'Ey Up from Nottingham, UK

[TheMadRatter]

Evening all! Boy am I glad I found this forum! I've been stalking and I love the community here, and just how much people know about the bike. Well impressed!

So, I'm "Lurch", or TheMadRatter, or "Mad", or "Ratter" - whatever really... Do what you need to do to get my attention! I hail from Nottingham, UK (if you didnt guess from the title) and  I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that I own an FJ. As this is the introduction thread, I'll save that for later and give a little more about me and my bikes. I love to build things. Mad things. Things that people say "How is that on the road?!" about. Theyre not to everyone's taste, but I don't want that... Who wants a bike that EVERYONE likes?! (Okay, well maybe a little). The bikes I build are "rats" I suppose. And I guess because I build them, they're "kludge" but that's another tin of worms...

I've owned more than my fair share of bikes (and I intend to own more, so tough!) and I tend to keep my bikes rather than sell them on - much to the missus dismay, and the land-lords. I won't tell you about all of them, but my three faves;


My daily ride is an 03 FZ6S (but they only made them from 2004??) in Blue. Not much changed on her but for the touring screen the addition of a stereo in a tank bag, a Givi rack and single lid box, and some oxford panniers for camping.


My next favorite bike is...was... a 2010 Pioneer Torro 125 (OMG a chinese 125 in his favourites??) It started out life as a standard bike with one of my friends until I bought it from him, and decided to enter it into the MBR Rat Bike Build-off. Which she won. Along with Best in Show (is that right for rat bikes?) and farthest travelled with 628km - never trust a sat-nav. She's currently sat in "project mode" awaiting the fixing of a Velorex tub and 300cc quad bike chain driven engine with reverse)


And my final bike is one that will always have a spot in the garage. It's a Kymco Hipster 125 (another import bike?!) that's done over 80,000km with me and has been through various guises from a military effect through to complete rat, and even down to stealth bike. It did over 50,000km on struts with no problems and has never let me down. The reason I keep it? It was my sisters first bike (I've also got my mums old CB550, but missed out on my stepdads XS650 special so I'm just waiting for the KH750 H2 to come round to mine


And finally (kinda) I have the FJ, or Foxtrot-Juliet as I've named her. She's a 1985 FJ1100, of a sort. I snapped her up at a STUPID price (the kinda price that a person would have to be dumb to turn it down), but she's a non-runner with wiring issues (despite the picture showing her running), so shes a work in progress. But now is neither the time nor place to start digressing into the problems she's got!

I'm open to pretty much anything mechanically minded, like a challenge, and have tried to make myself proficient in most aspects of bike building. I built a single wheel trailer for the FZ6 that mounted from the swing-arm (and will probably do the same with the FJ), Ive restored bikes, and for some reason - whilst I cant stand polishing stuff ON a bike, I'm more than happy to sit at a wheel and polish something for 15 hours in a day - just so it's right I'm also happier using elbow grease than power tools, and measuring three times before cutting I don't however have all of my spanners lined up all neatly or every project lined up on a bench for working on. I'm a messy git and my workshop floor (and half of the garden) is covered in random tools that I couldn't find last week and random parts. Like I said, it's one of the things that can really annoy the missus

If you wanna chat, I'm always open to chat. I don't mind constructive criticism, in fact I thrive on it. My bikes (d)evolve because of people who like to talk tech, and I can't make something better if you've seen something wrong and don't tell me!

I'll apologise now if anyone replies quickly - Sunday roast is ready!

[FJmonkey]

That was a good introduction, I think you will will fit in quite well with this bunch of misfits... Welcome to our digital campfire...

[TheMadRatter]

That was a good introduction, I think you will will fit in quite well with this bunch of misfits... Welcome to our digital campfire...

Thanks! It's not easy making a good first impression on the internet Ill probably spend hours trawling through all the old project posts now looking for inspiration too. I'm not looking at doing too much to her this year other than get her on the road and running good. Next year? That's a different story

[The General]

  Welcome aboard Lurch! Love the underdog Stealth! ....I can so relate to your tool organising.     

[TheMadRatter]

Welcome aboard Lurch! Love the underdog Stealth! ....I can so relate to your tool organising.     

Cheers Yeah it does get annoying not being able to find my tools - thanksfully I have a few "duplicates" in the roll cab, so that helps 

[Burns]

I love Mad Maxers! Welcome.

[TheMadRatter]

I love Mad Maxers! Welcome.

Thanks, I'm a huge MM fan (even down to wanting the 'wing she rides across the desert ) but I had these sort of bikes before I knew what "rat" was lol... It's why my view of "rat" is anything kept on the road for as little as possible with little or no regards to aesthetics - which most of my bikes fall into. I'm well aware that if I cut my collection down, I could have a few nicer bikes, but hey...who cares about quality when you have quantity?!

Sorry for rambling - just had my first ride on the FJ...buzzing much?!

[jo-sommer]

  and welcome!

Cheers, Jo

[NorwayFredrik]

Hello madratter, i like your projects !
that matt black no-fairing FJ looks really fast

[Pat Conlon]

Welcome Maddy

To be honest, part of me cringes when I see a rat bike.
I tell myself that the builder just saved that bike from the scrap pile, so it's all good.

Cheers