So, having a mid life crisis or a third childhood? Maybe you never grew out of your first! You've just reread Robert M. Pirsig and there's renewed fire in your belly. You have an urge to bond with some machinery, but the new stuff just doesn't do it for you. You want to ride something with soul, something that looks and talks to you from an era when passion counted; not some modern marketing exercise that mimics every other bike.

Like many of you, I started tinkering with my beemer, driven by an image of a transformed and unique bike. Before long, my condition developed into full blown OCBD* and the results are within this web page. I hope you find inspiration here as I did in the many similarly afflicted people and their bikes that I found on the web!

*Obsessive Compulsive Beemer Disorder

What's New?

There's a new article in the technoblog about how to measure compression ratio. The results were surprising when it came to the actual CR of my bike compared to what it is supposed to be. And there's a free CR calculator for you to download. Have a look here.

I've added a new page for a glimpse of my shed. Go to me & shed

The bike has had a bit of attention lately in the form of a prize in the Out 'n' About section of Old Bike Australasia magazine and a prize for 'Best cafe Racer' at the 2010 Mods V's Rockers event.

Thanks go to the editor of Old Bike Australasia, Jim Scaysbrook for featuring my bike and allowing me to reproduce the magazine page. If you haven't caught up with it, the magazine is really quite something, particularly since it is all about vintage and classic motorcycling in our part of the world including our compadres across the ditch. The mag's web page is here.

The Mods V's Rockers ride was a hoot. Organised by the Victorian chapter of the 59 Club, over 300 bikes and scooters turned up at the the South Brighton baths (very fitting!) where there was the obligatory tug of war that promptly disintegrated into a mock rumble on the beach between anorak clad Mods and leather clad Rockers. Lots of pics of the event here.

The judge for the day was motorcycling writer Grant Roff, who was very brave to have chosen a machine from an ex 'axis power'!. To quote his quip: .....'giving out an award to a German bike in a club that basically celebrates the English isn't very diplomatic. Fortunately, the 59 Club's grasp of history seems light.'

I for one am pretty chuffed at his lack of diplomacy!