Engine Punk

We received an exemplary service from The Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth and hope you will, too Is this the Harbour Bookshop in Dartmouth the nicest bookshop in the west? My mother and aunt recently celebrated their joint 80th birthday on a visit to this fine town and wanted to revisit this bookshop because it had once been owned by none other than Christopher Robin Milne. They had spent some years of their childhoods living in Ashdown Forest and we were all brought up on Winnie-ther-Pooh so it was encouraging to see the shop was apparently thriving in these hard times. A birthday shopping spree was inevitable and when my mum enquired if they had the recent biography of the Queen Mum the staff took the time to check the shelves and then opened up the boxes of the latest deliveries to find one. We mentioned our intention to visit Agatha Christie's house and the lady behind the desk (who looked about 21 but assured us she daughters of that age) suggested we left our books behin...

Ideal holiday reading? Both The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb enjoyed a small burst of popularity over the summer and I recently received these photos from Mr Graham Poyntz who chose The Wormton Lamb as his holiday read. Here it is on a balcony overlooking the Amalfi coast. Having been to Amalfi myself, I know what competition there is for one's attention from the scenery so I'm very pleased that Graham managed to drag his eyes away from the view to look at what I've written. Now that the evenings are drawing in, I feel more inclined to write again, although before I do that I have to do an awful lot of planning. And I know that I haven't publicised my existing books as much as I would like. Regular readers of the old Anarchadia blog will knmow what an uphill struggle this is, especially if you do the obvious things. It seems everyone is doing those and it's easy to get lost in the noise. So I'm thinking about the less obvious ways to do this, ...

Just before anyone says anything, there's a Ferris wheel behind the screen of this Velocette Vogue There was a good variety of machinery in the motorcycle ring at the Great Dorset Steam Fair this year and among some very interesting bikes was this Velocette Vogue. I'd never seen one before and afterwards had the chance to look it over outside the marquee as the owner made some adjustments to it. I really have to hand it to the Goodman family, the people behind Velocette. If I had to choose just one bike as an example of the archetypal British single it would be the Velocette Thruxton but there is a subtle irony here because this archetypal British motorbike has a name that sounds French and owed its existence to the the Goodman family who were comparatively recent German immigrants and had changed their name from Gutemann. Which only goes to show that national stereotypes are dangerous things. The Goodmans they'd done a good job on their 350 and 500cc singles but ...

A number of times over the last couple of trialling seasons have seen me turning up to spectate at a section somewhere only to be accosted by an acquaintance with words to the effect of, "You should have been here earlier, Bob! There was hopped-up, mental Imp that..." And they would go on to describe how it became airborne on the first bump and didn't land until the pilot throttled back just beyond the section ends boards. Or that it had proceeded up the hill on the rear pair of wheels only with the headlamps pointing to the sky. A quick scam through the programme would prove that there was indeed a big engined Imp in the trial. However, this very special Imp proved surprisingly elusive. It wasn't until we were signing off at the end of the Land's End Trial this year that I saw this legendary vehicle to a first-time. The crew were also signing of so didn't have much time to talk to them but the driver, Tristan White, gave me the keys to the car and sai...

Occasionally, I get enthusiastic about a steam locomotive of some sort. Internal combustion Vintage Things are more my sort of thing as they are easier to take home with you and lightness enhances their performance but there is something fine about a steam engine. Steam engines, though, need weight to supply traction. As they are usually made of iron this not often a problem. A friend of mine is Professor of Ferro-Equinology at the University of Andover and I accompanied him to the Great Dorset Steam Fair this year. Unfortunately, he is not quite as "locomotive" as he used to be due to a gammy leg so had to install himself in a cider tent for health reasons but he has first hand experience of operating steam engines. Some steam engines have appeared as Vintage Things before now but that is because they represent 200 years (and counting) of Cornish motoring. I think it's time Engine Punk becomes a little Steam Engine Punk in its outlook occasionally so every on...

Seriously though, take it from me - a childhood spent making Airfix kits makes repairing old cars much easier. I saw this display at the Great Dorset Steam Fair yesterday. For those of you who don't already know, this is a vast gathering of Vintage things for steam punks and engine punks alike. There was a special gathering of Morris Minor LCVs - that's Light Commercial Vehicles. Morris Minors are probably the ultimate light car - a term that was clearly understood between the wars - and the vans and pick up derivatives are probably the ultimate light commercial vehicles. As Vintage Things they're dead certs and it's only a matter of time before I feature them in more depth upon Engine Punk. But I really like the display. If it wasn't for the people in the background, this Minor LCV would look like some highly detailed kit There's the sprue in the foreground and behind it is the partly built full size kit of a Morris Minor. It's just had its wi...

Although the weather was much kinder to us this year, I missed most of the Calstock Bike Show for 2009. But I was running late for the right reasons - I'd been in my garage-cum-studio making a Vintage Thing come back to life. More of that some other time. Anyway, when I pitched up in Calstock the party was in full swing - it was just that most of the bikes had gone home. It was starting to get dark,too. So I had a look around and it struck me how many trikes there were. I am ambivalent about motorcycle-derived trikes. They have all the disadvantages of cars and bikes with few of the advantages. I firmly believe that dynamically the single wheel should be at the back and the centre of gravity as low as possible. These convictions don't stop me liking these oddities, though. Take this example, frinstance. It's a yellow shaft drive XS Yamaha with an axle across its behind but it's one of those vehicular contrivances that reveal more the more you look. I fell into conversat...