Monday Articles - May 2022
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Finally, shed number one is fully built and liberally coated in products that will hopefully keep it looking good for many years. That last painting stage took way longer than I anticipated and I am truly fed up of the company of Mr Brushie and Robbie the Roller. But it’s finished, and not a moment too soon, because shed number two arrives in two days time!

 Shed two will eventually be occupying this space. Thankfully it’s a lot smaller than shed one, so hopefully it won’t keep me away from my bike building for too much longer.

And the new 3D printer has arrived! Took me a little while to understand the instruction manual, but we’re up and running now.

And after six and a half hours, it’s printed the mark two version of the rear rack.

 The bag fits, so that’s a good start…

…the indicators also fit in their allotted spaces…

…unfortunately I don’t like it!
It also has a design fault - I can't fit the bag once the rack is bolted in place, and you can't bolt it down if you put the bag on first. So I'll sort that as well!

It’s very wide and very ugly, a redesign is definitely needed!

Stonham Motorcycle Show May 2022

It was glorious weather for this year's bike show and the organisers were rewarded with a good turnout of visitors. I'm still a little disappointed with the show itself. There weren't many bikes actually on show (and many of those don't stay for very long) and trade stands are still a bit sparse. The Two Brothers Racing Stunt Team was there though and they are always very entertaining. You could also have watched the wall of death riders. All in all, a good day out, but I still give it a could do better rating.
Interestingly, very few cafe racers, scramblers, brats etc. on show. Has this custom phase passed? What's going to be the next trend, I wonder...
Here are my two favourite bikes from today. The rest will (eventually) be found in the GALLERY section.

 A quick update on the rear rack. This is now the Mk 3 version; Mk1 was too small, Mk 2 was too ugly! Hopefully Mk 3 will be the right size and look prettier. This time I’ve resorted to a bit of cardboard aided design to get the right size and shape.

 I’ve then measured up my piece of cardboard and produced a 2D CAD drawing. The next stage (which I haven’t got around to) is turning it into a 3D version which can then be printed. Maybe, by next week I’ll have got that far. The we’ll be able to see if a Mk 4 version is needed…

 An hour or so on the computer soon produced a 3D version of the rear rack (Mk 3!)

 Then after a 7 hour wait for the 3D printer to do its thing, the new rack design was finally printed.

The print still needs tidying, but it fits, and crucially, I actually like this version.

And the little bag still fits…

The only problem is that some idiot (me of course!) put the recess for the other indicator on at the wrong angle on the 3D CAD model, so at some time a Mk 4 version may be needed, but for now this will do. I have at least come up with a size and shape that I like… finally!