A lot changes in 10 years.

Well, not quite.

It's 2005. I'm working for a freight company based in Hayes, Middlesex. I'm 29 years old, riding a Suzuki Bandit, driving a 1993 green Renault 19. Life is easy, working 9- 5, having fun at the weekends. There we go!

The fleet in 2005!

It all changed on January 1st 2005. A trip to Rykas for the annual Nutters New Years day meet. I think I went on a bike, it was probably the Bandit. Meeting up with old and new friends. Who knew just a chance meeting at Box Hill on New Years Day, that I would end up meeting someone who was fixing stock cars next to where I live, for someone the gang at Sainsburys were supporting at Wimbledon stock car racing about 10 years earlier! It's a small world indeed Malcolm!

As I was 30 this year, I decided I needed a new bike, and I ended up buying a 2001 Aprilia RS125. 11,000 miles on the clock, £1500 from the local Aprilia dealer. Queue the next nin months of being questioned about "how long have you had your licence?", "where are your L-plates?", and "if you've had a licence for 13 years, why are you riding a 125?" Easy, it is fun!

My last track day was completed this year, Brands Hatch on an evening session. The little 'Prila was singing, I was having fun, and the bikers I was overtaking could swear I was riding a 250! Not quite! 

Druids,, Aprilia 125, and me with hair!

Apart from adventures with the Nutters, a blown 125 engine, the Bandit put back on the road for a few months. The next plan was started on an adventure to London one night. Two idiots on their bikes, heading in to the big city, one armed with a camera, the other armed with local knowledge and wit! A new hobby was kick started in my head, photography. Something I was doing back in the days of 33mm film, with an old Olympus OM40 camera. Now, it was time to embrace the digital age.

The final picture of the Bandit still road worthy!

Over the next year, free time was spent at BSB meetings, local motorcross tracks and a few trips to Epsom Downs and London in between. My hard drive on this PC still has the pictures from those adventures buried in it. Some great times heading around the country! But, I was without a bike. I'd given up on the Bandit (shame on me). I decided it should be a project, I will sit down and start rebuilding the Bandit. I will! Then a new toy arrived......

Dusty kit after a Southern Motocross meet

But the pictures came out well!

23rd December 2006, a fecking cold day! It was raining as I sat on the train at Hayes & Harlington. I was heading to Liskeard, first stop was Reading to get on an iIntercity train to head south west! I managed to bag two seats to myself. One for me, and one for my bike gear! Back in 1993, I was just starting to get into the nasty biking scene. I done my test, I got a licence, and I was asked by my instructor, "what bike would you like to get?", a Ducati Monster....

The dawning of the Monster age!

After my doubting friends were telling me I would be coming home on a recovery vehicle, I had to make sure the 1993 Monster made it back from Cornwall to Surrey. She did, just! After annoy the night shift spanner monkey in Fleet, I headed off on the last leg for home, and the gear lever spring snapped. 200 odd miles, and a 10p spring breaks! I managed to get the bike home, and 2007 was spent in Roso Corse, East London.

This was also the arrival of the Italian Nut.....

Who's stupid idea was this running malarkey??

Being on the cusp of a milestone today. I was preparing a blog about something completely different. I probably will post the blog that is still in my head, but after tomorrow. Today's one can be a nice, simple blog about how stupid I've been since the start of 2015!

I'll begin at the beginning. January 2015, a short bloke (me), sitting on his sofa, enjoying lots of fatty, completely bad for you food, working nearly 60 hours a week, overweight (5ft 6 and weighing a rather portly 82kgs), has that little light switch go in his head!

24th January, that's it, I've gone on my travels to Woking, and pop into Sweatshop with the intention of not spending too much money on a pair of suitable running shoes. Yes, I was a non runner, with no idea about gaits, inner soles, or even the socks! One pair of trainers covers everything, doesn't it?? After having my gait analysed, getting a set of molded insoles, and a pair of Mizuno trainers, I was off on my way home, and nearly £100 less in my bank account (oops). And that is where the madness started...

Why did I chose running?

Ok, it's a long story, but I keep it short.

I thought about taking up cycling again, and decided against that. Only due to costs involved. I would need a new bike, helmet, cycling gear, inner tubes, puncture kits (the list can go on), so I put myself off that idea. Oh, and the fact everyone on the road hates cyclists!

I didn't fancy swimming, I hated swimming at school. I'm not a great swimmer, and the one thing about swimming is you require a pool. Now, living in a flat, eight floors up, I'm not likely to have my own pool, so more money spent joining the local gym or leisure centre, and heading down there every time I fancied a swim. Plus, I hate turning all pruney!

So, I was left with running. Ok, I thought it would be cheap (I did at the beginning). A pair of trainers, stick some music on, the roads or paths never close. Go running when you want. Job done. And really, that's how running has got my choice! Go running when you want. Go as far as you want. Hopefully I won't drown. Just get out of the front door and go!

So, back to 24th January. I got home, happy with my purchases. I went off for a family meal, came home and after a couple of hours, I just decided, "sod it, I can't wait until the morning", put my (vastly lacking at the time) running gear on and headed off. I had downloaded the NHS c25k podcasts on to my iPhone, after being recommended by a friend to try it out. Off I went into the dark evening. 26 minutes later, nearly 3k done, one pothole fallen down, I was broken! My first c25k training session done! Only nine more weeks to go,,,,

Somehow, I kept at it. Even with my family and friends telling me I wouldn't stick at it. "Oh, it's just a fad, you'll give up in a few weeks!" I think that has just made me more determined to keep going. Even when I had to rest up for a week, after injuring my ankle and knee at a park near work, I've still kept going.

Now, I was set a challenge whilst doing the c25k by a running friend. "Come and do a parkrun!" A date was set, 21st March, the venue, Horsham. So, I need to prove to;

1: the voice in my head I could actually run 5k
2: my friends that I could run 5k
3: I need a big fry up!

And that was the start of the slippery slope. I run the whole Horsham course, in 30 minutes and 52 seconds! Success!! I did it! My name was now registered as a 'parkrunner' on the results page.

Bedfont Lakes parkrun, it actually looks like I know what I'm doing!

Now I'm ten weeks into the parkrun Saturday events. I'm enjoying it! Yes, work at times gets in the way of running during the week, but I've always got an hour spare on a Saturday morning for a 5k run. And now I'm registered for two 10k races, the Elmbridge 10k in July and the Bupa London 10000 May 2016! That's like proper running with numbers and crowds cheering you on!

For something I hated at school, to get 39 years of age and start loving long distance running is quite surreal for me.

As for the expense, well, I have learnt that you can never have enough running kit!

Two pairs of Mizuno trainers (a new pair of Adidas trainers ordered today!).
Countless pairs of socks and base layer shorts
Running tights
normal shorts
base layer shirts
t-shirts
jackets
towels
kit bags
Garmin Forerunner watch

And not forgetting the amount of running apps and website accounts I have now!

Oh, and after the 5 months of running, I'm still 5ft 6 and weighing 71kgs. Yes, my diet has change a bit, but I still enjoy a good fish and chips!

I would like to say thank you to my friends who have supported me, the organisers of the parkrun events, my mum for saying I wouldn't stick at the running malarkey, and that's about it.

And we're off. The 2013 car show season is underway

Finally, it's here! The first two meetings of 2013 have been completed.

Last weekend was Mini Day at Brooklands Museum. This is usually one of the top attended events at Brooklands Museum, and this year, it was going to be a struggle against the elements for event. Wintery showers, a bitingly cold wind, not a lot of shelter, unless you ventured across to Mercedes Benz World or hid in the Bus Museum.

I woke up at silly o'clock on Sunday morning, about 2:30am, and went off to find a drink, before going back to bed, I decided to have a quick peak out of the window....

To be confronted with....

One of my lovely neighbours had decided to park his van into my car. Nice! Impressed, I was not! A note left under the windscreen, I grabbed my keys, and off I went to the workshop to check out the damage.

It doesn't look a lot, but he has managed to scuff the bumper, and left a large mark. A replacement bumper is required then.

At least I got the car clean for Mini Day!! It was a fairly good turn out of Minis and MINIs at the museum despite the cold weather. The day was spent venturing out into the cold with my camera, take a few pictures then dive back into the car and warm up. Coming up to 2pm, that was it, everything was frozen, my hands, face, feet and camera!

Another Mini Day completed at Brooklands Museum. It was fun, albeit chilly fun. It was good to meet up with the Surrey new MINI club again and also make our club stand one of the largest at this years event. Lets hope next years event is warmer and we get even more cars on the club stand!!

Roll on show season!!

The new look, 2013 Dinky has now been completed. Well, albeit apart from a wash!

It's taken a few months of planning, a bit of faffing around on eBay and a few MINI websites; Sign My Ride,  My Beautiful MINI, and thanks to Dan @ surreyminigraphics.co.uk for fitting the roof decal today (after a slight delay due to the snow last week!).

January has been filled with tinkering. New parts fitted for 2013;

Genuine MINI black spot lights
R112 16 inch alloys
SMR cleaning instructions decal
Genuine MINI spot light covers (R56 ones!!).
New radiator hoses (not a mod, just a requirement!!).
Union Jack interior door pulls and glove box button cover
Union Jack sunroof decal
DM centre wheel caps
Matt black mirror caps (they suit the car better than the UJ ones!)

And that's it!

The first big show we are attending this year is the Mini Day @ Brooklands Museum on Sunday 24th March. At least it's a nice local meet to me!

Now the car is finished for this year, I think it's time to start playing the resurrection of the Monster!!

A small update

As January 2013 chugs along slowly, the depth of winter has arrived to the South East of England. Snow, floods, a bit more snow, cold, dark and damp. In other words, it's just like summer, but with a bit more snow!!

In my world, not a lot has changed in the past couple of weeks. The car is getting dirtier, the Monster is a bit more dustier and the day job is going along slowly.

I'm working on plans for next month already. The starter motor needs to be taken off of the Monster, so fingers crossed the workshop will be a bit warmer in February. The MINI needs a good clean before the next Mini night at the Ace Cafe and then there is the LSMOC Breakfast Meeting on the 10th February. The little local car meetings will slowly get me into the spirit for the 2013 MINI show season, which starts again in March!

I think it is now time for a bit of shut eye.

LSMOC Breakfast Meet January 2013

Just a little bit of icing sugar.

Back to playing with the cameras

Another thing I haven't played on for a while, my collection of camera equipment. Today I decided to dust off the Lowepro bag and give the old cameras and lenses a clean down. Tonight I was going to have a relaxing session with the camera, tripod, lenses and a Maglite.

Luckily, the yard where I work has three empty units and no external lighting within the confines of the industrial estate. The bottom corner by the canal is empty, with just a builders yard on the opposite bank of the canal. With all the camera gear set up, my Canon 30D and the stock 18-55mm lens attached, I headed off to the dark corner.

After faffing around for an hour with a selection of timed exposures, from 10 seconds to 30 seconds, and running round the car with the torch, either in a Tesco carrier bag to defuse the light or just changing the light setting on the torch. I finally had a selection of pictures to sift through and edit.

It was normal service, as with my motocross days, taking loads of pictures and only finding a couple that made me think; "yes I done a good job there!"

Here are the couple of images that caught my eye this evening;

With a bit more practice, I'll get the hang of it! 

Now I've found the instruction manuals for the 350D and 30D, I'll be able to play with the bulb setting a bit more.

Time to sign off and see what adventures I can have tomorrow.

Drained....

Then refilled!

Today has been spent mostly dealing with the coolant system on an R56 MINI. I did actually prepare everything. The old hoses were removed on New Years Eve, with a fair bit of swearing and wondering why I don't (or didn't) own a set of hose clip pliers. A couple of hours removing the air filter box, coolant expansion tank, remaining coolant and finding bodywork hose clips on the floor the coolant system was cleared out.

The MINI was left in the workshop, and the hoses were ordered from the local BMW dealers. On the way back from the dealers, I thought it would be a wise idea to actually buy some hose clip pliers. Job done thanks to Halfords.

After picking up the replacement hoses today, and two 5 litre bottles of coolant, it was time to play rebuild the MINI. Well, with no help from the forums (yet), as the instructions I found only covered the R50 and R53 MINI engines, through a bit of trial and error, I finally managed to refit the hoses and started bleeding the system slowly. With the ignition on, the heater set to maximum heat and fan on setting one, the first stage of filling the coolant system was done, slowly mind you! The engine was started, and left for a few minutes (remembering to refit the coolant expansion tank cap), and no heat was coming out of the vents! Ok, I need to do the final bleed of the system. Engine off, twenty minutes of searching through the interwebs MINI forums and finally I found a picture of the sort of area where the thermostat bleed valve would be hiding. Yes, they do hide it well, behind some wiring, right on top of the thermostat, in a small gap you can just fit a long screw driver in!Slowly the screw was turned, and finally I heard the nice noise of hissing and then looked to see coolant coming out of the bleed screw! Success! Screw tightened up, coolant topped up to the required level and engine started....

Hot air finally came out of the vents, no leaks noticed from any hoses, so finally the job was completed. In total it took approximately 3 hours to complete. Not bad for someone when last confronted with a complete coolant system bleed, I owned an Alfa Romeo that just had a total loss coolant system!

The MINI is back on the road!

Vehicle update time.

Let us start at the beginning. The vehicle I lusted after most of my biking life after gaining my motorcycle licence in 1993.

1: Ducati M900 Il Mostro.

904cc air cooled, 90 degree V twin engine. Dry clutch and lots and lots of character, as most of the Ducati range has. She was built in 1993, one of the first off production line, and (possibly) the oldest Ducati M900 in the UK.

I've owned here since 23rd December 2006, and we have had our ups and downs. Knocked off the bike twice on the same road, at different ends, and a week apart between each off. Two complete engine rebuilds, a few niggling electrical problems, worn out Brembo rear wheel, paint peeling off of the front wheel, but she has covered over 60k miles in the last 20 years, and approximately 35k of those miles have been covered by me!

Not too shabby for a 20 year old

2: MINI One 1.4

The changing faces of Dinky

The Dinky one. A car that I didn't think I would want, but now I've got one, I love it! I bought her on the 11th September 2011. One month later she was reversed into, and a bill for over £2000 was sent to the third party. After I collected the car from the repair workshop, it has been a slippery slop since!

The engine is still standard, not that there is a lot you can do to tune the 1.4ltr engine in the MINI One. Maybe a change of air filter for a K&N system, but unlike the 1.6 Cooper, you can't really do much else.

The interior is still standard (just about), apart from the addition of Union Jack interior mirror cover, Union Jack centre consol, Union Jack door handles and glove box opening button and a Union Jack parcel shelf cover from Go Badges. The stereo has been fully upgraded by NewMINIStuff in February 2012, and it does kick out one of the best sounds from the speakers I have heard from a car.

The exterior has been altered slightly. It's still a Lightning Blue MINI. The bonnet and front bumper were replaced by Cooper Tadworth workshop after the shunt. So far I've added the Union Jack (can you see a theme here!) mirror covers, DM wheel caps, and a Cooper S rear spoiler. The wipers have been changed to the flat aero design, Cooper S grille, genuine MINI spot lights and Cooper S fuel cap.

All of the above have been completed since October 2011, just to make the car stand out a bit more.

3: Suzuki GSF600n, the Bandit

It has become the one we do not speak of. The forgotten vehicle of my little fleet, and since 2006 I've been saying "yes I will rebuild the Bandit" on New Years Day, but it just seems to be put in more boxes.

Back in 2006, it was a 72k mile, 1999 Suzuki GSF600N. I have owned the bike since new. Nothing was really modified on the bike. Standard engine, just an aftermarket can was fitted (and fell off one bike ride). A few stickers were added to the tank, the wheels have been different colours, and the gear was changed from 15 tooth front sprocket to 14 tooth, to give it a little bit more acceleration.

The old Suzuki Bandit on her last ride out.

Well, that was a brief rundown on the vehicles under my current ownership. All three need a slight bit of repair, well one of them needs a lot of repairing and a miracle!!

I'll go off and start planing the restoration.

2013, The New Beginning

Well, it is finally here. 2013. We've had 20 hours so far, and the sun has shone, and I've been out to meet some friends, that I only seem to see on New Years Day.

So, a list of resolutions for 2013. Sod that, who keeps them?? I just have a list of jobs to do, and get them done in the best way possible. Hopefully they will be completed without the aid of a bodge job here and there.

At the tail end of  2012, I managed to get organised. A new tool chest, some new tools and I made some space in the workshop. Work is currently under way on the old (now 20 years old) Ducati Monster, to hopefully rectify the escaping electricity. A new battery has been ordered, the starter solenoid and wiring has been checked. Lets hope the new battery cures this annoying problem!!

 Chaos in the workshop

Now onto the MINI One. Well, the top and bottom radiator hoses split on Saturday. The car is off the road, until tomorrow. The replacement hoses and clips were ordered on New Years Eve at my local BMW dealers and should arrive there after 12pm on Wednesday! Tomorrow will be filled with a bit of paperwork in the morning then some refitting of hoses and bleeding of the coolant system. Exciting eh??

A nice clean engine bay

2013 is starting well. It's looking organised at the moment. I've even started (yes, I've actually started) planning the restoring of a 14 year old Suzuki GSF600n. It hasn't moved under it's own steam since 2006, and has been stored under the stairs at work since then. I could end up with a classic Suzuki Bandit and a working classic Ducati M900. Now, that would be a good year if I get both working.

Off I go, back to reading the workshop manual for a Suzuki Bandit.

2013

Happy New Year to one and all