wasn’t sure but having worn them fucking brilliant, these are the ‘Adventure’ ones, they also do Cruiser or Sport. Have computer designed pads so yeah like posh cycling shorts.

Right I’ve put the riding gear to bed, I got me a table booked at Rossi’s Bar & Pizzeria tonight

Built in a shed to noise up Europe haha. Back mid 80’s when I was on LC’s & RG500 always went to Silverstone & rode over to the Dutch TT at Assen on the Gamma when 18 or 19. Back then always wanted to take some weeks off work to follow the GP circus, everything was more raw & less polished then Schwantz, Lawson, Rainey… Didn’t get to do it, routine life took over, roll the years on & yeah a bad roll of the dice but hey building the 711 was about looking forward & whilst Mrs S (rip) can’t do this shite no reason I can’t & with a big smile on my face

If I set that up in England it would be so fake !! Love the different cultures

Random prep !

Side of the road rain gear & visor change, car travel this isn’t haha… Strangewayz keeping it real !

US Urban battle Goretex, gaiters & Red Wing boots – oh yeah & no quick shifter lol

Wrong sport but if your into VW’s this is the famous She’ll garage (now Eri) outside Velden which is ‘The’ place to hangout at the annual Worthersee show. I will be back out this was in my Mk1 Golf in a few years when it’s done. My stupid idea was to get here then find somewhere to wild camp. At silly am it was hard trying to find anywhere as built up with resorts & posh hotels. In the end pushed 100km onto the Red Bull Ring running low on fuel (all shut), IPhone battery (Google maps) & energy. But I did it & I love my bike, 711 was awesome, better than me !!

Definitely regard it as a badge of honour when, so far I am the only motorcycle on the campsite for a bike race ! Especially when I had to move my tent this morning being considered in the way of the the blue awning the couple are putting up who just arrived this morning in their van from up the road (Austria). Hey who knows maybe they will share their beer with me later hahahah….

Road trip shite Austria MotoGP
Not really on the piss, that’s when riding solo parked up for a few days is hardest. English speakers thin on the ground but I’m in a good place.
Side of a mountain, village part of the track, cool shit, locals love the visitors, bit Euro beat/pop 24/7 sausage feast – why the fuck do you want to dance on a table with your mate – that’s for girls to show off haha… but didn’t do this to feel like I was down the local.
General admission ticket (grass) but shite, Isle of Man has spoiled me, but found a good spot with the boys leaving rubber. Dovi & the Maniac at each other all day, Vin what a boy! Cru at times top Honda. MotoGP app excellent with live sector times & a track graphic showing rider positions.
Good times, memories lots, ride your bike & go do shit.

It’s all about Suzuki, rockin’ Rizzla T today

T shirt drying, would make a good paint job…

Haha love beer time lapse memories, this is the main ‘bar/club’ in the village – late last night they were playing a Euro Beat track “Mr Brown, Mr Brown, will make you smile”. Pissed myself, would sure put a smile on my face .. hello luv

Ahh tent life, big grin, chilling out, road tripping again in the morning, good times rolling.

Ready to roll, still got the Tavullia cardboard sign to strap somewhere 🙂 Heading north to Czech Repb for their MotoGP race. Stopping off today to see Oldschool Suzuki Greg Sochor in Linz some 200km away. Prague on Weds then back to Brno Thurs ready for the racing. Austria MotoGP was awesome event 215,000 people over the 3 days. Great racing, atmosphere & the sun came out to play.

Fuck yes, tent up at Brno circuit, beer going down hatch.very pretty bar maid, could get to like this haha !!

Hanging around feeling lucky…

Czech MotoGP pit pass gig didn’t fall into place, hung around for 2 hours & can you believe as I was riding out along the back lanes the wagon rolled past in a group of 3 ! Turned round asap but by the time I caught them up the guys were already through the barrier. Had a cool time hanging out & wasn’t meant to be. On way to Prague & seriously the main motorway from Brno up is the worst piece of shit road I’ve been on. Bone shaker of a road with a nasty split/crack between lanes 1 & 2. Pulled over for a coffee to check out other routes ! Still smiling though 🙂

85km away form Prague river campsite, needed chocolate so hey park under 3 cameras. Girl too right was seriously sexy….

The Girls are Pretty & the Roads are Shitty. Czech roads are the worst piece of crap I’ve been on, might be different in ya cars guys but on a bike you get hammered, Garmin satnav plastic mount just broke because of it, will be on the hunt for cable ties & duct tape 🙂

Ffs we have lost key, Hotwire plan… seriously no photo setup, but still smiling !

Look it’s all about priorities, sweat talking the bar maid to get…… the Suzuki pics from her calendar haha go Vin !!!

Hmm describe Al in a pic ! Yeah beers going down well…….

Seriously impressed the Dunlop Q3 is keeping it’s profile, had to do some serious straight line miles in 30 deg air temps with all the gear on the back & it hasn’t got a shite flat section yet. Too many UK cars showing up around Brno, keep it on 2 wheels guys !!!

After yesterday’s Hotwire after loosing keys on trip 5km away to local atm…. got 3 days parked up as track is walking distance. Re checked my spares kit & lucky boy I did pack a few goodies, should be able to do something ok to last the 1500km trip home 🙂

Having a shite time as you can see whoo hooo

Err so it’s not 8am & sat by the side of the road drinking beer with a dude from Panama also called Alan lol either that or it’s all a weird dream. I only stopped for an espresso because the girl was pretty but the machine wasn’t warmed up……….

Brno MotoGP !

Suzuki out spotting, MotoGP Fp3

Cup say “100% energie” hope it works 🙂

Agh the moment the sugar rush hit whoo hooo caking my way through Germany….

Pffff not impressed my Oberon mirror has fallen apart on me again ffs. I like the gear but for what it cost I don’t expect to have to hold it up on my knuckles whilst waiting for a foreign motorway services to pull over & take if off. Fail 🙁

Hmmm choices choices ok both !!

Chasing the sat nav down, got a good number on it that gets me on the ferry. Fuel stops only, cake later !

Still riding !! Stoked about my next stop if the guys are there…..

That’s as good as it got, the guys had closed down a while back – just a trailer outside a Kawasaki shop. Waltz still makes stuff under the name of Walzwerks but too much of a wild goose chase to hunt him out…

Time to roll again

Tent world, waiting for the morning, want to go out & ride

Sitting at the Creg taking in all the wonderful sounds from the different classes out practicing. Fantastic views in the background which is why I didn’t bother taking a picture of the pub !! Awesome to see 250cc two strokes back racing on the island with their own class.

Ready to roll again, off to watch the Superbike Race & then will be on the ferry home…..

Hard life, Raybans on, Superbikes almost ready to go, c’mon Suzuki !!!!

Still going strong – Aircooled forever !

Any day I ride the 711 is a good day just some are sadder than others.

So if you’re reading this and you still don’t understand and or admire the sheer insane and inspirational brilliance of  this road trip then you are probably on the wrong website. Alan, OSS salutes you sir. Here’s to building  them, riding them , and smugly enjoying what you have carved out using your hands, your ingenuity and your imagination and here’s to never letting anyone tell you that you can’t.

This is Alan’s story, so it’s only right that he should get the last word.

What an awesome bike! Still riding it every day to work, need to pull it off road soon as brake discs, pads, rear sprocket almost shot – had to put some winter tyres on (Michelin Pilot Road 4’s) as the Dunlop q3’s which I had on for the trip & did everything I wanted but won’t grip below 5 degrees.

Trailer Queen… Only used when the sun’s out…

Discuss this article here.

Bike of the month November 2016

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botm-november-2016

Ticking all the boxes…

BOTM first of all must fit within the rules, after that I haven’t picked bikes I’d like to own, just builds that have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’..be that in the amount of info the member has shared on the site, through to ‘I can’t believe that’s the same pile o’ shyte from the first post’.

A bike that has evolved to Tom’s exacting standards (these can sometimes be winced at but never shunned, Tom has not got all his frequent flyer saddle miles on luck alone) and as I type this he is still awaiting a part to complete the next episode, which I’m sure is not the final chapter.

I’d ask any newcomers to the site wondering what OSS is all about to firstly RTFR, then read Havocs AnerchEZ RatRod thread. Pretty is as pretty does….. congratulations Havoc on BOTM, the evolution will not be televised.

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