Billy Balthorpe

I'll see if one of my Engineers can pick it all up for me if its still available. What colour is it?

Sorry, no. If i was a trucker i would leave them dotted around the countryside wrapped up in bits of old carpet and my garage would be full of spare bits of old carpet, axes and porn.

Ok, thats it, i give up. You and your magic fingers win! Sorry niiic, i did my best.

How many murdered prostitutes can i fit in my garage? Two more if i take me bike out!

Yes, thats near enough to what it says in the post. But then i read it again, i reckon this guy has an auto 50cc bike, supposedly tuned with a brand spanking new power band fitted, and was donig nearer 15 mph into a moderate bend and didnt crash, rather than the stated speed and derring do. He sounds young, wanting to impress and hasn't got a clue how to. We get guys wanting to join the Bike Club with this attitude sometimes, they almost need to be taught how to operate in society, some are worth the effort, some arent. But the ones who obvioulsy benefit from being with us are worth the effort for everyone. Maybe this guy was worth some guidance from us, maybe he wasnt, we will never get the chance to find out. In hindsight (which is handy) maybe a moderator should have had a chat and "advised" a withdrawl of the post and had a bit of a chat with the guy and explained that putting stuff like that up was bound to wind people up, and maybe suggested a better and more honest post. But thats with hindsight so it doesnt count. All due respect to the Mods on here, never had a problem, not saying that they are at fault or owt, oh bugger, i wish i hadn't started this, well, its been nice,

Aren't we going a little overboard here peeps? During my 34 years of biking, i have done a lot worse than matey boy who started this has admitted to. Apart from the hurling insults thing obviously! But he responed to our (the sites) posts to his topic, which were not very welcoming to a (supposedly) young lad. Not looking for a row, just commenting on reading the whole thread through. Just my two penn'orth. I'll get me coat!

I can not post in the wanted section, i have heard that it is because i'm not a sponsor of the site, i say "heard" because i can not find any details of the email that explained it. The links to it here http://www.yamahaclub.com/ and here http://www.yamahaclub.com/ do not go anywhere. This all seems to have started when i joined, i posted in the wanted section and then the rules were changed so you needed a certian amount of posts, i reached the required amount (not through meaningless posts) and posted again, then the rules were changed so you had to apparently subscribe to the site. Any further plans in the wings? Where are the details for the subscription charge? Where is the email letting everyone know that this was happening? Do you think charging for posting in the For Sale/Wanted sections is a good idea? After all, it will stop anyone apart from the subscribers posting, giving less choice for all subscribers overall. When we started StaffsMinis, a central core of members got together and all chipped in a bit of cash to keep the forum free from subscription, we belived this to be the best way of doing this, as charging everyone would not lead to a better site.

Have we narrowed down the choice of oils for the Thunderace? Ideally i could do with an oil which reduces the clutch grab and the oil consumption too. Money really isnt an obsticle so any oil can be bought. What does everyone reccomend?

Love that Mk1 mate. Spent a lot of time on the back of me mates XS250 Custom in the early eighties. That bike never really lit my fire. Welcome to the site.

What a girl! A proper birthday present, better than the new spray job for me bike that was classed as "timed out" by the time i got it done. Silverstone at the end of April. With me mates, camping the night before, should be a laff. Its the national circuit, to tell the truth i havent got a clue where the track goes except for Bridge, Luffield and the straight, anyone know where i can find the track layout for the Nash Circuit. Its strange, there are other tracks that ive never ridden on that i know where they go, but not Silverstone.

Its fantasitc to see someone actually doing something on a bike rather than the usual sunday outing to Box Hill/Matlock/Devils Bridge, and this is on a 50! Advice. Dont take too much gear, you wont use it. Take string, duct tape, E1-11, cable ties, air bed (sleep well, ride well), buy a bigger tent, if it rains in Ireland (which it does a lot) you can move around and store all your gear in the dry in a bigger tent, they dont wiegh that much more than a smaller tent either. The route you have done looks ok apart from the Limerick to Dublin leg, that is a fast road with quite a bit of dual carriageway, go a different way, it will be wonderful. Good luck, i wish one of my mates had come up with the idea when i had a 50. Wish i was coming, sounds like a trip to remember, and a tale or two to tell for the rest of your life, usually starting with "Well of course, when me an me mate went round Ireland on 50's .............." cue beer out of noses and cries of "Round Ireland on WHAT??"

My Favorate record (if someone hasnt already done this), is : 630 marshmallows stuffed up one nostril by Toxteth O'Grady. Also owner of the Worlds stickiest bogey record.

Again, i will not be going to the isle of Man, been 3 times and thats enough. Its expensive to get there, expensive to be there, expensive to stay there, it pisses it down so camping is miserable, its crowded and, certainly over the last 15 years, its all geared around taking every single penny off you. We as bikers, have gone from being the skint riders of cheap transport, to the riders of £7000 "toys" that only come out when its sunny at weekends, obviously the people who take our money have realised that if we can afford £7K as a toy, we must have a lot of disposable income and they want it. Its fantastic to go there, but there are a lot of places in the world to go to apart from the IOM. You could spend a week in the french alps and italy for the price of an IOM trip, better weather, beautiful roads, friendy police, cheap accomodation, cheap supermarket beer, cheap Bar beer (in Italy and Spain). No racin tho.

What did i tell you, bollocks!! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/yamaha-thunderace-ra...A1%7C240%3A1318

I couldnt risk waiting any longer so i ordered one up from Demon Tweeks instead, there hasnt been a sports rack on the 'Bay since i've had the Thunderace. You watch, next week there will be loads of em for a tenner. Always the bloody same. A one inch bracket is two miles away from home, an engine is in the outer hebridees, or Penzance, or Sandwich in Kent or some other far flung part of the country.

Any idea why i cant post in the Wanted section anymore? I have posted there before but now it says that i do not have permission to post there?

I tend to push on a bit when riding with me mates, i also do a bit of touring, the faring gives just enough protection from the wind when i need it. Some one said the same thing a couple of months ago, "cut it down", but this was someone who never rode his Tarts Boudoir style Streetfighter out of Stoke and so would never have the neck problems caused by a one hour "sprint" to catch the ferry at Bilbao. The faring stays.

Its as if i'm seeing double .

Yeah, fair enough. Ive been there mate and like you had to work hard to keep my YPVS and £150 Allegro (for winter) on the road. The first time i went on a bike trip was the IOM in '88, it took a year to save the money and we camped in the pissing down rain for 4 days over the first weekend, bloody miserable but at least i was there, on me bike, in the IOM at the TT, totally skint but loving it. Keep the faith and keep working to get what you want.

I would class my Blade as a "Basic" Streetfighter. To all intents and purposes it is just a smashed Blade with renthalls. But is has got a faring and lights from a Peugeot Speedfight II scooter, mirrors from a Z1000, a non standard belly pan, non standard bars (obviously) and cables, non standard brackets (knocked up out of steel and clamps from FWB in 20 minutes with a drill, vice and hammer) and non standard clocks. Does that make my bike a Streetfighter in your opinion? It did take me a long time to build, about 6 hours including going out to the shop to buy the clamps, having breakfast, making the brackets, putting it all together and wiring it up,, having the odd doobie and the occasional beer here and there , then rattle can spraying it with Halfrauds finest silk black. Maybe i shouldnt have put that last paragraph in, i thought i was doing quite well up to then.

Ha ha ha ha, pull a thread, ha, ha, er, ha.... Just me then, er....... TAXI!!!

Sorry mate, wrong end of the stick. New here and would rather pull a thread than have a row. You didnt say you were offended, i just offered to remove it if you were, you're not, so i wont.

OK Goff, tell me how to tell if a bike is a streetfighter. If you mention time spent building it, say how long it has to take before it becomes one. If you mention money, say how much you have to spend before it becomes one. If it means having parts from different bikes, how many different bikes? I've got nowt against the Special Streetfighter builder, i've seen some cracking work in my time. I've also seen a lot of Tarts Boudoirs, you know the type, covered in glue and ridden through halfords. Hang on, how about that for a name, a Special Streetfighter? Says it all for me, its a Streetfighter but its not your usual streetfighter, its more than that, its a Special Streefighter, you know before you see it that there has been a lot of time effort, money, blood, sweat and tears that have gone into it. I reckon adoption of that term for the appropriate bikes and builders would kill this onging debate (this has been going for a good few years now) stone dead. Its either a Streetfighter (cheap and nasty) or a Streetfighter Special (Special Streetfighter?) that is quite a lot more than a simple Streetfighter.

Because thats where the name originated, there was no such thing as a streefighter in the mid 70's because very few bikes had full (and very expensive) farings to get smashed. It wasnt until the early - mid 80's that bikes (usually sportsbikes CB900F2, etc ) gained the full "expensive to replace" farings, and therefore spawned the idea of not replacing faring and slapping some Bates and renthalls on it instead. Thats why they are usually deemed to be ex sportsbikes. The problem is nowadays (and for a few years now) lots of different classes of bikes have gained farings to smash to bits, not just sportsbikes. So streetfighters are made out of all sorts of stuff and the pre requisite of being a sportsbike is not so prevalent now. It wasnt prevalent then because really, the only bikes that were going to get badly damaged in a realatively "easy" crash (from a cash point of view) were sportsbikes coz they had the faring and the propensity for hedge hunting. I think its all about ownership of the name Streetfighter. The special builders want it exclusively for their bikes coz it sounds cooler than "Special". The bum basic SF builders dont care what its called, coz its back on the road cheaply, these people inhereted the name because of what the bike was, and is now.

Got a call from Bart the sprayer this afternoon, me 'Blade panels and tank are ready. I pick em up on Saturday and should have them fitted by the aft. Then i can start do put the stuff on the Ace while still riding the 'Blade. Should look good for the egg run on Sunday.