Well welcome back to the page. Thanks for all your comments appreciate the thoughts and the comments. So here we are, struck down with the flu ( groan), and thinking about the F1 I'm currently working on. It's all away at blasters and powder coaters, so I'm left here with the hundreds of other bits that need work and restoring. The media blaster in my shop is certainly getting in some overtime. But I love it. Nothing better then getting a fine piece of Italian metal and returning it to it;s full glory. Sitting here now looking at Carbs, and levers that have already had the treatment and I love what I am seeing. The bike I am doing is engine 22, and frame 19. I discovered that in the early part of 1984 Ducati were having problems financially and the sell out to Cagiva was imminent, so the Japanese importer of Ducati offered to send the cash directly to the factory for the first batch of the F1's. This was done and the bikes were duly shipped, so the last bikes by Ducati as the old brand. I have heard that the importer has frame 1 engine 1 with no K's still in his office. Now wouldn't that be a nice bike to have. Must be worth it's weight in gold by now. More Ducati folklore. So this bike that I have is obviously out of that batch. The only difference that I can see, is that on the dash there is a little red speed warning light with a tiny Japanese sticker on it. I was going to take that out, but had decided that it came that way, so it is staying. It was not in very good nick when I got it 9000 k's and pretty corroded, but took the heads off and it;s perfect inside, so all the rest is cosmetic, which I can handle pretty easily. I will post more images when I get it back next week after all the paint and powder coating is done. So here's this weeks page for you all. enjoy.

 Still a very capable motorcycle

 If I was to be buying a new bike right now, this would be it. The most vastly underrated motorcycle on the market, and the extra CC's must be good. If you ever want a bike to do it all, then this should be on your list. They produce fuck all HP, but they are totally capable of giving big bore sports bikes a run over any twisty bits, and when the road stops you just keep going. Take one for a ride and see what you think. I love em.

 You can't find these anymore, what a motorcycle, possibly the first bike to come out of Japan that actually made my jaw drop. Stunning, and still more then capable on todays rides.

 Hmmm, I hope this image is photo shopped, you don't ever do this with a pillion on board.

 Minimalist to the extreme, how tiny is this wee jigger

 pack up and piss off, what a way to make a living

 One thing we do have here is great bar food

 Well that's one way to get it out, OUCH

 Pretty little F1

 You have to admire people that live their dreams

 Tidy work going on here. I like the ratted style bikes, but it's always the clean ones that draw your eye and your appreciation

 Nice work gong on here with these engine cases

 Yamahas first ever four stroke went on to make many many different motorcycles

 This is a stunning restoration, and I mean the best of the best. take a moment to enlarge the images and check it out

 Love the old style advertising images, you meet the nicest people of all sorts on a motorcycle

 Don't care what you say, these things have stance, such a wonderful platform to customise and to ride

 The start of the process, suck, squeeze, bang, and blow

 Manfield in the late 80's, the first time the 8 valve Ducati made an appearance in NZ. Lining up beside the Britten as well.

 The venerable Plastic Maggot, the bike of choice for every single dispatch rider in London in the early 80's London. Soft, bad handling, relatively reliable, but it was the tool of choice.

 Based on the restoration of the engine, I would be spending a few more hours cutting that paint work back

 A happy line of goodness right there

 Not really my cup oh tea, but there are a lot of these out there, and they seem to like them

 Love this bike

 Honda went to great lengths to make these pipes

 Some mods and rockers images for you. people used to think that every time they got together they would fighth, but it's not true really, you had mates on both sides, it just really boiled down to what you liked and what you could afford.

I just love this sculpture, being a bit of a carver myself, I look in awe at the work done so long ago. It looks like the veil is transparent, just a beautiful piece.

Braver then me haha

Got to get me some of these, add it to the collection of about 10 pairs that I have

A long time ago, in a far away land, I hated the cold Kiwi's but you had to go because it gave you time with your mates talking shit all day about bikes and drinking, that was good.

I always forget that I had one of these right back at the start

Stroudy giving that rear a bit of a hard time. Lizards do behave like that sometimes

Pretty little thangs

I like this custom, one of my favourite bikes, and a very nice custom

But these are prettier

What ever floated your boat, pretty sure this image comes from Woodstock

I've always had a soft spot for twin engines motorcycles

Nice paint mate

Rossi, has just confirmed that he will be riding this next year and the year after, Motto GP starts again this weekend.

This is why Ducati is what it is today. They've always bought out their race bikes and sold them to the public. Sure they are expensive, and they will only ever stay that way. You don't see many other manufacturers ( Honda with the RCV) doing that, and that's why there is this mystique about the bikes, the brand and the people involved

A great place to spend some time, chew the fat, and have a great food and drink. Only in London The Bike Shed

Noice

Don't think I've had to many  Moto Morini's on here, but they are an important part of Italian motorcycle folklore.

This is a nice job too.

I don't know what it is, but from the block above to this below, amazing what we can do now.

This is pure welding porn, check out this work

An RD 350 Cop bike. who would have thought eh?

Who remembers these, i was so jealous

Love the paint schemes guys are doing with these

Can't wait, this weekend, this weekend

Good skills mum and dad

One of the most underrated motorcycles to ever come out of Italy, they should be worth much much more than what they are selling for. A True Italian classic in every sense of the word

And this is where they should all be.

The late Great Robert Holden on Dallas Rankin's Pantah

Another great NZ motorcycle fast and fragile it was called, I just seem to remember fast, as it came by me like I was standing still

Another Ducati built here in NZ, this one just for show really

Dallas Rankin, the man behind the bikes above

And thats all for me this week folks, hope you enjoyed the page, thanks for all your comments over the past few weeks, it's always a pleasure to know that you enjoy the page. Now on with the restoration of the F1, work to do.