I'm Neil (not a very inventive screen name maybe!)
Anyhoo, born and grew up in Northern Ireland near Belfast, now a ripe old 30 years old. My day job is a software engineer working mostly with big databases for big companies. To stop me going completely insane I have a number of interests outside work, one of which is bikes!
My father raced bikes when he was younger and always rode a bike to work. I remember him taking me up the road on the tank of various bikes when I was wee. I kind of liked the idea of a bike though both my parents put me off the idea for fear of my safety.
Then when I was a bit older (about 23) my mate decided bike lessons would be a good idea. I had no idea at the time just how addictive it would be as I am sure many other readers can imagine! Does this make me a born again biker?
So bikes I've had since then include an XF650 Freewind, Suzuki Bandit 600 and 1200 (the pre 2000 proper ones
), a DR350 (which is still in the garage) and an 850 Yamaha TDM. I like the big adventure/trail style machines.Over the years I've owned a fair few Audi TDI's partially as a result of the interest of a friend of mine (who ultimately built a bi-turbo 1.9tdi mk2 Golf monster). I always liked the diesel economy and torque and later the ability to play with stuff like SVO.
Then a few years ago I came across the HDT diesel KLR and it seemed like the perfect bike! But not available! Boooo. Some more research and I ended up on the Yahoo group and eventually this site. Its an excellent project so far that has piqued the interest or confusion of many people I've admitted it to. Along the way I've challenged myself and learnt many things way outside my 'normal' life (whats a lathe do again?) and met a lot of interesting people.
I'm admitedly the kind of person who spends too much time researching although I have a fair idea of what I am trying to build now. Those of you following my progress know already a few problems I've had along the way using a modern car engine. I can't wait to see how the project turns out although seem to have no time these days - you know how it is. I'm amazed by people like Heiko who seem to fabricate a completely custom bike in a matter of hours!
I really must make it to the bike rallys this year...
N