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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Siegfried rocks!

Big thanks to Michael Griffiths at the IOMTTMA dinner in Douglas who told me how to adjust the clutch on the Simson. Arrived home from the Island at 0330 and couldn't wait to give it a try. Bingo - 11 hours later and Siegfried is on the road. He bangs his way along and likes to warm that great big engine casting up before he is really ready to go. There is no power to speak of, 14PS and 140Kg to shove along but the clutch may need a bit of fine tuning to get the best out of the revvy engine. So on the basis of its not broke don't fix it I'll leave as is for now. But what a ride - I had a grin a mile wide. No speedo working but who cares.

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Ethel at Tynwold Green

Here is Ethel at the VMCC reliability run of 3 laps of the old St John's Isle of Man course. Target was 24mph average. Of course we blitzed it for 2 laps then had a coffee and snooze on a bench in Kirk Michael before completing lap 3 and handing in the timing transponder. Dunno the result, will be fun to find out.

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Erinville set to go

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Marshal at Erinville

‎Half a mile up the road back towards the 13th milestone is Erinville. This is a lovely georgean, sorry no G thanks to Yank spellchecker twats, country house owned by De Beers the diamond merchants. It is occupied for some 4 weeks a year and is now for sale at £1.5m. It is also the location for the first flag position leading to Douglas Road Corner. So today I bust my solo marshal cherry as armed with radio I trekked up the road to find the house and the flags tucked behind the wall. Boy was it cold there in the morning as the sun could not get through the panoply of mature trees casting shade. This plus an onshore breeze had me wearing two woolly hats and stamping up and down. And then, in the Manx way, tee shirted Ian appeared out of his door on the sunny side of the road opposite me. Here, he said, have this nice big flask of hot tea ! I love these people. Thankfully the Newcomers, Past Masters parade and Junior races all passed off without incident, other than being called up to black flag 63. I could not see why but later learned that he was stopped for being too slow! That's a new one for me. I don't get it. He had qualified and was having a steady ride round in the lower order and was not dead last. I understand he went berserk at the unfortunate official who broke the news to him when he did stop. Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing myself.

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Heysham Ferry

‎Just bumped into the Captain so asked to see the bridge - he said fine so I got an expert guided tour of all the controls and screens. Great. I wondered why the ship was so empty of passengers. It turns out that this sailing was scheduled to carry a hazardous load which restricts passengers to 42. At the last moment the load was cancelled and it was too late to add passengers. Great, I don't miss all that loadmouthed bullshit, boozing and endless coming and going.

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Westwood vigilant Marshals

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Westwood Manx GP

Change of location today - the fast left swoop at Westwood

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Ewald Kluge's 1938 DKW 350cc split single supercharged 2 stroke

I saw and heard this bike at the TT in 1979. It sticks in my mind as the loudest bike I have ever heard and it will be on track again on Monday - bring it on !

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Ethel settles in to Homestay

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Manx GP 2013

All set to go - back to the bungalow before Douglas Rd Corner - with blackboard duty. A great day, reckon we broke the world record for tea drinking and old blokes rambling on.

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Manx GP 2013

What a start ! I turned up a day late for the Heysham ferry. Well the ticket said Thurs 22nd at 0215 but I read that as Friday morning. Oops. 42 quid to the Steam Racket and we're aboard.

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No Simson for Manx GP

‎After a week of intense activity the Simson is roadworthy. It has a nice new deep exhaust note now that all the guts inside the silencer have been welded in place and the can welded back together. Loads of little jobs have been tidied up, it starts easily and ticks over nicely. All lubricants and spark plug have been renewed, electrics tidied up so all looking good. Away she goes on the flat but clutch still slips on gradient and I have run out of time. I need a day to fiddle with adjustment to the point that I've tried everything then it'll be a winter job to take the clutch apart to see what is going on. Serve me right for buying an hydraulic bike bench so I can work in comfort. Of course Ethel is smirking and saying - told you so - you'll always come back to me.

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Simson modified exhaust

Gotta find out what's rattling about in there

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Clutch conquered

‎Fitted the new longer 160mm inner Bowden cable and after a few adjustments, bingo , we have a clutch that works with a nice smooth action. Could only try it out with the back wheel jacked up and turned by hand but it seemed to engage and free completely. Riding it up the road will soon see if it's ok.

Bargain e bay Bowden kit for £5.45 delivered was the key, great. Guilty original too short cable lurking to the rear‎.

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Simson - slipping clutch No shit Sherlock!

‎Aha! Lever travel at handlebars only goes back halfway. Looking downstairs at this point the clutch actuating lever arm is fouling the rear of the bell housing and cannot go further forwards. Similarly thanks to the short length of the cable inner the arm cannot go further backwards either which, methinks, could cause the clutch to only partially engage. All I need is to get a longer cable and see if the arm gains wider movement. 

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Simson - in for a penny in for a pound

‎Here we go again then. Ordered hydraulic lift and Slosh tank cleaner and tank sealant today. There goes the first 100 odd quid, gulp.

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Simson doors open

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Simson 12v conversion

Aaaargh

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Simson tool roll and plugs

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Simson 1st evening session

Tank drained and removed, float bowl drained, seat off, battery 12v 7Ah out and on charge, rear side panels unlocked to reveal full tool roll, old plugs and spanner on the clutch side and the 12v conversion on the other.

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Myopic tyre fitter

‎Just ran a rag and a closer look over the Simson and noticed nearly new Dunlop K75s, yes really, but the front tyre is the the rear, the rear is in the front and they are both mounted the wrong way round! Oh well was going to have the wheels out to look at the brakes anyway so will get them swapped around. Also a proliferation of nasty jubilee clips have got to go. At first glance looks like only silencer is major replacement plus fiddling with clutch adjustment. Top priority is to get the battery out and on charge before its too late.

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The Simson saga begins

The AWO 425 Sport was delivered this evening. So fuel on, key in, carb tickled plus a few lazy kicks to turn the motor over followed by a couple of good swings and BANG BANG BANG wow what a noise when she fired up. This is one healthy motor and knackered silencer. No chuffety, chuffety, chuff - this one is built to rev and wants to go. Trouble at the moment is that the clutch is not on the same page. OK on the flat but slips on gradient. Strangely the lever only pulls back halfway to the bars. ‎Anyway time to drain fuel from tank by undoing pipe after tap and fuel filter - boy loads of coal particle type bits poured out - so glad I didn't ride off only for that lot to arrive at the carb. Anyway lights work but feeble headlight - need to locate battery and charge it up. Overall condition is good with nothing hacked about but some paint / badge rework has been tackily done. The overall standard of the bike I would describe as crude, you can see the constraints of the DDR in the fittings and poor finish to castings. Anyway I love it. Here she is in the cellar ready for a winters worth of refurbishment.

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More Simson

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Simson AWO 425S 1958

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Enter the Simpson

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Donington Park Cassic Bike Festival 10th August 2013

Today attended the Donington Park Classic Bike Festival with the VJMC on the Streetfighter. First of all Donington Park has cheered itself up. It is still rundown and tatty but those miserable, surly staff who resentfully manned everything from ticket sales to gate guards to programmes and food have been flushed away. Everyone seemed happy to be there and enjoying their jobs. Such a simple thing to change yet it never happened during all those rip off years of big events. Today even the toilets were clean. Well done Donington. We were in the old exhibition hall alongside the track where the Dunlop bridge used to be. This is a large, light and spacious hall which I have never been in before. The hall was stuffed full of over restored bling bikes of every description so I was glad that the Streetfighter stood all on her own in there all day - she is what she is, my bike after all. Anyway the object of the exercise for me was to ride the track which at 13.00 we duly did. Despite specific instructions the Yamaha LC brigade rode like the same dangerous cunts that they always are. Typically undertaking on corner entry then sitting up fishing around for a gear to drive their gutless strokers forwards again. They duly got a bollocking from the powers that be. Classic racing is very well populated these days and races and parades went on all day one after another. A great treat was the low level flyby passes by the Battle of Britain memorial flight of Lancaster bomber accompanied by a Spitfire and Hurricane. The track highlight of the day was the 15 minute special parade. Wow ! No less than 3 Honda six Hailwood replicas on track with 3 MV Agusta triple Agostini replicas at the same time whilst the Guzzi V8, Joey Dunlop's SP2, Phil Read on a Steve Wheatman Suzuki RG Mk1,dunno who on yet more RGs, Aaron Slight's Castrol RC45, De Angelis Moto2 bike, the Gardner Rothmans triple, Mamola's Cagiva, JohnCooper on his works BSA triple, Lee Dickinson on a Yamaha 500 GP four plus loads of others went screaming by for lap after unsilenced lap, bliss. But bike of the day had to be the Capirossi Ducati Desmosedici. That thing is an absolute missile. It's pick up down the straight had to be seen to be believed. And it was louder than the Lancaster bomber.


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No Simson for Manx GP

The seller of the AWO has no time to do the jobs needed so we did a deal and I'll have it as it is and do it myself over the winter. It has a problem with clutch adjustment, runs rich and lumpy and has a rattly exhaust. My amazing friend Wolfgang in Suhl has unearthed and is sending over an original 1959 instruction manual for this model. Priceless ! I already have complete parts manual with part numbers so at least I will know exactly what I am looking for.
It is too late to cancel my VMCC rally entry but I could still go on Ethel, which I will if the weather is bad, but right now the Streetfighter is favourite.
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