The clay bar worked much better than expected on the Jag.

Just a 45cm bass and a gurnard this time. Caught south east of IoW, over the sand banks.

The Vmax is sounding much better now.

Ok nice, a thumper of an engine.

Yes, I thought they were toast, and had a look online to buy new valves. Glad I had a second attempt with the wire wheel.

Totally agree, cheers

Yamaha Vmax 1200cc, V4

Two heads, two cylinders per head.

Bedded them in, and the white spirit wasn't going anywhere. Job done.

I've taken the head off the Vmax engine, to get my 150psi cylinder up to the others at 190. Restoring the valves on the wire wheel was so satisfying, 5 minutes and it's brand new.

No, only a 5hp. I reckon a 25hp would be too heavy and too much power for a dinghy.

Trying out my boat and refurbished outboard on the Solent today. UK having summer weather in April.

Totally agree, stunning place.

Visiting Italy, here is a small village called Arona looking quaint across the lake. Feeling quite cold here at the moment.

I definitely will be posting any large fish pictures or hopefully several 🙂

I've just bought this little 5hp 2 stroke outboard from marketplace for £150. A lid from ebay for £20, and some colour matched paint and it's looking quite respectable. I plan to float around the Solent this summer and see what fish I can catch.

Ok, well if only the UK would do that. Totally agree it's a magic place and I will definitely be returning.

Road in Switzerland with snow capped mountains in the distance.

On my journey home from beautiful Switzerland, I was absolutely amazed by the immaculate roads. Riding my motorcycle on potholed UK roads feels like dicing with death. It's illegal to communicate any speed camera locations and they are brutal with fines, maybe helping fund the road upkeep.

I noticed that the previous generation Paragon 6 included airbag support, but the latest version doesn’t. It seems like a real lifesaver, so I’ll definitely keep this in mind for my next upgrade. Thanks!

Gearing up for a France trip in June, I've just purchased the latest RST Paragon 7 jacket CE level 2 rated, and I am very impressed with quality, features and protection for the price £250/$300. First test at 8oC/46oF on the motorway was encouraging, I will let you know later how watertight it is.

I don’t have a use for it yet, but I figure like all tools, it opens up future possibilities for creating or fixing things. Right now, I’m more interested in the satisfaction of restoring the lathe to like-new condition.

My winter project, now that it's cold and wet outside: I recently got my hands on two vintage Myford ML4 lathes from the 1930s/40s. The white lathe has a cracked headstock bearing case and a worn bed, but it has good parts I can use to upgrade the green lathe, which is in excellent condition.

Had a great ride with friends to Goodwood this summer. A magical moment occurred when this beautiful Spitfire landed and taxied towards us.

I use to ride for twenty minutes and then stop to put my gloved hands on the engine to warm up, and off I'd go again. Great bike to have started on.

Changing gear in my car wasn't as smooth as it once was. Some manufacturers state transmission oil is good for the life of the car(maybe life of car is maximum warranty period?). I changed my oil and the transmission now feels new again. RIP all the 50k+ mile transmissions with old oil.

I had no problem selecting 2nd gear, and so it's most likely the previous owner had that fixed decades ago. The reason was the discovery of bearing cage parts in the oil pump filter mesh. Luckily those parts dropped into the sump and didn't destroy the engine.

Fixing my Vmax transmission, I had to construct my own hydraulic press so I can remove the c-clips from the middle drive shaft. A very satisfying job.

These would be so much fun if they really existed.