Matti said "The older boy insisted his brand new bike has to be in the pics as well Shame I didn't get his face on film when I gave it to him."

Like this........................



My son on his 4th birthday getting a bike that I rebuilt from a total wreck in 5 weeks.........



Yup he was chuffed

Take every photo opportunity you can Matti. My son is now 24!! and the little girl behind him, my daughter, is now 27 and a Midwife. Too quickly, way too quickly they grow up.

Cheers, SB

 

The pic I got isn't too many seconds after, it's a wee bit hard trying to carry that thing from the backroom through the ram-packed garage AND try to shoot pics on the way

Cool Duc, never seen anything like that. Well if you don't count the pullcord start pocket bikes some shops sell but never a Ducati. I've actually been talking with the neighbor who also rides and also has a son the same age as Samuli, and is going to have a daughter in a few months, that come something like 2020 we're gonna be buying two big, and a whole bunch of pocket sized pitbikes, load em all up in my lorry and go sling dirt regularly in the sandpit the neighbor's dad owns about 10 miles away. Gonna be a hoot!

Takes a whole lot of calling and caracter to be a midwife! I remember talking to the wifey in the ward just weeks ago thinking what exactly drives someone to do that, I'm having a really hard time thinking anyone would some morning wake up and decide "yes that's what I'll be wanting to do for work".

That's what they say, that first you can't wait for them to walk and talk, the next minute you can't wait for them to sit down and shut up, the next after that you're packing the removal van...

...but I guess the main question is how come I've completely missed you also have a son?!

 

It's not a Ducati Matti. I had no idea what it was, my son found the wreck in the shed of a guy I was doing a deal for a BSA A65 650cc twin motor. His eyes lit up even though it was painted white and the forks bent back under the bike, and the fairing all cracked up. I went back and after much toing and froing of the owner managed to buy the bike 5 weeks before my son's birthday. I was also living 1000km away at the time.

The little bike on further investigation was found to be a mini MV Augusta built to commemorate Phil Read's world championship.

See: MV AGUSTA

I'll paint it up correctly sometime in the future!

And unfortunately, my son who only lives 18 km away with his mother (my ex-wife) has chosen a path in life that does not include me. I live in hope.

Cheers, SB

 

Well that's a slap in the face, don't even feel like commenting cause what could I possibly say to make it better... other than I share your hope.

A cool lil runner that is no matter what make. I remember drooling after the Honda CB 50 Dream when they published it but it never made it to serial production, only a handul were ever made, managed to see one of them only once hoisted to the roof of a local moped parts shop a few months ago.

Good lord it's cold in here, the mercury dropped all the way to -27 this morning, and I just heard from the 7:30 news that they measured -40,3 up in lapland last night. NOTHING works. All I can say is I'm really glad I invested into a christmas present to myself and bought a battery operated Nevercold heated vest some time ago. Have barely taken it off since.

Anyway gonna be fetching the Triumph back home this saturday so I got proper time to doll it up before the magic date of february 4th when I'll be delivering it to the Helsinki convention center.

 

Seb,
I have been in your shoes my friend. I have 4 children from my 1st marriage. Each one went through a period of disassociating themselves to me. Each one had their own reasons, and they stayed away varying amounts of time. Just this past October my baby girl who is 21 contacted me out of the blue after almost 6 years. Since then we have re-established our relationship and are putting the relationship back together. I'll never get back the years that were robbed from me, but it makes me appreciate the time I have with them now even more. Don't give up. He will come around eventually.

 

Right, back to biizniiz, the show`s coming and free time seems to be on backorder these days so I spent last night in the garage till 1am.



First in line was the fugly bubbly exhaust midpipe which needed a fresh coat of paint since I can`t afford to get one CNC:d from stainless ATM so that had to come off.



That proved to be a bit of a chore since it`s been painted with VHT silver. I thought I`d just dig out the nylon cup brush for the angle grinder and just scrub the old paint away, phah, all it did was snotted up and smeared all over the pipe and the brush so I had to go in with slightly less revs so the paint won`t burn, a flap drum and a drill did the trick -eventually, but it did take up quite a lot longer than I thought.



Bolted the plate back on with regulation screws, one needs to be cut cause it hits the pipe behind the plate but that`s no biggie. Paint`s starting to get a bit of a shine too, think that was something like third coat of polish, IIRC did a total of five.



I`ve had this one steering damper ever since I started the build, it even has a fixing point made in the crash cage but it was this very cheap looking light blue colored and it`s leaking so it needs at least new seals, haven`t bothered with it but figured it`d look good on the show so gave it a quick scrub and sprayed a new color and a few runs of clearcoat on it, it doesn`t really need to function there.





Pretty decent IMO.



Exhaust back in one piece, doesn`t really show from the pic but it looks a whole lot more finished like that than what the bubbly paint did.



All dolled up, dunno why the shine doesn`t catch on the phone camera, it really does shine a lot more than what the pic shows. Still gotta do the front wheel, can`t turn in when it`s screwed into the clamp.

Speaking of the front wheel, happened to discover this:





...aaand that would be the left side fork seal thank you! No way do I have time to swap it now, hope they don`t get jumpy over a little puddle on the carpet... I suppose I could drain the shock... but probly not gonna bother...

Oh, also found out over the weekend that the neighbor to which I`ve been building the moped will not be byuing it! Not his fault though, turned out the biological father of the boy had gone and bought him one of those wretched moped-cars! Good luck keeping that in one piece, I won`t be touching it with a barge pole. Not to mention the eternal guarantee these kinds of deals seem to somehow have...

...kinda knew to expect it so not really bummed about it, quite the opposite actually, now I can slap it together faster, get rid of it, hopefully cash in at spring and maybe, just maybe get me a new project over six months ahead of schedule, provided a suitable specimen pops up somehwere. Or I could get me some other banger to flip and raise a bit more money, time will tell...

 

When I saw this pic in another forum I immediately remembered this post from years ago

 

I'll tell you, that was one loooong wait but now it finally is out! Four pages on gleaming paper goodness conveniently just a week before the show!

Still got a few minor things to do before next thursday, mainly cleaning the seat and draining the left front shock so it won't leak all over the showroom floor but other than that it's pretty much ready. Can't wait to get to the convention and to see the competition. Expecting at least a few bikes I've come across before but hopefully some new ones as well!

 

Damn that's cool

 

Took the bike to the show last night, gonna skip today as I don't want to drive to Helsinki and back three days in a row, besides I'm a bit fluish so probly don't have the energy after work either.

A bigger pic update coming after the weekend when I have the time and energy to post em up.