NEWSLETTER
No.227 - July 2009
Dear
Member,
The last newsletter
I produced in early June
and time has just flown by since then – where does it go?
Monday
15th June saw a good turn out for the Bring a
bike night with Ken
Hughes newly acquired Sunbeam S7 scooping the John Wells trophy. The
bike did
look nice and it certainly had quite a bit of competition, as well over
30
machines turned up, including a very decrepit Power Pak
that Bruce reckons he’s going to restore. But, seriously, the weather
held out
ok and it was a pleasant evening.
The
following weekend was the Banbury run. Not many of our section members
bother
to go to this marvellous event, which is a shame as it’s quite some
spectacle.
Terry H was riding one of his Beardmores, Terry P was campaigning the
ex-Glyn
Jones 1927 BSA and Jean and I were out on the 1925 Indian.
Terry P was burning the midnight oil during the week before the event
sorting
out his BSA – but when the day dawned, all was ready and from what I
heard, the
BSA performed faultlessly. Terry H had some problems on the run with
his Beardmore.
Not far from the start we came across him stopped by the road side with
next to
no drive from the clutch. Seems that the clutch centre spring had
broken and
all tension was gone from the clutch pressure plate. Ever the
improviser – well,
you have to be on times – Terry packed the clutch with a pile of yellow
dusters
and rode the remaining part of the route without trying to use the
clutch at
all. Terry’s comment was that the dusters were well shredded by the
time he
finished and that they just don’t seem to have the quality that they
used to have
years ago. After the run a quick root around the autojumble and a
suitable
replacement spring
was found which has since been fitted without to much bother.
As
to Jean and I on the Indian
– I had entered
at a 20 mph average, heaven knows why? I must have had a mental block
at the time
of filling in the entry form and really should have selected 24 mph. We
were
riding the B route and it was quite painful to have to ride so slow on
the bike.
I was looking forward to climbing Sunrising hill and thought that the
bike may
well just make it in top gear, but common sense prevailed and we romped
up in
second with no problems apart from some prat in a car trying to pass us
on one
of the hairpin bends. Back at the finish I parked the bike up and we
set off to
find Terry and Dilys as they were there with their camper. After
scrounging a
cuppa, Jean and I paid lip service to the autojumble – however, I did
manage to
extract a nice triple twist horn out of Ron Farthing for the ’08
Triumph.
Back
in the paddock, the first thing that I noticed with the Indian
was that
there was no oil on the floor under it – wow – oil leaks have been just
about the
last of the things that I needed to sort out. So, on with the thinking
cap – it
pays, sometimes. I guessed that the reason that the bike didn’t chuck
out any
oil was that it had just run at tick over for nearly the entire route.
Must say
that I had always thought that the bike was a bit low geared and that
the motor
had to be revved quite a lot to get any speed up. Now – was it on
sidecar
gearing? That’s the question that struck me as I’d never
checked it at all.
Back
home and I got my 1925 Handbook out and found that the gearing is
changed by
swapping the gearbox sprocket. Solo sprocket has 20 teeth, sidecar 18
teeth and
heavy sidecar, 17 teeth. Right, now to check what I have. Must say that
I had
found that I didn’t need bottom gear and that the bike took off quite
nicely in
second. The gearbox sprocket is not easily seen on the Scout, as it’s
well
hidden by the chainguard. I managed, with the help of a mirror, to get
a bit of
chalk in and mark one of the teeth. I wound the back wheel round and
counted
the teeth. One, two, three – twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Oops, there’s
the chalk
mark, that must be wrong. Anyway, several attempts later it was obvious
that I
had a 14 tooth sprocket – I ask you!! The Dutch strike again!! I really
must
remember never,
ever, to buy anything from one of them again.
The
above photo shows the 14 tooth sprocket and the new 18 tooth one.
Finding an 18
tooth sprocket was easy from my friendly UK
supplier who had recommended
that I fitted an 18 tooth rather than a 20, as it would make the bike
more ‘usable’
in this country. His comment was that a 20 tooth sprocket would be fine
in the USA
where their roads just went on and on in a straight line and a bike
with long
legs was what was needed. I took his advice and in no time the new
sprocket was
fitted. I reckon that Burt Monro’s speed record could soon be toast!!
Wednesday
the 24th June saw over 30 odd bikes meet at the
Griffin Inn, Gilfach
Goch. What a super evening it was – and we even had a few non-members
turn up
with their machines.
Sunday
the 28th and Jean and I rode our ’59 Triumph
outfit to West Wales to ride in the Black Mountain
road trial. The weather was
excellent and we had a smashing day – winning the three-wheeler class.
The
route went from north of Llandeilo, up past Llyn Briane and then along
the Drovers
road to Llanwrtyd wells for lunch before meandering up over the Black
Mountain
and on to the finish. A great day, just a shame that we were the only
representatives from our section.
Moving
into July and the 11th/12th
was the weekend of the 1000
bikes event at Mallory – did anyone go? I haven’t heard. It’s not my
sort of
event, I must say, but I have to go next year. The same weekend we had
the ‘follow
the Velo’ run. No problems, except that there wasn’t a Velo to follow.
Both of
Rob’s Velos were in hospital but he managed to sort his Honda out in
time to
use that – are we going to call the run ‘follow the Honda’ next year?
Anyway, the
day went off ok, so I was told, and an interesting run was completed.
The
BBQ on Monday the 13th
was promising to be a washout, but the garden marquee held most of the
water at
bay and the 50 who turned up managed to eat most of the food. Paul
and Pierre were over from Belgium
for the weekend and it was nice to see them both.
Moving
on, and the 22nd saw the fourth evening run,
this time to the Victoria Inn
in Sigingstone. At
about 6pm it was tipping down in St Fagans, but by the time that Jean
and I got
home the rain had stopped and the sun looked to be shining down over
the Vale. We
set off on the Morini and arrived at the Victoria Inn
about 7.30pm, just as Vince C was
about to leave for home as he was alone and thought that he had the
wrong night.
Around a
dozen, or so bikes eventually made it and we all had a pleasant
evening.
The
following day I had a phone call from Bruce to say that he had decided
that he
wasn’t going to be able to finish his 1940 Triumph 3HW in time to go to
a race
meeting in France
and could he borrow my 50cc Testi. He collected the bike and hasn’t
been seen
since. Not to worry though, as he and Di were staying on the continent
for a
bit of a holiday and are not expected back until mid-august. I wait
with baited breath
for the report
on the Testi’s performance.
The
last weekend in July – and the Dragon Tour was taking place. Most rode
their
bikes to Llandovery and we had around 65 people in all – down a bit on
previous
years and no doubt due to the current economic climate. At least that’s
a good
excuse for the lower numbers. The Saturday route was to Gwbert-on-sea
and
was the
same route that we used in 2002. The weather looked good for the day as
we all set
off from the college. I had a small problem with my Triumph as there
seemed to
be too much clutch lever clearance on the handlebars. A couple of turns
of the adjuster
and all seemed well, however, in no time the excess clearance had
returned and
soon, as I pulled the clutch lever – it just ended up against the
handlebar doing
nothing. Spying a lay-by, I headed for it and then, all of a sudden the
back
wheel locked and the bike left a 30 foot skid mark as it came to a
stop. The
gearbox was sure locked solid and things did look terminal. Luckily, we
weren’t
on a solo, as Jean and I would have been down on the road – sidecars do
have
their advantages. The outfit was soon dragged up onto the trailer and
we all
continued. Ray B was following in his van so he was promoted to chief
recovery.
Just as well that Ray was with us as we had to collect Bill Plenty’s
Triumph just north of
Conwil Elfed with a flat
tyre. The day ended with the weather still staying dry and all four
Velos
running well in a pack – miracles do happen, and it was certainly
unusual for
Triumphs to hog the breakdown list. Sunday morning dawned and the run
was to Erwood
Station.
Only 28 people made it with several actually riding their bikes in
atrocious
weather. Must say that I suspect that most were glad to get home on the
Sunday.
As
to my Triumph? The nut on the opposite end of the gearbox mainshaft had
undone
and the whole mainshaft, gear cluster and all, was pushed through the
gearbox
until second gear decided to mesh at the same time as third gear – hey
presto,
two broken teeth and a locked up gearbox.
Bill P
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