Well, here we are again, perhaps one week away from being allowed out to ride with your mates again. It's been a long and somewhat tiresome haul, but we are nearly through this thing. I've seen a whole lot of people breaking this bubble thing, and I have to admit that i did the same yesterday, I had to go and pick up a bike from a shop, that i was not pleased with. I had to get my ZRX from East Coast Harley Davidson, or East Bay Harley Davidson what ever they are called and I was not a happy camper. I dropped the bike in there because they had access to a Dyno, and the ZRX had just had brand new flat slides and a Kerker exhaust on it. At that stage they were a Suzuki franchise so had experience in tuning large multi cylinder Japanese motorcycles, so it seemed to me that there were no dramas. Well the thing dragged on, and not counting 7 weeks of lock down, it has been 6-7 months that they had the bike. Now I wasn't to perturbed by this, as I have plenty of other bikes to ride and plenty of other projects to get on with, as you all know. But last week as we started to come out of Level 3, I thought I had better get this bike back. Now that in itself was the issue, as the bike was not tuned, they had all sorts of problems, and did all sorts of stuff to the bike to get it to run right. Needles, jets, all sorts of things, all for the bike not to work properly. This is a standard motorcycle, sure it;s got carbs and a pipe, but most do. They seemed to have lost interest in it, as they transitioned to being a full on Harley Davidson dealer, I mean who can blame them, chase the big dollars in this day and age can't be argued, but the rub was there was a $2K bill, which was negotiated down the $1,100, for a bike that is still not running right, after 6 odd months. I was so pissed when I went to pick the bike up I hardly spoke ( so filled with rage as I was), paid my money and got the fuck out of there. Vowing to never set foot in that shop ever again. Now I know that some from there will be reading this, and I am sure that you have your own story ( from the other side), but the basic upshot of this, is that 6 months later the bike could not be tuned, and I got the bike back still not ridable Oh and being a custom painted bike with scratches all over the engine and the back hand grab, where it was strapped to the Dyno or Trailer. So pretty pissed at these people. I am now going to wait for my mate Radar in Australia to come back to NZ and he can have a look at it. So after all that, I'm not going to say too much more, just enjoy the blog and soak the images in.

Will this best the last season for Vale? I hope not, but who could blame the guy for hanging up those pretty Dianese leathers, flicking his hand from under his chin, and turning his back.

These custom builders are doing some bloody great work these days, love this truck

Vale, feet up, on the pipe and gassing it

Pure bike porn

Looks pretty good for a little 2000cc Ford Escort

That's all folks, have a great week, and be patient, it wont be too much longer.