Fast Bikes

PROJECT MILLE: PART 2

There’s a time and place for a fire, and in my garage, on my Mille, wasn’t it. I’m easily distracted at the best of times, but hearing the Aprilia boom into life for the very first time completely consumed me… so much so that I didn’t clock the leak from the fuel tank drowning the rear exhaust manifold. To prove the old adage wrong, there was smoke, but thankfully no fire. Just at the point of robbing the contents from my daughter’s sand pit to smother the inevitable flames, the excitement seemed to edge off quicker than the atmosphere in a room after Boothy’s told a joke. I was buzzing, not just because I’d avoided the great fire of Horncastle (my hometown), but because I’d been in disbelief that this box-of-bits bodge would actually work. Better still, to my primitive ear, the motor didn’t sound too bad. But what did I know? When it comes to 60 v-twin motors from the turn of the last millennia, my knowledge is up there with the best ways to make geraniums flourish. I’ve come into this world of Milles with a hell of a lot to learn, often left scratching my head as to what’s right, wrong or generally considered the done thing with them. I’m not a chancer, especially when it comes to motorbikes, so the time had come to seek out some expertise and to get my RSV a much needed health check. Speak to anyone

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