For American folks

Sorry Ludwig, but that censor program is a total waste of time, as the post above mine proves.

That term is hardly a pejorative in any case, and whomever added it to the censor list has their head planted deep in their rectum.

I was simply trying to commiserate with you on the loss of many fine companies, and certainly know how to spell Prestwich. I have never seen a period cast in a single one of his engines.

It's just a reflex now, helping people avoid the elderly spinster school teacher's displeasure.

I started going to speedway races around the time the last of those engines were going out of use. Even in 1974, they looked archaic, a relic from a primeval world. The Jawas that came in and replaced them weren't actually much, if any, faster, but went 10 times as long before needing overhaul, and consumed less in spares. This is important in money for a professional rider, and time, if you're hacking up and down motorways for hours at a time every day to race for less than 10 minutes a night.

The late Bob Currie took a bunch of us on a tour of the sites of the old British companies in Birmingham. Part one took a whole day, but there were never parts 2,3, etc as he went and quite inconveniently died.

The Triumph works at Meriden were built on, and there will now be residents living in Bonneville Close and Daytona Drive who have no idea why they're called that. I suppose they should think themselves lucky nobody thought to name a road as Oily Stinking Pschitt Heap.

The old BSA works at Armoury road were levelled and are partly an industrial estate now. Some of the old Norton works were still standing in Aston Brook Street until a few years ago.

Having known men who worked in those places, I can understand the frustration of many about the loss of British motorcycle companies, but it was inevitable given the nature of the country's social, financial politics of the time.

Management arrogant about knowing better than the customers and engineers about what was needed, investors wanting profits for no investment in plant or training, and a workforce determined not to be trodden on by either of the other two groups or caring, now they could afford cheap cars, about the quality of the goods they made.

Sad but inevitable.

It's being so cheerful as keeps me going

There's a chip that's set to Hypersensitive Lesbian or something that will delete anything that contravenes Nice Polite Conversation.

Hey Ludwig - Don't fret. At least Triumph got up from the ashes eh?

I bought this fine example of a classic British bike last year.



A rebirth of an original. Even better, DOHC, 865cc, hydraulic disk brakes. Dual counter rotating balancers, fuel injection.

And those proud blued pipes protruding from the engine fills my heart with lust as my member does not protrude proudly anymore -

That frame is rigid as a rock, the motor is mounted at 5 places. You have no fear of holding a line thru corners. Just a wonderful ride!

The name is from the ashes: the modern company founder is a hard headed businessman who decided he was going to make a saleable product, and nothing from the past was going to get in the way of it. I think he's done the job properly.

Case XX

Just came in today. On special, a bargain. So pretty it makes me wanna cry.

And made here right in the USA.



My new pocket knife, a special edition numbered Case XX copper lock in Mother of Pearl -

We make top notch world class stuff here by the best people in the world. That mother of pearl is beautiful, the fit is tight and smooth, it's all stainless steel, mop and nickle-silver and buffed to a high luster.

Costs twice as much as a happy time. How many would you like?

That's a pretty Case. I like Case knives. I have one, a yellow-handle Trapper. The vanadium steel holds a razor edge. I've always liked my pocket knives to be sharp enough to shave the hair off my arm. There are only a few knife makers around these days that make blades capable of taking an edge like that.
I have other knives that are antique, and a ceramic one that I use in the kitchen, and even a custom-made Morningstar (custom bladesmith, I'd be surprised if anybody here has heard of him). For as much as I've always been a crack shot with guns, I just don't own one anymore. But I would never part with my knives. Some of them have been in my family long enough to be counted as ancestors.