The Siegfried follies

Work on Siegfried the Simson has been stalled for weeks due to cylinder head parts compatibility. The lesson learned is to measure everything. The mistake I made was in ordering 9mm valve guides to match the 9mm valves that came out. Trouble is that the correct diameter valves are 8mm which we discovered when the new valves arrived. In exasperation Stu Rogers is making valve guides from scratch. Another thing is that the pattern carburettor will create problems in lining up the fuel lines. Reading magazines like Classic Bike and Classic Racer shows that alternatives were out there, perhaps I should have gone for an Amal but too late now. On balance the demands of the refurb have not been too onerous, but with the snags that have cropped up I would now be very cautious about taking on anything more demanding and would certainly in future pick up a matching donor bike if one were available.

Boxing Day ride

A lovely dry, still afternoon so out on the Streetfighter for my big local lap, 65 miles. Loadsa twisty stuff but roads slimy plus mud from tractors made it a steady run. Streetfighter runs great and is very nice to ride.

Good luck Stu, we are all depending on you .........

Lengthy phone call to AKF determined that they do have 8mm valve guides but in 14.07mm oversize. The guides Stu has fitted are 14.10 oversize. Rang Stu who said forget it I'll make them myself. Great. I can't take any more expensive to and fro of parts from Germany so delighted at this.

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Kawasaki galore

I had a track day booked for Sunday 15th Dec 13 but No Limits rang to say it was off due to low numbers- but here's a rain check for 2014. Great. The thing is that I had rushed out to MOT and tax the F1 in case I could not make the Bongohitch towing contraption work. In the event my recently purchased Renault Scenic, bought to replace the van which has a blown engine, also blew it's engine. The tow bar is on the Scenic. The idea of the track day was to take the unfitted fairing lowers along in the car. This is because the F1, like the Streetfighter, would not take the full quantity of radiator coolant when refilling. You seem to need to ride and refill until it will. On the F1 the radiator cap is inaccessible with the fairing lowers fitted. Hence the plan. So in the end I've ridden it a couple of times anyway with minimal coolant top ups needed so I'll put the lowers on and park it up for winter.

Wise after the event

A few months ago another Simson 425S, a Hungarian barn find in very poor condition + bent forks, came up for sale complete in Cambridge. It sold for £350 on e bay. I was advised to buy it for spares but didn't. With cylinder head rebuild costs now becoming serious maybe I should have. Next time....

Siegfried still headless

The cylinder head saga continues. Up in Wisbech Stu Rogers has shortened the new inlet valve guide and fitted both new 9mm internal diameter sintered bronze guides. He has also machined the new hairpin spring ends to give a little float to help prevent breakage. The head had tulip shaped valves in both inlet and exhaust with 9mm stem diameter. The exhaust should be a normal shape. A new pair of 100mm long valves with 36mm heads duly arrived from AKF in Germany and were forwarded to Stu. This made the phone ring. The new valve stems are 8mm. So now the quest is to see if they can be swapped for 9mm stem items. I have a sinking feeling the answer will be no. This is because the T model, Siegfried is an S, did have 9mm stems but only 34mm heads. We want to avoid having to replace the valve guides for 8mm even if I can find them.

Croix en Ternois 2014

Maybe take Siegfried over and have a trundle round

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It's a funny old game innit

Having entrusted Siegfried's cylinder head work to Stu Rogers who has extensive experience of Norton open head hairspring motors it was astonishing to find myself standing next to one of these exact bikes whilst debating the Siegfried work. Upshot is that inlet valve guides are unobtainable although exhaust ones are. Stu has measured up the old guides and found them to be standard length, 45 mm and outside diameter, 14mm. The central bore is 9 mm which matches the valve stem diameters. However this should be 8mm for this sport model. Also the inlet guide should be shorter than the exhaust but these are the same length. After much discussion we agreed to say damn the torpedoes and go for 2 exhaust guides and see how that goes. Stu is concerned that we are repeating a previous blunder but lacking length measurement of the inlet we are stumped. At least we know it worked before even with a broken inlet valve. So new valves and 0,3mm oversize guides are on order.

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Norton hairspring valves

Here is the Norton version of Siegfried's head.

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Shiny painted toolbox + keys sorted out

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New headlight reflector fitted to Siegfried

The old reflector was rusty so it had to go. Here is the new one fitted. One of those jobs that look simple but which took a lot of time due to making old rubber seal and oddball retaining clip fit. Beam a bit yellowy, just waiting for new charger to arrive to plug into new on board connection.

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A tale of 2 tool rolls

Siegfried came with the black roll - velcro in 1958 ? Plus oddball contents. In keeping with the period is the proper type of roll complete with original, but now purely ornamental, Simson feeler gauge set‎. It'll be fun filling it with relevant tools / spares.

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Manx GP 2013

All set for 2013. Heysham overnight ferry out plus evening return plus homestay all booked. Following the disappointment of the Past Masters parade on the most interesting bikes screaming past in a bunch at racing speed I can't see the point of staying on until the Wednesday for that so will return on Monday evening.

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Siegfried electrics tidied up

Painted the inside of the battery box then added a trickle charger connector so that when Siegfried is parked up I can open the side box up and plug straight in. All due to being shown a neat crimp that feeds 2 stripped wires into 1 connector. Great + electrics work ok, so far so good.

Also boxes of new shiny parts arrived today from Germany. Complete new exhaust system with all connectors and silencer. Wow looks great. Mmmm....silencer bracket not in same place as old one but, methinks the hefty bracket to which the old silencer was attached with a non standard clip may turn out to be a handily placed sidecar bracket‎. We shall see.

Also today the new headlight reflector arrived, relieved to see it has the requisite slot to attach the bulb unit.

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In for a penny.....

As tends to happen with bike refurbs today was decision day. Having gone so far with new carb, new full exhaust and a host of other small but costly parts it was decision time on what to do about the worn exhaust valve. A rummage online led me to Stu Rogers in Wisbech. After an hilarious phone conversation rambling into all sorts of things the decision was made. The whole head was couriered to him today to work his magic. It is a relief as I was loath to end up butchering such rare and hard to replace parts. He has decades of classic bike experience plus mountains of parts and full machining facilities so best let him do the job. I can now finish off loads of small but significant stuff so that when the head returns it will be fun to bolt on all the shiny new goodies and finish the job.

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Siegfried's piston before and after

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Bent exhaust pushrod

Now I understand why the bike came with alloy rods and a note to say they could be turned to size. The pushrods do not match. Inlet is a hefty steel lump exhaust is alloy but bent!

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More tell tale signs

‎The rocker box cover above the exhaust valve has plenty of oil on it, to the bottom of the image, but above the inlet it is clear. Close examination shows 4 sets of tiny holes under the valves. My idea is that these are oilways to the valvegear. Looks to me that oil is going past the exhaust valve, some burning off to produce the sooty spark plug and some blowing back up into the rocker box. More turning over of the motor produced more oily sludge on the exhaust valve stem so it looks like the head has to come off for new valves and guides.

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Rich running - the guilty party at last

With a complete new exhaust system on order I found a C spanner and took the exhaust pipe off from the cylinder head. Peering inside the port with a torch I could immediately see oil running down the exhaust valve stem. Taking the rocker cover off revealed about 2mm oil swimming around the base of the hairpin valve springs. With the spark plug out and turning the motor over with the kick start produced more oil on the stem. Talk about trust your instincts. My first thought on the rich running issue was worn valves / guides and it looks like it is. A strange twist is that the seller included a pair of engineering grade rods and a note that these could be machined into new push rods. I wondered why ? The thought now crosses my mind that the only place that oil can enter the rocker box is via the push rod tunnel - are the rods the wrong diameter or worn thus letting too much oil through? Either way the head is going to have to come off now.

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Siegfried's speedo

Speedo could not work as the drive connector was not attached and had rusted into the rubber grommet in the head lamp hole. A quick blast with freeze spray and it moved into the clock first time. Locking nut now loctited and connecter zip tie secured. The clock may well be dead but at least I'll find out this way.

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Siegfried new carb installation complete at last

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Siegfried airbox intake grill tidied up

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Siegfried's new carb

The holes in the carb manifold did not line up with the studs in the head. One of these had been replaced, was too long and did not have the thread properly finished to accept a nut. As I hate nuts and bolts I extracted both studs, reamed out the manifold holes with a 10mm drill and offered up the carb complete with correct gaskets and lovely stainless Allen bolts.

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Siegfried new carb

Taking no prisoners in quest to solve rich running so replacing whole carb with a new one + correct gaskets which were missing

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Siegfried crank case breather pipe

Now, according to the manual, there should be a crankcase breather pipe at the front of the crankcase. This is to vent any excess oil in the crankcase caused by the piston's downstroke. Siegfried had a hole with no pipe. Bearing in mind the rich running it could be that any such oil was blown into the engine during riding. Who knows. Anyway on the basis of excluding any possible causes as I find them tonight made this breather pipe.

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Siegfried high tech air filter

Took this apart and cleaned it up prior to paint and new fine mesh instead of these cheese graters.

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Assen trip

We are the Christians - bring on the lions...............

Assen trip

So that will be the Circuit van Drenthe then

Repko looks at home on the streetfighter

Assen trip - Velo Solex

Remeber these ? France used to be full of them. Amazingly Repko has one and I had a go. Great fun !

Assen trip

On another of those 90 second ferry crossings were these lovely old Harleys. My favourite, of course, was the unrestored 1942 police bike complete with original siren . The trike was stunning but fully restored.

Assen trip

Very nice accomodation at Schoonloo

Assen trip

Breakfast with Repko on race day

Assen trip - DAF vintage truck

Assen trip

And then, in the woods in the middle of nowhere, the Streetfighter emerged amongst lovely old DAF trucks

So how did the Streetfighter do in Holland

Great. You get used to 80mph quite quickly on the autobahn. Did about 50 mpg I reckon. Only needed 200 ml of oil when I got back but chain is very slack!

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Siegfried settles in to his winter quarters

So that's it for Siegfried on the road for a while. Now he is in the warm and dry and I am looking forward to working on him over the winter in comfort.

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Siegfieds old carb

So the old carb is off to be replaced by whole new one - taking no prisoners with this. Tank is drained and airing in garage before being cleaned inside then coated with Slosh - yes that really is the brand!

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More carb muck

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Siggys carb

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Siegfried carburettor horrors

Back from Assen and straight on to Siegfried. It's a wonder he ran at all. Just look at all the muck in the carb.

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Dutch joy ride

Repko led us on a wonderful ride all along the dikes past windmills and pretty Dutch houses and villages. Boy, are the Dutch busy people. Everybody was out riding anything you could think of. If they couldn't think of anything they were walking it anyway. And then all of a sudden we took 90 second ferry rides to cross rivers. Holland as I've never seen it before.

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Down in the woods something stirred

Riding along on our scenic ride through Holland we stopped for another coffee. And there was the wonderful site of the Dutch Vintage DAF truck club meet with loads of beautiful old trucks on show,

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Assen comments

Wandered along the pit walk gawping like anybody else. Could not help but notice how downcast and dispirited Ryuchi Kyonari looked. We only stayed for race one and he finished downfield. Often wondered what's up with him. Also struck by how very young the Moto 3 riders were. Later on, on the boat home one of them was squabbling with his dad wanting 1 Euro for some chocolate whilst another group of 3, clutching their phones, busied themselves with the toys in the ships shop. Was disappointed to be shooed away by a minder whilst talking to Jenny Tinmouth about a sponsorship idea. No wonder they have no money.

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Ethel says NO!

‎Loaded up Ethel for Assen trip, tried out all the switches to check all ok but aaaargh! Headlight dip / main beam switch not working. You get either parking light or full beam via headlamp flasher but nothing else. So Streetfighter to Holland it is.

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If you don't know the rules don't compete

I asked Steve Wheatman, owner of The Classic Suzuki Racing team what was the whingeing over rules all about.‎ It turns out that original top capacity was 750cc. Overbores have gradually seen capacities creep up. It reached a point where motors were overstressed, unreliable and expensive to maintain. Thus it was requested that 1100cc motors be allowed in. In Dunlop's bikes case it was possible to squeak in under the age barrier an early GSXR 1100 motor to howls of dismay from all those that had used Bandit lumps. By the way this bike has 150 bhp, standard motor has 130 bhp, and weighs 140 kilos.

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Oops wrong picture

‎Try this for loose oil union on Dunlop bike

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Insights from back in the day

Fascinating insights tonight from someone who was there. It was not so much that Mike Hailwood was a mechanical klutz but more that Honda would not respond to any changes he suggested. Thus Suzuki were stumped when they asked him what he wanted to be done to the bike and he said - nothing - as Hailwood presumed they would have the same attitude as Honda.

Another one. It turned out that Sheene overplayed his hand at the end of his time with Suzuki. He rejected a £200k contract offer and thought Suzuki were bluffing when they walked out. It also transpired that Akai and other sponsors of his subsequent Yamaha ride thought he would be on works bikes. When it turned out he was on customer bikes that deal rapidly went sour. Another one. Kevin Schwantz turned up at Suzuki for the Transatlantic Donington races at the track asking for a bike to race. No one knew who he was. Under duress from the track management Suzuki bought a road bike from a local dealer, did what they could to it in the 18 hours they had - then sent Schwantz out to race it. The rest is history.

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Another bike Guy Martin didn't win a TT on

And over there, at the back, is Martin's Tyco Suzuki.

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Kevin Schwantz world championship winning bike

Just another night at VJMC. Here's the Schwantz bike as recently paraded by Connor Cumins at the Manx GP 2013.

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Guilty party

Here's what caused the monster oil leak on Dunlop's bike at Manx GP 2013. This oil union came undone.

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Onboard Michael Dunlop's 2013 Manx GP winning XR93 Suzuki replica

Another amazing night at VJMC. Here I am photo courtesy of owner Steve Wheatman.

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Manx GP 2013 Michael Dunlop

I've watched‎ Michael Dunlop over recent years at the Manx. I first saw him go through at Ballagarey in 2010. He was a wild man bullying the bike round. Then a year later at Douglas Rd Corner he was not quite so rough. In 2012 at the same spot he was the only rider to use the kerb as a berm on exit, I went and looked at the rubber when racing was over.  This year he was the only rider drifting the bike through Westwood, I could see the front wheel pointing away from the bend. On one lap he still had not got the bike fully upright as he changed up for the small crest at Erinville a few hundred metres further on and had the back wheel snap out on him. No change of engine note, still full throttle and a big shimmy then the bike settled down for the approach to Douglas Rd Corner and on through Kirk Michael. Wow.

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Manx GP 2013 top stars grenadine classic bikes

Before the event I read comments that the influx of top TT names into the classic races would lead to a spate of grenaded motors. I suppose that those commentators can feel vindicated by the large number of machine failures experienced by those riders. However, on the basis that most if not all of their machines were replicas of the originals using materials greatly improved from the originals and developed to produce power that those materials could stand I think that the argument that superbike riders have no mechanical compassion is flawed as their bikes were built to stand the pace. How come the break downs happened then ? Well having previously been stunned by the speed of Ryan Farquhar on the Paton through Westwood it was a shock to see the top bunch of seeded riders all attack the corner in flat out mode in contrast to the fast but steady approach of many other riders - no disrespect intended. My point is that these riders are all used to maintaining flat out pace everywhere - it is what they do for a living - and it is no wonder that classic replicas bred for short circuit dashes are as prone to failure when held flat out for minutes at a time as anything else. In other words these riders are faster than the bikes they were on so no wonder they went BANG.

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Another natter at Jurby Manx GP 2013e

Thankfully someone had noticed all the usual burger and meat food vendors and was offering veggy and healthy alternatives. I stood in line and could not help but laugh at the somewhat graphic conversation amongst a group of people next in line to me. When I turned to see who they were they were being entertained by Chris McGahan who has raced forever and would be racing in the Classic classes and riding my favourite sounding bike the Miles Trident. The upshot of the hilarity was that he was due to sidecar passenger for Colin Seeley in a parade but was very aware of how anxious Seeley could get about rider punctuality. Apparently this was well known back in the day by Seeley's riders , particularly it was mentioned by Dave Croxford, thus the riders took great delight in deliberately showing up at the last minute - which was exactly what McGahan was doing to Seeley at that moment !

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Conor Cummins - that TT Veranda crash

Conor Cummins was much in evidence at the Manx GP 2013 both in the paddock and at Jurby. I happened to bump into him there and asked him what happened to cause his monster crash at the Veranda. I said from the Close to the Edge film footage that the smoke from the rear tyre made it look like the rear wheel span up, then came round on him. He told me that the data for that moment at the Veranda was the same as the previous lap for the bike and that he was comfortable with how the bike was going. Then came the only thing he could put the cause down to. Remember that he is a Manxman with good local knowledge. He is aware that as the road turns at that point on the mountain it faces the sea. On some days this can make it a place where sudden strong wind up droughts rush up the mountainside. Weather conditions on the day of the crash were conducive to this. A rider arriving at high speed at full lean would have no warning of this and he feels that this is what happened to him with the result that the up drought got under the bike sufficiently in that split second to break adhesion. The smoke from the back tyre was the result of the tyre not breaking away but coming back down again, grabbing the road and flicking him off. I said that would have been the end of bikes for me to which he replied that these things happen and he was more scared of dropping the Kevin Schwantz RGV 2stroke four he would be parading at Jurby than anything else at the moment !

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Here is Siegfried the Simson having an adventure with his previous owner

http://www.realclassic.co.uk/simson425sport.html

How amazing to stumble across this article about my bike ! Best bit is finding out just what was replaced in the clutch. Riding the Simson takes a little getting used to. As the owners manual says it is built to rev but it is not natural to treat an old bike like that. However you have to take off with loads of revs and then it pulls once you are under way. I did wonder if the clutch is still slipping so I tried 2 things. First I cruelly let the engine slog up a steep hill in top gear - result bike almost ground to a halt but no sign of lots of revs with no go. So that seems ok. Next on a flat road I gave it maximum revs and let the clutch out quickly - wow - he bunny hopped up the road with the front wheel skipping off the Tarmac. Conclusion - clutch ok, just use lots of revs. Also tonight realised I had been trying to adjust the tick over using the wrong screw. Reckon that the only other one which adjusts the height to which the needle drops down to is the right one so will put the Leerlauf back 1 3/4 turns to where it was and then raise the slide stop to speed up tick over. Before that I need to check plug colour after weakening the mixture by raising it from 4th to the correct 3rd notch. Here's hoping for a nice digestive biscuit colour.
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Manx GP 2013 - VMCC regularity run - 21st again !

How about that ! Ethel came in 21st again - just like last time in 2011. Here are the results http://www.manxtimingsolutions.com/DynamicResults/SplitsType8.aspx?eventId=VMCC13

So we did 3 laps of the original St Johns course, Tynwald Green, Ballacraine, Glen Helen, then left at Douglas Road Corner down the lovely coast road to Peel then back to Tynwald on the A1 Douglas Road.

We did laps of 23.49 minutes, 34.85 minutes and 18.21 minutes ( wow ! ) to end up averaging 25.52 mph against 24.00 mph target with a deviation of 0.94 mph to finsih 21st out of 77 starters.

I put it all down to going into Kirk Michael on the 2nd lap and enjoying a coffee and a snooze on the bench there...................

German relatives

Aha says Ethel the Beemer, I'm from Berlin and Siegfried the Simson is from Suhl so we are going to get on well.

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