1954 Excelsior Consort F4 BFA 856

The latest project is this 1954 Excelsior Consort, Villiers 98cc engined. It has no registration documents but I know that the original number, now unobtainable, was BFA 856. If any reader knows anything of the history of this little post WW2 commuter please let me know. I understand that it started out its life in Burton on Trent which is where I acquired it.

As the registration number is not now obtainable I will have to get an age related number for it. To do this I will need to get it MOT'd. And for this to be successful the front forks will need renovating. If you dear reader have any information or experience of sorting out girder forks as fitted to the Excelsior, please let me know.

SS50 in Big Sky County

As you can see the little Honda SS50 is now on the road and has covered about 600 miles since the (budget) renovation.

Lincolnshire is not all flat as you can see.

Although the muffs are not very cool they keep me riding in cold weather. They probably also reduce the top speed of the bike (already puny) by 10%, though they do help with a tailwind. Bit like a spinnaker really.

Two other broken SS50's in the garage which I will refurbish slowly. Have just started on the tank of one of them which has thirty years of gunge in it and two dents on it. It will be sprayed by me with rattle cans. The problem that I need to surmount which I have with the moped pictured on this post is that of the petrol softening the paint round the filler hole. I have sprayed the red bikes tank with petrol resistant lacquer but the petrol seems to be able to get under it at the edge of the filler hole. If anyone has the solution to this (apart from getting it professionally sprayed at ten times or more what it costs me to do it myself) then I would appreciate the advice.

Honda SS50 almost complete

It has taken me about 6 months to transform what was a sad and shabby looking vehicle with many parts missing into what you see here now. It is far from perfect, particularly if you look carefully. Remember digital cameras often lie, particularly on Ebay!

It is a budget refurbishment to achieve a tidy, safe and reliable machine that I can potter around country lanes on.

The seat looks a bit strange. I don't like it. It is a pattern part and as soon as I learn how to weld and re-cover seats it will be replaced by a refurbished original. I have two more of these bikes in the garage awaiting treatment so if you have any spare parts you don't want, let me know. I would be particularly interested in an engine, mudguards for the four speed model, rear swinging arm or a good seat or seat base.

The refurb can be seen on the sport moped site (link on this blog) if you are interested in an old man's pain and suffering.

Is it badger hair?

Went for my regular walk down Clay Lane today and came across this hair, and lots of other bits like it strewn around on the earth. I have noticed this in the same place before and assumed some wild or domestic animal has been attacked there. Given that it is always in the same area and has occurred frequently I now wonder if there is a badger sett nearby.

Honda SS50 and limping cat stops blogger

Haven't been posting anything on the blog lately. However have now been spurred on by a torrent, ..............well dribble of interest, from two readers. I have a public!

I supposedly retired from work in May but cat health problems and subsequent vets bills encouraged me back to work two days per week. At least on a temporary basis.

The cat's tale. In brief she had a limp (long term) caused by some problem with her wrist probably caused by jumping from a height. Vet quite clear that she would be experiencing pain to some degree and that operation to fuse the joint was required. Eventually I agreed to this. Procedure carried out at great expense (I could have bought every cat in Nottinghamshire for the price of the op and follow up). Although insurance covered it the premiums will go up next year without a doubt. Maisie has now recovered but still has a (worse) limp and has turned into a house cat. I feel bad that I seem to have contributed to a worsening of her lifestyle. I don't doubt the sincerity of the vets advice but I would advise anyone to ask very searching questions about the possible range of outcomes for an animal when a significant procedure is advised. I thought I had done but with hindsight not enough. Enough of cats, now on to dogs.

Shortly after the last published post I got the Honda 1977 SS50 5 speed moped you see pictured here. It came from Mablethorpe and cost me £60. I have probably spent ten times that on it now. Another cheap hobby for my retirement. If you are interested in the renovation so far you can see it in detail on the following website:

www.sixteener-special.co.uk in the section on "Restorations and Rebuilds" under the title of something like "SS50 Commencing Countdown Engine Off"

And when you see the ups and downs pictured there you will understand why I have not been on the blog.

Horse chestnut "sticky buds"

When I was a child in the 40's and 50's we rarely had cut flowers in the house. My mother certainly would never have bought any and although we had a large country garden my father thought the correct place for them was in a flower bed. The exception were bowls of bulbs at Christmas which were "forced" in the airing cupboard.

In addition to flowers and vegetables in the plot we also had trees including a horse chestnut that, it was alleged, my brother had grown from a conker. At this time of the year it sprouted "sticky buds". My mother would cut budded stems from the tree and put them in a vase in the house where we would watch the buds burst and leaves unfurl in their bright green splendour. The same was done with hazel catkin buds when we could find any. Cheap pleasures and no air mile cost.

Just a walking in the rain, with my MS by my side

Took my Puch MS50V for it's MOT the other day. Only 143 miles since the last time so even I "Mr Everysilverlininghasanevenbiggerdarkcloud" felt it had a reasonable chance of passing. After the (successful) test I stood around chatting to the tester and his mate extolling the high quality Austrian build and reliability of the thing. Stepped forward nonchalantly to flip it into life with a half turn of the pedal. Nothing happened. After five minutes or so of panicky and sweaty activity I gave up. "Its never not started before" I said feeling that this sounded a little unconvinving. After ten minutes advice and suggestions the other two cleared off for a cup of tea and left me in the testing bay to try to sort it out. In the end I gave up and pushed it home through driving rain. Fortunately I did not see anyone I knew. I bet those two from the test place were watching me through the garage window as I left, sipping steaming tea and laughing. Blocked carb so perhaps I shouldn't leave it with petrol in over the winter.

Puch Grand Prix moped - don't Hammerite it

Took the cats to the vets for their annual service yesterday. Always very traumatic (I mean for me!) as although it only happens once a year they sense it and make it as difficult as possible to get them into their baskets. When in they make the most pitiful noise that makes me feel a complete shite. Even though I tell them its for their own good. After the checks and injections the vet tells us Maisie needs some dental work. She will let us have an estimate which I can collect at the reception desk. I go out to pay the consulting and medication fee. A modest £90 or so. I am handed the dental estimate. One hundred and ninety two quid! No wonder I was given it to read outside the consulting room, the (very nice) vet doesn't want any old codgers dying of shock in her office. Susan, pass me the pliers and the bottle of whisky. Maisie you'll hardly feel a thing.

Anyway all that is beside the point, today was also very traumatic. I have dismantled the Puch M50 Grand Prix with a view to refurbishing (my definition is reliable presentable and safe). As you can see in the picture it now looks like a piece of Meccano. Although the frame is not rotted it had a lot of surface rust so what to do. I don't at the moment to spend vast amounts on the cosmetics so I decided to brush paint the frame pending an eventual respray. I had decided I would NOT use Hammerite on it. However today I somehow found myself testing Hammerite black on the frame and thereafter painting it. Within about two hours the whole frame had turned into a black sticky unsightly mess. I could have roared, and not like a lion either. More like the cat in the basket. In the end I spent a considerable time scraping the whole gooey lot off. I hope tomorrow I can begin to replace it with lacquer as I originally intended.

Although this moped was no doubt hammered in it's youth (probably by a youth or two) this does not seem to have caused as much damage as being subjected to Hammerite.

Cows at Claypole

Snowed again in Newark. That's two lots plus an earthquake in about a month! Bob Marley who bid for my Honda NC50 Express on Ebay let me down. Never heard a thing from him and when I checked he had not even given a full address to Ebay. Relisted the Express and a Honda C90 and both have now sold. So we could afford to go out for an Indian meal last night to celebrate my 61st birthday which was in fact a couple of weeks ago. Pork for dinner today so I felt I could look the snow bound cows in the eye this morning.

OFSTED passed not sure how.

Puch M50 in bits in the garage undergoing what I fondly like to call a partial refurb or "tidy up". Awaiting parts from Puch-Weiser in Austria.

I can't believe I forgot the earthquake

My life is so boring and uneventful I cannot believe I forgot to mention this. We had an earthquake the week before last. I appreciate this is a frequent, dreadful and unfortunate event in some countries but I can only recall two in 61 years in England. I was lying in bed just before one in the morning reading about the life of John "Rumpole" Mortimer (not apparently as nice as we might think) when the bed, house walls and windows started rattling and rumbling like nothing I had experienced before. Apparently old Mortimer's bed is alleged to have rumbled quite frequently during his life, but not I believe caused by earthquakes. Anyway I digress. I could not think what it was, it felt like the house was falling down. My initial thought was that there had been an air crash somewhere nearby, but fortunately not. I was cared witless and jumped out of bed and started downstairs. My wife was coming up shaking like a leaf. I had a look outside and strangely noone had come out onto the street. The epicentre was as is now well known about 30 miles from here in sleepy Market Rasen in Lincolnshire. Apart from horse racing this will probably what this small country town will henceforth be famous for.

Bob Marley and the Unwanted Gift

The "Unwanted Gift" aka Honda Express sold on Ebay yesterday for £165. Much more than I thought it would go for. However there has been an ominous silence from the purchaser despite my sending him or her a number of emails. The persons Ebay moniker and perhaps even real name is Bob Marley and as a fan of The Wailers I am particularly irked to be let down by a namesake of their leader. I don't suppose it could have been a Bidder from The Other Side? No, Bob would never have been seen dead on a moped. So I have a feeling I am going to be the victim of my first "timewaster", I have been lucky so far. The problem is how long do you leave it before you try to sell the item to one of the other bidders? If you take this course of action too soon then the "timewaster" will probably complain that they were away from their computer for some legitimate reason and leave detrimental feedback to this effect. If you leave it too long the remaining bidders will have bought a similar item elsewhere or gone cold on purchasing the item you had for sale.

And that's not the only bad thing, we've got an OFSTED inspection at work tomorrow, and I've a blood pressure and cholesterol check on Friday.

Right off to the gym now and chicken for tea.

What you could buy at Newark Autojumble today

Spent the morning at the 'Normous Newark Autojumble. It is not always 'Normous but it was today, the queue to get in was about four times longer than it usually is. Any way here are some examples of what could be bought. Two Lambrettas, a lovely Francis Barnett, a sidecar and a mangle just like my mother used to use on a Monday. I just bought three light bulbs and some paint. I am sure everything I am searching for was there, if only I could have found it.

I've come to the conclusion there are two sorts of bikers go to these things. One lot are older earnest blokes who probably worked as skilled engineers before they retired, doubtless smoked a pipe at some time in the past and spend their time trying to keep an unreliable pre 70's Brit bike on the road (probably at great expense). They are often there with their friend of many years.

The others are younger and do unpleasant things to, and with, foreign machines. These guys may be accompanied by women and children who may well also be bikers.

One group dines on the fast ........er......food available from the many vans and the other has sandwiches the wife made, kept fresh till dinnertime in tinfoil. I'll let you decide which is which. No stereotyping here then!

Oh and by the way dinnertime for us working classes is about 1.00pm

Puch M50 Grand Prix Moped

The latest two wheel purchase, a Puch "Sports" moped. It is a 1977 model and apparently spent some of its life in Lincolnshire. If you recognise it please let me know.

I felt the fairing was not really "me" so I have removed it and put it on Ebay. Obviously no-one else thinks it is "them" either as there are no bids on it.

Honda Express - Unwanted gift

Trip down to Southend for the last two days. I have left Susan there for a week so she can interfere with and attempt to reorganise our daughters life. This agenda is hidden under the guise of helping with painting and other DIY. We have never yet managed to organise Amy's life yet so I doubt we will be any more successful now.

Any way, a year ago I gave them a yellow Honda Express which I had rendered roadworthy. Despite dreams of zipping down Southend front leaving behind a thin blue haze of exhaust it has languished under a sheet in their back yard with only an All Terrain Bike and a mountain of dog ends dropped by the neighbours for company. So I have brought the unwanted gift back to Newark and it is now on Ebay. Might make £75, we'll see.

Spots and Rhubarb

Bought a new camera this week, a Fuji S6500. Out snapping in the garden as can be seen from the pictures. As can be seen I have not yet got the hang of the autofocus on macro mode.

The red thing is rhubarb, not the spot on my nose which I will refer to later. I suspect it has appeared a bit early due to the clement weather and I am hoping that the bucket I have over it will give protection on cold nights.

Had an interview for a post as a self employed social research interviewer on Tuesday. Extremely anxious about it and was amazed to be successful. Low pay but it will get me out of the house and provide beer money into retirement. Speaking of beer Rodney "Mester" Shaw told me yesterday when I saw him in his HQ (otherwise known as Morrisons) that it is soon to go up to £3 a pint so if I want to see him in the pub I'd better hurry up. Rodney is a local character of indeterminate age, probably of traveller origin and I should have mentioned him before.

Puch still seize free though there is no doubt that power is down, doubtless due to bore and piston damage. Plan is to replace barrel and piston after I have run it for a few miles to ensure there is no underlying problem which caused the seize which I have not fixed.

Have developed a large teenage spot on my already beer reddened nose. It is a bit much. I had acne as a teenager and the only consolation of old age was that I thought it would be spot free. It was not that I went without vitamin C as a child. The rhubarb pictured came from my family home. We had plantations of it and a large bowl of the stewed plant was always on the table when in season. If it wasn't rhubarb it was apples or gooseberries. I prefer the smooth rather than the hairy ones don't you (gooseberries that is!)?

Rare happening - snow in Newark

Opened the curtains this morning to find the most incredibly fine snow, or was it frost falling? In fact it was not all tumbling downwards. So fine that at times it drifted sideways and was even at times wafted back up.

Looks beautiful in the garden but it will not last as the sun is already upon it.

For some reason it rarely seems to snow in Newark. This has been the case since long before global warming made it less of a regular occurrence than it used to be years ago in other parts of England. I have always thought, with no evidence whatsoever, that it is caused in some way by us being in the Trent river valley.

Business career stalls

The front door bell went about 10.30 this morning sending cats flying in every direction. It was Paul from Horsforth who had won the Ebay auction for Honda C90 I had posted for sale.

I had been agonising that he had bid too much for the bike and that when he saw it we might have an unseemly disagreement about the description I had given on Ebay. So as soon as he came through the door I said " I don't want £200 for the bike".

He looked concerned doubtless thinking I was going to ask for more.

"It's too much" I said, "just give me 180, buy a battery with the twenty".

He relaxed "If that's OK with you".

My guilt resolved and with Paul doubtless thinking he had a simpleton on his hands we went through into the garage.

"There it is", I said and waited with trepidation.

"It's great, better than I thought it would be from the pictures and just what I want".

"Your er, satisfied with it?"

"Fantastic".

His friend who he had brought with him agreed.

Sod me I'd just given away twenty quid unnecessarily. And I gave him the Haynes Workshop manual for nothing. Two cups of tea as well milk and sugar in both. It happens every time, my late flowering business career is in tatters.

Must re-read "Perfect people skills, all you need to get it right first time".

The cat sat on the.............

..............er laptop.

How times have changed, they used to be content with a coal fire and a mat

Another 8 miles on the Puch - and a response to a post

Beautiful sunny cold day and another eight miles on the Puch with no catastrophe. Sold 1976 Honda for £200 on Ebay and feel really guilty as it is too much. I don't think the buyer has researched or knows anything about the C90 market. Anyway he is coming to collect it tomorrow and I have resolved to give him a discount - if he turns up!

Very exciting day as I have recieved not one but two responses to a blog post, most unusual.

Dupuytren's contracture - Three years after the operation

Dupuytren's contracture causes one or more fingers to bend into the palm. As you can see from the two pictures I had one hand operated on three years ago but the other still has the condition.

I first got indications of the problem in my left hand in my early twenties. It started as a lump on my palm and although I discussed it with my GP in my late twenties never had anything done about it at the time.

My right hand began to develop the condition in my forties and progressed more rapidly than the other hand had done, two fingers becoming bent at more than a right angle into the palm. In the end the inconvenience (hardly being able to pick up a pint of beer) overcame my exceedingly high level of anxiety and I was referred to a surgeon. He told me that the operation should be able to be done under a local anaesthetic (arm deadened by a block) so I decided to go ahead. In the event a general anaesthetic was required. When I came round in the basement of the Queens Medical Centre surrounded by many other half awake individuals in flowered nighties I was amazed to find the op had taken two and a half hours!

As I had allowed the condition to progress so far it had been necessary to remove skin from my upper arm to repair my palm and finger. I now have some hair growing on the front of my fingers of my right hand. Mad or what.

The surgeon did an excellent job but I have to say that I was not prepared for the considerable and fairly excruciating pain that I experienced in the post operative period. This was I understand due to the fact that the many nerves present in the fingers are damaged in the course of the operation and need to repair over a period of time. Numbness of the finger ends was also present for a time but this resolved.

Three years on I am clear that the operation was a success. I have more mobility in the right hand although I am unable to clench it as tightly closed as I could. I now have one hand that won't fully close and one that won't fully open.

Why have I not had the other one done?

• I have concerns about subjecting myself to a two and a half hour anaesthetic for a non life threatening condition - if I had known it was going to take so long I might not have had the right hand done
  
• It was very very painful
  
• The condition can return though fortunately mine has as yet shown no evidence of returning

I suppose the lesson that I have learned from my experience is that if you begin to develop the condition get it resolved whilst it is in it's early stage of development and requiring less drastic surgical intervention.