metalflakemormon

Genius from B3ta.com

2011-10-21T10:13:00.000-07:00


  "Driving my cousin home one Friday
  night we passed a group of boys walking
  into town. One of them drew our attention as he
  was dancing like a tit, with his pals laughing.
  Unbeknownst to him, as he was doing this, his
  wallet fell out his back pocket. 
  My cousin suggested we turn around and see what was

  in it.
  By the time we got there, the boys were nowhere
  to be seen and the area was deserted. After some
  searching we found the wallet which contained
  just 20 pounds, cards and a ticket to a gig that
  night. 
  We decided to find the boys and give it
  back, laughing at how surprised he would be to
  be approached and handed his own wallet. But
  then a much funnier idea came to us. First we
  drove around until we spotted them. Then,
  knowing they were heading in to town through a
  quiet industrial area, we drove about a quarter
  of a mile ahead. 
  We then placed the wallet on the pavement 
  right in their path and hid to watch them approach, 
  say 'Hey! That's someone's wallet over there,' 
  walk up to it, pick it up excitedly, open it looking for riches 
  and inexplicably discover it was theirs. The
  absolute confusion and surprise was hilarious to
  watch. I like to think they still talk about how
  one of their wallets somehow jumped ahead of
  them."

Cassington Bike Night 2011

2011-06-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

You may have heard it was cancelled this year. You heard wrong!

Click here for a short article on how well it went.

The Oomphalapompatronium

2011-06-24T09:14:00.001-07:00

Click here.

The Not The Cassington Bike Night

2011-06-05T06:27:00.000-07:00

This year's Cassington Bike Night has been cancelled due to interference by the local council.

Luckily, this year's 'Not The Cassington Bike Night' is taking place, purely coincidentally,,on the same night in the same place!

That's Cassington, in Oxfordshire on Monday the 27th June at 6pm. Please share this info on your blog / Facebook page etc.

See you there!!

2011-06-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

Saw this on RealClassic's messageboard, posted by a MarkB who kindly gave permission for me to share it.

Mark's story that accompanies the pic is as follows:

"July 1980, the day before the Borg / McEnroe Wimbledon final, and I was 19. I was hitching down the A1 to my flat in London before going away to Jersey for a summer job in an architect's office.

I was standing at the Burghley roundabout near Stamford when this guy pulled up on an old rigid/tele BSA with a hand gear-change. The seat was a flattened Castrol tin and there was no pillion pad or passenger footrests.

Jock (for that was his name) rather gruffly offered me a lift and countered all my objections (no pillion seat, nowhere to put my travelling bag, no crash helmet etc). He proudly produced a bone-dome that was dangling from the saddle, and I ran out of excuses.

I jumped on behind him and balanced on the rear mudguard, with my bag resting over the petrol tank and handlebars, and we set off on a slow and uncomfortable ride to London. After about 15 miles we pulled in to the Little Chef past Peterborough and he suggested I might buy him a fried-egg sandwich, which I did. It must have been some time since he'd eaten.

During mouthfuls he told me that his name was Jock and he was a member of the Road Rats, a sort of itinerant group of riders who met up on the road whenever they came across each other. He basically just rode round the country, making do and accepting the hospitality of others - a bit like a godless mendicant monk, I suppose. He was protected by a thin layer of grease and his clothes shone like graphite from the ingrained oil.

Outside, by the BSA, I was thinking what a shame it was that I didn't dare ask if I could take a photo of him, when he said 'shame you haven't got a camera.' I triumphantly whipped my Pentax out of my bag and he obligingly posed for the photo. (I had no idea that the AA sign was there).

Back on the road, he let me buy him a tank-ful of petrol, pointing out that the bike would run just as well on paraffin, and then we stopped at a pub in Barnet, where I was able to show my gratitude by buying him a pint of lager before finding a bus to Finsbury Park, while he got stuck into chatting up a couple of attractive young ladies.

We both benefited from the journey: he got food and petrol and I got to London with a real feeling of achievement. And a great photograph.

Redhill Rambler

2011-05-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

Seen outside the my g/f's house in Redhill Surrey. Citroen, apparently.

Mark Twain

2011-04-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

No pics of motorcycles, blokes with beards wearing stupid helmets,,or birds with big tits.

http://refspace.com/quotes/Mark_Twain

60s transfers from UK

2010-11-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Scored these "water slide" transfers on ebay.

SPLING!

2010-11-07T04:41:00.000-08:00

The trouble with charging motorcycles to park in the UK is that you need to have a valid sign - one that is legible and hasn't been defaced. Seems like someone has been going around daubing them with a mysterious word - SPLING.
I checked out the meaning at Urban Dictionary.com and found it means to laugh out loud.
It's currently the 5th most popular definition of the word, if you agree that money-grabbing councils should NOT charge bikes to park maybe you could follow the link and click on the 'thumbs up' symbol next to the definition..let's make it official !

V Day: An allied action by the NoTo Mob & London cabbies

2010-11-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

Bit nice this...

2010-11-02T12:34:00.000-07:00

Currently on Ebay

Monday Quiz Night

2010-10-25T09:58:00.001-07:00

Click here to listen to the mystery theme tune!

V is for Vengeance

2010-10-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Life imitates Art ? Pissed off bikers in London who refuse to surrender and are still fighting the introduction of parking charges in the borough of Westminster are mustering forces for a show of strength against the council that introduced them.

Watch the video here

Vintage Bausch and Lomb safety glasses (bifocal)

2010-10-06T12:16:00.000-07:00

Scored these on ebay a week or so ago, they've just arrived today from California USA (where the raisins come from!)

The Old Man & The Frog

2010-09-20T12:25:00.001-07:00

An old man was fishing at the riverbank. Along came a frog who said, "If you kiss me I will turn into a beautiful woman and grant you any sexual favour you desire!" The old man thought about it and put the frog in his coat pocket. "Aren't you going to kiss me?" said the frog. "I'm 75, I'd rather have a talking frog!"

All aboard the Skylark!

2010-09-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

Bought this on ebay earlier in the week, described as 'not working - missing parts'. Turned out the driveshaft in the electric motor that turned the clockwork was sheared in half. Also there were a couple of 'handles' missing from the outside of the case. I removed the original workings and replaced them with a simple, battery powered quartz movement out of a modern kitchen clock. Luckily the original hands fitted with a little persuasion. Just finished turning new handles on my mini-lathe; they're the ones at 5 & 7.

Who makes stickers ?

2010-09-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Quick! Before he changes it!!

2010-09-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

I realise MZs aren't the most well-known of motorcycles but I just had
to message the seller of this petrol tank and tell him that it wasn't a
'ZWE' tank; it was an MZ one with the badges on upside down.

The coolest grasshopper in the world.

2010-09-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

Riding to work this morning I looked in the mirror and saw a grasshopper hanging on to the glass. I thought, "Aaw bless..let's see how long he can hold on for." Got onto the A40; 40mph, 50mph, 60mph..he hung on, peering over the edge of the mirror into the airstream but hanging on. Got to work, 15 miles later and he was still there. Went out at lunchtime and the little fellow had gone. Got home at 5pm, opened the gate and looked round at the front of the 'bike - there he was under the speedo!
Officially the coolest grasshopper in the world.

Kramer knives

2010-09-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

A guy called Bob Kramer was working in kitchens, one day he realised he knew nothing about the knives
he was using and switched professions. First he toured the country sharpening knives for chefs, then as he learned more he started making his own. Then he studied for 6 years to become a Master Bladesmith - one of only 22 people in the world to carry that title.
Now, he's got a 12 month waiting list and one of his 8" chef's knives will set you back $2400. When he's ready to make more he randomly picks names from the long list of eager buyers.

http://kramerknives.com

1949 Advertisements

2010-08-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Ferodo Brakes

As found in E.M.Franks' 'Norton' repair & maintenance book.

'Energol'

North Weald Bikefest 2010

2010-08-15T08:09:00.001-07:00

Old fast men & bikes

Admit it...you love it.

2010-07-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

Door Knocker Friday

2010-07-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

This rather impressive door knocker can be found at the North entrance of Durham cathedral in the North of England. If I remember rightly it's about 2ft across. It's on the 'Sanctuary Gate' where criminals could escape the clutches of the law by entering the cathedral. However, after 37 days they had to leave for the docks and be expatriated to the New World, where, within a month they'd either starve to death, die of dysentery or be eaten by the natives.

Some swaggering dandy in the 18th century decided to use it for target practice and left his mark for all eternity. I'm betting he was a complete wanker and his descenants are now driving Porsches.
Still, not a bad shot.

It has nothing to do with motorcycles. It was made in the 12th century. It is very old. I like it very much.

Just thought I'd post this for people who hadn't seen it before, if nothing else it proves that there's a lot of cool old shit out there.

If you wish for peace..

2010-07-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Not quite sure what's going on here. Either that dude has freakishly large hands or that is one tiny pistol.

Latest ebay purchase

2010-07-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

This post is dedicated to Chris in Belgium who entertains me by writing the***卐peed卐eekers*** blog.

A genuine 1970s enamel biker badge that I managed to score on ebay; 27mm X 17mm.

Please rest assured that I have no affection for the SS, Nazis, fascists, racists or dickheads of any other kind.

Fabuloso!!

2010-07-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

Seen at Amberly Classic bike show.

Shinya Kimura

2010-07-04T03:10:00.000-07:00

I have seen the future..

2010-07-04T02:59:00.000-07:00

Our day in court

2010-06-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last two days at the High Court in London whither, finally, the protest group No To Bike Parking Tax has brought Westminster council to defend its motorcycle parking charging scheme.
Being a High court it's more of a presentation to the judge of our case rather than the legal boxing match one normally associates with courtrooms.
It seems to have gone very well, our barrister played a good game making his 'learned friend' (Westminster council's barrister) look ill-informed and under-prepared. Indeed, there were times our barrister's points caused their barrister to spin around, face the legal head of Westminster council with a look of "..why the Hell didn't you tell me that earlier?!" The judge thinks a verdict will be available in two weeks' time.
Many thaks to the lovely but unattainable Liz for the use of her camera and her cookies, made with love.

Fingers crossed, that the idea of local authorities charging motorcycles to park will be dealt a final fatal blow.

Mercury Guisval 'Wild Cat' chopper

2010-06-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

A French manufacturer of model cars and bikes produced this beauty back in the early 70s. Gotta love those exhausts.

These pic are from ebay, where it sold for a paltry £10. Still, the seller was a complete dick who snottily refused my off-line offer of £10, so I'm kinda happy somebody got it for the same price and the seller lost out to ebay and paypal fees.

Bates Master

2010-06-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

A very skilled guy in England is producing some amazingly accurate copies of period Bates seats. Meticulously made by a master craftsman at the top of his game, and at a price that means you won't have to hide the receipt from your significant other.

Click here for more info

Helmet Porn

2010-06-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

Pure history this, from a time when riding a fast motorcycle actually meant something.

Click here to see more

UPDATE : Sold! For £285 - $420

Lathes are heavy...and top-heavy

2010-05-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

Not me, thank God. Still, very nasty.

Beats Sweeping Afterwards ?

2010-05-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

No home is complete without one.

clicky clicky

Ebay helmet result!

2010-05-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

My latest addition to the 'cool helmet shelf'. A Chas Owen 'Haltstone', fibreglass full-face helmet with leather interior. The stickers on it appear to be the original 'safety stickers'.
The seller described it as a 'small' and seeing as how I wear a 'large' I'd accepted that it wouldn't fit me in a million years and would take up residence on the afore-mentioned shelf. It arrived today and after I'd taken up a good lungful of its heady, vintage stock-room aroma I pulled it on; fully expecting it to get stuck halfway. To my absolute JOY it fits like a glove! Check out the strange twin straps, anyone know what that's about ?

New design - on ebay now!!

2010-05-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here's the link

This is a new design of T-shirt I'm selling via ebay. The design is taken from an Indian Motorcycle delaership rubber ink stamp that was issued by the factory waaaay back in the day.

Superb

2010-04-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Super clean Bell Star on ebay

UPDATE: It sold for £177 ($270) - Yikes!!

Pig Monkey anyone ?

2010-04-25T14:09:00.000-07:00

http://xenophilius.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/piglet-with-monkeys-face/

Poor little fellah...still..I've woken up next to worse.

RainyMood.com

2010-04-24T04:29:00.000-07:00

RainyMood.com

No to Bike Parking Tax

2010-04-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Since August 2008 a growing band of motorcyclists, scooterists and residents have been battling Westminster council's introduction of parking charges for 'bikes in central london.
Despite 6,000 objections, common sense and the fact that the scheme is, according to the council, losing £430,000 a year, they refuse to scrap this abortion of an idea.
The protest group No To Bike Parking Tax has fought them every step of the way and has gathered enough evidence of blatantly illegal procedures to have served the council with papers that will see them in the High Court to defend this odious tax on commuters who solve congestion rather than add to it.
Every Wednesday morning the group holds a Breakfast Club meeting in Trafalgar Square. We circle the roundabout there riding in the manner that cars drive - adequate spacing and no filtering. As the script on my jacket says "Charge us to park like cars & we'll congest like cars". We'll be back every Wednesday until the scheme is scrapped and riders can park freely again like in every other civilised country.

Westminster City Council - All they wanna do is take your money

2010-04-23T04:59:00.000-07:00

Sidecars are GO!!

2010-04-22T13:42:00.001-07:00

2010-04-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

1962 Hummer currently on ebay USA. Handlebars to die for. Bid Now!

Buy Marmite, Eat Marmite.

2010-04-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

We love the Marmite.

Nice lid mate...

2010-04-18T15:42:00.000-07:00

One day, all helmets will look like this.

2010-04-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

New design ! I first saw this on the back of a vintage bowling jacket. I thought it belonged on the front of a T-shirt. T-shirt is off-white. Click here to see it on ebay

2010-04-17T03:41:00.000-07:00

Chunky Funky Diesel Monkey

2010-04-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

An MZ ES/250 Trophy fitted with a Yanmar (?) diesel engine.
I've got a feeling it sounds exactly as it looks; solid, rounded, tactile.

Built by Brian Rutherford

The ex.

2010-04-16T12:44:00.001-07:00

Pannier Patina

2010-04-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

2010-04-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

This is a Stadium Vanguard that I got off ebay. It originally had a peak which went in the bin pretty damn quickly. What's nice about it is the period stickers. The Yellow and blue one is/was the logo for 'National' petrol stations but the other's provenance is unknown.

Kinda cool that the original owner used stickers depicting helmets.

Poor old Indian Chief

2010-04-16T02:29:00.000-07:00

My thanks go to 'magnum45pete' for bringing this to my attention via the excellent Dirty Bobbers site. It's a 1948 Indian Chief. The seller's calling it a barn find but I don't think it was ever lost, it was just taking a breather.
There's a couple of videos too :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtTtl9GJUe0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRZ_xO_aGUw

2010-04-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

My crappy Fuji 310 can sometimes suprise me. I took this at the North Weald classic sprint a couple of years ago; came out really well.

Larger here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24819795@N07/3803347293/sizes/l/

Spot the star

2010-04-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Clue: It's 1964, it's East Germany.

2010-04-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

I've been selling these T-shirts on ebay for a while now. They're 'tributes' to a shirt that appeared on ebay and sold for a lot more than I could afford. Figured I might as well use my blog to help sales. The one pictured is an off-white T-shirt, they're also available in pure white. They come in Medium, Large and XL. They're £11.50 plus P&P (I'll take a tenner!)

Here's the link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=140396524713

2010-04-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

Here's a neat idea. Want a cool brass tail-light for your motosickle but are short on funds ?

Get down to your local ironmonger's plumbing section and get creative.

The ever ready egg

2010-04-14T03:32:00.000-07:00

It's arrived! In great shape too.

2010-04-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Found these pics on Flickr. They were taken in a warehouse in Lockport N.Y. Looks mostly to be 1970s Japanese stuff but there's got to be other stuff in there too.

Ready for the weekend

2010-04-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

I drew this for a friend of a friend who likes to cover all his bases when he goes off on a trip.

Polaire lighter

2010-04-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

Being an ebayaholic I couldn't resist this for a fiver. It's a French 'Polaire' lighter from, I'm guessing, the 1930s. The detail on the motif is amazing, I had a look with a magnifying glass and there's fins on the cylinder, a hand gear-change on the tank and a tool bag on the back. Motif diameter is 17mm. I've since found out that they were a special order made for a motorcycle club in Aux de Provence in France.
It was described on ebay as missing a part; turned out it was shy of the thumbwheel /striking wheel, the screw that held that on, the flint and its spring. The snuffing lever was seized, but on the positive side it had its original wadding inside.

I managed to free up the snuffing lever and replaced the collapsed spring that keeps it perky with one out of a disposable lighter. The arm now clicks up and down positively.

I took the striking wheel out of the same donor disposable lighter and JB Welded that on to the head of a knurl screw that I centred-drilled at 1mm diameter and faced off until it was the right thickness. I managed to find a dome-headed brass M1 screw the right length which screwed in nicely acting as an axle for the combined thumbwheel/striking wheel. Used the flint and its spring out of the disposable and bought a new wick and lighter petrol from a tobacconist. Flicked the wheel...

I am the egg man (coo coo ka-choo)

2010-04-11T06:32:00.000-07:00

I've just scored this bicycle tail light on ebay for under £10. Check out the gorgeous egg shape on this brass beauty that was quite possibly made when everything was black and white.

I'm thinking I'll put it on my project Big Four Norton which started out as a 'fake vintage' bike build but may well end up as a 1930s style bobber.

Talking of bobbers, may I draw your attention to the following which has been shamelessly ripped off of someone else's blog ? 'Shameless' because it needed to be said. I'm getting pretty tired of people calling choppers 'bobbers'.

It's a quote from Sugar Bear:

"A short bike with a Sportster tank and a flat fender is not a "bobber," it's just a short chop. About 99% of the bikes that are called bobbers...well, you get the picture. I've been involved in conversations with youngsters (born after 1960) who claim that what they build are Bobbers. I'm not even sure most of them have ever seen one.

In the '50s, in my area, we were riding chops, bobbers, and garbage wagons (full dressers or baggers, as they are known now) and each had a distinct style! Chops had cut-down tanks (this is before Sportster tanks were made), cut-down fenders, no floorboards, cut-up bars or apes, usually upsweeps with fishtails (normally no mufflers), sidemount taillight, etc. Bobbers had small fatbobs, floorboards, bobbed rear stock fender (usually cut at the rear fender hinge), the stock exhaust (2-into-1), stock bars, basically a cut-down (bobbed) stock bike. Of course we know what a garbage wagon (eh, bagger) looked like. Anyway, you guys are building short chops, not bobbers. This is a cycle that repeats itself time after time. People start building chops, then they build long chops because that's always been considered what a chop should look like. Then after awhile, they begin to realize that the long chops they built are hard to handle and you need gorilla arms to keep it straight and to turn. Of course, these people flunked geometry and physics because they unknowingly set up their bikes wrong. So to be able to get back to riding, they shortened up the bikes but didn't want them to be called chops (because that might seem to infer they don't handle) so they called them bobbers, custom bikes, etc.

I've seen this cycle so many times in my riding history that it's ridiculous. I remember people snickering at me in the early '90s because I was riding long chops and still building them. "That looks cool, but I wouldn't ride one of those." "How does that thing handle in the curves (snicker)." It's very easy to tell who the uninformed are. If you don't know how to set up a long bike so you can ride it with one hand and be comfy, buy a stocker, put some chrome and handlebars on it, and stop ruining the reputation of choppers. If you want a chop and don't know how to set up a long one, do a short one. A long chop is a thing of beauty; there's nothing like it. If set up right, you'll ride it forever and smile away every mile. If in doubt, ask anyone who has ridden a Sugar Bear chop. "

The trouble is, you really don't want to sidle up to a cute girl at the bar and say, "Hey baby, need a ride home? I've got a short chopper."

No wonder people call them Bobbers.

2010-04-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of ideas I had for T-shirts. What with the revival of the Norton name I thought I'd cynically cash in. The idea was that a Triumph owner would buy his Norton-owning friend the top design and then the Nortonista would reciprocate by gifting his mate the lower one.

2010-04-11T05:27:00.000-07:00

Well bugger me! I've got a follower! I started this web log in a rather vain attempt to jump on the bobber blog (blobber?) bandwagon. I soon realised that it's not all beer and skittles and you actually have to put a bit of work in. Hence the paucity of posts.

So, I promise I'll try to post more frequently now.

Let's start with this cracking image. Pretty much self-explanatory and as far as I know unpublished anywhere else. Let's see how long it takes for it to spread around.

Remember wise reader, you saw it here first.

Chopper Seat

2009-10-16T03:27:00.001-07:00

How fine is this ?

CB750 finned engine covers

2009-09-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

Some go faster bits for my Honda CB750 K7 project:

2009-08-26T05:54:00.000-07:00

You don't see many Vincent choppers - shame really.

My Ural

2009-08-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is my Ural, in black as it is now. The other pic shows its green incarnation; the only pic that the seller sent me of it before I decided to buy it. I've had it 3 years now and spent waaaay too much money on it but it is at least reliable.

Latest ebay heartbreak

2009-08-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well at least I didn't have to watch this for 10 days. I stumbled upon it with just a few hours remaining. Seems like it was imported to the UK from California. Check out that seat; Gawd! Seller wanted £2900 for the bike, I could probably have scraped together £2K.
The Horror...the horror.
The good news is that no-one else bought it - so who knows?
God I love that bike....

2009-08-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

My MZ - 1971 ES250/2 Trophy

metalflakemormon

Genius from B3ta.com

Cassington Bike Night 2011

The Oomphalapompatronium

The Not The Cassington Bike Night

Redhill Rambler

Mark Twain

60s transfers from UK

SPLING!

V Day: An allied action by the NoTo Mob & London cabbies

Bit nice this...

Monday Quiz Night

V is for Vengeance

Vintage Bausch and Lomb safety glasses (bifocal)

The Old Man & The Frog

All aboard the Skylark!

Who makes stickers ?

Quick! Before he changes it!!

I realise MZs aren't the most well-known of motorcycles but I just hadto message the seller of this petrol tank and tell him that it wasn't a'ZWE' tank; it was an MZ one with the badges on upside down.

The coolest grasshopper in the world.

Kramer knives

1949 Advertisements

North Weald Bikefest 2010

Admit it...you love it.

Door Knocker Friday

If you wish for peace..

Latest ebay purchase

Fabuloso!!

Shinya Kimura

I have seen the future..

Our day in court

Mercury Guisval 'Wild Cat' chopper

Bates Master

Helmet Porn

Lathes are heavy...and top-heavy

Beats Sweeping Afterwards ?

Ebay helmet result!

New design - on ebay now!!

Superb

Pig Monkey anyone ?

RainyMood.com

No to Bike Parking Tax

Westminster City Council - All they wanna do is take your money

Sidecars are GO!!

Buy Marmite, Eat Marmite.

Nice lid mate...

Chunky Funky Diesel Monkey

The ex.

Pannier Patina

Poor old Indian Chief

Spot the star

The ever ready egg

Ready for the weekend

Polaire lighter

I am the egg man (coo coo ka-choo)

Chopper Seat

CB750 finned engine covers

My Ural

Latest ebay heartbreak

I realise MZs aren't the most well-known of motorcycles but I just had
to message the seller of this petrol tank and tell him that it wasn't a
'ZWE' tank; it was an MZ one with the badges on upside down.