Donington classic festival

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Chris

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Spent last week with a big smile on my face. Managed to get out at Donington. Something I did not think was going to happen. Got home from work on Thursday night & started to pack the van, finally finishing just before midnight. Yep load myself from the get go! Then had the jockey wheel on the caravan collapse! Not much of a slope on my drive way but I had to pick up (my pop up caravan) & drag it to the tow bar. All good no hernia visable I tested the electrics & found the brake lights out on the nearside. Torch in mouth I stripped the lights of & replaced all the bulbs. Van light working caravan not! Tested the circuit & found it was the 7 pin connector. Well Im not playing with that in the dark so I pumped it full of cleaner & went into wash. Only ten past one, not bad really. Somehow managed to get up two hours later & drive the couple of hundred miles to Donington. Many thanks to John Davidson for his efforts to get me out. For some strange reason ie how badly I rode at Croft I actually did the right thing & entered the parades.
Six rides over the three days. Bike only buggered about twice. Didnt charge up the Interspan enough & missed the last few laps of one session & then had the same problem as Croft. Changing gear going down the box when tramping on a bit the engine stalled. Seems hanging on while braking hard, I cant blip the throttle enough! Well broke a few rules & jacked the tickover up. It did it again on Sunday but I managed to restart it at the esses. New carb cables required as they see to be compressing?
Met a lot of people who were building Commandos & a fair few into race frames. None were going to be raced. Met a nice man with an original Seeley Commando purchased last year to parade. In his first meeting the barrels cracked at the flanges! Highlight of the weekend was meeting up with Bernd Schaefer from Germany who was in England to take in a few events. Donnington being one & a track day at Oulton Park on his 675 Triumph Daytona another. Well invited Bernd in for a tea & a chat & found out he is a member of this forum & has a race Commando that has a frame nearly as bright as mine. Even more suprising I found out he was a rider in the Spa four hour endurance race on the Gulf Rob North triple. I am a TR3oc man. Well I have decided that the project Rickman Commando may have a German pilot if Bernd comes over next season! We had a great weekend & a few beers as well as a good laugh.
Sorry about the photos but they but a smile back on my face.

Donington classic festival

My brother Steve on the North
Donington classic festival
 
Re: Donnington classic festival

Chris said:
Hi

Spent last week with a big smile on my face. Managed to get out at Donington. Something I did not think was going to happen. Got home from work on Thursday night & started to pack the van, finally finishing just before midnight. Yep load myself from the get go! Then had the jockey wheel on the caravan collapse! Not much of a slope on my drive way but I had to pick up (my pop up caravan) & drag it to the tow bar. All good no hernia visable I tested the electrics & found the brake lights out on the nearside. Torch in mouth I stripped the lights of & replaced all the bulbs. Van light working caravan not! Tested the circuit & found it was the 7 pin connector. Well Im not playing with that in the dark so I pumped it full of cleaner & went into wash. Only ten past one, not bad really. Somehow managed to get up two hours later & drive the couple of hundred miles to Donington. Many thanks to John Davidson for his efforts to get me out. For some strange reason ie how badly I rode at Croft I actually did the right thing & entered the parades.
Six rides over the three days. Bike only buggered about twice. Didnt charge up the Interspan enough & missed the last few laps of one session & then had the same problem as Croft. Changing gear going down the box when tramping on a bit the engine stalled. Seems hanging on while braking hard, I cant blip the throttle enough! Well broke a few rules & jacked the tickover up. It did it again on Sunday but I managed to restart it at the esses. New carb cables required as they see to be compressing?
Met a lot of people who were building Commandos & a fair few into race frames. None were going to be raced. Met a nice man with an original Seeley Commando purchased last year to parade. In his first meeting the barrels cracked at the flanges! Highlight of the weekend was meeting up with Bernd Schaefer from Germany who was in England to take in a few events. Donnington being one & a track day at Oulton Park on his 675 Triumph Daytona another. Well invited Bernd in for a tea & a chat & found out he is a member of this forum & has a race Commando that has a frame nearly as bright as mine. Even more suprising I found out he was a rider in the Spa four hour endurance race on the Gulf Rob North triple. I am a TR3oc man. Well I have decided that the project Rickman Commando may have a German pilot if Bernd comes over next season! We had a great weekend & a few beers as well as a good laugh.
Sorry about the photos but they but a smile back on my face.

Donington classic festival

My brother Steve on the North
Donington classic festival

Good to hear Chris, at the end of the day it is about enjoying it! Can't say I had enough fun at Cadwell to make it worthwhile!

And thank you....for reminding me that I have a dodgy rear indicator on my box trailer and I am setting out for Gedinne tomorrow, via Dieppe to collect the wife.....I think she got off the inbound ferry about an hour ago (she gets about 18 hours in the UK!)

Better have another shot at in the morning! Probably won't be just a 7 pin connector problem....Uk trailer manufacturer insisted on fitting a 13 pin (EU requirement he says) French Camping car supplier fits new van with 7 pin connector! (what EU requirement? he says) so I have an adapter!
 
Re: Donnington classic festival

I am jealous. I would love to be doing that. About blipping the throttle - on my bike, the front brake is one-finger operation and I use a two cable quick-action Yamaha TZ twist grip. It means I have three fingers and a thumb around the twist-grip and my fore-finger on the brake. The twist grip doesn't turn far enough to affect my finger on the brake. When I race everything happens super-smoothly. There is not much worse which affects safety, than having to make two grabs of the twist-grip when changing gear and braking.
 
Re: Donnington classic festival

acotrel said:
...About blipping the throttle - on my bike, the front brake is one-finger operation and I use a two cable quick-action Yamaha TZ twist grip. It means I have three fingers and a thumb around the twist-grip and my fore-finger on the brake. The twist grip doesn't turn far enough to affect my finger on the brake. There is not much worse which affects safety, than having to make two grabs of the twist-grip when changing gear and braking.
I two finger brake, but fully agree and love those old TZ throttles. Must have had at least a half dozen of them on various Ducati's with big Dellorto or Malossi carbs. One is on my R90S now. They've become collectable and expensive, but I think you can actually still get all the parts for them thru Yamaha.
Bill
 
Re: Donnington classic festival

pantah_good said:
acotrel said:
...About blipping the throttle - on my bike, the front brake is one-finger operation and I use a two cable quick-action Yamaha TZ twist grip. It means I have three fingers and a thumb around the twist-grip and my fore-finger on the brake. The twist grip doesn't turn far enough to affect my finger on the brake. There is not much worse which affects safety, than having to make two grabs of the twist-grip when changing gear and braking.
I two finger brake, but fully agree and love those old TZ throttles. Must have had at least a half dozen of them on various Ducati's with big Dellorto or Malossi carbs. One is on my R90S now. They've become collectable and expensive, but I think you can actually still get all the parts for them thru Yamaha.
Bill

I use an easilly accessible/affordable Domino copy!

Main differences? It is Italian and coloured black.
 
Are you using your Domino on stock Amals? I was thinking they had too much travel for Amals. I have a standard Tommaselli Daytona two cable throttle I was thinking of using on my Norton, but I'm definitely open to the quicker Domino. I can't abide a cable splitter.

Sorry, threads now badly derailed.
 
pantah_good said:
Are you using your Domino on stock Amals? I was thinking they had too much travel for Amals. I have a standard Tommaselli Daytona two cable throttle I was thinking of using on my Norton, but I'm definitely open to the quicker Domino. I can't abide a cable splitter.

Sorry, threads now badly derailed.

I will give my answer and then I suppose we should leave it. Truth is I have 34mm Mikunis, as did early TZs.

I can't abide a cable splitter either.

I am all for Chris having lots of fun at Donington, and classic race festivals in general.

I had to go to Belgium last weekend to get my fix! The places and events couldn't be more different, but for me Gedinne was more authentic 1970s, paddock was a mudbath so I had to fabricate a mudguard and airbox with gaffer tape. They were even taking the straw bales away as we ate dinner on Sunday! The track was back to public roads on Monday as we drove out!

Well done and thank you to all those volunteers.
 
Not wanting to derail the topic, however it is strange how such a small detail as the set-up of the throttle and brake can have such a big effect. With my bike everything is there 100% reliable, so when things happen very fast, I never pull a boo-boo. Everything is done smoothly and in the cold light of day. I was wondering about the Domino twist grips. I bought my TZ one years ago in bits as spare parts. Later on , I tried to get another and the spares were not available.
 
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