Me and Jonny boy were lucky enough to catch Steve Peat at the Sheffield Hallam university lecture last night. It was f’in excellent. After riding down the lecture hall steps and getting sat down he said he wasn’t used to these things and was feeling pretty nervous… did anyone mind if he got something out of his bag to relax him? Out comes a can of Stella… Mint. His dry humour and grounded attitude meant the talk was interesting, often hilarious and never strayed into the grounds of egotism. I have the utmost respect for a refusal to gloat and swagger as consistent as his race results. On a personal level, for an old broken bastard like me – feeling the pinch of age, aches of endless previous injuries and the weight of family responsibilities encroaching on my life long affair with bikes – his candid, self effacing, get on with it without fuss and bullshit attitude, his ability to manage family life with a busy career and his adamant insistence that while he still enjoys riding there’s no reason he should be thinking about stopping left me feeling inspired. In his own words “I’m forging the way”. The man is a living legend and to me a genuine hero. He’s signed on for another 3 years with Santa Cruz. King Pete. Long may he reign.

Steve Peat @ Sheffield Uni from rustybones on Vimeo.

Bout time I updated on this! Been a while… Dunt mean I’ve been slacking. Hells no, just been busy as hell doing winter things like eating… drinking… thinking…. building Neil’s site… and suffering from McGraw’s perpetual shitluck and brakin my hand…. 6 weeks in a pot. Twat. Spannering can be very frustrating with one freezing left hand. Bike’s really coming together. But like my man Philbey says – it’s the litte things that take the most time. SO. I got the Honda sold and directed some of the money to a pre-unit Bird hardtail section. Nice. Only my frame has been butchered into a sort of pre-unit-unit and the section didn’t match up. Being a greenhorn in all things triumph I had wondered what the creative welding and wonky downtube was all about. Looks like someone maybe wanted to get a unit motor in the pre unit frame. Pete mentioned this when I bought it. But I don’t think it permeated my dense skull…. I was deaf and blind with triumph fever… I’ve hacked it out and got a new section, from the metal recycling yard up the road, all ready to go in – as soon as I get my bastard welding hand back…

Started work on the oil bag. Tacked on the seat mount. Tacked on the spring mounts. Tractor headlight. £5 guard from Ruffoth. Old french tank with tank mounted shifter – my favourite bit at the minute… Slung it all together for a look. Bloody lovely….
So there you go. It’s starting to look like the bike I have in mind now. Not long and I should be firing this dirty old f*cker up!!!

But the trouble is I’m being distracted by that dam z750! Mmmmm bratsyle.

Wonky-weldy

All the galleries should be updated to show all photos again now… Seems Flickr decided there should only be 100 photos a page… But we soon got round that! So if you haven’t in a while take a look at the image posts. Always good to see some good times in the sun when you’re stuck in, trapped by snow and wishing you could ride your bike!

SUCKS BALLS WHEN IT’S RAINING PERMANENTLY…. and the uplift is canceled.

Quick film of the Verbier helmet cam footage… me and Wayne. And cheeky bit of Pila drop.

Pedal. Pedal. Pedal. Huff. Puff. Cough. Slip. Slide. Crash. Laugh. Pint.

Now on YOUCOMPLETETUBE and working – even on Neils shit computer….