Thruxton

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

WVAMC Skills Day at Thruxton.

It is not very often that you get an opportunity to go around the Thruxton Race circuit. The only people that get to do it on motorcycles are the guys and girls from British Superbikes and the Institute of Advanced Motoring. Two days were organised this year and I happen to get onto the first day. I was hoping to do it on the Buell but the starter motor drive failed on me and was not able to get it fixed in time so I had to take the Kawasaki ER6F instead. Staying in a B&B over night close to the circuit, I was not the only biker staying there, but two guys who were instructors. A full English to start the day for me and a full tank of fuel for the Kawasaki set us up for the day.

The day starts with a safety briefing that covers all the required knowledge of what flags mean, what the cones mean and what to do when the flags are displayed. Reminding us not to run over any marshals. You have all the space on the track and even then people manage to knock over the cones! After the briefing we went into groups of four or five with our instructor for the day. Today I was in the pink team! Not my best colour but shortly afterwards we went through a series of braking and manoeuvring exercises to get the mind focussed. 

Each session with the instructor on the track was previewed with a briefing about what we were going to do and what we should achieve from each exercise. First time out it was at a steady pace looking to learn the turn in, apex and exit points. I soon discovered that knee down was an attitude that was easy to do when cornering for a long time but not needed at the speeds were were doing. The plan was to have six sessions on the track each one learning and practicing a new technique. 

Confidence and ability grew to a point where, at Campbell corner, I felt the bike go too light for comfort and decided that was as far a lean I would be doing today. Everywhere else the bike felt planted. I did have a moment heading for the exit of Goodwood where the side of the track was coming up too fast and I had to put on a bit more lean than I was comfortable with. How do these guys in BSB do it? Admittedly they don’t have chicanes of cones to negotiate at the fastest points on the track. They put those in to keep the speed down otherwise the circuit would be too fast for us mortals even so we had been given a speed limit of ninety miles an hour. How fast was I going, No real idea as I was too busy looking where I was going. Concentration and accuracy was paramount. I survived, but we did have a colleague who overcooked it and brought our day to a conclusion prematurely. I have no details of his injuries but he was taken to hospital in one of the ambulances based at the circuit and further use of the track was halted by race control.

Short video of the guys in action just before the end of the day.

I learned allot that day. On my trip home of some seventy miles I felt much more relaxed on the bike using a slightly different riding position. Only a subtle difference but it has made me more alert and able to manoeuvre the bike more easily. It is all to do with elbow position, more bend in the elbow pulls you down slightly and you can relax the grip on the handlebars making the whole position less tense. Keeping the head up looking to where you want to go so you have more time to plan the ride and avoid hazards. Although I have been riding since 1967 on our roads there is always something to learn and understand. It is not all about speed.

Brooklands Motorcycle Show 2019

www.london-motorcycle-museum.org

Brooklands Motorcycle Show

A classic bike show requires a “Classic” flyer and this time around Brooklands used an Art Deco design. Minimalistic but effective I thought this years effort was exceptional conveying speed and competition in a backdrop of the race track. The advert got me to go.

I did the thirty mile trip on my Velocette LE staying on the minor roads it was a good pace (for 200cc) and managed the journey with no mishaps. It was a good day out in very hot sunshine I did my bit for the Museum, handing out flyers and talking to people about the financial situation encouraging them to come sooner rather than later. I took only a few photos as I did a number of videos that filled up my phones memory. Some good old machines running around the arena on the old start/finish straight. The test hill was in use and many people blasted their way up the hill including a few lightweights. There was one enthusiastic pilot that accelerated so fast on his thirties racer that it pulled a wheelie that surprised him more than the audience. More people could have signed up for riding around the display area and could have taken part on the test hill. All of it ended too soon. Here are a few videos of the action.

Going around the club displays I came across some interesting bikes, on was the RVS a unique machine made from spare parts by a dealer who assembled the bike. He was also an engineer who created a set of Excelsior brakes to match the style of the machine. I had not heard of RVS before but it stands for Recovered Vintage Spares.

In one line was a Brough. Not the usual one but a fore and aft flat twin. There was a spare crankcase around too.

Lastly in the cafe there is this Zenith Gradua. A small one, gear lever on the right, one that I had seen before but not really inspected it that closely. This is worth a close look as the engine is a Bradshaw, not really surprising as their respective factories are only a few miles apart, but the engine was unusual being one of Bradshaw’s “oil boilers” I thought Bradshaw only had a design for singles but this is not so. Oil boilers were as the name suggests what happened in practice. Bradshaw used oil to cool the engine by having it splash around in a big jacket that enclosed the cylinder. The hot oil would steam away and in doing so cooled the engine. It required a sizeable volume of oil to do this but was reasonably effective. Now I have a mission to look at ABC motorcycles that are Bradshaw’s designs to see if his transverse flat twins were also oil boilers. These engines have an air cooled finned head and no barrel finning only a nice cast aluminium jacket that blends into the crankcase. Easy to miss.

I met up with Zoe Cano, intrepid lone motorcyclist whose recent book on her trip around New Zealand “Hellbent for Paradise” has just been published. I have visited most of the places she did so I want to compare notes.

A busy day at the Museum on Monday with another international flavour with visitors from Poland, South Africa and New Zealand. I fitted the Lucas light switch knob after much cleaning and that required a 4BA screw to do it with. I get this and other BA nuts and bolts for the LE from the BA Nut and Bolt Shop on-line. It looks almost new.

After many years of overheating on my LE I decided that, as I can do little about the amount of cooling from the radiator that I would fit an oil cooler. I found a suitable one that fits a Chinese 150 OHC single and made suitable brackets to mount it above the oil filter on the LE. My next problem is to plumb it in.