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Chat 22


Chat 21 Picture Quiz:-  The question was:- Which is the odd one out?  The answer is:-  The parsnip on two counts, they are the only ones native to Europe. The rest came from South America and Potatoes, tomatoes and peppers belong to the (latin) Solanaceae family, PARSNIPS do not.  Botanically sweet peppers and tomatoes are classed as fruits. 
Correct answers from:- Mick Dughan, Mick Leach, Pat Robotham,

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Chat 22 Picture Quiz:- What is this?  Answers by email to: edgrew@virginmedia.com

chat 22 quiz   quiz chat 22


Part Four of Pat Robotham's Motorcycling Memories.

So now I had two frames to repair and rebuild, by brazing and retubing. It was a good job I had gone on an evening class when I lived in Malvern to learn to braze and weld, and even had my own kit.

The Indian was the most tricky because it was A in more bits, B I did not have the back-frame diamond, and C would need to be properly aligned, if it was to run straight.  I talked to folk who did this all the time with their racing bikes and they told me what to do. Luckily, I managed to get a proper petrol tank and most of a back-frame diamond from a chap in Charnwood forest who had just built a similar bike. That, and some careful brazing of the strange internal Indian frame lugs, and a lot of lines in chalk on the garage floor and wall, and I had a straight frame. I repaired the petrol tank, had a new flywheel cast which I machined and balanced, and fitted a VW piston on the advice of Lloyd Watson who was a VMCC member in Cornwall with a similar bike.  I had a three speed gear box but needed an earlier two speed one. I heard about a rock musician in the club who played for the Rezillos who was going to tour the US, I rang him and said if he could get me a two speed box I would swap it for my three speed one. He agreed and true to his word three months later I had a two-speed box. The tyres were a strange size. 28 by 3 beaded edge unobtainable in UK but available in the US. My sister had just moved to the states, so I persuaded her to bring a pair over in her hand luggage next time she visited the UK. I bent some handlebars and made the weird Indian fittings and bought a nickel-plating kit, it took a year and was the most ambitious restoration I had done to date. But what a bike. Fifty miles an hour easily, decent handling, lousy brakes. And the oddest control system. Double twist grips one of which was double acting. The right one you turned outwards to accelerate and inwards to decompress, the left one inward to advance the ignition and the other way to retard.

Ariel Sidecar

I kept the bike for about four years and rode it a lot, including Banbury the Pioneer run and a couple of Parades.  However, I had developed a back problem and riding position was excruciating. The last Pioneer run I did, I leapt off the bike at some traffic lights coming down to Madera Drive in Brighton and my right leg folded up due to the riding position. I was rescued from under the bike by a really ancient man on two walking sticks. Not good for the ego. In the end it had to go, so I swapped it with a member from Somerset called Derek Light who had a massive collection of bikes for, you guessed it, an Ariel. A 1919 AKD engined 7 to 8 HP V twin model with matching sidecar. It turned out to have been owned by George the fifths boat builder and designer who built him the J class yachts.

The trials BSA was finished in two months ready for my first season of VMCC, mainly Taverners section trials. In a nut shell, It was hopeless, I was hopeless, a real exercise in enthusiasm over ability. However, I persisted for the next 25 years and became reasonable competent, although it did wreck my shoulders and one ankle. It was always depressing watching Barry Rogers who made it look so easy. I entered trials in various parts of the country along with Pat Davy and we had a pretty good time, making the odd muscle pull all worth while.

A few years after starting one day trials I was persuaded to join the MCC, (The Motorcycling club) in order to compete in their three long-distance off-road trials. The Edinburgh, the Exeter, and the Lands End. These are tough 3 to 4 hundred miles of motorcycling if you include riding to the start, over a period of about 24 hours, with two one-hour compulsory breaks in that period in the winter, and taking in 15 or so off road sections. Then you sleep for a night and ride home. I did them for 25 years and loved every minute of it. My best performances were on a home-built Ariel green lane special. Got lots of silvers and bronzes but no golds, and only failed to finish three times.

Without a doubt they could bring out the red mist in some of the competitors. For a while I used to ride with the Roger Gagg and his son Steve and a few others. Roger and Steve were very competitive, and I remember on one Exeter Trial, coming upon Roger halfway up the 3.5 in one Tarmac slope between Lynmouth and Lynton on the way up to the section Beggars Roost. It was about four in the morning, raining on the first weekend in January, I am sure you get the picture. Roger was squatted down by torchlight with the end and inner cover off the gearbox of his Cheney Triumph outfit trying to use part of a box spanner as a spacer so he could jam the outfit into third gear and carry on competing with just the one gear. He had about two hundred miles left to go and about twelve sections. He was not to be argued with so I rode on.

It was quite cold as a sidecar passenger, so I am told so one of the mods was to route the exhaust through the nose of the chair near the passenger’s feet. One MCC legend a chap called Gerry Williams decided to add extra comfort by robbing half a hay bale and stuffing it round his feet. The outcome? I sure you have guessed, you could see the fire as coming down the road.

My last MCC memory concerned a team called team Woodbine or Team disaster as they were sometimes known. The members were the family of Rex Wills from Leicester, and we often shared digs after the trial. During the evening meal after the trial, Mark Will who drove a sidecar outfit described how on Exmoor at three in the morning the axle had broken off the sidecar.  I commiserated and said I bet it was cold waiting for the breakdown. His reply was, Oh!  We didn’t stop we finished the trial, I just phoned a mobile welder using talking pages and he popped out and welded it up for £20.

In the end I did twenty five years of these, using first a Triumph once with road tyres. Then I bought a BMW R80GS which I used for trials and commuting, changing tyres about five times a year, I had many pairs of part worn trials tyres, which I swapped about to finish off on the road to work. I had that for about five years, I did OK on it but to be honest it was too big for me and did tend to see saw on the front end if you backed off , which meant that slowing down in sections was not a good plan, and sometimes it was a toss up as to who was in charge of what by section ends. We did a few years with a Dellow trials car, but I was better on a bike.  So, I built my Ariel green laner and used that until an accident stopped trials riding and Shelley and I did a few years in a very competitive Marlin trials car, but I was still not very good in it.  Pat.  Part 5 and final part next time.


No Racing Remembered this time ..... I forgot it.����


Malcolm Bridges sent a quiz photographs of a Cosworth DFV piston that was used in previous chats.  Malcolm tells us a bit about his working life and how he came to have the piston.  Eddy

A little information about the DFV piston in the recent quiz, as already said the Cosworth DFV engine was developed by Keith Duckworth of Cosworth backed by Ford for Formula 1, there is plenty of info on-line.

Cosworth DFV Piston
I got the piston when I worked for Alan Smith Garages, Manchester Street, Derby in the 1970's.  The garage was run by Pete Allman, it specialised in the service and repair of Prestige & Performance Cars, they were also a dealer for Hewland Gearboxes.  I think Pete had worked for Tim Parnell, a Derby racing family, at some point and probably where he had met Alan.  Next door was Alan Smith Racing they built and maintained race engines, Alan was originally a renowned builder of American V8 engines for racing and progressed from there.

One of the customers were Melchester Racing, they ran a Cosworth powered McLaren in 1978 with driver Tony Trimmer and won the British F1 Championship.  While talking to one of the engine builders one day, Mick from Chesterfield, I asked if he could get me a DFV piston, he gave me two, the other I gave to a mate.  Mick and his mate Winston eventually left Alan Smith's and went to work for Toleman Racing another customer, I remember in the 1980's while watching an F1 race on TV during a pitstop seeing Mick, then with the Benetton Team.

Regarding the piston, the machined 'half-moon' in the exhaust valve pockets of the piston were, if I remember correct done to prevent a 'hot spot' which could have caused pre-ignition or worse, melting of the piston and resultant damage.  During last years American road trip, we called at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum where they had a Mario Andretti display which had a DFV piston there, that piston had a machined 'half-moon' in both inlet and exhaust pockets.

My time at ASGarages was interesting and the variety of cars I worked on very wide, the most memorable was a Ford GT40, a road version painted in Gulf colours, the job involved removing the engine for ASRacing to rebuild, the ZF gearbox had a leak, just minor involving replacement gaskets and seals not a rebuild, the suspension required stripping and 'rose joints' checked and replaced as necessary, a big job involved the fuel tanks, both sides of the monocoque were the tanks and they were quite corroded, lots of wire brushing, painting etc.  and new rubber pods were made by a company at Swadlincote who did work for the aero industry, I think.   They were also foam filled, fitting them was a nightmare it involved taping the vacuum cleaner hose to the pod and blanking any other holes then turn on and help the pod to collapse then try to squeeze it through a hatch and feed it the length of the monocoque.   There was much swearing and bloodletting of my arms over some hours and it was done.  The Hewland gearboxes were done by Tony Wilson, he raced a Mini back then so borrowed the company van to tow his trailer and provided a Hewland service at race meetings.  He suggested to me one day perhaps I could help with the gearbox work and provide the service sometimes to take the load off him and during his holidays, so Pete Allman arranged for me to go to Hewland at Maidenhead for a week’s training.  I left Alan Smith's about 1979 with the economy struggling, when I started there we were all given a fuel allowance on top of the wage, Pete explained he wouldn't be able to continue that, he was also diversifying into Range Rover work, he was involved with someone who had developed a conversion that put a Borg Warner auto box into the Range Rover, it didn't interest me.  I left and moved back to Burton to work for Dave Orton at Appleby Glade looking after his fleet vehicles.


Tony Harris Ariel VNH update Part 2


Last time I reminded you about where the original V twin bones came from and what happened to them. This time a little more up to date.
 
Last year, (2018) after many years sitting under the bench while I built other bikes and got on with other mechanical projects, I decided it was time to finally do a few updates to the VNH motor. Some of these updates I learnt while building my Norton V twin motor, other things I wanted to do because of small problems which were unknowingly built into the original Ariel engine.  (I mentioned this engine in Part 1, the Norton V was built after the VNH Ariel motor.)
 
When the engine was first started it was quite oily and smoked quite bad on start up. Although, when it had been running a short while the smoke did die down. One of the original things I did was to have external oil pipes in the sump to return the oil to the tank via the oil pump.
The other problem was the pistons had no oil ring groves.
I believe the pistons I had were WD (I could be wrong, again) and naively thought if they ran OK in that engine, why not in mine (the fool)?  I picked up some oil control rings and turned groves in the pistons to suit and rebuilt the top of the motor.
 
Well, it was a lot better, but it still had a lot of oil inside the combustion chamber on start-up, eventually the smoke cleared in a couple of miles as I previously said. This was very embarrassing. One Saturday morning after a short ride I took the engine out, stripped it down and replicated the internal oil pickups in the standard Ariel engine. The reason I didn’t do this in the first place was it just looked a little to tricky drilling inside the wall of the crankcase to pick up the back of the oil pump and I didn't have time, so did a short cut, silly boy.
 
It was a long job with a lot of setting up, but I managed to get everything lined up and carefully drilled the holes. While I had the engine apart, I fitted internal flywheel scrapers to stop oil being thrown about too much by the flywheels.  The next day I rebuilt the motor and fitted into the frame and gave it a try.
Yes, you guessed it, still the same, oh well, it was a little better and the motor was a lot tidier without the external pipe work.
 
I decided to live with it for the time being (9 years to be precise) as it never oiled a plug and at least it would never seize up.
I later found out talking to folks who knew more than me (there's plenty of them about) that old V twins were prone to over oil the rear cylinder as the flywheels throw oil up the bore unless they had baffle plates in the mouth of the crankcase.
If you look in the top of these old engines with the barrels off you can see the con rod poking through a slot in the casting and the flywheels were shielded by this, only lube to the big end could escape up the bore and consequently no smoky engine.
 
I do hope your still awake and keeping up or understand what I'm on about. ����
 
When I originally converted Adrie’s castings into patterns and had the crankcases cast, I was aware of allowing for casting shrinkage.  However, looking at the engine last year I decided the flywheels still ran too close to the inside of the crankcases, so, I decided to take about 3/8" off the diameter of the flywheels. This meant splitting the flywheels to hold in the lathe.

 

I also wanted to use original Ariel chaincases and use a cush drive on the end of the crank as the original engine had.  The problem was I had machined a taper on the drive side mainshaft and fitted a pulley for a belt drive, this ran a Lucas alternator on the end of the crank. All this ran in a Norton Commando chain case on the original build.
The Ariel chaincase did not have room for all this gubbins. As I was now putting the motor into an Ariel frame, I wanted it all to look as standard ish as possible.
After turning material off the flywheels, I then set the drive side flywheel and mainshaft up on the miller and machined a spline on the end of the mainshaft to take an early Triumph sprocket carrier, cam and spring. The reason I did this was I had a range of sprockets for these and the sprocket does not run on the mainshaft but a hardened carrier on the crank unlike the Ariel.
I also decided to fit two more extra flywheel oil scrapers at the same time. Belt, braces and a bit of string.  I'm sure Honda do this all the time with new models. ����
The cam gears I originally fitted were an odd pair I had (the only pair I had at that time) and were worn. When I stripped the engine, they hadn't got any better. Fortunately, I acquired a new pair and the crank pinion had three keyways which helped with better cam timing later on.


I also never liked the idea of push in exhaust pipes. They just rattle lose eventually and wear the exhaust port oversize. To sort this out I have done an upgrade on the heads which I will tell you about in another little article later.  This is the problem with development, it’s always clever to be wise in retrospect. All this work I hope should keep the motors combustion chamber free from oil but still should allow enough to lube the bores etc, time will tell.
 
At this stage the bottom half of the engine was assembled and the next job was to sort the chassis out.  This will be in part three as my wife has just informed me my tea is ready.  Tony.  To be continued ……




Glyn Hall has sent me some very interesting old photographs of very early vehicles in the Swadlincote/Burton area.

FA, was the Burton district registration letters which became compulsory on 1st January 1904. Fortunately the original FA records survive, although they are now in Stafford.

FA5

FA 5 is listed as a motor tandem tricar registered on 21st December 1903. The address is 188 Horninglow Street. Owner G. Finch. FA 6 is registered to George John Finch 188 Horninglow Street, motorcycle 160lbs. no machine make mentioned. FA 7 registered to George John Finch, motorcycle, weight 112lbs. again no make mentioned. Unfortunately I do not have photographs of FA 6 or FA 7, but I think FA 6 was a Raleigh. The Finches had a garage at 188 Horninglow Street and according to their advert were established in 1895 and Leonard G. Finch was still in business at 189 Horninglow Street in 1937. I would think that the photograph of FA 5 was taken soon after registration as the number looks freshly painted. The vehicle also looks to be fairly new. I think the people in the tricar are the Finch family.

The 2 garage photographs below are in Swadlincote, at the bottom of Alexandra Road. The buildings are still there. I think the photograph with the motorcycle in the window, Rex ? Is probably the earlier of the two, post 1904 but certainly early. Curry’s was founded in Leicester in 1884 so this would be an early branch.

H. Curry Shop
H. Curry Shop 2
FA12_1

The car FA 12 is registered as a 6H.P. Voiturette. I wonder if the car was supplied by Finches Garage as they both appear to be in the same place, Horninglow Street. Anson Court ?

FA12_2
Regards, Glyn

Re: Covid 19 Virus Restrictions.  A Message from Chief Constable Nick Adderley - NPCC Lead for Motorcycling

 

As the National Police Chief's Council lead for Motorcycling and BikeSafe, I thought this would be a timely reminder to explain certain restriction that exist between England and the rest of the UK.

I would want to make the point that as a keen motorcyclist myself, the temptation to start mass ride outs and social events on the motorcycling scene is huge, however the threat still posed by COVID-19 must be respected and understood to ensure that we all comply with the guidance and regulations issued by the devolved administrations.

The lives of our families, friends and all who enjoy the UK as a place to live, work or visit are still in the balance.

For clarity -

Group rides are still not allowed but if you’re in England you can ride with one friend under the following conditions:

UK government advice applicable to England only permits exercise alone, between members of the same household or with one person from another household if you stay at least two metres apart at all times.

All of us in the biker community need to respect that position and it’s now time to step-up and show how we are part of the solution and not the problem when it comes to containing the virus as well as protecting the NHS.

To that end, especially with the Bank Holiday weekend approaching I urge every one of us to remember and abide by the following advice:

  • Maintain social distancing at all times
  • Check your bike over carefully when it’s been unused for a while
  • If you didn't renew your bike insurance policy during lock down, do it now
  • Try to avoid rush hour if possible
  • The government has clarified that you can ride to outdoor open spaces irrespective of distance so long as you respect social distancing guidance while you are there but it’s important that we don’t see large groups of motorcyclists congregating at single spots
  • You are an ambassador for motorcycling – ride with care, consideration and safety in mind
  • Be respectful of all other road users
  • Do not ride across UK borders unless necessary

Roads Policing teams across the UK will be out in significant numbers over the coming days and weeks and while there is a strong emphasis on engaging with motorists, if circumstances show a clear disregard for the restrictions, enforcement will be an option.

As a police motorcyclist and an avid leisure rider, I know bikers across the UK are, in the main, law-abiding, socially responsible and terrific supporters of our emergency services. I now call on that vast majority to exercise patience and understanding which will allow the wider public to see the biking community as one that can be held in high regard and trusted to do the right thing.

Regards,

Bruce Phillips

Secretary, Notts. And Derby Section, VMCC


 

 

 


Graham Inger sent me this nice email.  Eddy 

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoy reading the exploits of our extremely talented and knowledgeable members and friends.

It makes my endeavors in engineering seem very amateur. Please thank all contributors. 

Graham Inger 


Don Eades sorts his Bantam forks out.

After just getting my Bantam on the road towards the end of 2019 summer the heavens opened up, and the monsoon weather started but, without the heat. The Bantam was put to bed for the winter battery removed and all should have been ready for spring 2020.

As the weather in 2020 became drier although still cool, a check on the Bantam revealed one of the fork gaiters had split apart and the other one wasn’t far behind!


Just for you Sir a set of fork gaiters ..... ready for the bin!

Thinks; I bought those gaiters from a stall holder at Founders Day at Stamford Hall and it wasn’t Bantam John. Okay what next? Off to my friendly old fashioned local M/C dealer in Coalville told him my predicament; his reply “Probably made in India, I only buy from UK manufactures” A pair was duly put on order, and a few days later I picked them up. When I got home I compared them to one good remaining gaiter I took off the forks when I initially refurbished them. Definitely from the same source since there was a molding defect in exactly the same place as the one I removed – Bingo – should be Okay! (I don’t actually play bingo).

  
            
The one remaining good gaiter took off - note molding defect         One of the new pair of gaiters – spot the difference, none!                

Being a member of the Bantam Owners Club I regularly go onto the forum and the topic of which way up should the nylon slider bushes fit into the fork legs. Counter bore up or down? Hmm - if my memory serves me well I didn’t see a counterbore on mine. The topic was answered the counter bored should be down. I asked a few questions as to their function and found out they should be a sliding fit on both the leg and in the tube since they restrict oil flow for damping.

When I originally rebuilt the forks I noted that the nylon bushes although they slid on the fork legs they were both tight to get into the fork legs. Being none the wiser at the time as to their function I reassembled forks as I thought BSA intended. Since I had to strip the tubes off to replace the gaiters I was going to have a good nose. 

Down to the nitty gritty, Bantam into workshop, mudguard off and wheel out. Lovely gaiters  The fork strip down commenced.


Nice beefy fork leg removal tool - It takes no prisoners!


Almost there, note the nasty plastic bush!                                                  Bushes and springs off fork legs   

 
My fork leg bush, not a counterbore in sight.  Hmm, somebody stole it!

Once stripped the nylon bushes were tight in the leg and not counter bored – strange. I wonder who fitted these…? Thinking cap on what next. Reduce the O/D, counter bore them, but what I/D, and how deep? Ping - idea – last year I was given an old round bed Drummond lathe with what resembled a well battered cutting bit. Time to go back to school days for some basic lathe work and have some fun. The O/D of each bush was reduced by using coarse and then fine emery paper until a sliding fit in the leg was achieved.


Drummond lathe with nylon bush on chuck. There are people looking at this thinking - “I recognise that lathe” – But Who?  (I couldn't possibly comment. Eddy)

Being enthusiastic, by the time I had reduced the O/D of both bushes it was late evening, so I went indoors fired up the PC to see if they were available from a supplier. Yes, they were, with a counter bore, so I ordered a pair from a supplier in Norfolk, and thought I've wasted my time reducing the O/D. A few days later the bushes arrived, reassembly here we come……..

Aggh…..! the O/D of the new bushes was too big to go down the fork leg but it did give me the opportunity to measure the counter bore diameter and depth. Do I return the new bushes or reduce the O/D like I did with the others? Old bushes onto the lathe again and with the well used cutting bit I managed to counter bore them.

The new bushes were sent back with a note as to them being too big.


Bush with counterbore cut in, it’s where the dirty line is in the bore.       
Counterbores machined into bushes before cleaning.              

Forks reassembled, all checks done, run around the lanes. Jobs a goodun!  Don Eades

 
                    LHS of Mr Smokey, my B175                                                             RHS of Mr Smokey, my B175        


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