NEWSLETTER
No.228 - Oct 2009
Dear
Member,
It’s
a few months
since I last put one of these epistles together and must admit to have
been concentrating on keeping the website up to date. However, that is
unsuitable for those of you that do not have Internet access, so
apologies. If you
do have Internet access and have not had any emails from me then I
haven’t got
your email address – do let me have it please, so that I can keep you
up to
date on what’s happening with the website. I promise to keep your
address safe
and only use it when I have something to pass on about the section or
the
website.
Picking
up from my last newsletter and I can tell you that the gearbox on my
Tiger110
has been sorted. I have a few spare gearboxes so just swapped the whole
gear
cluster over and into the bikes box – job done.
Since
the July newsletter we’ve had the Chairman’s run and from what I can
remember
it went off ok with no-one getting lost. Netley
Marsh took place on the second weekend of Sept and a few of our members
went.
One, who shall remain anonymous to save embarrassment, decided to go
early and
arrived on site at 7am. The early bird catches the worm, as the saying
goes –
anyway, the gates didn’t open till 8am so our member decided to settle
down in
his van in the car park and have forty winks. There were only a couple
of other
vehicles in the car park at the time and when our member awoke he found
the car
park packed with cars and vans and that the time was now 10am – two
hours after
the gates had first opened. So much for the planning to be first. The
upside
was that there was no queue at the gate to get in as everyone was
already in.
The
Wednesday evening run on the 16th was to the
Three Horse Shoes at
Moulton. We had a good turnout – not sure how many but there must have
been
over 25 bikes. It was a cold evening but we were welcomed by the pub.
So, that’s
it now – all six mid-week evening runs are finished. Were they
successful? That’s
the question, the committee think so and are planning to put them into
our
calendar for 2010. If you have any comments, we need to hear them
please, it’s
important that we get feedback about the idea.
The
weekend of the 19th/20th
saw the Saundersfoot run take
place as well as the Isle of Wight Scurry. I’m not sure if any of our
members
went to Saundersfoot as they turned down Glyn J and Barry C for an
entry by saying
that Barry’s bike did not comply with the VMCC 25 year rule – in fact,
it did.
A motorcycle is deemed to have its first birthday on the 31st
December
of the year in which it was made. Barry’s bike being of 1984
manufacture was 25
years old this year under the VMCC rules. I don’t know if the lads did
eventually
go but Terry H, myself, and our respective spouses headed for theIsle
of Wight. It is a different
event and gives three
days of riding, whilst the Saundersfoot run is basically a section road
trial
like our Vale of Glamorgan. I must say that we had a great time on the
Isle of Wight – I took the Indian
and Terry his Ariel sloper.
The Indian
really did perform well and the motor seems to be bedding in quite
nicely. The
bike was steaming up hills in top gear, even with its new 18 tooth
gearbox
sprocket – and I can tell you that the Isle
of Wight
sure does have some hills. The weather was perfect and I felt that
Terry and I
had achieved a good suntan – but it was probably from climbing the St
Catherine’s
lighthouse and standing in front of the lamp as it beamed out to sea.
We did have
an enjoyable time though and will, no doubt, go next year again. By
being on the Isle-de-blanc (get it?) we missed the slide show on the
Monday night
and I heard that Bruce did us proud. I think that there were a few
slides of
his racing Morgan which has now gone to a new home.
On
the last weekend in September we held the Vale of Glamorgan Road Trial,
with a
dismal entry from our section members. The excuses for not supporting
the event
get better each year and several new ones were heard this time. What I
can say
is that the event will change for next year due to the top-heavy
administration
that’s needed to put on an event such as this. I need to start the
planning by
getting a route, 2 copies, traced from the OS maps, in to the RAC at
least 2 months
before the day. I
have to send another traced route to the Route Liaison Officer for
Glamorgan
and wait for his comments and suggested changes. There is a fee to be
paid to the
RAC for the permit and it is £2 for every bike that starts – how can I
determine that, two months
before the event? I ask you. Then there is the ACU permit. That has to
be
countersigned by James at HQ, then the East
South
Wales Centre Secretary before going to the ACU with a fee of £35 for
their
permit. The ACU will not issue a permit unless an ACU licensed Clerk of
the Course
is present – so that meant that I had to sit an exam to obtain that
qualification. A VMCC permit also has to be acquired, but that’s the
easy one. After
all that we could
run the event. Afterwards,
I had to send a list of entrants names and addresses to the RAC. A set
of
results to the ACU along with £1.50 for each rider as a temporary day
ACU
licence for each, plus another £1.50 each for ACU insurance – I have a
feeling
that there was also a compulsory donation to the ACU benevolent fund
also.
Basically, it cost £150 just to get permission to hold an event for 20
bikes. I
know what you’re thinking – so don’t ask!! Oh, and the ACU also wanted
a
Stewards report. That’s why the event is going to change next year.
Apart from
a lot less bureaucracy, I shall look forward to a whole new set of poor
excuses
as to why people won’t ride the event. To those that have supported it
for 45 years
– many, many thanks, you keep my spirits up.
October
saw the VMCC 100 mile Cyclemotor run take place on the 11th.
Nine of
our members went and all completed the 100 miler – just think about
that – 100 miles
on a cyclemotor/Autocycle/moped – but it was fun and I got my finishers
badge
for the first time.
Here’s
a little something from our Bruce to cheer you up:-
There
once was a motorcycle made in South Wales that is not in Erwin
Tragatsch’s book ‘The
Worlds Motorcycles’. The bike in question is the Grant Bridgestone 175.
In the front garden of a house in
Barry were the dismantled remains of a 1968 Bridgestone 175cc Hurricane
Street
Scrambler. This was in 1976 and I’d tried to buy it on several
occasions but the
owner always refused to sell, saying that he intended to rebuild it one
day. Rain
ravaged the chromium and had also entered the split motor, whilst the
wind had
long since shredded the flimsy plastic sheet that pretended to protect
the bike.
It’s said that persistence pays off
and so it proved. I eventually bought it for £15, including manuals and
documents. The owner had said that a friend had tried to repair the
engine when
‘it had suddenly stopped turning’. Perhaps seized up? The parts had
proved to
be too expensive and so it was all put under the sheet for the day when
some
money could be spared for it. That day never
arrived.
Looking at the bits on my workbench
I could see that the two pistons were missing and the big ends were
quite a
sloppy fit. So, a recon crankshaft assembly, a pair of pistons with
pins and
rings and a gasket set with seals was all that was needed. These parts
were
duly priced and then I could see why the job had not been done. It was
a very
expensive little motor, the parts being far dearer than the equivalent
British
motorcycle items. But the cycle parts were not too bad – yes, the
chrome panels
on the tank were finished but the wheel rims were ok as were the wide
trail
bike handlebars.
What could I do with the parts that I
had? Under my workbench with the spiders lurked
at least three BSA Bantam 175cc motors you know those classic little
two-strokes from Small Heath. Did I have enough bits in those three to
make one
good one? I did indeed
and so I put one together. With a bit of de-ruster and black enamel
here and there,
I smartened up the Bridgestone cycle parts. I had to take a rotary
emery flapper
wheel to the tank
chrome. What a shame, but the chrome was too far gone. I sprayed the
tank
Halfords Tory blue and added a BSA Bantam sticker to each side, the
sticker
with the chicken on it.
Luckily,
the rear sprocket was on the
Bantam side and after the engine was fitted in the frame with home-made
plates,
only slight realignment of the back sprocket was needed. It all went
together easily
and with some wiring alterations and a Bantam exhaust added, it passed
its MOT
test first time with the Cert proudly declaring ‘Grant Bridgestone’.
The greater interest for me was the making
of the bike and it was immediately offered for sale and sold within one
week of
the test day. I never
saw it again.
The twin high level exhausts with
their heat shields had been stored indoors
and were in good order. These along with the dismantled engine were
sold to a
Hurricane owner as spare parts.
It was, you might say, a bit of
lucrative business, but for me the pleasure was in creating my first
‘special’.
So, if you old bike hunters ever come across a Bantam, the like of
which you
have never
seen before, you’ve probably discovered the unique ‘Grant-Bridgestone’.
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