Racing 2022

Chris said:
I would put a Commando in it Ralph.
You are a good man Ralph!
The problems you had to get it out on track would have had me in a dark room. With what's just happened with the engine, the bike would be going in a dark room.
Keep at it.
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I would consider a 750 commando motor or even a Dominator but I do like the single.
 
Onder said:
Better take that pix of the roof attack down, ElfnSafety will be at you for sure!
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I hate the elf n safety morons with a passion, obviously there are a couple of issues with how I took the chimney out but my house, my life, my choice. is there anything they could have done about it anyway? are there actually any laws about how you work on your own property? I reckon it could have been the best part of a grand to scaffold that up and I have a motor to rebuild. :)
 
...don't get me started on the scaffolding routine...
You cannot even paint your house off a ladder anymore. What nonsense.
Save your dosh for the rebuild!
 
The problem arises when you try to get off the roof ladder onto the main ladder which just slides away sideways---------- a call to the fire brigade gets it all back in order !!. As long as you have your mobile with you. Must stop doing this stuff ,too old at 76 ,have found a local builder to take over ,at 84 he's still up for it.
 
norton bob said:
The problem arises when you try to get off the roof ladder onto the main ladder which just slides away sideways---------- a call to the fire brigade gets it all back in order !!. As long as you have your mobile with you. Must stop doing this stuff ,too old at 76 ,have found a local builder to take over ,at 84 he's still up for it.
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For that reason, I tied them together. :)
 
Yikes, catastrophic failure.

The stresses imposed by the obviously wasted parts on the possibly undamaged cases, will need to be inspected quite closely.
 
Anglesey BHR. Didn't get the ES2 sorted yet so I dragged the Seeley out of retirement, Changed the oil, pumped the tires up and everything seemed OK in the practice session Saturday morning.

But the warm up lap in the first race was a tad eventful early on, it had to happen some time didn't it?

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AngleseyRace1.mp4

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My first off since I started racing and the most annoying thing is I haven't a clue why. There was no warning the front just let go and that was that.

As it was the sighting lap we weren't going that fast plus every one else got round OK, there were a lots of thoughts why it happened but all dismissed fairly quickly.

We had a garage for the first time and it was cold in there so the tire was colder than normal.
It didn't do it in practice and it was colder then, plus we race when it is colder than it was. I did put the bike in the sun outside after though.

Something on the track.
Everyone else got round.

It was very windy.
It wasn't just blowing on me.

The list of excuses went on and on into comedy.

Anyway, bent clip-on, bent footrest, oil all over the back wheel blown out of the catch tank when it was revving on its side and a few scratches. I changed the wheels with the ones I keep for the wet, not proper wets as we are not allowed them but they perform better than the Continentals in the wet, they aren't as good in the dry but they did keep the bike upright for the rest of the meeting.

A length of scaffolding sorted the clip-on, a hammer the footrest and with a couple of minutes to spare it was out for the next race. 2, 5ths and a 6th overall and 3, 2nd's in class was the rest of the weekend for me.

Sunday morning, Rob who was in the garage with us and riding a BMW K100 went out for his first race and in the exact same spot on his warm up lap, did the same thing, he has done a lot more racing than me and used to race Luke Mossey's Triumph in the Triumph cup, he is good, but like me, had no clue what happened. At least it moved the piss taking from me to him for a while but then they realised that because Rob had fell off on the sighting lap it didn't mean that I hadn't so we had to share the jibes for the rest of the day.

I am getting the bike ready for the Bob Mac classic races in Scotland this weekend, not done it before and being Scotland it will be raining, I have just fitted new Avons to the bike and what with the cost of fuel, entry fees etc, £400 for a pair of tires is getting close to signalling the end of racing for me.
 
That's a bugger Ralph. At least there was no serious damage to the bike (or you).
That's an expensive pair of tyres you are using, did you have to go for the gold plated valve stems as well though? :cool:

I'm recovering from a nasty dose of Covid, but next weekend is Spa, will be using the Ducati though, since the Commando is still misbehaving.
 
Hi Ralph that's horrible to hear. Your not alone but when you don't know why? It stays with you, its really annoying. Shame about the Bob Mac, I would have enjoyed your company. I had booked Anglesea Bob Mac & Cadwell with stopover along route. Nearly 3 weeks of touring. I was looking forward to it. Mums funeral brings things to a close on the 5th of July & I am looking to/sort off? book Pembrey BHR & Donington both towards the end of July. But it seems a bit disrespectful to say it out loud. Its been a tough 5 years. I hope you have a great time. I've never done East Fotune but I hear it's good. If Knockhill comes up again I will be there! Absolutely stunning track brilliant for classics loved it. Stay upright matey.
 
That’s tough Ralph but at least all was well enough to get straight back on.

When you have an unexplained off like that it can play on your mind and knock your confidence badly, so being able to jump straight back on is extremely important psychologically.
 
SteveBorland said:
That's a bugger Ralph. At least there was no serious damage to the bike (or you).
That's an expensive pair of tyres you are using, did you have to go for the gold plated valve stems as well though? :cool:

I'm recovering from a nasty dose of Covid, but next weekend is Spa, will be using the Ducati though, since the Commando is still misbehaving.
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Yep, tyres are up there with petrol for price increases. How was Spa?
 
Chris said:
Hi Ralph that's horrible to hear. Your not alone but when you don't know why? It stays with you, its really annoying. Shame about the Bob Mac, I would have enjoyed your company. I had booked Anglesea Bob Mac & Cadwell with stopover along route. Nearly 3 weeks of touring. I was looking forward to it. Mums funeral brings things to a close on the 5th of July & I am looking to/sort off? book Pembrey BHR & Donington both towards the end of July. But it seems a bit disrespectful to say it out loud. Its been a tough 5 years. I hope you have a great time. I've never done East Fotune but I hear it's good. If Knockhill comes up again I will be there! Absolutely stunning track brilliant for classics loved it. Stay upright matey.
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Sorry to hear about your mum.
I am in at Pembrey on the Seeley, will you be there?
 
Fast Eddie said:
That’s tough Ralph but at least all was well enough to get straight back on.

When you have an unexplained off like that it can play on your mind and knock your confidence badly, so being able to jump straight back on is extremely important psychologically.
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All in the past by the next race, still annoying though.
 
The Bob Mac meeting went well, mostly.

The organisers put on a good meeting and it was pleasure to be there.

One thing I couldn’t understand though, I got down to within 1 second of my best lap of the weekend on the forth lap of qualifying practice after a total of about 8 laps from never having seen the track before, it did get windy on the Sunday but I expected to improve more than that, odd.

After two practices and 4 races I dipped out of the final race, it was just starting to drizzle so I got some stick for that and explaining that I thought the motor was too noisy after the last race fell on deaf ears, but I am glad I stuck to my guns and didn’t go out.

I pulled the motor apart when I got home and found that one of the location grub screws that hold the brass blocks for the BSA type lifters had come loose and the block had moved up and the followers were trying to escape, bashing the block as well.

Lucky it didn’t get out as that would have been the end of another motor.
 
storm42 said:
The Bob Mac meeting went well, mostly.

The organisers put on a good meeting and it was pleasure to be there.

One thing I couldn’t understand though, I got down to within 1 second of my best lap of the weekend on the forth lap of qualifying practice after a total of about 8 laps from never having seen the track before, it did get windy on the Sunday but I expected to improve more than that, odd.

After two practices and 4 races I dipped out of the final race, it was just starting to drizzle so I got some stick for that and explaining that I thought the motor was too noisy after the last race fell on deaf ears, but I am glad I stuck to my guns and didn’t go out.

I pulled the motor apart when I got home and found that one of the location grub screws that hold the brass blocks for the BSA type lifters had come loose and the block had moved up and the followers were trying to escape, bashing the block as well.

Lucky it didn’t get out as that would have been the end of another motor.
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Good intuition there Ralph, just saved yourself a ton of money and headache !!

That motor has done a lot of hard work, what did the rest of it look like ?

And has the loose lifter block damaged anything, or is it just a case of re fit and carry on ?
 
The rest looked OK, even the black coating on the pistons was still there.

I dressed the damage and refitted the block, seems ok. I did locktight the grub screw when I fitted it so I am guessing this may be another effect of the Darley overheat last year, I have put it back in with high strength locktight this time. I will post a pic when I get in.
 
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