Tuesday 26 August 2014

WVAMC meeting



Insight into MotoGP

Having had more fun at the Museum on the Monday and wondering why the LE was not running well on the way home I decided to have a look at it. It turned out that a burnt out exhaust valve on the left cylinder was the culprit. It was not until I started to grind in the valves that I was able to see there was no seat contact on about a third of the valve. No wonder there was no compression! A new valve was fitted and performance restored.

On Thursday I headed out to Ripley village hall for the meeting. It was not a good ride as there was so much traffic. I think I filtered almost all the way from home, around the M25 to the A3. I arrived late but still in time for the start of the talk by Neil Spalding. Those of you who follow MotoGP will have heard him many times on Eurosport talking of the technological developments that the teams are coming up with. He explained about how the power was delivered to the rear wheel and how it relates to the firing order of the engines. Different configurations give differing power delivery. It seems that a vee formation is good for even power delivery with the crankshaft having the minimum variation in momentum as the pistons slow at the top and bottom of each stroke. He explained the difference between bike and car engines and how the crankshaft on a bike was much heavier to ensure a smooth power delivery. In MotoGP you do not want 200 plus bhp coming in like putting on a light at the switch. He spent some time talking about the Honda RC211V vee 5 engine of 2002 and that the carburration was split between the front 3 cylinders and the rear 2 at certain throttle openings. 


Honda Vee 5 engine.

To manage the power when the throttle is opened only the front 3 cylinders were used so that the power delivery was metered very accurately and above all smoothly. There is even computer control that compensates for the angle of lean. Once you have something that works the chassis then has to do its job. Apparently the centre of gravity for a MotoGP bike is somewhere in a 6mm square on the machine and it is not easy to find. The design of the engine and where the gearbox should go is very important so things can be positioned in the best place. There was some discussion about why Ducati's had been so good with Casey Stoner and with no-one else. It turns out that he just rode every corner like he was going to crash. Now Ducati are sorting the problem out and it seems they had too rigid a chassis. With the modern bikes reaching silly angles of lean the suspension that operates up and down in the plane of straight line riding do not work when cranked over at 60 degrees. If there is no give the wheels just bounce and traction is lost and down you go. To get the tyres to continue gripping something has to give so the chassis is designed to flex in that plane to achieve this. 



Bautista in action.

At present the MotoGP teams are signing up people who can slide the bikes and this gets around a number of the handling issues with riders skill. Talking of tyres, Pirelli had made tyres to suit the bikes but with the change coming using Michelin tyres the bikes will need to be designed for the tyre and not the other way around. Neil gave us an immense amount of detail about what manufacturers had done in their quest to be number one. It was a very enjoyable evening that gave an insight into making a winning bike.


Wednesday 20 August 2014

Jack's Fish and Chip shop



More for August

Monday at the Museum on the LE and it didn't run very well so Tuesday I discovered there was no compression on the left pot and it required a strip down of that side to discover a burnt out exhaust valve. This was only discovered when I started to grind in the valves and the exhaust valve had about a third of the seat not touching. Chuck it away and find another one from my box of bits. The replacement one was not in good condition and it took about an hour and more to get a reasonable finish for the seat. I have now got valve grinders wrist. It was a bit late in the day so I finished it Wednesday morning and it was all sorted by 10:30. There was enough time to get myself cleaned up and off to Jack's Fish and Chip shop on the A30 at Bagshott. I also needed to drop on a few bits to a 2CV friend who lives close by and I did not see on Monday at the local 2CVclub night. I thought I he might like them for the weekend. Jack's do deals for the senior members and it is a congregation point for vintage and classic bikers.

I knew I would not be there until after 1pm and I would miss the 12 to 1pm senior deal but I was on a mission so I had lunch before I left home. Out on the Buell for a brisk ride and still get to Jack's to see a good selection of bikes. There I met Velocette man who has an MSS at the Museum and today was out on his 1926 Triumph.





Even though I had been to Jack's before there were still people who did not know about he Museum. There are still some who know but have not yet visited. I am ever hopeful that another handout of fliers will get them to come along. I met a guy who had visited the Museum with the Enfield club the other week and he was impressed by our hospitality and how good the Museum is. There is a promise of another visit from the Enfield club and I do hope the Meteor comes along too.




I didn't stay long but I did manage lots of pics of the bikes I saw there. I thought the Honda engined Norton Commando was quite interesting




BSA Gold Flash,           AJS  big Twin    Pre War Harley and a BSA B33
 








Tuesday 19 August 2014

Croxley green and more










Early August

The month of August drifts between holidays and events. Most of the time the focus is on what is happening over the Bank Holiday weekend. However, locally the first Wednesday in August is the Watford Car Club annual event at Croxley Green near Sarlat just outside Rickmansworth.
This time I headed up there a bit earlier in the day to see what was there and hand out some fliers for the Museum. I was on the Buell and after getting to the depleted motorcycle parking area I was invited to put the Buell on display with the other bikes. There were some really well presented bikes there and as time went on more bikes were on display. One caught my eye and at first I thought it was a Norton Jubilee but when I questioned the owner is was the bigger engined Navigator.


Off to Birmingham at the weekend and handed out more fliers at the Holiday Inn Birmingham airport and just down the road is the National Motorcycle Museum. More fliers for them and I picked some of theirs up to bring back. Monday at the Museum on the LE with another international day and more rain. Tuesday out in the rain again to Wycombe MAG to hand out more fliers and find out about the shenanigans going on with subtle changes in the MAG name. Best left to the people who know, I guess, but my view is that it is a waste of effort that will not achieve very much. I do support MAG as we need to have a political voice to remind the politicians we are still voters. Moving on after more biking on Wednesday on the LE and a trip to Snobs at Hangar Lane gyratory for a new battery for the Buell. I thought it was time as I had to keep jump starting it off the car battery. With the new battery fitted I was out on Thursday for a ROG's run that went down to Eastbourne missing most of the rain. I bemoaned the fact that each time I was out on the bikes it rained! Bertha was dripping on me! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so far that week and if you have been following what I have been doing, other than Croxley Green it has rained on me every ride out. Who said it had been a dry summer? Eastbourne was a good trip out with the only downpour at coffee break as we waited for the rain to go away under a gazebo in a country garden hoping the lightening would miss us.





At Eastbourne we had lunch in Harry Ramsdens and watched the biplane wing walkers doing stunts over the beach followed by a flypast of two Spitfires and two Lancaster bombers. One from the UK and the other featured on the news a few days earlier as it had come from Canada.





On the way back to the bikes we came across a very nicely restored Ariel Leader and the couple who rode it there have promised to come to the Museum. Black clouds loomed but the run leader kept us away from the rain and I managed to get home dry for a change.



Friday 1 August 2014

Just Catching Up




Just Catching Up

Having fun with the Valiant trying to get it starting easily and trying to avoid the rain. I have managed to do both for most of July, but just a reminder of how bad the weather was at the end of June have a look at this video of one of the events I went to:-


At quieter moments I did discover that Pete is quite a cartoonist and here is one he did for a bike magazine. His interpretation of twin leading shoe front brakes. I know at least some of you can remember them!



So, what has been going on, well The Ivy has been out to another show and returned on Monday, I've been to the LE Velo club night on Tuesday. On the Valiant again just to prove it can start and run reasonably well and I have now put that one to the back of the garage while I get out and about on my LE. If anyone has had a look at my Facebook they will know I was out on the Buell last Thursday for a ROG's Run that went down to Hive beach for lunch at the fish restaurant there. Very nice and not far from Weymouth. I managed a round trip of some 305 miles for the day close to a record for a day trip but not quite as the most done on one of theses ROG's Runs was 322 miles. There were 20 bikes out for this trip and our first stop was at the Fighting Cock in the New Forrest.




I was out earlier this week in search of some elbow protectors as the ones for my Joe Rocket jacket had disintegrated and I had only wrist pads instead as they had moved to the bottom of the pocket in the arms. I visited Infinity Motorcycles at Hangar lane, they had none suitable and left some fliers and then did the giratory a couple of times to get around to the North Circular and J&S (formerly Hein Gericke) on the other side of the road, where they did have something that did the job. I, again, left fliers for the Museum and also received some in return as they are promoting the new shop.