Grease Monkeys: Introducing Tiddles

Monday, January 16, 2012

Introducing Tiddles

Got a call in work to say that my Tiger was arriving so I made my excuses and rode home to help Matt unload the van. First impressions were good. It wasn't covered in oil and everything looked to be in place. A bit of mild leaking from the forks but nothing much. Tickled the carb and gave it a coupler of kicks with the ignition off, turned it on and gave it a light test kick. Started first time and has done every time since. Runs great. A bit of a crunch getting into first but I'll look at that later. Jumped straight on and rode back into town and down to York Street for a quick celebration beer. Its a really great lane splitter, just rolling along in fourth between the cars. Bit of a problem finding neutral when it got hot in the traffic jam coming out of Newmarket in the rush hour but it was fine when I got out onto the motorway. Its not the most powerful bike in the world but it goes well when you wind it up. Pretty much like the Hinkley Bonnies really. Back brake is crap but the front ones not bad. Its strange changing gear on the wrong side but I only changed down once mistaking it for the brake.
Definitely taking it to Kumeu on Saturday for the Hot Rod and Classic Festival. Its going to be a hot day. The Panhead will have to wait for another week.

1 comments:

jonspeed said...: Hi Jon, saw that down at Kumeu, sorry didn’t get a chance to catch up... Nice.; January 24, 2012 8:29 AM

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Grease Monkey Forum

Mission

Here at Grease Monkeys we remember when motorcycles were dirty and noisy and dangerous and COOL ………..

Nowadays it’s too easy to walk into a shop, hand over a huge pile of money and ride off into the sunset on the latest shiny toy. You feel great till you park it outside the local Starbucks and then, 10 minutes later you come out to find that there’s three, exactly the same as yours parked outside.

So back you go to the dealer (funny how they’re called dealers, not pushers) and pick some overpriced part from the fat catalogue and nail it onto the bike. For a short while you feel good. Now you have a custom bike like nobody else. But it soon wears off. You need another fix and then another but you know its not getting any better. Its still not yours and its still too much like all the others.

Let’s face it, it will never be your creation until you tear it to bits and start again. It needs to have soul. That’s not something you buy. It’s something that is earned, through hard miles, sweat and skinned knuckles.

New is bad, old is better………… Repeat it after me.

We’re all about stuff you put together yourself. Making changes and putting things together in combinations that no-one else will copy. Making something that you see the beauty in…never mind what others think.

Maybe I don’t like your motorcycle either!!!

I made this. It may not be brilliant. It may not be beautiful. It may not be fast but its mine, it has soul.

Anti-Biker – Time for a new look.

Be honest. We all wanted to be bad ass bikers. We got the beards and the cut-offs and the leathers and the shades and we looked hard. Jail is such a waste of time and hard ass drug dealers usually don’t have time to build their own bikes. When they do get time to ride its more than likely on some totally stock ride that spends most of its time locked away. No. We aren’t that hard. We just love motorcycles; taking them apart, putting them together, riding, talking about them, and hanging round with people who do the same.

Black t-shirts – We don’t need no steenking black t-shirts.

Wear whatever the hell you want. Preferably something that doesn’t show up the oil stains too bad.

Grease Monkeys

We’re all about the bikes…period. On this site we have pictures of some of our bikes as they are being completed. For us, Old School Rules. This isn’t some sterile factory turning out cookie cutter customs. Here, every bike is different and every one has a story. Grease Monkeys` is a community of Cycle Freaks. We are here to help each other out; provide advice…good and bad; share ideas, thoughts and stories. We want you to be part of this.

I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

We need this thing to grow. We need you. If you have something dark and rusty coming to life in your shed or on your kitchen table we need to hear about it. We need pictures. We need to hear the creature’s life story. We need to get these creations out on the road and let the people know we are taking over. We are re-claiming our right to enjoy biking again. Take a look and tell us what you think. Most of all…pick up that spanner and hacksaw and get out into that shed and start building.

Irishjon

Grease Monkeys

Monday, January 16, 2012

Introducing Tiddles

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