YouTuba CD now available on iTunes
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YouTuba make their first CD (updated 29-Jan-10)
This is a fairly shameless post to promote my son Chris’ band “YouTuba” who have just released their first commercial CD.
Chris has been a brass player since he was about 8 years old, when he joined Berkshire Maestros and took up the tenor horn. A tenor horn is half a tuba (ie if you unraveled it, the pipework would be half that of a tuba) and as such, plays an octave higher than a tuba. It is also small enough for an 8 year old with a mouthpiece and required playing pressure more akin to that of an 8 year old.
As Chris was practicing his grade 1 scales, he could hear our next door neighbour playing the Star Wars theme on his tuba. At that point Chris decided that he wanted to be a tuba player!
A few years (and a few grades) later finds him at Trinity College of Music in London studying a B.Mus. (Hons) with a primary study in Tuba (secondary study was voice – he was always a good singer and had voice tuition at the Royal Opera House during his first year)
In 2006, he formed YouTuba as a vehicle to enter the prestigious Philip Jones Brass Ensemble competition and in 2008 were awarded first prize. The first low brass group to do so. Their repertoire was a mixture of classical and chamber music, together with modern jazz and their own compositions and arrangements. They used this rather cool logo (seen it somewhere before?)
Here they are receiving their prize (pictured with Rex Richardson)
With their new-found fame, YouTuba took some timely legal advice and decided to ditch the familiar logo and design their own:
Since then, the guys have played all over the UK, guested with various brass bands, played charity concerts with the Salvation Army and enthused schoolchildren in SE London via South London Music Trust
Here they are playing with Dennis Rollins at the Yorkshire Arts Council / Cultural Olympiad Brazzmatazz presentation:
YouTuba have invested a significant amount of their own time and money in the new venture.
Read more about them here
Listen to excerpts on their Facebook page(s)
Buy CD here
Individual tracks are available to purchase via Facebook/iTunes
Update 29-Jan-10: YouTuba perform Carnival CD in Oxford Street!
Further to the post on here about SE London’s favourite low brass ensemble (Tuba Quartet!), the guys played a lunchtime concert at Oxford Street’s Regent Hall last Friday, which resulted in the following review in The Bandsman magazine. Not a mag that I read frequently I must admit – but nice to be recognised in the press.
There’s a copy of the review on YouTuba’s website here.
Here they are playing “William Tell Overture” in Oxford Street before the gig:
[/Parental duty]
Finally Worked Out How To Add RSS!
Helpful to some (I know that I use it on other blogs), I’ve added an RSS button so that those with nothing better to do can keep up to date.
Who Needs A Fender Extender? (Update 08-Mar-10)
It’s that time of year again. This is the state of the rear of my bike when I got to the office yesterday after 100 miles of pissing rain and English roads. I have to remove my backpack from the topbox which involves getting wet and dirty hands. Not the best way to show up for a meeting whilst trying to maintain the image of year-round bikers as anything but idiots! (What do you mean we are?)
The Triumph rear fender extender is about £8 so I bought one this morning. Interestingly the front fender extender (which is much smaller) is about £20! ???
Fitting
Easy. Three socket head screws and bolts straight on (once you’ve removed the number plate and drilled the holes in the plastic rear mudguard)
Before:
After:
It looks a bit weird – but does a brilliant job of keeping the crap off the topbox.
Update: 8th March 2010
I have been on the lookout for a front extender since I wrote this blog in November 2009. You see them sometimes on eBay where the seller is selling a “Front Fender” but the photo shows the Triumph extender fitted.
As this is a £20 part, I’m happy to bid on these even if I don’t need the whole piece.
I’ve also blogged about motorcycle_recycle (eBay seller) before, as they supplied the 955i engine for my Sprint. Last week, one of these came up on their shop and I got it for the only bid of £7.99
Now I have to remove the four plastic pop rivets, find some replacements and fit to my Sprint.
So What Should I Do With These Wheels? (Updated 12-Apr-10)
Not a rhetorical question; I really don’t know what to do with these wheels!
When I bought my latest Sprint ST (the one that I dropped in a previous post), I was told that the previous owner had the wheel powder coated gold because he didn’t like the standard black colour scheme.
Here they are:
Now don’t get me wrong – it’s a beautiful job, but gold? I don’t think so… more like dirty custard.
Options:
1. Put up with it (cheapest)
2. Swap black wheels from my old ST (wrong tyres)
3. Get them re-coated (off the road)
4. Buy some on eBay, get them coated in a proper gold.
Update 9th March 2010
This has taken a while but “all things come to those who wait – especially on eBay!
The front wheel came up first and I secured it for £30 – bargain!
The rear wheel was £90 but came with a part-worn Bridgestone 021; again a bargain in my view when they are £400-odd new and £200+ from most breakers.
A call to my mate Gary Beresford who has agreed to run them up on his machine to check integrity, bearings and rebalance. He will also fit a part-worn Bridgestone 021 front that I picked up from a mate (swapped for a bedside cabinet!)
Update 7th April 2010
I have fitted a BT020 front tyre as I prefer the older compound to the softer BT021.
Next I have to swap the front disks from my current bike and fit the wheels…
Update 12th April 2010
Here they are fitted:
Job done… Next.
Oops! Dropped my Sprint – Updated 2-Feb-10
October 23rd 2009
Well, had to happen sooner or later…
I reversed my bike out of the garage (as normal) but for some reason (that escapes me, but which I now regret), I flicked the sidestand up. Leaned the bike over onto the (non-existent) sidestand and over she went.
The most embarrassing thing about it is that there was no way that I could pick the bl**dy thing up on my own – I had to draft in a very understanding neighbour and between the two of us, we hauled it back upright.
Now the damage.
The previous owner was a bit of an engineer and made his own crash bungs. Unfortunately, he had fixed them to the fairing rather than to the frame, so all they did was bend the bracket and physically break the fairing.
Also snapped the gear linkage but this was a (relatively) simple fix – a new threaded rod from my local dealer (£8) – I suspect that the fairing damage will be a little more expensive than that!
Update 26-Oct-09
Took off the offending crash bung today and found that the underlying bracket (the one that holds the aux power socket) had just folded up. The bung had neatly punched a hole in the fairing:
Update 12-Nov-09: “How Much???”
Cost of a left hand fairing panel £250+VAT, plus £25 for the decal…
So off to eBay and found this:
Part Number (stamped inside) 2301746, which according to my dealer and a quick Google search, doesn’t exist. I know that Triumph make all the panels and paint them on-site at Hinckley (I watched them during a factory tour) and this one must have escaped the process. It is plain ABS in the original colour. £5.50 + £8.00 postage. That’s more like it. I estimate about £100 to get it smoothed and painted in Tornado Red, plus £25 for the decal.
Update January 21st 2010
Prepped, painted and “decal-ed” (at last):
Not altogether a happy ending as the (financial) damage was worse that I had estimated (and to be fair, worse than my dealer had imagined as well). Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great job and I would have gladly plugged the paintshop on here, but at £150 + VAT (£176.25) it’s not a million miles away from the price of a brand new part from Triumph.
Total cost:
Panel: £13.50
Decal: £26.97
Paint: £176.25
Total: £216.72
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All that’s required now is to cut the hole for the heated grip switch and fit the fairing panel.
Update 29th January 2010
Bought some of these to fit to my Sprint.
On the 955 Sprint, the engine mounting bolts align perfectly with the cut-out in the fairing, so no cutting required and no fancy expensive ironwork behind the fragile plastic bits!
Update 2nd February 2010
Now that I have the new panel, I have to refit the switch for my heated grips. This is the third Sprint ST955 that I’ve fitted with heated grips so thought it was about time that I shared the method…
Firstly, make sure that you are somewhere warm. It was -1ºC in my garage yesterday and there’s nothing quite like cold fingers for screwing up and scratching the nice new (expensive) paintwork!
Here we are in the kitchen…
I have fixed the template (which comes with the kit) to the panel with masking tape. Use lots of this as it is the perfect protection against a wayward drill or rats-tail file!
Small drill and a steady hand…
Remove the template. I hope you made a copy of it because it is strictly a single-use item!
Mask off the cut-out with yet more masking tape and apply rats-tail file (carefully)
Use a small flat file to cut out the shape of the switch.
Clean kitchen.
Polish panel.
Fit to bike.
Job done.
R&G’s are next…
Nirvana @ Brands for the BSB 8th Aug 2009
More action with “Readies Roadies” as we went down to Brands for the BSB – but really to support Phil in his classic rides with a host of 60’s and 70’s road racing stars.
It was a blistering hot and sunny day. Phil was riding the ex-Kenny Roberts OW48 500 square four Yamaha which developed a serious front-end patter on the first outing. Never having worked on a GP bike before, I volunteered immediately (as you do) and found myself with the Snap-On chest and the front end of a valuable GP bike. Many years of spannering on 70’s Hondas helped here as it was basically the same layout, but fantastically engineered with remote (anti-dive?) front forks and twin discs.
Phil blagged a wheel balance from the Dunlop tent next door and we refitted the wheel, struggled a bit with the calipers and spacers but finally got it all back together. Thinking that Phil was due back out on it gives impetus to the torquing of fork bolts and caliper bolts!
At this time I realised that the Superbike race had just finished; I’d missed it completely.
Here’s Phil on the Yamaha.
Some of the people (Wendy = “Mrs” Read)
Wendy and Tommy Robb
Wendy, Ago and Colin Seeley
Steve & Ago
Mick Grant & Wendy
Jim Minding the Shop
Mick Grant KR750
John Cooper 1966 Seely G50
Paul Smart 1972 Suzuki TR750
David Hailwood Honda-4 (which one?)
Ago MV (replica?)
Steve Parrish Seeley
Nirvana Boys at Spa Francorchamps with Phil Read
This last weekend (19th – 21st June 2009), Jim, Eamon and I headed off to Eurotunnel for a weekend with 8-times world champion Phil Read at the Bikers’ Classic meeting at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium.
I had “planned” an “interesting” route from Calais to Spa (just tick the “avoid motorways” box on Google Maps and see where it takes you…) which included the obligatory getting-lost-in-Lille and a few very badly cobbled villages that had the other two wondering a bit. It was hot and sunny (which always helps) and the final run in to Spa through the forest from Marche-en-Famenne (via Bra) to Stavelot was just stunning! Wouldn’t want to try it in the cold/wet/dark though!
We stayed in the “Racing Hotel Spa Francorchamps” which was interesting. Think of a 1970’s Youth Hostel in Wales. Lino floor, steel frame bunk beds and loo/shower down the hall. It was however, only 500m from the entrance to the circuit so meant an easy walk in the morning, no parking charges and no need to carry kit around all day.
The aim of the weekend was to hook up with Phil Read, to watch the classic MVs, Hondas, Guzzis, Laverdas et al going around what must be one of the most beautiful race circuits in Europe. The noise of those open pipes in the pit garages is just stunning (take your earplugs)
On the way out we stopped for lunch at Ath which is just inside Belgium:
Jim in Ath
Eamon in Ath
Steve in Ath (Sprint in background) 🙂
Pics from Spa:
Steve & Phil with the MV Agusta
Jim & Sammy Miller
Phil on the RG500 in a Cloud of 2-Stroke!
Smug Smiley Required: 75th Blood Donation!
I am feeling unbearably smug this afternoon as have just returned from the National Blood Transfusion Service (www.blood.co.uk) session and was warmly congratulated on reaching 75 donations!
I started when I was 18 at Uni; it was all a bit of a dare – nobody dared to say they weren’t up for it. I’ve been going ever since: once every 6 months for years (missed a few 🙁 ) – nowadays of course, they book you in by computer once every 16 weeks!
Anyway – I’ve got my badge and am going to feel good about it all day…
1/2″ Square Drive Hex Plug Socket to fit bikes with deep cylinder heads
I have struggled for the last two years to find a plug spanner that fits my Triumphs properly. When I asked my local dealer technician, he showed me his cut-down Snap-On 1/2″ square drive socket.
Problem (1)
Most (all?) deep plug sockets measure 24mm outside diameter which is too big to fit right down into the Triumph cylinder head. I have been using the plug spanner from my 1972 Honda 500/4 but decided to try and get a “proper” solution as the old spanner is barely long enough.
Problem (2)
I hate bi-hex sockets.
Problem (3)
Snap-On socket retails at over £25!
Solution:
I should know this by now. The best place for this sort of problem is your local “everything from broom-sticks to lightbulbs” hardware store and there just happens to be one in Wokingham (“Wokingham Decor” – they deserve a plug)
The guys in there went through all their catalogues and phoned various wholesalers and manufacturers and found me a Teng socket that fitted the bill. It’s a single-hex. The stock number is M120042-C “1/2 inch Dr 18mm Spark Plug Skt”
Next to the neighbour with the lathe. Basil restores old Matchless AJS motorcycles and is good at this stuff. He cut the socket down to 23mm O/D.
I haven’t tried it yet (do you know what the temperature is in my garage right now?) but will let you know how I get on.
And here’s the manufacturer’s tag:
