After Ally Pally

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Out for the day on a bike ride

Thursday 12^th September 2013.

At the beginning of the week I am doing another stint at the Museum and returning the LE engine and gearbox cutaway. Sam is there to open up and he tells me that the salon Privee event has honoured the Triumph Trophy with second prize in the concourse at the show. 

Looks like the Museum has had a successful few days with the Valiant getting runner up in the Best of British. The Valiant did not run well on the way home and I did not get around to checking it over until Wednesday when on a test run out I tried out one of the mini camcorders attached to the handlebars of the bike and there is a posting on utube of the first effort. Follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bstDJh4tQks&feature=youtu.be

It’s not the full journey and is only 3 minutes long. You can see how smooth the Valiant is as the camera is solidly fixed to the handlebars. This trip out was to Hayes as I needed to put some cheques into the bank and on returning to the bike one gentleman was hovering. He finally asked me if he could take some picture of the bike. I agreed and removed the tank bag and stood well back so he could have an uninterrupted view of the Valiant. He had never seen one before and wondered what it was. I took the opportunity to tell him about it and the Museum where he could see more vintage bikes. Moving on it may seem that I am the only one doing things but within the team Pete has reported back to me on what he has been up to recently. He is also frequently out to club meetings and shops spreading the word last week at Liberty Motorcycles who do training, Rose MOT centre at Sunbury on Thames and Richardson’s in the High street, Feltham who has put up a LMM poster as well as having the fliers. Now we get to Thursday and my Wey Valley Bike Club run out with the ROG’s politely this is referred to as the Retired Old Gentlemen and Thursday started a bit wet before drying up and being quite pleasant at the end of the afternoon. 

I kept my waterproof oversuit on all morning to ward off the evil rain fairy with a great deal of success as the group headed towards Eastbourne and lunch of moules et frites at the Belgian Cafe on the sea front.

All in all a very nice ride out only covering some 226 miles for the day. This was quite a small group with new faces that were not aware of the existence of the museum. So, everywhere I go I have fliers with me to hand out to the unexpected.

Ally Pally 2013 Part 2

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7^th and 8^th September 2013.

Sunday morning dawned and I was on my way to Ally Pally on the tube. It was cloudy and the sun was peeping from behind the clouds. Greenford tube station was closed, so was Hangar lane, the Central line was out of sorts until White City. I had been on my journey for almost an hour and I felt as though I had got nowhere. I got another tube to Finsbury Park and then couldn’t find the bus stop to get to Alexandra Palace. Finally I did, it was around the corner out of sight and not even a signpost to guide you. A short wait and I was on the move again. I finally arrived at the show about 10:10am. Ron was already there. He knew I might not be on time and Paul arrived a few minutes after me. That was a two hour journey compared with 40 minutes on a slow bike. No wonder public transport is not the main choice for travelling. I have been on local buses and I could have walked to my destination faster!

More visitors today and more interest in the club stand and the club. The Museum exhibit was again a centre of interest and gives me another opportunity to hand out fliers along with a few for the British Motorcycle Trust. I did another walk around and took a few more pictures of interesting bikes, a nicely restored Triumph and another version of the Monkey Bike that was homemade and for sale.

 I bought some instant glue that might just repair the horn rubber on the Valiant that had split at the ends and talked to the British Legion Bikers and the Christian Bikers. One of the guys was very keen to hand out fliers for me at the events he would be going to later in the year so I left him with a wad. More from the stunt men and more noise and burnt rubber. The day was going quickly as the pasty lunch disappeared in a few mouthfuls with a bottle of water. My voice was starting go by the end of the afternoon. Paul had persuaded a young lady who was handy out air fresheners to sit on one of the bikes. She instantly leapt on the Valiant and Paul captured it with his camera. He persuaded her to return after her trip around on a stunt bike to be photo’d on his LE.

At 4pm prizes were awarded to the best bikes in show. A beautifully restored 125 Bantam won the best British bike on show and I gained another runner up prize for the Valiant.

 The Two Stroke club had the best stand prize and the business stand that had the DKW on received a prize for the most interesting bike in the show. It was a 4.2L Kawasaki 48 pot giant! 

By the time the awards had finished all the visitors had gone and by 4:30pm wed started to dismantle the stand and Gita arrived in the car to take it all away. She left and so was a plate for the rope-cum-banner barrier. I tried phoning her but Ally Pally has no signal so Paul was left to sit on it to take it away. There was a heavy shower as we were about to leave so we all hung around until the rain stopped. We said our farewells to the Bantam club some of them I am starting to know as I have spoken to them at the Bristol Classic Bike show, Kempton Park and at Stafford. There was heavy traffic on the North Circular and the Valiant was playing up. It was not many minutes before I had filtered through the traffic and passed Gita in the car. She did catch me up as the Valiant came to a halt at Hangar lane where it refused to go any further. I messed about with plugs and after a few false starts reset the timing and managed to get home. Must be the price to pay for winning a prize I guess!

Ally Pally Show Part 1

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7^th to 8^th September 2013.

As advertised it was supposed to take place in April but was cancelled and having promised to support the LE Owners Club then I could not refuse now. Paul and Ron had helped a great deal to make the Southern Classic Bike show in May and I had collected all the stand props from Chris at the previous club night. We were able to set up the stand from 10am on Friday. My plan was to get there as early as I could with the Valiant, come home by public transport then go back in the car with the props to meet up with Paula and Ron at 5pm to set up the stand. Unfortunately the weather got in the way and I postponed riding the Valiant to the show until Saturday morning. That meant I had a really early start to ensure I got to the show in plenty of time before it opened at 10am.

It was wet in the morning and I missed the rain that arrived as I arrived at the show. It had only taken 40 minutes following a lorry at a modest 35 to 40mph around the North Circular. Ron and Paul arrived about 9am. A mug of tea and we were ready for the day. The doors opened at 10 and a few people came in and our day of PRing for the club and the museum began. It was slow and many people complained about value for money. I said to a number of people it was better at the Museum. By 11:30 the first of the stunt displays in the arena next to us had finished and the music from the disco also near us was so loud we couldn’t hear what people were saying. I was losing my voice and when asked they did move the speakers away from us and turned the sound down enough for us to have a sensible conversation with any one passing. Many of the questions were about the LE cutaway engine and gearbox borrowed for the weekend from the Museum. We had the BSA Bantam owners club next to us and just across the way was the Two Stroke owners club. It was a bit disappointing as these were the only bike clubs at the show. Others had promised to come but not turned up.

There were some interesting bikes at the show, a little desmo Ducati that had been well restored and a 125 water cooled DKW racer that was scarily fast and with only 4inch brakes! I guess it was because you wanted to carry as much corner as you could so you didn’t need much braking.

As I wandered around the stalls there was a modern version of the Monkey Bike on the Honda stand. I was looking for a bike that I could put into a small van so something less than 1.8m long and 0.9 high and about 100kg could fit the bill. It was yellow and 125cc so it could pull two up easily. The only problem with it was the rear seat was so small I’m not sure anyone could fit on it. I marked this one down for a test ride.

Lunch came and went with a short break away from the stand followed by another stunt display that once again left the acrid fragrance of rubber. I wonder if the manufacturers could do something about that? How about jojoba as preferred by man and dog? Or am I getting my TV ads mixed up. The day speeded up and the final stunt of the day with lots of noise and burnt rubber sending everyone away coughing. I did manage to get a pair if Kevlar jeans for summer riding at a sensible price and now I have a pair the weather has changed forever and I will have to leave the country for sunnier climes to use them. Another day at the office tomorrow and I will need at least two hours to get to the show and things are  slower on public transport on Sunday mornings.

Hot Monday

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More DIY

After the post holiday blues, what next? I managed to get the gearbox changed on the car and after buying a few parts finished the assembly last Saturday. Another day crawling around under the car. Sunday, the first one of the month is Wey Valley bike club day so I was off out to enjoy the sunshine and get brushed up on my riding techniques. It has been a few years since I passed my advanced motorcycle test and I had the feeling I was losing my edge after driving the car so far during the trip to Spain. I had an enjoyable couple of hours and was told to stop riding as though I was driving a car and get back on my bike!

So I did and headed for a visit to the Museum to sort out the things I would need for the forthcoming show at Ally Pally. Only a quick stop but I did spot a few well preserved 1300 Kawasaki’s parked out the front. I spoke to the guys when I got inside to discover they were from Leicester and had come to London for the Classic Japanese Motorcycle day at the Ace Cafe. They had come along to the Museum to see what it was like. They had read so much about it they had to see for themselves.

I went to find Bill but he had disappeared somewhere but what I did see was the Triumph Trophy parked up on the rear access ramp. It had been taken out of the Museum to go to a Salon Privee at Syon Park in the coming week. I arranged with Phillipa to collect the Hendon LE engine and gearbox cutaway and fliers for the show the next day. The rest of Sunday I spent cleaning the car and the Buell and the Valiant.

If you read this later in the week it’ll be raining and the sunshine of Monday at the Museum will be a distant memory. The last Monday I did of the week following a Bank Holiday and children started back at school not one person visited the Museum. This year and this Monday almost as soon as we were open people started arriving. Mid morning we had a contingent from Sweden five mature lads, who were doing the rounds of the museums and, were on their way to Brooklands in a camper.

They much enjoyed their visit and even tried the ginger beer. One of the last visitors to arrive were from Spain Juan Miguel and his wife who did an excellent job of interpreting bike jargon. He was a retired policeman and had several bikes of his own. His interest in the bikes was amazing and they spent all afternoon talking and photographing anything and everything. Juan Miguel even signed his name on “the Board of Fame” They were here for the Olympics last year and have promised to come back next year when they visit the UK again. The afternoon was gone and time to get the cutaway into the back of my car. It took three of us to lift it and a sack truck to move it around. It was surprisingly heavy more due to the thickness of the board it was mounted on.

During the week the car went in for its MOT and this is where the DIY comes in, we had not found a suitable piece of furniture to put things on in the kitchen. A suggesting by the eldest was that I should make one. That is exactly what I did in two days. It still needs to be varnished but it is in place to try it for size and now covered in plants!