December Comment 2023

 

December Comment 2023

 

Heading for Christmas, sending out cards, buying stuff that you think people will like and foraging for food that will be still in date when you cook it and the weather! I feel confined to the house to avoid the incessant rain and dampness. The weather suits the mood with no motorcycling on tele other than Youtube. Even Itchy Boots had to take a break with a Himalayan Adventure. Watching the events unfold in Palestine is so depressing. Powerless against Western support that will not stop this murder. I have no faith that the west will do the right thing and put an end to this. How is the west held to ransom by one small country that is hated by its neighbours? It is so depressing.

To help me towards Christmas with “Good Will to all men”, not that we are dealing with many Christians here, I retired to the garage to amend some charging wiring on the LE. Having had to buy a new charger because my Motobat optimizer failed. Replaced with an Oxford version at more than twice the price. I have one already and for a number of years it has done the job. The rational was to have standard connections and be able to use it on any bike in the garage the Buell, Kawasaki, LE and Valiant to keep all the batteries healthy. I have already mentioned the wiring changes in the last Blog now I have a short video showing the connections on the LE.

In November I had a problem with my Furygan jacket zip. You had to zip it up with care or it would break open. I tried the squeezing the zipper trick but it did not cure the problem so it was time to get a new jacket. I haven’t thrown it away as I will get it repaired on my next trip to Assam. In the mean time Black Friday was around for two weeks and an offer by Infinity attracted me to make an on-line purchase. A Segura jacket with a massive discount was something not to pass up. I see that The Missenden Flyer now has a Segura Jacket too. Ordered and arrived it was too small sent it back and the larger size arrived. Now a good fit one of the pop studs on a cuff slipped off. Annoying but there was a spare but I needed a tool to fit it. Making the tool from a ten millimetre bolt a quick knock with a small hammer pressed it back together and happiness restored. I was going to wear it for the London Classic Bike Show at the beginning of December but changed my mind due to the intense cold that weekend. I ended up wearing my bike jacket all day even inside.

 

London Classic Bike Show December 23

 

London Classic Bike Show December 2023

 

Another show successfully completed. This one was a bit special as celebrities Henry Cole, Guy Willison and engineering maestro Alan Millyard were in attendance filming a show and being a major attraction. The organisation of the Wey Valley stand had the usual hiccups. We had a battery failure and an illness reducing our numbers by two to eight for the display. The weather played its part in making it a very cold day. Everyone kept their jackets on in spite of nearly record numbers there were insufficient punters to raise the temperature in the hall. I had a thermos of chai to keep me warm and I devoured two bacon baps to help. This year all our exhibitors arrived in good time and we were ready for the punters.

It turned out to be a busy day for us talking about the bikes on display and what the club is all about. My LE is always a centre of interest and keeps me talking for ages but this time we had Elspeth Beard and Chris Arthey signing books drawing people in. I did think at the time we should rename the club as the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists Book Club. I did manage one walk out into the cold and met Franc the Frog and Phillipa from the, now closed, London Motorcycle Museum. Nice to see old friends are still around post Covid. On the way back I spotted a Cotton with a Starmaker engine.

 I think it was called the Telstar. I did buy some chain lube for the Kawasaki and headed back to relative warmth. After a circuit on the ground floor and the Rumi stand I headed upstairs to see what was there. I was impressed by the Speedway display with race winning bikes of Barry Briggs and Ivan Maugher and many others that were not from my era. 

There was quite a variety of machines from the beginnings of Speedway to the present day and covered most of one side. Impressive. Opposite it was, by comparison the small Greeves stand, but just as interesting was the unusual twin port 350cc single.

 I understand that only about twenty were made making it a very rare beast. It looks fast and would have been competing against the  Japanese twins of the time. In the 250cc class it would have been the Silverstone. Not far away was the MV stand with the OHC 175. So advanced for 1951. Like all the Italian bikes of the time they were cleanly styled and looked fast. 

Trying to compete with styling was the Puch Split single 125cc powered EMC of 1952.

 Parked in the entrance was an old favourite and loved by Henry Cole a Raleigh Chopper and this one was. 

We had a visit by Henry to our stand posing by the Guzzi Californian. Henry and Louise our Social events organiser.

 All in all a very good day for the club and our book people even though we didn’t win any prizes as we did in May but this was a different event. I made it home in good time on the LE with only a little steam on the faster dual carriageways keeping up with the traffic.

November 2023 Comment

 

November 23 Comment.

 

As a child I went to Sunday School to have fun with the other kids but also to be indoctrinated in the scriptures. I was always confused when Palestine or Philistine was mentioned. Were they the same?  Was Philistine another country?  I had to look it up and in my Compact English dictionary: 1 a member of the people in ancient Palestine.2 (usu. philistine) a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture. Also adj. It appears I did not get the wrong end of the stick. There are still Philistines in Palestine.

Getting closer to the London Classic Bike Show Henry Cole will be there and on the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists stand will be a few celebrities due to be with us are Elspeth Beard, the around the world traveller and Chris Arthey survivor of a horrific accident on Highway 35 in America. Both will be there to talk to and sign books. I have read them both and they are good reads. Perhaps we should rename the club Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists Book Club?

Recently I bought a new tyre inflator. I wanted something to carry with me travelling on the bike. Something compact and independent. There is an enormous choice on eBay. I settled for a Pumteck Tyre Inflator. It has a battery, SOS lights, is a power bank and pumps up tyres.

 The only drawback is the connector that you have to screw on to the valve. I can’t do it quick enough to stop the loss of air from the valve. I must admit the clip ones are easier for me. I have now pumped up, not only the motorcycle tyres, but the cycle ones and the cars as well as you do with a new toy. It is slightly larger than my mobile phone but about 125mm by 80mm by 45mm deep. Not quite pocket sized. It feels heavy at about 600 gram. I think it will be a useful travel companion.

The other day a letter dropped on the mat from “Back Heathrow” a community newsletter about

 Heathrow becoming greener  and the use of  more environmentally fuels SAF (Sustainable Aviation Fuels) already in used in fuel to cut carbon emissions there is a plan to do more using cooking oils, food waste and industrial waste. I know of the so called “Poo” buses in Bristol but consider the fragrance around Heathrow. It is bad enough with discharges of aviation fuel polluting the air already but adding other, not so environmentally friendly concoctions, is likely to be worse. The idea of  hydrogen powered aeroplanes is what peaked my interest. At present Heathrow sheds tens of thousands of tons of carbon into our atmosphere, Shedding the same equivalent of water in the same locality is bound to have an impact. I looked it up on the NASA website and the impact of water vapour enhances the warming effect of carbon dioxide. Reducing carbon in the atmosphere is needed but replacing it with water will negate the effect. The changes in local weather could be quite dramatic. Heathrow could become a grey area with little sunshine and regular showers of rain when a jumbo jet takes off. Everyone around London would need to escape to the sunshine. Difficult to dry washing without a tumble dryer. I am not so sure that hydrogen will be as good as they say. The thermal efficiency as a fuel compared to aviation fuel requires it to be compressed in to a liquid also requiring a strong, robust tank to contain it. It is all doable but is all that effort going to be worth it? If hydrogen takes off as a commercial fuel what will become of the rest of the worlds’ economies? It has not been properly thought through. I would not fancy riding around with a tank of hydrogen between my legs!

My Velocette LE Story

 

An LE Story.

 

This article is in respose to a request for more information on the LE after I posted a short on Facebook. This was first posted in the LE magazine in 2006 and with a little editing for today.

 I thought I would dig out the “old project” that was conceived when I was at school and has undergone development ever since. The more or less completed project appeared at the Kempton Park Southern Classic bike show in 1994 and has been exhibited at the show most years since.

I think around 1968 or 69 that I did this drawing, thinking I may be able to get some extra ground clearance by having dry sump lubrication. The idea was to chain drive to an external dual pump from the very front of the crankshaft and an oil tank from a BSA C15 to hold it all. In the end I settled for a much easier option, but that is much later on in the story. I spent hours dreaming and designing and not really getting anywhere.  I had no money only grand designs. I finished school and went to work, earning some money, but having to work for exams there was still no time to build. Marriage and home meant changing priorities and not until around 1978 did I get started on the project. I did take a few photographs at the time and if you care to back to  an OTL’s (LE Club magazine) in 1979 you will find my story of a rebuild of 1954 MK 2  PHT 271, very smart in black livery. What has happened to the years? I am now writing something in 2006! I leave you to work out how long that is and believe it or not, Colin; our editor has been doing that job for just as long! I first met Colin on the Severnsider’s club runs in 1968.

 

In 1980 I moved jobs and relocated to Colchester. The late Jeff Tooze found me, as I had left him with an engine to work on. It did not take long to get the engine sorted but the modifications I wanted done to various bits to get the additional ground clearance required someone who had the expertise and the equipment to do it. I had a choice, either to be very radical and build all specialist parts or, use as many original parts as possible and modify accordingly. I decided in the end to use the basic LE parts and modify so that anyone who wanted to undertake a similar project could do most of it in their own garage with limited use of costly experts.  I went to night school and learned to weld and did an enormous amount myself over the next few years, until the lack of support for the metalwork course halted my progress. I made the lower frame cradle from a broken school chair and a couple of feet of conduit. It fitted together very well but did have its draw backs. The oil pipe from the pressure release valve casting was too close to the frame and I had to modify the piping and use a banjo instead! The thread is tapered and needed to be tightened with care. It had not taken long to sort out the rear suspension or modify the body and get it welded up. But the front forks kept me puzzling and it was not until I ran across someone from Cambridge University through the Harley club that the front fork issues was sorted.  By 1985 the body and every thing else needed to be painted so I did more night school in auto repair and very importantly had access to professional spray painting equipment including a hot air chamber. I had a compressor and a very old Bliss spray gun ( before it became Deville-Bliss) I could get paint and thinners from Brown Brothers and set about creating my own colours with, I suppose what might now be called a pearl finish. I used sliver as a base coat and then over coated with different blues for each finish. The blue was diluted out with clear lacquer so the gloss silver shone through. You could get a similar finish using metallic paint but it does not look quite the same. The blues I used were BMC Rivera Blue and Renault Navy ( all old stuff from my Dad to start with! )  Once everything was painted assembly was quite quick ( in comparison ) and  by 1988 the bike was running but not ready for the road. I had  lights, indicators, lots of little bits and charging to sort out 6 volts or 12. No contest!

More delays as I moved house and job in 1992 and not until 1994 did the bike get MOT’d , the morning before it was due at the Kempton Park bike show! It has been on the road ever since.

 

Let’s finish off the body work. The rear mudguard had 2 inches taken off the top to level it out and the fluted end removed. The front and rear mudguards are finished off with stainless steel bands.  The seat is a home made job and probably looks like it but parts like that were quite expensive in the late 80’s about £50 which is about what they cost now! The rear light housing I manufactured from stainless steel as is all the trim. The headlamp is Bates with a sealed beam unit ( the advantages of going 12 volt)  and the brackets were off the shelf, as are the mirrors and levers (M&P I think). Indicators off a Suzuki. The handlebar brackets were from a Yamaha (with home made spacers) as is the twist grip, ignition switch and switch gear. The gauges are TIM with binnacle. These are the bits you can see. In the tool box is a cigarette lighter, fuse box and solid state indicator relay. The horn sits in the middle of the radiator. A Citroen  2CV HT coil is under the tool box. Full wave rectification  is supplied by one from a Yamaha 250 with no voltage regulator to protect the battery. It’s hidden away near the battery.  Run with a 60watt headlamp from an 80 watt generator and why then do you need to drain any power away from the battery? Its only 5 amp hour!  The bike was completely rewired with extra earths. It needed them, there was so much paint on the body work no current was going to go through that. The horn is fitted in the space between the radiator cooling sections and I recently fitted a couple of computer fans to help keep the temperature down. They do stop over heating when ticking over in traffic for long periods. This was done by just threading through the fins of the radiator with some 3mm studding and just to make sure when you tighten the nuts it does not pull through some little square of aluminium as washers.

There are more bits you can’t see, like the lightened flywheel, which is about  a pound lighter, the camshaft is advanced  one tooth and the ports have been enlarged and polished also the valve guides have been shortened to give an open a port as possible. The heads have been polished, but if you took them off you would never know and just a tip to help seal the head gasket the stud holes have been drilled out to 7mm. This means the heads will not corrode on the studs and will remain easily removable but also if you happen to over tighten the head nuts and pull the metal of the barrel up in the area of the stud, the metal has somewhere to go and a good seal on the head remains. A Del’Orto carburettor had been fitted in the last few years and has made a big difference to the performance.  I have fitted 2CV points and a cheapo condenser. The charging circuit has been modified so that each charging coil has an individual feed to the rectifier to squeeze as much power out as possible. There is a wiring diagram about somewhere for those who want to give it a go.

A few more interesting bits like the heal and toe gear change that had to be fitted inwards instead of outwards because of my positioning of the engine cradle and consequently the exhaust box had a big chunk carved out of it. You make one change and that sets a whole load of thought processes going to get around the problem created by an idea! The heal and toe gear change started as original and I added a suitable toe pad  to a 10mm bar, that was the easy part, making up the loop that went under the frame cradle required a bit of trial and error before getting it right. On the exhaust side I added in a big tail pipe to have a distinctive exhaust note. The rear brake pedal is original LE but modified quite a lot to get in the right position. In the end I decided not to have a centre stand and elected for a side stand only. This curly-wurley thing was all I could get at the time off the shelf. Choosing a side stand only does have its draw backs and I think I should have stuck with a centre stand. Wait for the next special for that one! A folding kick start started life as a standard one and a folding pedal part was welded on.

Back to the fork legs, as I think most people know, much is soldered on the LE and the fork lugs are no exception. Adding 2 inches more length by just moving all the lugs down as far as possible needs a little extra support. The diagram gives the basic idea. I have tried this 2 ways, the first time by welding it all together and doesn’t leave a smooth surface and the second time ( current project ) using silver solder that will have run into all the gaps. It is not difficult to reposition the brake back plate lug and to be similarly silver soldered. The rear suspension is extended by using simple spacers. The handling is as you would expect from an LE, rock stable and very manoeuvrable. In the standard format it is very easy to ground the foot boards. The increased ground clearance and high position foot pegs mean you can really test the cornering ability. I have not found the limit yet!

I have tried a number of things on this special some have worked really well, others are passable, but overall the package does work and has provided me with an interesting motorcycle that always is a talking point.

October Comment 23

 

October 23 Comment

 

I know it is a bit late for the comment now being November but a few things have happened and I feel a bit of a target. First of all my postings from this blog on Facebook have been taken down and I thought it was because there was a mismatch of valid Facebook identifiers. That lead to me setting up a new profile for the blog. I also had to deal with my Facebook page being hacked. Thinking I had got that sorted I am informed that my email page had been hacked giving grief to untold people who received emails purported to be from me. I find my log in has come from Nigeria although someone from California was trying but failing (Microsoft scam). I now do not trust any emails from companies. Individuals have a better chance because they are easily identified. I apologise now for not responding because it has gone to spam. As I am doing the paperwork for the Club Stand at the bike show at Kempton Park on the 2nd December the hacking caused a number of problems for me and the organisers with registering the bike for the show. Never mind electronic communications the old telephone worked well. Talking of telephones BT is going digital in 2025 but if you are like me and had to go digital because my router would no longer function as it used to for the wireless link to my computer I had to upgrade. This system is digital and hackable. I have a genuine friend who has had this new BT phone system hacked and that gave misery to all the people he had numbers for stored on his phone. I have an old phone with no numbers stored on it only a sing along message that seems to put off most callers. You can always phone my land line to listen to it. I now know that it was the hacking of my email account that persuaded Google to take down my postings. They could have told me that. I could get no information other than my posts were offensive to the community with an electronic standard reply. That was about as useful as my touch screen phone when that refused to respond to my finger. You can imagine my frustration with all the safe technology failing at the same time produced a reaction not dissimilar to that we witnessed from John Cleese in the scene from Faulty Towers with the branch beating of the car when it stopped working.

Gita said I should calm down.

After having a brilliant day starting with being in the Shop on Observed Sunday with the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcyclists. So many bikes turned up the car park was full. Great atmosphere. The kitchen in the hall has enough facilities to offer members of the club sausage or bacon sandwiches and tea or coffee to munch before going out on their rides. I usually leave my position in the Shop just before the notices to go around the car park and photo what is there as a record for the day and useful pictures for the Club magazine.

Getting home I still had some hours of daylight I pulled the LE out of the garage to investigate an annoying oil leak coming from the oil pressure gauge pipe off the main oil pipe union. After much faffing about the oil leak remained.

 The next day I removed the fitting and soldered the olive to make it oil tight. It would no longer grip the tiny pipe. That seems to have worked. I have yet to get the engine hot enough to check it out. I need to take it for a run before having to ride it to the show. Not long now.

 

Visit to Whitewebbs Transport Museum October 23

 

Bit of a long title this time, because I do repeated visits to museums and is a reminder for me when I last went. I paid a visit to the Norfolk Motorcycle Museum in September the previous visit was October 2020. Covid has filled the time and much has changed there. Similarly Whitewebbs has moved on. Although I am a supporter of this Museum my health has been such that it was September of 22 was my last visit driving the Burton. This time I was on the Buell. I spent many hours there togged in my bike gear. Boil in a bag is the best description. It was a warm day. 

George and Chris

Over the intervening time the display has undergone a complete rethink assisted by having a new hoist that enables moving the displays between floors. The members of the Motorcycle Volunteers are Chris, George (in picture) and John who, between them have driven the changes and there is more to come. There is a Holden there from 1896. It is a four cylinder with direct crank drive to the rear wheel. The small rear wheel is to reduce the speed achievable. Chris is following up the history behind this motorcycle.

 It is interesting that Hildebrand and Wolfmuller had similar ideas of how to get pistons to make a rotational movement at the same time. Did they ever talk to each other? No idea is born in a vacuum. The mechanism used was the same as on steam engines. Also at that time the ignition systems were primitive even the famous Bosch magneto of later years started life capable only of 200 rpm.

The collection of Rex Judd motorcycles is worth a visit. The Douglas motorcycles of the twenties are of historical note with 1923 being a record year of over 180 records being broken on Douglas motorcycles Rex Judd and Cyril Pullin sharing the honours at Brooklands for the fastest laps at over 105mph with Cyril taking the prize.

 That is fast enough when  you have modern suspension and a strong braced frame but on, what basically was, a bicycle frame with a rigid rear end and at, in places, quite a rough surface was a fete of strength, stamina and sheer determination to hang on to a bucking animal at such speeds. I doff my hat to these guys.

More sedately the collection of British motorcycles has some old favourites like the Ariel Arrow, the Pixie, BSA C12, Enfield Bullet, an Ambassador and a touch of Italy with a Rumi scooter and to finish off in the corner a couple Velocette LEs with Policeman surveying the display. Tucked in there is some Russian hardware a Jupiter 350cc two stroke twin. I once thought about buying one of these but ended up with a Ural instead. A good place to talk about bikes of yesteryear. Open Tuesday and Sundays with allot more to see than bikes.

The Male Menopause

 

The Male Menopause.

This is the transcript of the talk I gave in the meeting Menopause Matters in Wokingham.

I’m not sure am the right person to be talking today. The NHS list of

 Symptoms include:

Mood swings

Loss of muscle

Fat redistribution

General lack of enthusiasm and energy

Difficulty sleeping

Poor concentration and short term memory

Why am I not the right person?

Well I need to tell you something about me. I am a retired scientist having worked in the NHS for nearly forty years. During that time I have been a work place Union rep, campaigned to save a hospital from closure, merged two hospital, brought in new technology and working practices. I ride a motorcycle and riding to work nearly every day has kept me sane and focused requiring 360 degree awareness to stay alive.

 Apparently people who ride motorcycles live longer. I am an advanced motorcyclist and a member if the IAM to improve my survival skills. I am really a petrol head and enjoy bikes and cars with numerous excursions to the Continent for holidays before and after retirement. In 2019 I did a group trip to India with 9 guys who mostly in their mid thirties. The trip covered the seven highest motorable passes in the Ladahk region the highest being 18,300 feet. I thought I needed some training for that altitude so over 4 months I began running every day and was able to run a mile in about ten or eleven minutes. To build up my lung capacity. I survived the altitude and the motorcycling in India as you can see but it was also an inspiration for my young friends whose fathers’ were sitting back watching the world go by. 

There is life beyond retirement. I still do regular exercise but not the running I used to, mainly to maintain a level of fitness and flexibility. Motorcycling can be quite physical. I have to keep my mind active and I write regular postings in my blog talking about motorcycles, cars and travel. I restore motor cycles and I am restoring an old car at present. I have built two kit cars one we took to Croatia in 2019 ( Burton)and the other ( El Cid) we did a circuit of Spain in 2022.

 As a scientist I enjoy the challenge of taking something from an idea to a finished article. I need that to get out of bed in the morning. In 2004 I did an Endurance Rally around Morocco ( El Cid) and came nineteenth out of thirty-three entered. Such was the competition from Ford Mustangs  and 1930’s Bentleys.

Now my wife is, as I call her, a “Master Chef” creating freshly cooked meals for me each day, a delight for my taste buds. Our Assamese friends don’t  know why I am not the size of a house.

The male menopause to me is a state of mind. If you think you can’t do it you won’t. Getting old is an excuse to give up trying. Use it or lose it. Be positive.

I any house hold hormones rage at certain times and I have been with a family where mother was menopausal on one side and a pubescent daughter on the other. There was a war zone between. Not good for domestic harmony. My decision was to take cover and wait for a truce. Is that a start of a male menopause. To sit back and let life overtake you? 

I leave you with this thought that perhaps I am still not the best person to talk about the male menopause. Or is it just getting old by another name. If you don’t lay down and roll over perhaps you are able to slow the aging process down a little.