Love that long East German silencer on Siegfried

Siegfried the Simson finished at last

TV mini series Speed with Guy Martin

Fascinating insight into Guy Martin as he undertakes 5 different speed records. What struck me was that he is addicted to speed, going fast that is, and that winning is a by product. This may lie behind why he has not pulled off a TT win to date. Also he was astonished at the fitness demands placed on him by top athletes. He is very fit in comparison to everybody else but not to Olympic athlete standard. Perhaps this is what 5 TT wins in a week Ian Hutchinson meant when he said " He'll never win one until he drops that truck fitter shit " 

Exhaust header on

Passt perfect - fits perfectly - said the German supplier. Oh no it doesn't. When fitting the bottom run bracket the pipe fouls the rear brake plus no clearance left for what looks like a very tight interference fit tail silencer. So it'll have to be cut and drilled to give the correct run.

Fuel lines on

Unconventional and so far untried fuel line layout due to carb inlet higher than tap outlet.

Tappets

Oops! Should have been 0.1mm not 1mm. No wonder it rattled. Lovely n quiet now.

Top end done

But next is the puzzle of how to get fuel to flow uphill as the new carb fuel inlet is higher than the tap outlet. Mmmm. Watch this space for cunning plan.

Refurbed air box cover on

Carb and trumpet

Induction trumpet in airbox

New Carb fitted

Simson head finished

All done. Don't think the tappets had any previous clearance. Set them at correct 1mm ! Boy it sounds cattery but rather too much than too little. You van hear the valves clang shut now.

Siegfried's got his head back on

That's better

Siegfried valve guides and collet

Incorrect length and material valve guides as removed. Inlet should be shorter and exhaust phosphor bronze. This plus the 9mm dia gives the game away that at some point someone has fitted valves and guides from the Touring model which are like this. Look how sooty and burnt the exhaust guide is. Also one of the valve collet was broken. Its amazing that Siegfried ran at all like this. Also the hairpin springs were a firmly located fit whereas they should have some free play to move with heat expansion to avoid - guess what - broken springs.

Siegfried valve springs

Here are the hairspring as removed. There should only be 4 of them not 5. The broken one is the inlet valve spring. No wonder it was running rich. Also heavy wear on top where the valve collet sits.

Siegfried valves and guides

Both inlet and exhaust were incorrectly fitted with these so called tulip valves, notice they are fat around the base of the head. Only inlet should have these, exhaust is conventional. Siegfried is now fitted with a correct set of valves. As the outgoing valves stem dia was 9mm I ordered 9mm internal dia valve guides, notice inlet is shorter than exhaust. When it was decided to replace both valves I ordered the correct valves which turned out to have 8mm stems. In the end it was less hassle for Stu to make 8mm guides from scratch rather than all the returns/reorder scenario with 8mm guides hard to find.

Siegfried cylinder head is back

Stu Rogers has worked his magic on the head. Made and fitted custom phosphor bronze valve guides plus lapped in new correct valves and installed new hairpin springs all correctly machined. Great. Let the games begin.