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Remember, if you subscribe to GKM you'll get a free sticker inside issue 21.

You lucky people.

The long way up... via the Italian Motor workshop

The Stockers Tea Party was a great bash... great to ride and drink and laugh with friends. Thanks Steve for making the effort to put it together.

The Pan ran like a champ there and back... about 620 miles. It spewed oil (mainly because I over-filled the tank) wherever it stood and blew its front wheel bearing seal. So on the way back up north I stopped at Italian Motor Magazine HQ and my brother Adam helped me investigate whether the bearings were mashed or could take another couple of hundred miles' abuse.

With the help of a Frosties packet (slightly thicker than Shreddies) we created a cover for the blown cork seal which worked a treat. We repacked the bearings but Adam discovered there was at least a couple of mm lateral movement in the wheel once it was tightened down. Bearings? Worn spindle? Lost shims? Combination of all?

Dunno. Rode it anyway and only got rained on for 150 miles straight. My shiny pipes became shitty pipes.

Thanks bro! xx

After tea

- Posted on the move

Tea time

Posted on the move

220 miles in

Hit my overnight rest stop with my folks with no problems except the crankcase plug (cork) letting go again... I had plenty of spares with me. There's also an oil leak from (I think) the front rocker box cover ... But the bike ran like a champ. A1-M1-M18- M42-M40.

Met some friendly NCC members at Warwick services... Funny I was the only chump on a rigid.

Another 75 miles tomorrow morning then it's time for tea!

- Posted on the move

Issue 21 is in-store now!

Shipping early next week, the new issue features Jeff Leighton's slimline '68 genny Shovel on the cover, and all this sweetness inside:

Frank Kaisler's column: Pete’s studio
Jeff Leighton’s ’68 shovel chopper
From Oz, Mark Austin’s UMG-based bob-job
Hawg Holic Gak’s crusty ’38 Knucklehead
Griff’s S&S Panhead... Garage built!
Chop-job tribute: Dan Henke’s ’47 UL
Death Science Tim’s ’61 Pan chopper
Pure (old) gold: Dan Collins’s ’58 Dodge Panel
Feel the Love: Ian’s Love Cycles-built ’39 Knucklehead
From Tokyo, Nishi’s ’48 Panhead
Jeremy Thomas’s swingin’ 1980 shovel

You can pre-order a new subscription or the brand new issue HERE!

Wheels of Steel

Headed for Steel City today to snap Paul and his '70 Shovel for a future issue.

Paul's an engineer and works a 250 ton lathe at Sheffield Forge Masters, so it wasn't surprising to see lots of lovely little details and well considered fabrication on this bike. I love that paint job too, done – like almost everything else – by the owner.

Nearly time for tea... shall I pour?

Preparing the bike for a few rounds of cucumber sandwiches and pots of Earl Grey this weekend.

Always nice to catch up with good friends over a slice of Battenberg...

Ohhhhh.... K!

Still uncovering gems from my Yokohama iPhoto files... I shot this Magnum on the Saturday, set-up day at the Pacifico.

Did I mention how phenomenally good this show is?

Yokohama streets

On the weekend of the Mooneyes show there seemed to be something interesting roaring past whichever road we were crossing in Yokohama. I'm still trying to process how good this show was, six months later.

Who's going this December?

Nice rear fender

And that lid's bitchin'.

Reckon my boy's Fire Chief special might be a tad faster than my Pan, too.

1948 Panhead for sale

Leedog's selling his freshly built '48, crazy boy.

He wants £15k for it.

Believe me, these don't come up in the UK often. If you are genuinely interested, call him on 07584 298 306 or email him at lee.d67@hotmail.com

Ride

No, not that band from Oxford.

I got so jealous of seeing photos of Jimmy in Mexico that I thought I'd post this: my own personal EDR... truly exclusive (just me), bit daring (no lid), exotic food and drink (back home in time for a Tesco meal deal).

All I ever wanted...

... was a PA Cresta and Terry Hall's hair.

Great song, great video, great suit.

Boys keep swinging

Boys always work it out...

Jeremy Thomas's streetfightin' FLH is in the new issue, out in a couple of weeks.

Made in London

But I never want to live there again.