Beezerpost 37

I left my bike at Dad's after the trial on Saturday with my shopping list that included the work on the wheels, the exhaust and the oil filter.

He's been a busy boy today already as when I spoke to him tonight I discovered that the wheels have been stripped, the machining done on the hubs and already they are in the queue at Redditch Powdercoating to be finished in a nice shiny black colour. (see the picture of the hubs before and after machining above)

They should be back by the end of the week then they will go to Terry Millichap for building into stainless spokes.

Work has also begun on the exhaust and the hole has been cut in the front box and the mounting brackets and front connecting pipe tacked in place ready for welding.

Eventpost 54 - Sammy Miller Series Round 2 - Harry Perrey Trial, Clee Hill

Today was the second round of the Sammy Miller Series held around the Clee Hill area of Shropshire.

The weather was fantastic and even without the trial is was a superb day for riding bikes around the Shropshire countryside.

The trial was held over 30 sections which were mostly held in rocky streams and gullies and the odd bit of woodland. The sections were set out on the easy side but consisted of plenty of challenges that could easily take marks.

I started off steadily to be clean after the first 2 groups then we met some more slippery sections in Silvington Wood where mud and rocks combined to make the going quite tricky. I had a dab on section 9 then on section 10 a difficult set of muddy slots followed by a rocky gully up a steep bank I cleaned the difficult early part of the section then getting ready for the rocky gully up to the ends cards I stalled the bike for a silly 5 when a very good clean was definitely on the cards. This was followed by another dab on section 11 in Starvecrow.

I then got my head down and managed a string of cleans which started to make the 7 marks quite reasonable once again. I stayed on 7 right up to about section 24 in the penultimate group, a double sub with an exit that looked so simple that I didn't even bother to walk it. I rode the section for clean then got to the top of the bank and headed for the ends cards but missed a gate and another stupid 5 was on the card!

A dab and a 2 in the last group at Bedlam finished the day on 15 which I think will be a long way off the mark, however I take encouragement from the fact that I actually only lost 5 marks through riding the sections which I feel was a pretty steady ride and the actual score of 15 didn't really reflect the way I rode.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and yet again the bike didn't miss a beat all day (I am pretty sure that even the stall was my fault as I normally clutch it and clear the engine in sections where required and on that occasion I think I was just not concentrating enough on what I was doing).

The photos are all from today and I will post results as soon as I get them (not holding my breath though as I would imagine a number of riders would have been on low single figure scores.

Results just in......

2 Stroke Class
1. Russell Jones 5
2. Peter Gaunt 6
3. Jim Pickering 8
4. Chris Denney 10
5. Brad Jones 13
6. Peter Salt 23

Unit Construction
1. Jonathan Souch 7
2. barry Stephens 8
3. Keith Gardner 9
4. Gary Hawkins 15
5. Gerry Minshall 36

Pre Unit/British Replica's
1. Davy Morewood 3
2. Duncan McDonald 4
3. Martyn Wilmore 6
4. Mick Grant 11
5. Dave Dawson 15
6. Dave Emmott 16

Beezerpost 36

This weekend I am riding the Harry Perrey Trial which is the 2nd round of the Sammy Miller series. I will again be riding in the British Replica's class which includes the pre unit bikes that wish to ride the hard route at the event so the entry looks quite competitive with the likes of Wilmore, Grant, McDonald and Morewood all out on their trick Arials.

After this weekend it will be an opportunity to address a couple of things that I have noticed that need a bit of attention.

1. The bike is pretty loud (loud enough to give me a headache after 10 mins riding it on the road - I'm honestly thinking of ear plugs this weekend!) - there are a couple of solutions here..... to go back to Steve Gagg and try another approach with the silencer, to add a final silencer and also to try something different. I don't want to change the power delivery as i am quite happy with how it performs, so before anything else I have managed to get hold of a stainless steel silencer from a Seeley Honda and I think it will fit quite well with little modification. As it was pretty inexpensive I think it is worth a try before doing anything else. It arrived today and is a nice job so it will be interesting to see how it works

2. I have never really liked the bulky oil filter that we have been using so I have bitten the bullet and bought a nice small unit from D&C Classic Motorcycles called 'the unique oil filtration system' this fits in line on the return pipe and should fit neatly out of the way either under the engine or even up under the tank (see picture)

3. Following the bad weather I got quite a bit of road salt on the wheels transporting the bike around. As a result the galvanised spokes became pretty marked and don't look great. I am therefore planning to have the wheels stripped and re-built with stainless spokes. Whilst the wheels are apart we will possibly do a bit of machining on the hubs and have them powder coated black so they look the part.

I will update the site with a report from the weekend and also pics and reports on these jobs as they happen.

Beezerpost 35

As you can tell from the recent results, I am very happy with the bike and now I am tinkering to adjust and amend the fine detail to resolve the small niggles that you get from any bike after a few rides.

The first one is the position of the carb. When I fitted the DelOrto carb it had a nice alloy carb manifold stub that allowed me to fit the carb with a piece of hose, however on the first ride it became clear that the carb was sticking out a little to the side of the bike and was catching on my leg in sections, so much so that I knocked it off in one section and also any mud that was thrown up from the back wheel (especially with a broken rear mudguard) hit me on the backside and then dropped down onto the air filter. (see the picture above to see how much it stuck out and also how much muck got onto the air filter after the trial).

The solution was to make a manifold stub with a slight crank in it which points the carb backwards parallel with the frame and tucks it away out of the way of my leg. It now works fine...

The second mod, done today, was the handlebar clamps. I had pulled the fork legs through the yokes by about 1 inch to improve the steering and in order to achieve this I needed to put a spacer under the bar clamps to allow the bars to be above the fork legs. This worked great, however it made the bars a little too high and also with the long bolts and 2 sets of spacers the whole lot creaked under load and gave me a feeling that something was about to snap.

I read about some new S3 clamps that modern bikes use to lift the bars but also allowed for multiple adjustment forwards and backwards. I have now put a set of these on coupled with a pair of Fatbars which are slightly lower rise and combined have achieved the goal of making things more stable whilst lowering the bar height slightly (see pics above)

Eventpost 53 - Red Marley 2010

This weekend saw the 2010 Red Marley trial and after a number of years where the event has been dry, the recent rain made the going very difficult and slippery.

The sections marked out in the dry on Saturday morning took a battering on Saturday afternoon with the downpour which required them to be eased off on Sunday morning as some of the sections in the wood were difficult to reach, let alone ride through!

The event comprises of 2 laps of 20 sections in 3 main areas of the land, a stream with rocks and steep rooty banks, a wood with banks, fallen trees and a quite slippery hard packed ground and a second wood with a deep sandy surface on steeper banks.

I started in the stream and had a steady ride through on the first lap with a few dabs and a 3 on a difficult section over 2 fallen trees in the stream with a muddy gripless turn. The sections here had been marked very tight (perhaps too tight) and were very difficult to clean without a bit of lifting of the front or back wheels.

Next was the top wood, which was most affected by the rain and was very slippery, but as the sections had been opened up there were plenty of options for lines and with a bit of creative thinking they were all ride-able with the odd mark here and there.

This was followed by a couple of sections on the very rooty hillside on tight cambered turns and I was taken by surprise here with a 5 when I lost the bike across some pretty simple looking roots.

Finally the lower wood, which by the time I got there had carved lines in the sections and were not too bad.

The lap went for 26 marks, which although not brilliant I was fairly content with as I saw other riders losing plenty of marks.

The second lap went in a similar fashion with a steady, though not spectacular, ride which included a big 5 where I ended up on my back under the bike trying to clean section 11 rather then taking an easy dab, however a very consistent 26 left me on 52 for the trial.

Although it was quite a hard event, I thoroughly enjoyed it and was pleased with the end result and yet again the bike performed faultlessly and didn't miss a beat all day.

Results

Experts (Up to 250cc)
1. Ross Danby 13
2. Scott Faulkner 28
3. Alan Nicklin 38
4. Kevin Taylor 47
5. Ben Millichap 52
6. Mick Burton 61
7. Alan Whitton 63
8. Chris Denney 64
9. Dave Wood 65
10.Adrian Kent 84

Experts (Over 350cc)
1. Chris Collins 38
2. Dave Dawson 52
3. Chris Chell 62
4. Simon Chell 66
5. Gary Hawkins 77
6. Pete Reed 89
7. Mick Bowers 103
8. Tim Britton 131

Eventpost 52 - Round 1 Sammy Miller Series - Widdecombe, Devon

Yesterday I went to the 1st round of the Sammy Miller series in Devon, run by the West of England Club.

The event started with a bit of organised chaos with the club deciding that as wet weather was forecast the start times would not apply and riders could just start when they wanted. This sounded like a good idea, however all it really meant was that riders were not riding at the same time as others in the same class on sections that were worsening and those of us that were not aware of what was happening ended up towards the back of the field sitting in queues until things sorted themselves out.

The sections were sensible, if a little on the easy side but rode well and clearly the event would be won on fairly few marks.

Most of the sections were marked in rocky hillsides and a few streams thrown in for good measure and there was not too much roadwork so it was a good day out.

I rode fairly steadily although I lost far too many soft single marks through a lack of concentration. Although most of the sections were cleanable I would have felt a good ride would have resulted in a single figure score, yet my slack marks resulted in a loss of 15 marks...I think!

It was a bit of a wet and uncomfortable ride round though.... I would like to have a story about a difficult section that I looped out on and broke my rear mudguard but nothing so dramatic I'm afraid, instead I parked next to Steve Thompson's bike whilst looking at sections in the 3rd group of the day and when he stood his own bike up it knocked mine over and snapped the rear mudguard off leaving me with a soggy backside for the rest of the day - thanks Steve!

I have just seen the results and will have to drop the organisers an email as there is a bit of an error!

I had entered in the new British Replica class and when I got to sign on I found that I had been placed in the Unit class. I told the organiser that this was not correct and they gave me another number in the Replica's class. The results have been posted on their website today and I have actually been placed in the Twinshock field.

I am making the assumption that this will be adjusted so I have finished 2nd behind Martyn Wilmore in the class and a number of marks have been added that I didn't lose, (certainly a 2 on section 1 and a 2 and 1 on sections 33 and 34 were all actually cleaned) however across the season I am sure that I will lose marks that observers do not see so no need to get too upset!

Results

2 Stroke
1. P Salt 5
2. P Gaunt 6
3. R Jones 13

Unit
1. G Hawkins 16 MC
2. J Souch 16
3. J Ashford 16

Brit Specials
1. M Wilmore 19
2. D Dawson 20
3. M Parry Norton 28

No action pics of the trial this week, but here are a shot of Gary Hawkins (winner of the unit class) and one of the bike when we got home (looking a little sorry for itself!)

Eventpost 51 - BMCA Knighton

Sunday was the last round of the BMCA championship, held at Knighton and put on by John Jackson and Ray Ruscoe from the Acorns Club.

I have ridden at Knighton a few times in the past on both modern and classic bikes and honestly have never really has a good ride. The location is on the site of a motocross track and has varied terrain that includes a small wood with some good rooty banks and rock steps, a rocky stream and some long steep banks so something for everyone and no real advantage to be gained by any particular type of bike.

Well, I am happy to say that I rode quite well and the bike again performed flawlessly. The only problem was that the sections were set out on Saturday in the rain and over night the rain stopped and the wind dried the land so well that the sections were a little too easy for the event, which was reflected in the scores. After all, how many times can you say that you finished on 2 marks yet only finished in 6th place in the event!!

So not much of a test but another good run for the bike and I am getting more comfortable on it each time out.

Next week we travel to Devon for the 1st round of the Sammy Miller series. As I have entered in the British Specials class, I might try the Delorto carb on the bike to see how it performs. Will update the BLOG next week and let you know how it went.

Pictures are from Sunday - As you can see, I have splashed out on some new riding gear to go with the colour scheme on the bike - quite smart even though I say it myself!

Results

Experts (Up to 350cc)
1. Alan Nicklin 0
1= Nathan Jones 0
1= Chris Denny 0
4. Steve Hay 1
5. Gary Hawkins 2
6. Dave Dawson 2
7. Alan Borton 5
8. Dave Jones 7
9. Steve Thompson 10

Experts (Over 350cc)
1. Pete Reed 4
2. Mike Bowers 8
3. Arthur Browning 10
4. Bob Greenhough 32

Eventpost 50 - BMCA Shatterford

Today was the 50th trial I have ridden since starting this BLOG back in Jan 2007 and quite a change of fortune from last week.

I felt last week that he bike was working well but the result was probably a little more down to me being a little ring rusty as I had only ridden twice since November and both occasions on bikes that belonged to other people. I spent an hour yesterday at the farm getting some practice on tight cambered turns to get used to the feel of the bike (not really one for practising but needs must!)

The only real concerns I had with the bike after last week's trial was that the front end felt like it was pushing a little on tight turns. I therefore felt that putting a bit more weight over the front would make it a little more planted. This week I tried dropping the yokes an inch down the forks to see what the difference would be. In order to achieve this I put some spacers under the handlebar clamps to allow the fork legs to come up through the yokes and also to keep the bars high in relation to everything else that had been lowered.

Well, it certainly worked! The trial today was in the woods of Shatterford near kidderminster and consisted of short steep banks, tight turns and cambered, rooty sections.

The going at Shatterford is usually quite slick and muddy however with the lack of rain over the last few weeks it was remarkably dry and grippy today so even though the sections were quite testing, the grip provided a close competition with scores pretty low.

I rode well with only one small mistake on section 8 on the first lap where I dropped too low on a cambered bank and needed a dab to get back on line. The rest of the trial went without any further mistakes and with a similar field to last week I was pleased with my first trial win on the BSA.

Results

Experts
1. Dave Dawson 1
2. Nathan Jones 3
3. Gary Hawkins 5
5. Ben Millichap 6
6. Jim Pickering 8
7. Laurence Alden 11
8. Alan Borton 12
9. Pete Reed 15
10. Arthur Browning 31
10=. Gerry Minshall 31

Eventpost 49 - BMCA Pattingham

The trial today was at Pattingham, near Wolverhampton put on by Pete Reed. The ground was at the site of an old AMCA motocross track and used a sandy wooded hill side as well as a couple of muddy gullies.

The sections remained pretty loose all day and as it was dry they had been marked out very tight with the majority of the sections comprising of tight turns through trees and up banks.

Well, the bike performed brilliantly and hardly missed a beat all day. It feels really planted with the engine sitting a little lower in the frame and further back towards the swinging arm pivot point. I was certainly light to ride and felt quite neutral (not front of rear biased)in the sections.

I got off to a good start with a couple of cleans on the first two sections followed by a soft dab on a muddy turn on section 3. Then in section 4, a muddy gully that was entered with a drop into the slot then a cambered turn around a marker on the opposite bank (see the first picture here). Unfortunately I didn't get high enough on the camber and touched the marker for a 5 (the section was changed for the remaining laps as I am sure the marker was knocked by many of the field).

The rest of the lap was pretty uneventful except a poor 3 marks lost on section 8 (a tight nadgery section in and out of trees)where I almost ran out of the section and needed to foot to pull it back in bounds.

I found that this happened a few times during the trial and only realised towards the end of the trial that this was the first time I had ridden the bike with the 58t rear sprocket after running a 62t previously and I was actually just travelling a bit quicker than I was used to in the sections.

Once I had the measure of what was going on I rode better and on the last lap I did the lap for 4 marks.

I think I lost about 30 marks in the end (including a couple of stalls that were my fault) which I would imagine would leave me well down the results, however it was a great learning day and I am really happy with the bike. I am sure that it will help me deliver some good results when I have spent a bit of time riding it.

Results just in (worse than I thought but actually very promising for a first time out)

Results

1. Nathan Jones 6
2. Ben Millichap 12
3. Gary Hawkins 23
4. Pete Reed 35
5. Laurence Alden 36
6. Dave Dawson 40
7. Dave Jones 41
8. Alan Borton 48
9. Brian Dale 50
10. Gerry Minshull 59
11. Ian Bullock 70
12. Joe Howells 72
13. Alan Halford 72

Beezerpost 34 - Finished???

I took the bike out on Friday for the 1st time to see how it handled and make sure that it was OK for Sunday's trial.

I was running the DelOrto carb on the bike and it felt really good off the bottom in 1st but in 2nd and 3rd it felt like there was a bit of a misfire and it wouldn't pull cleanly from low revs. It probably needs a bit of testing with different jets and cut away's on the slide but as I didn't have much time I plumbed for dropping the Amal back on as I knew that it ran pretty well on that before.

The bike actually ran really well and pulled cleanly (much cleaner than before so that might be down to the longer front pipe). Any way, all looks good for Sunday.

These pics were taken on Saturday afternoon after I had given it a clean and a quick once over ready for the weekend's trial.