Andymann

I think you are right. My Danish is a little rusty. And I spent the night at a Slut spurt so I'm a bit tired.

"men Qhubeka NextHash har stadig mulighed for at forblive på WorldTouren" All the men from Qhubeka NextHash will slowly grow mullets for the fathers of the world tour? I honestly don't see how that's going to help them find a sponsor....

I'm home self-isolating because of Covid so I got stuck into my old box of ****.... Who remembers these...

"itchy is back" Said no guy ever. Apart from on BikeHub where it is warmly welcomed

They got it nice and close!

The lead motorbike in this case. ie, the lead motorbike for that bunch.

I'm guessing the lead Motorbike in this case knew the route whereas the lead BMW didnt

I don't follow her on Social Media, but my Wife does and she said that Cherise Willeit wrote a very nice piece saying she felt really sorry for Emma - but she also said the bunch was confident they would have caught her if she didn't have the extra 2mins.

Would love to know where it all went wrong - There's no doubt that something went amiss from the MTN days to the DD days - the team just didn't perform. And there are far too many good riders who came to the team with high expectations and didn't perform, and a few more riders who started performing only after they left. Let's face it - if the Team was constantly right up there in the last few years I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to attract a new sponsor. Maybe one day someone will write a book and the truth will be told

A bit more progress this weekend....

I actually have found the Obituary which my Dad wrote for Alan, so if anyone would like me to post it - I will do so. All I can say is they made them tough back in Rhodesia in the '50s!

It's actually such a really interesting story regarding the Velocette Thruxton - I tried loading the pdf document of the full story, but in a nutshell Velocette had a standard 500cc model called the Venom. There was a very good bike racer in Rhodesia called Alan Harris and together with his mechanic Geoff Lacey they built a pretty fast 500 Venom. The Velocette factory racers came out to Rhodesia and SA at the time to compete (with their factory race bikes) and were soundly beaten by Alan and his 500 developed by Geoff. To put this into perspective, it would be like someone in South Africa modifying a road Yamaha R1 and when the Factory Yamaha's came out for WSBK they get beaten by a local riders on a modified R1 road bike. That's the enormity of what Alan and Geoff did. The Velocette factory was so impressed that they flew Alan, Geoff and his bike to the UK, and stripped it to see exactly what they had done here in Africa. And from that, the Velocette 500 Thruxton (an R1-M in comparison) was built. Alan was actually a very successful racer - I can't find too much info but he did race successfully at the Isle of Man TT. Alan Harris sadly died from Cancer a few years ago, but I knew him well and when I built my Velocette Venom into a Café Racer, he advised me on all the right mods to do - Geoff Lacey is still alive living in George but he is moving to a retirement Village, so cannot keep all his spares - our Velocette Club has recently bought all of his spares in in amongst the pile of stuff are some of the original heads he and Alan modified when they were building the racer. Most of them are scrap because they didn't work, but there is one that Geoff said to me would work on my bike - I just need a proper piston and some 100 Octane race fuel! Crazy old man he is.....

Think they had until mid-November. Which is pretty much past now.

So a little bit of trivia - arguably of the most successful and genuine Café Racers (during a time where the guys actually removed their bikes lights and raced them on the weekend) was the Velocette Thruxton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocette_Thruxton Anyone who knows the history of British bike racing will know the success of the Velocette Thruxton and also the marketing pull of the name "Thruxton" Velocette only had copyright on the name for a certain period and when the current owners of the Velocette name forgot to re-register the trademark it lapsed and Triumph pounced much to the disgust of every die-hard Velocette owner!

I discovered these guys during a Zwift session with Spotify on random play... Not to everyone's taste, but not bad!

I've been a bit slack with the updates of late, so here's a few pics to keep the thread going. As is always the case, I'm waiting for one small part before I can really get the build back on track. It's at the Chrome Platers - so maybe this weekend I can really get going!

Lovely bike though - looks to be in really nice original condition!

Ahhh. The time when Yamaha had all sorts of Acronyms for **** they were trying out. The XJ900 had..... YICS Yamaha Induction Control System (Whohoo)

I have reverted to old faithful......

I always liken it to Butch James. As Butch matured he became less reckless but still played a hard game. But no matter what he did, if there was a marginal call he got penalised. Same with Darryn. He's not going to back off and because of a few incidents in the past (and the Commentators insisting on calling him Divebomb) in a 50/50 call he's going to get pinned. Every time. This interview from Senna back in the day sums it up perfectly

I'm afraid Russel's wings are going to be very clipped.... https://www.crash.net/f1/news/990780/1/russell-warned-about-mercedes-boundaries-racing-against-hamilton

In 2013 I bought a Scott Scale with 3 x 10 Deore/XT. I systematically upgraded bits as I came across good deals - Thompson Seatpost, Booth Carbon Bars, XT shifters and brakes. Ritchey wheels. All of this was done over a period of about 5 years. I then brought in a Carbon Frame from China and built the Scott Components over into frame, and started again - used Rockshox Reba off the Hub, used Roval Carbon Wheels off the hub. It's been such a great project. One thing I did resist though was to change to 1x. Without going into *that* discussion, I just didn't feel I needed to. Best part - I needed a new FD because the Chinese Frame was clamp on - bought a used XTR FD for R200 (because, hey, everyone is throwing them away now!) and I recently bought the two outer blades for the XT 3x Crank for R700 because NOS and no-one wants 3x Crank parts anymore..... Apart from my Giant XTC 26er which I regret ever selling this bike is the best I have ever owned and that includes a stint with a Bianchi Methanol. I think upgrading and personalizing is absolutely worth it

You'll need DEEEEEEEEEEEP pockets for that. To quote Trevor Binder - "I spent two pensions getting Brad and Darryn into Europe to race"

I would nip that in the bud very quickly - otherwise who knows what he might end up like!

I see Doug is having a few Video interviews now - with different people appealing for Sponsors. But he's also thanking people for their help over the years on Twitter. I think it's game over sadly.