The Cotterell Bang .

Now it seems Alans a bit concerned as to the permanancy of the placement of the crankshaft in the cases of his 850 Seely Commando .

What I suggest , is we get a few blokes to call round in the Ute , with a few Bottles of fine whiskey , a few drums ( 44 gal ) of 100 octane
some Castrol R & a few sets of leathers , lids & so on .

Im not sure where his doubts arise , possibly from his political associations , negativity , mayhem , cant see the forest for the trees etc ,
not that theres a lot of Forests or Trees in Victoria . Let alone South Australia . Conversely he may watch a bit of television .
Its usually how the rot starts to set in . Paranoia & despondancy from the news . if youre gulibal .

Anyway , by the time one bottles down the hatch , im sure we can get him of down to Calder Park / The THUNDERDROME .


This lot should get us going for a day or two , so theres a chance of a few records , on the way . As long as he come round during the proceedings .
A few extra Drums of Fuel , some meat pies & a few crates of ale , could keep the proceedings under way for say seven days .

The cranshaft still being in its caseings at this stage , and we'll probly be all getting a bit bored with it , and likely run out of beer .
Nevertheless , the point will be proven . Thats were the crankshaft belongs & stays . Provided the riders not been at the Ale ,
television , political meetings or has run out of trees .

http://www.worldweatheronline.com/Melbo ... ia/AU.aspx

According to this stuff , the coolest temperatures are July / august . So thats when we'll plan it , at least between July & october .

Anyone think we should do Tickets , or have the media aroud , on the day . :?:

I have just returned from the Island Classic at Phillip Island. It is all just too fast for me, I can imagine the feeling of approaching turn one at about 130mph knowing what that crankshaft is doing . It would be like standing in the nitration house in the explosives factory while they are making nitroglycerine.

Wonder if the Mk III cranks are any better engineerded / manufactued . Still , a good one should be o.k. , :?

I like billet cranks and carillo rods :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhLEJxpWwTE

I also have my doubts about staggering the crank too make it 270 dgrees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDdtDx6Wero
MANX GP 2012 CLOSED ROADS VMCC LAP AFTER SENIOR RACE.
ON BOARD CAMERA ON 1970 SEELEY COMMANDO.
SERIOUS ADHESION ISSUES ON TRACK WITH OIL SPILLS AND HEAVY RAIN.

Rain is strange as must either pussy foot or get more aggressive than on dry pavement in the turns to make the rear tire bite through the wet yet not just ski off the edge. In between is murder. Often there is wind with the rain which can shove bike a few tire widths out of line so better to stay in fear pressing it to ballistic right through gusts than more timid constant state a gust can over whelm. Two things I have yet to figure how i can best get away with, heavy wet roods and tire+ deep mud. Crash cage should make repeating enough times to get a handle on it cheaply, eventually..to enjoy over doing just enough to nullify most its limitations. Wet slick pavement is rather more sticky traction than heated dry Gravel that's electrolytically repelling all surfaces acting as ball bearing rollers. Racing in wet is crazy making insanity so I can imagine the high it takes to take it on by racers. Compound and temperature, PSI and foot print shape-size matter more than the advertising of rain groove designs. As far as I've tested wet pavement stops sliding about 1/3rd faster than dry Gavel but its not a constant re- grip, like the Gravel, so got to leave a wee bit of reserve run off if pressing or surprised by suddenly skiing on water, an old hobby of mine. If you are not slipping a bit in the wet then you are pussy footing which is the old ones wise way to get somewhere w/o long delays. Last lesions on this was so trying to make it to work on a rear flat going 80's to keep it round but w/o a rim lock I chickened out to fight the wind gusts skews as Trixie ain't no Ms Peel to handle hardly anything beyond timid. All motorcycle risk and expense could be avoided by simply outlawing all forms of two tire craft.

I usually ride faster in the rain because the consequences are not so severe , if you fall off you slide rather than roll. Watching that video was horrific for me - been (not there but elsewhere ), done that. There were too many solid objects.
I won a race a few years back at an old farts meeting, when it was raining. The inexperienced guys with the fast four cylinder bikes usually back off - I go faster. The thing to always remember is that if it is bad for you, it is bad for all the others trying to get ahead of you

Hobot, you just learn to tippy toe around being super smooth and not making any sudden moves, modern tyres in the wet are better than our old racing tyres used to be in the dry.

Alan, Water sports is how I cut my eye teeth on fast turns but my groin hurts to watch wet racing let alone envision me trying it. Interesting you get more aggressive or faster in the wet or at least till it feels that way traction wise. There is some magic in the Commando engine power character rear grip wise. Not sure why that is but you seem to notice that on the wet too. To get away with slippage sliding its not so much learning what it takes to break loose, vital as that is, but more how long-far before it regrips and chassis reaction when it does to compensate just ahead of time. I had fairly easy going wet pavement down shifts to 1st suddenly start rear passing to outside as I slowed to enter a drive way about 30 mph but decided to chance a Phase 5 maneuver and blipped throttle to keep the spun slide going w/o leaning or going wide on a tangent and straight steered into drive w/o going off edge into the Culver, got lined up and hit both brakes before wet grass could get me. I force myself to practice stuff that scares me so will have to learn the rest of my wet lesions in our village square or track days when no one else even thinking about riding. I lower PSI for better cold wet grip but not very much or tires get squirmy and hydroplane easier.

acotrel said:

Hobot, you just learn to tippy toe around being super smooth and not making any sudden moves, modern tyres in the wet are better than our old racing tyres used to be in the dry.

Click to expand...

I have to agree with Acotrel .
Having honed my wet weather motorcycling riding on the race track using both full wets and race compound road tyres ( Like the Metzeler ME1) I had to learn to ride smoothly on tarmac- it was by far the quickest way to ride round a corner on two wheels on tarmac.
Quite different from the British speedway track where they ride on wet shale, the wetter it is the more grip there is.
Gravel/sand/ wet mud is totally unpredictable.

I believe that the gum ball tyres which arrived in the mid-70s made racing much safer, however many young guys never learned how to go fast and keep traction when they couldn't rely on their tyres. That photo of me on the right of this message was taken At Mount Gambier in about 1971. It was the only time in about 12 years racing back then that I could afford to get really aggressive. The circuit was topped with non-skid. It eventually had to be replaced with smooth-top because of the shocking injuries some riders were getting. However if you knew how to ride a racing motorcycle, you would never crash there unless you did something really stupid .

Burnt up wild Norton power plant ain't a wet-rain-wind riding thread but foremost in my mind is constant avoidance of crashing by my own hand or others, ugh. The smacheroo of following normal wisdom, ie: smooth as can be, falls apart when a unexpected hazard happens to alter your safe-secure fast wet turning. I get about one or two involuntary screams per ride, if there's even time too, so usually is after the save or miss when lung reaction hits, then I feel a silly sissy or a stupid risk taker.

Re-read acetrel's comments, about getting more aggressive in the wet. What I want-need to learn better is how to get loose in control on purpose ahead of time rather than have it surprise me too late. After crashing a lot going as easy-smooth as I could I went insane like kidnap victim grabbing the stun gun from captor and zapping self just to spite them. This works out to over doing turn entries with power and lean in the normal braking-engine drag zones before the most intense part of turn then spend the rest of the turn trying to recover drift/slide-cross up by easing up all loads in the most intense part of turns rather than trying to creep up on best traction in the most intense parts. My world divides up into surfaces one can dig in-bite into, snow, sand, dirt, wet shale or Gravel and light Mud vs those tire can't bite into, ice, pavement and dry hard pack base Gravel. Deep mud is immediate unpredictable crisis so if I see it in time I'm spun up accelerating straight at it then try to back off power so rear is freewheeling at same suddenly decreasing speed minimal drag and nil acceleration freaking out screaming trying to hold a straight upright line till tires get on more terra firma. Wet leaves and grass on slopes on smooth street tires has many lesions to teach wisdoms of even putting a seat in a saddle.

Last wet ride 6 days ago made me scream 3 x's - twice on pavement essentially coasting mild sweeper and once on THE Wet Gravel tip toeing bee line straight to get home w/o holes letting water and grit in. In October after all day in wet-cold d/t Wes's electrical faults Trixie did a double crash at night on THE Gravel, just below 30 mph 4th, low side off L knee-hip then hi side on R elbow/shoulder then popped up right like nothing happened, all in less time than half a breath, in two shakes of a billy goat's tail. Like UFO abduction, beamed up probed then shot back into bed so not sure if really happened - till finding the hole implant was inserted. I wonder if they give discounts on rain cancelled tract days, will find out.

It was grass clotted mats floating on Quicksand Mud supported by up welling ground water that 1st taught-forced on me the 5th dimensional steering-skiing very sharp 90's turns straight steering full upright on slightly spun up rear long enough to run out of breath screaming in helmet involuntary. So I ride scared to shit a lot of the time and wondering how long I can take it.