pro-stock aspirations/project big bang!!!

[Pasc]

Birmingham used to be crawling with engineering firms. Back in the Eighties when I first started messing with bikes getting a part knocked up pronto and at a reasonable price was no problem at all. At lot of the old fellas used to come across as more than keen to make whatever you required. Nowadays it's a different story altogether. Very few about at all. These days I have to drive miles just to get a basic spacer turned up. There is very little manufacturing going on at all compared to a few years back in this neck of the woods. Spose we've got Thatcher to thank for that as well.

[Ed Z1-R]

I have no problems getting parts machined, yes there are quality machinists out there,but as Pasc pointed out Birmingham as Coventry was saturated with factories and machineshops until the Thatcherite era from where it spiralled into a rapid decline and technology obviously took over.
And "the skill" on average is ?25-30 @ hour. There are not as many as there once was.
Luckilly for moi i only have to do a 12 mile round trip for machined bitz at a discount rate

[CJ]

I would suggest that ?25 - ?30 per hour is very cheap, considering the running costs of keeping a business going.....rent/mortgage, business rates,vat, electricity, fuel, machinery costs, aluminium ( its all going to China so we can buy them cheap products out of Halfords or you local motorcycle shop ).
Custom engineering will soon be a lost art if we don' support them, thats why I always pay a good price to get a good job, instead of most people who treat everything as if life is run off ebay....

[london calling]

You're dead right CJ.
I was speaking to Stuart at Spondon a few months back and he'd just increased their labour charge to £30/hour plus materials.
How many tons of shite is manufactured?? in China every day??

[Pasc]

How many tons of shite is manufactured?? in China every day??

Don't knock the Chineese Jack. I had a cracking King prawn curry the other night. Took him 20 minutes and only cost me ?4.95. He even put it in a shiny ally box.

[Ed Z1-R]

Well im fortunate that i get my bitz machined at a cheap rate ( company as advertised in club mag) more than ?30 and .............well..........maybe worth to shop around
Pasc thats a nasty chinky mine also comes in a fine ally tin and when i ring its ready in 5 minutes

[Pasc]

Ah yes ED, but 15 mins out of the 20 he spent trying to catch it.

[Ed Z1-R]

Pasc,my chink is less than a 3 minute walk, thats why my pussy (she is a testosterone fiend) is a house cat

[london calling]

Chineese Is that a cheesy Chinese
How very dare you Pasc
By the way Pasc,don't bother sending that battery box plate,because some Superman from the West Mids has sent me one F.O.C.

[Pasc]

You're in my little black debtors book now Jack. And at my exorbitant interest rates the plate soon increases to a battery box then to a fuse box , frame and so on and so on until eventually the WHOLE BIKE WILL BE MIIIIIIIIIIINE HA HA HA HA HA HA (in a blood curdling stylee).

[rafstopcarryon]

started flycutting today, trying to get a good finish to the engine plate, what i found today was that on something which yeh think is flat there were so many high/low spots


out of some 1.5mm carbon sheet, ive started cutting out a disc, what the yanks call an aeroblade (carbon ring bolted to the front wheel which is supposed to give a more accurate/ consistant reading from the top end timing system)........ used a piece of scrap timber to bolt one end and scribe the other.this give us a nice sharp circle........now the hard part, cutting the chuffin thing out

[Steve R]

Hi Raf,
Just wondered what progress? havent heard from you for a while?

[rafstopcarryon]

me mill fcuked up so it's been back to farming stuff owt for a couple of weeks so as you'd expect(dum de dum de dum...i'm waiting aaaaaaaaaaaaaand waiting) done a couple of hours this avvy plus me mills up and working again(dont ask ) so should have some piccy's this weekend,me first set of pistons have turned up "mmmm sexual"
http://sell.dragbike.com/detail.asp?id=4465

[rafstopcarryon]

heard that nhra are allowing the metrics suz/kaw to go down to 610lbs,little fat fcuka here's gonna have to shed some pounds about 60 should do it

[CJ]

check out these two engines i saw for sale , won't it be easier to get one of these being as the easter meeting is here already

http://www.kingracing.com/sale.php