Anyone seen GBC?

Yep, I'm here, busy preparing stuff for the Plus1 - only 16 days away and still loads to do! Being multi talented though, I'm also writing the Skorpy update that I promised, so that'll be up very soon. Maybe tomorrow if you're good.

Busy busy at Cubbie Towers!

Well it's been a busy few weeks. I can't recall everything in the right order, but in recent weeks I've been cleaning Skorpy in preparation for fitting all the new bits and pieces, and I heard from Peter yesterday that the swing arm is now ready for collection. And then there was the bad news.....he had to punch one of the rusty holes out to about 3" to find some solid metal. While I was cleaning, I discovered a few more bits that need attention, such as some rust spots on the mirror stalks, a few chipped areas on the painted wheels and an awful lot of rust on the thing that connects the zorst into the engine. But they're all tasks that won't stop it from going through the MoT, so I can put them off a while longer......

The NO NUT bit was nothing to do with me. I left it there, and when I went into the shed one day, I found a little man messing around with a torque wrench and UN's hair dryer. I tell you, it all goes on the in country! At least the stupid nut is off now and I don't have to wreck myself fighting with it. I've got the new sprocket and chain ready to fit, but must concentrate on doing the wheel bearings before I forget.

We've had the annual Grumpyones BBQ over at Mintlaw. The weather was fine all day and then come the evening, it was perishing and blowing a gale force wind. Those who went on Mr P's rideout enjoyed the good route and fine scenery, and those who were only able to come and eat all the food enjoyed eating all the food! Thanks to Peter and Lesley for doing a magnificent job of hosting the whole event and also to everyone who made the effort to attend.

Mrs BC and I have been BBQing again when we, well, I, went down to the VMCC Stirling Castle Section BBQ and as Mrs BC happened to be with me, she went too and was made most welcome by the hosts Jill and Iain. And then we went to another barby - this time for the Rare Breeds club that Mrs BC is in. We started off at the New Deer agricultural show, which was on the way to the BBQ, but got there about an hour before the end. We had a nice chat with a friendly Traffic Warden on the way in (it never hurts to chat a Traffic Warden up), but at the gate the little jobsworth tried to charge us full whack to go in for the last hour! So we sulked and went round the corner to watch the showjumping - no charge for that oddly enough! When it started to rain a little and the temp dropped severely we made our way to the location of the BBQ and enjoyed an entertaining evening meeting the ferrets and watching people who should know better blasting up and down the track on a quad bike.



At some point in the last few weeks we went to see a sheep dog trial. It was quite good fun and not quite as depressing as we thought - it showed that even those who trial and work dogs in a much more serious manner than we do, still make mistakes and even their dogs sometimes do what they think the owner wants them to do - much like our Finn.

Muckle Flugga Man (MFM) popped in for a cuppa. And while he was here he built me a shed (I suppose I should clarify, it was the shed that John from Bikeshite.com gave me, the one that was covered in about 6ft of snow for what seemed like months and months and months....), what a nice thing to do. We nearly fell out though when he instructed me to take the less heavy end of the section that had to be heaved up high, but after considering his threat to down-tools if I didn't give in gracefully, I gave in, but not quite as gracefully as I could, or maybe should have. Trouble is, I'm used to taking the heavy end. We nearly fell out once again when he tried to kill me by dropping one of the panels on top of me. The last time someone did that to me I ended up with a broken pelvis - I was a bit luckier this time and caught the darn thing one handed - an image of Superwoman has no doubt popped into your mind.

Voila!

It was around this time that we lost little Red Top, one of the orphan lambs that we'd rescued from certain death after mum Ditzy managed to give birth but was so ill she couldn't look after them. She and her twin, White Top were born early on a cold and misty spring morning, and could easily have been taken by a fox or buzzard. We don't know why she died, which makes it worse as we don't even know if the treatment we gave her was right, or if we could have done anything else for her. RIP little tiny Red Top.

I've also been thinking about the little jobs that need to be done to Cubbie. The front forks are a bit leaky and I think they need more than just new seals, and I'll have to investigate whether or not the rear end is seized. Just before the epic Shetland trip in June I noticed the rear light was sticking on, so that will need some attention. Ivan Rhodes gave me a good tip, which I've failed to do, which is if you find a fault with a bike and anticipate not having time to sort it straight away, just write a note and stick it on the bike somewhere, so that the next time you're going to be working in the shed, you know exactly what needs to be done. I reckon that would save me a lot of time, so must make an effort to try it.

The garden is coming along nicely after the refreshing downpour the other day. I helped Mrs BC plant some tatties (better late than never) and for a while they didn't do much, but with some water and warm sun they've shot up. Looks like we'll be looking forward to new tatties in the winter!

And the wheel fell off my mower. Bother.

So I think you're all up to date now. When I'm not polishing Skorpy I'm writing reports for Old Bike Mart, and when I'm not doing that I'm making or preparing something for the Plus1 and when I'm not doing any of those things, I'm at work. Or writing a blog update.

Grampian Convention...5th Sep...forms available!!!

Roll up, roll up, get your entry form for the magnificent GRAMPIAN MOTORCYCLE CONVENTION at Alford, Aberdeenshire from GBC. Yep, it's that time again, and entries are open to any bikes in the following categories....

ENTRY CATEGORIES – GCMCC Awards
Machines will be judged in the following
categories :-

VETERAN - Manufactured prior to 31st December 1919.

VINTAGE - Manufactured between 1st January 1920 and 31st December 1930
(The Wormald Engineering Shield).

POST VINTAGE - Manufactured between
1st January 1931 and 31st December 1944

POST WAR - Manufactured between
1st January 1945 and 31st December 1959 (The John Bell Pipeline Shield).

CLASSIC - Manufactured between 1st January 1960 and 31st December 1977
(The Castrol Shield).

MODERN CLASSIC - Manufactured between 1st January
1978 and 31st December 1989 (GCMCC Shield).

ENTRY CATEGORIES – Transport
Museum Awards

VINTAGE - Manufactured prior to 31st December 1930

EARLY JAPANESE - Manufactured prior to 31st December 1978

BRITISH TWO STROKE - Manufactured prior to 31st December 1978

CLASSIC BIKE - Manufactured prior to 31st December 1978

To enter
a Modern Classic (1978 to 1983) you must intend to take part in the GCMCC Alford
Run.

Drop me an email to cubbies counties AT aultan . com but remove the spaces and change AT to @, but you knew that, didn't you. I don't like to hurry you, but the closing date for being listed in the show programme is 30th July - - - entry is only £5 so don't delay, do it today!

What if...

Do you ever wonder how your day would have gone if you'd left home 5 mins later, or taken the long route instead of the short? Or had the cheese sarnie instead of the steak pie? Well a few days ago, Mrs BC and I nipped into town in the truck and trailer to drop some stuff at the skip, I then had to wait while she 'nipped' into the Post Office, although if that's 'nip'.... Anyway, turns out it was lucky that she took so long as on our way home, we were about 3rd on the scene of a serious bike crash. As we pulled up to the scene, we could see a biker laying across the road, the bike mangled some feet behind him, and a car with a huge dent in the front wing. A guy was with with him, and a lady from the first car that arrived was looking after the driver of the car involved, but it appeared that nobody had phoned 999, so I did. After sprinting back to the truck for the map to give them a road number, as it seems you can't just say "we're on the road from Turriff to Cuminestown about half a mile from the castle by a house called whatever it was called, oh and here's the exact postcode", I was instructed to stay on the line (good job I'd charged my phone the night before) and report on his condition. He was out cold, literally, sort of a pale shade of blue, so it was just a case of monitoring his breathing and the blood loss from his mouth and nose until the ambulance arrived. The second thing we did after calling 999 was to get blankets from cars and keep him warm. Then it was just a case of waiting. And waiting.

The police turned up, eventually, and proceeded to display an amazing lack of intelligence and coordination. Six of them spilled from two cars, one marked and the other, a fancy unmarked silver BMW - I made a note of the number of course. They marched around, ignoring the poor bloke laying motionless on the ground. They tried to send Mrs BC off home (big mistake for a 12yr old with a funny hat!), and it was only after she pointed out that she was with me, and the fact that I was on the phone reporting back to the control centre, that they even noticed me!After about 20mins the ambulance arrived, just split seconds after a medic turned up and then the cops kicked us out. Call it gory, but what we really wanted to see, was how, and if, they did anything with his helmet because obviously, we didn't touch it. We've had first aid talks and demos at the bike club, but it's one thing practicing on someone who has the giggles and quite another to witness it first hand. It got me to thinking, when would a member of the public who arrives on the scene ever have to decide whether or not to remove the helmet? In this case, the way the guy had landed was almost in the recovery position, and although he was bleeding from the mouth, his breathing wasn't obstructed. I think it's time to refresh the first aid skills.

You wouldn't believe the amount of idiots who tried to get past the accident. With a police car blocking the junction and an 'accident' sign, there were still people driving up to the back of the unmarked cop car, wondering why they couldn't get past. Numpties.

Anyway, I'm up at 6am tomorrow, so this'll do you for now and I'll put a Skorpy update here as soon as I can.

**I should have added that the guy was whisked away in air ambulance to Inverness hosp suffering from serious chest injuries. I haven't heard any more news yet.

WAKEY WAAAKKKEEEYYYY!!!!

Rise and shine, it's Sunday morning, places to go, things to do. Come on, chop chop, let's be havin' you. I want to see some pics of the places that you lot go to today - I don't mean the weekly shopping, or visiting Aunty Ethel, but any bike related things....send em in please to cubbies counties AT aultan.com

Skorpy progress.

As you might have read somewhere on here, I've decided to get my 1994 MZ Skorpion back on the road. It just needed a new bush or bearing or whatever it's called in the suspension linkage, and new bearings in the back wheel. When I started to dismantle things, I poked a screwdriver at the swingyarm only to find that those little paint bubbles were hiding something slightly more sinister, and a chunk of rust fell off, leaving a small hole. The hole doesn't go all the way through but I'm advised by my fellow MZers to just get it fixed, so I will. Then I thought I'd fit a new chain and sprockets. So I set about loosening the rear sprocket bolts while the wheel etc is still in place, they were easy, but the front one has been giving me hassle for about a week. I've been soaking it in diesel as per instructed, hitting it, jumping up and down on a long bar attached to it and generally getting nowhere quite slowly. I'm sure one day soon, it'll just mysteriously slacken off and the next time I try, I'll be wondering why I hurt my back and shoulders fighting the stupid thing.

So today I ordered a nice new sparkly chain, a gold one you know, and a new front sprocket (ever the optimist!) and a kindly fellow MZer has found a nearly new rear sprocket in his box of bits, and I'll get the swingyarm to a little man to weld it, and oh, I mustn't forget the wheel bearings in all my excitement.

Still having email probs

By the way, I still seem to be having a spot of bother with my email, so for anyone going to the GCMCC BBQ on Tues 6th July, if you have not received directions via email, give me a ring. And for any members who haven't booked a place, give me a ring before Tuesday morning and I'm sure we can squeeze you in.