Today trundled gently over to Sywell and back on Siegfried. His tappets are super rattly but he pulled along nicely, still loses puff on sudden uphill climbs but now takes throttle on the climb to at least slow down the rate he wants to go backwards. This really was the last venue target of the year so now I think he can hibernate in the cellar, I can get the wheels out and have a look at the brakes and undersides of mudguards. At last I can breath out.
Saturday 27 September 2014
Piston N Props Sywell
Spent a few hours this afternoon at this unatmospheric event. Great to stumble across the original Macintyre/Jack Findlay Matchless on show. Bumped into Steve Wheatman, owner of Team Classic Suzuki, and asked him what was up with Michael Dunlop's XR69 replica at the Manx - no new info, just a misfire they had all week, which was what I heard as it went by Westwood on the upshift. All sorted now.
Thursday 25 September 2014
Monday 22 September 2014
Sorry about items posted twice sorry about items posted twice
No idea why this keeps happening. I send once but they appear several times. Sorry.
Loved this Africa Twin based flat tracker
Ridden knee down everywhere at Croix en Ternois all weekend
Mead and Tomkinson BSA at Croix en Ternois
What a trip for coincidences. Here is the bike that my race school instructor rode to win the 500cc class of the Montjuich Park 24 hours back in the late 60s. Amazing. And it's for sale.
Saturday 20 September 2014
Les Francais
Here Bruno, Vincent, family and dogs pose after kindly fixing Ethel leaking fuel pipe. Merci!
Croix en Ternois
Blagged my way in, got paddock pass. Then Claudet introduced Bruno and family who fixed the leaky fuel pipe on Ethel. All kit and Ethel dumped at Claudet caravan - now lunch.
Dinner in St Pol
At the b + b in Guichon Verlaingt, called Les Ballastieres, met a friendly group of fellow classic bike enthusiasts. We trooped off to L Hotel Lion D'or in St Pol.
Pete, who sat opposite me, turns out to have a brother who is married to a sister of my brothers wife!
Then Ray turns out to have lived the past 42 years in the house opposite Ron Gardener, he of flat slide carburetor inventing fame. We'll, in my youth I delivered groceries to said Ron. At the other end of Rons house lived a Dave West. My brother bought his BSA Rocket Goldie from him. However my interest in Ron and Dave was twofold. Firstly Ron was running Dave on a converted 125 Honda road bike. I saw Dave race at Brands and he looked uncomfortable and slow. I begged them both for a chance to race the bike but it never happened. Also in a shed at Rons were 2 ex works Bultacos of New Zealander Kevin Cass who had gone home. I even asked to race one of those but probably for my own sake was wisely refused. Anyway I knew that Ron was up to something interesting in his shed but he would never say what it was. Years later when his flat slide carburetor came out I that was what it was. It was only tonight after all these years and quite by chance that I found out what he was really up to. It turned out that he was putting a desmodromic head onto a 125 Honda. Whether this was West's bike I do not know.
Also Bob, also at dinner, turns out to do the engine work on my favourite triple at the Manx GP, the BSA 860cc of Chris McGahan.
Friday 19 September 2014
Les Ballastieres
Home for a couple of nights in the Pas de Calais. Usual eventful journey. Had stops to fix fuel/coolant/bladder leaks before reaching The Tunnel. Then set Satnav to avoid motorways. Fantastic cross country route through towns, villages and the forest. At that point the heaviest downpour I have ever ridden in happened. Absolute washout so sheltered in some trees. When it let up off we went again but huge raindrops thumped like bullets when they hit. Never seen anything like it before.
Wednesday 10 September 2014
Lago Maggiore
At Baveno on Lago Maggiore for just 1 day on business. Driving me mad to go past road signs to Varese, MV Agusta and Gallarate, Gilera, but no time to go and look at factories / museums.
Sunday 7 September 2014
Siegfried finished - again....
Umpteenth rebuild test ride again today. This time after sheared cylinder head bolt. Graham from the Raunds Ukelele Orchestra machined me one up and would not take any payment. Wolfgang in Suhl sent new tappet adjustment bolts via Annerose. But here comes the twist. At Donington Park recently a previous owner of the same bike said to set inlet at 0.2 mm and exhaust at 0.25 mm instead of specified 0.10 mm. He also said test it running with the rocker cover off. How glad I am that I took his advice. Duly set clearances as he said then started Siegfried up and let him run for a bit on the stand. All good nothing went BANG or went out of alignment. Now for the Eureka moment. Upon checking tappet clearances they were nil, no clearance at all. Aha. I've always set from cold. So reset at big gaps whilst hot. Net result. Starts, runs and now, for the first time, pulls like a 4 stroke single. Noisy tappets but not as bad as a Vincent.
Tuesday 2 September 2014
Ali Foster Supertwin race
Ali came round Westwood on lap 1 on her usual smooth wide line then lap 2 visibly slower and tight to the inside. Lap 3 and she did not appear. The helicopter went over and got very twitchy. Texted travelling marshal Jim Hunter but he had no news. Post race nothing. That evening attended Newcomers prize giving and was so relieved to find Ali sitting there. The explanation was very honest. The winds around the Island and particularly over the mountain were very strong. Ali felt uncomfortable but when a rider was blown off the mountain in front of her she decided enough was enough and retired at the pits. Well done. A very brave decision and very honest to explain it. Great news is that she said - there's always next year! Great. I'll be there.
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