Finished at last my 46 page illustrated booklet

Siegfried rear light wiring properly routed - now for some paint

The worlds tiniest engine

Just take a look at this masterpiece

http://www.wimp.com/tiniestengine/

Siegfried back brake

This cleaned up nicely and is all OK. Just need to copper grease the pivots and springs. The drive for the shaft transmission is all good so I'll use some of Ethel super grease around the dogs before the refit. Also the tyre is going to be fitted the right way round on the wheel. The small jobs on a refurb like this are endless but then Siegfried is indoors now until Spring so plenty of time.

Have ordered a new 80mm speedo in km from India that looks the part. Trouble is it has BMW logo so will have to dismantled first so I can paint that out.

Siegfried's back end

Definitely needs some paint. Although the cable to the rear light is recent it is too short. It sagged and was held in place by zip ties. Silly because inside the mudguard are clips and tunnels to route it correctly. However, brittle old terminals are best left alone so I'll cut and lengthen it to fit properly.

Siegfried prostate check

Back wheel out to have a look at what needs doing in there

Vintage top box for Siegfried

And the rusty rack came with this classic glass fibre box, locks work all OK. Looking better with all the diesel and grease cleaned off - not bad for £8 the pair! 

Rack for Siegfried

Got this for £8 on e bay, cleaning up OK with stainless wool

Welcome home Simson family

Siegfried in the cellar for winter. Now to finish off all those jobs I've been looking forward to.

Compression test

That looks about right, should be around 105 psi 

Hitler finds out that Michael Dunlop will not be riding for BMW at the TT 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os6mUa3FdOM

Clocks gone back - great

The clocks went back an hour this weekend so now dark earlier. Great! The man cave is ready and Ethel refurb already under way.

So much for 2014 then

So that's about it for this year then. The 2 Germans will be getting the cellar whilst the 2 Japs slum it in the garage.

Ethel needs a new headlight bulb plus a cosmetic refurb. She's waited years for this and it's her turn at last.

Siegfried needs the cycle parts looking at and some paintwork inside the rear mudguard. Very keen to get on with this but if I don't work on Ethel now I never will start.

The Streetfighter needs the new chain to go on. As in previous winters chains have rusted in the garage I'll give her the winter off and fit the chain then.

The Purple ZX6R sits sad, lonely and unloved in its corner. Dunno what to do with it.

Rushden Cavalcade + other local events

Spurned by France I looked locally and was surprised to find 3 events in 2015 within 10 miles from home. Great! So I have sent my entry for The Rushden Cavalcade for the 3rd May 15 and will enter the others when the regs come out.

I reckon these + the Manx GP will do it for 2015.

Rallye des vieux Clous

We say Pah to these French rally organisers and fart in their general direction. I was all set to take part in this 2 day trundle around St Omer when I was informed that only machines produced before 1957 are eligible. Siegfried the Simson is 1958 so we are out. Only the French could come up with a 57 year age exclusion rule. 25 years is good enough for the VMCC with a couple of exceptions so that is what I had expected.

Siegfried happy at last?

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.

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.

Croix en Ternois - photo album

http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=OG8PJNEP

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.

A good look at a Moto Martin frame

Great Triumph at Croix en Ternois with fart proof seat

Loved this Africa Twin based flat tracker

Ridden knee down everywhere at Croix en Ternois all weekend

Chunky bikes at Croix en Ternois

Mead and Tomkinson BSA for sale

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.

Les Francais

Here Bruno, Vincent, family and dogs pose after kindly fixing Ethel leaking fuel pipe. Merci! 

Brits at play

Sussex Matchless club members on tour in France

More French autojumble

Now that's a proper autojumble

Love this and it's for sale

That would make Croix en Ternois a handy place to fall off then

Ducati paddock monkey bike

Croix en Ternois - lunch

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.

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.

Ah those lovely empty French roads

Ethel all set for Croix en Ternois

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.

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.

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.

Peel harbour from the best crab sandwich bar in the world

Ali Foster with her 10th place medal

Also heard that Ali won the award for fastest lady Newcomer. 

Between the hedges

All week someone has popped in and out of the hedge after Westwood to show pitboard signals to various riders. After racing today, Wed Jr race day, we bumped into each other. He is a friendly Irishman who has been coming to the Isle of Man for 38 years! He had a good day today with wins and places. Talk turned to past disasters. In particular Wayne Hamilton who crashed fatally on entering the 13th milestone a couple of years back on lap 3 of the Junior having won the Newcomers. Eye witness conclusions are that he became disorientated. This corroborates another account I heard that he did not shut off for the corner. Today's report was that he heard 2 bikes approach, his and Hamiltons. Then he heard his bike sounding normal with downshifts but Hamiltons engine note screamed up and down and he knew straightaway that it was not right. Upon viewing the scene and talking to others it appears that Hamilton realised his mistake, sat up and braked but all too late. Skid marks from tyres were narrow denoting upright braking. The art of the bend is to miss the 1st apex and make the 2nd which never happened.

Also this years Karl Harris TT disaster. Harris had a poor practice at 109 mph. This started him in the 90s amongst slower opposition. He had made up 20 places at 119 mph when he collided with a rider, who was possibly touring. The other rider was lucky to survive as he landed neck down on barbed wire fencing.

As my man said - this is a great sport but a cruel one.

Ali Foster with her Mum, Dad and stray Westmoreland doggie someone just found

Spent a lovely couple of hours this morning in the company of Ali Foster and her family. Here we are all watching The Raunds Ukelele Orchestra as we all play ! Also here is a very friendly doggie found wandering the pits which Mum is about to take out to see if she can find the owner. A great little story is that the bike was Ali's Mum's bike which she gave to Ali when she stopped riding. She is delighted to see it being raced and the whole family are so proud of what Ali has achieved. We all had a group hug and wished Ali a safe, steady ride and a finishers medal. She would be thrilled with that. What a lovely family, great people.

Ali Foster's Kawasaki ER6 Supertwin carrying Laura's name

Ali Foster

Ali Foster and her Mum

It was her Mum's road bike! 

With Ali Foster at Manx GP 14

No racing today due to heavy rain so visited nominated Newcomer rider Ali Foster.

Dining out in style with Ethel - Peel Manx GP

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.

Ethel fuel pipe fixed

And so, at the cost of 2 Pounds for 2 Jubilee clips Ethel is fixed. Taking no prisoners I used, well away from the fuel outlets, gasket sealant on the spigots. Ran her up and all OK. Now setting off for 1415 ferry.