Eventpost 55 - BMCA Hunnington

Today was a BMCA trial at Hunnington near Halesowen, West Midlands on a new piece of land found by Ian Bullock. The trial was put on by Ian, Gerry Minshall and Pete Reed.

It's never easy putting on a trial at a new location because you never really know how the ground will react and that compounded with overnight showers after a few weeks of very dry weather gave the organisers a bit of a challenge to get the level of the sections right.

As it turned out the land was really good and I personally hope we get to use it again, however the banks in the wood were covered with wild garlic plants and these can be slippery at the best of times. When you add a bit of rain followed by water being dragged up the banks from the stream it made for a very tricky challenge and some sections that turned out to be on the difficult side.

The sections consisted of 50% that were normal midlands centre stuff with streams and banks amongst the woods followed by the other 50% that wouldn't have been out of place in the Yorkshire centre with rocky sections up a stream with some nice big rocks.

I got off to a steady start and finished the first lap for 6 marks which was quite respectable. Although I continued to ride pretty well, I had some inconsistent moments on the next few laps where there was a very fine line between a good ride and ending up on your ear! Unfortunately I had more of the latter than I wanted and lost 5's on lap 2 and 3 on section 1, followed by a 5 on section 3 and a couple of silly 5's on sections 8 and 9 where I should have really lost a one and a clean if the previous laps were anything to go by.

So, all in all a quite high scoring trial however very enjoyable and I am pretty pleased with how I rode and also how the bike performed. I think my score was about 10-15 marks more than I should have lost but I imagine the whole field would be in a similar frame of mind so I think the result was a fair representation of how the day went for me.

There were a couple of retirements (Alan Nickin, Chris Denny, Steve Thompson and Gerry Minshall due to bike problems and injuries so I hope everyone is OK).

Results
Experts (Up to 350cc)
1. Steve Hay 27
2. Chris Pearson 32
3. Nathan Jones 38
4. Dave Dawson 48
5. Mick Burton 49
6. Keith Gardner 68
7. Bob Greenhough 71
8. Dave Jones 71
9. Alan Halford 76
10. Gary Hawkins 83

Experts (Over 350cc)
1. Jim Pickering 72
2. Mick Parkes 72

New Bike in the Workshop - Any Info Appreciated

A regular reader of the Blog (Richard Clark) contacted me last week and asked if the Dawson garage fancied a bit of work.

The story is that this bike was purchased by Vic Vaughan as it had a pair of magnesium forks that were produced by the BSA factory for it's supported riders in the 60's. Apparently Vic had bought his old motocross bike back and all it was missing was the magnesium forks. Apparently this bike had a pair of these special magnesium forks and he bought it for the forks alone.

Richard purchased the bike from Vic, minus the forks and put an Alan Witton front end on it (yokes, forks and front wheel).

The frame is apparently a Victor frame and the engine a C15 250cc engine. The frame has been pretty heavily modified and carries the oil in the top and front down tubes, plus there is a secondary small oil tank as part of the frame under the seat. It has a rather over engineered alloy box that sits under the seat that houses the air filter on one side and probably held a tool kit on the other side, however now the electrics are located there to keep them away from the elements.

It has been suggested to Richard that this may have been a BSA works bike and the frame actually a Victor replica made by BSA for their trials supported riders.

Does anyone have any info that might help identify where the bike came from and who might have ridden it in the past??? Please drop me an email to davedawson444@btinternet.com or leave a comment on this post.

Dad has been asked to give the bike a tidy up so it is currently stripped down with the frame at the powder coaters and next week he will start a rebuild that will essentially just clean it up, repair anything that is not right and give Richard a tidy bike that's ready to ride.

I will post a few pics of the build but please let me know if you have any info that will help identify any history about the bike

Thanks guys....

BMCA Trial - May 16th

I was talking to Ian Bullock the other evening and he tells me that some new trials land has been found in the Midlands and a 'try out' event has been planned for 16th of May. The trial will be run by the BMCA.

I understand that the ground is really good with streams, rocks, banks, trees (bit of everything!)and there is plenty of it so we can expect some good sections.

As this is a new piece of land, the guys want to give the land owner a taste of pre 65 trials and therefore we need a really good turn out, so if you haven't already got plans for that weekend please come along and support the event.

I know there are plenty of readers of this BLOG that are within easy travelling distance of the west Midlands (especially the Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and East Midlands riders) so please come and support the event. It will possibly ensure that we get to use the ground again and it is always good to ride on fresh ground that hasn't been used before.

VENUE: Breach Farm, Bromsgrove Road, Hunnington, Halesowen, West Midlands, B62 0JS
DIRECTIONS: Junction 3 – M5, A456 towards Kidderminster, at island turn left onto B4551 Bromsgrove Road,the venue is approx 1 mile on right.

Beezerpost 43

I spent a couple of hours on the bike this morning and I would love to say that it worked great with the new exhaust but honestly after trying the bike back to back with each exhaust on, the old pipe delivered more power with a more punchy delivery so after all the work over the last few weeks I have decided that it will just have to stay noisy as it simply works better that way!

I did switch back and forth between air filters and I am glad to say that there was little difference so the filter cover will be staying on and I can report that the talon footrests were great - very grippy and the extra 10mm width made it feel like I could move around better on the bike.

Here are a few video clips from the practice area on the farm - after all the rain it was quite slick but as you can see, its good to have some real sections to practice on just a few hundred yards from your back door (thanks Steve)..

New Wheels!!!

Just thought I would post a picture of the new wheels.... Well, a picture of the same wheels that I have just ordered anyway - it should be here on the 1st week of July. Although I have been trying to wear the wife down on the idea of getting a van, I just couldn't justify one for a couple of Sundays per month when I need to use it every day for work as well.

This should be a nice comfortable commuting vehicle and also be pretty capable for carrying the bike on Sundays too! Its the new Volvo XC60 R Design, I considered the Audi Q5 but preferred this when I drove them both so the deal has been done and the nice Volvo man knocked down by £4k from the list price so I'm pretty chuffed with myself and I hope the next 2 months go quickly...

Beezerpost 42

Finally ready to ride, I bought the bike back home today and plan to go out for a couple of hours tomorrow to see how it goes.

I went to collect it from Dads on Friday but a last minute check revealed that the rear box on the silencer had been placed too close to the rear shock and under load it was touching the spring.

We therefore had to adjust things so the front mounting bracket was removed and moved forwards and the rear one was removed and a nice alloy clamp was made to stiffen up the mounting point at the rear (see pic).

The other picture is the modified air filter cover. As I was concerned that it wouldn't breathe well enough with the cover on, we decided to drill holes in the closed end to improve air flow and also some holes were drilled along the bottom to allow water to escape if it were to get in.

I will report on how it performs tomorrow.

Beezerpost 41

Here are a couple of pictures of the bike as it stands this evening. There are a couple of bits and bobs still to do (tweaking the chain guard to make a bit more room for the back wheel with the new silencer taking up some space, tweaking the kick starter to clear the slightly wider footrests) but it is pretty much there and ready to go and ride - I cant wait!

Beezerpost 40

A lot of action on the bike front today....

Firstly, thanks to Terry Millichap for turning the wheels round so quickly. We now have freshly built wheels with the old hubs machined down and powder coated black and built up with stainless spokes.

Secondly, Dad has done a fine modification to lower the rear brake pedal and fit the new Talon footrests

This evening we have put the tyres on and dropped the wheels in, put some oil in and it has had its first run with the new exhaust on.

Of course it is too early to give a proper report but in the short run up and down the road it certainly runs quieter than with the old silencer and feels like it has lost none of its punch off the bottom end - all looks very promising and I plan to take it over the practice sections at the farm at some point over the weekend however first it needs a quick MOT so it's still with Dad as there is a classic bike friendly MOT station nearby!

Beezerpost 39

Things are coming along nicely and the bike should be ready to test at some point over the bank holiday weekend.

The exhaust is finished and fitted. I am pleased with how it has gone on to the frame and looks almost like it was designed to fit the bike as the front box fits nicely into the space next to the carb.

The oil filter has been pushed back further under the seat. Another right angled connector has allowed for this and also provides a better route for the oil pipe.

I have mentioned before that I had some concerns about the air filter and its vulnerability to the elements. Al Ussher had mentioned on my guestbook that back in the day people had adapted metal saucepans to provide a shroud around the filter and this got me thinking that there must be something similar out there to do this job. A little internet searching revealed that minibikes use similar filters and at muddy events they use filter covers for just that purpose. A few calls later and a new K&N filter arrived with its own cover that looks like it will do the job.

We will have to do some testing to make sure that enough air gets to the filter (we may need to drill a few holes in it to improve air flow but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If it works then it removes the need to try and shoe horn an airbox in the remaining space under the seat.

Also this week I have acquired a pair of Talon footrests that need to be milled down slightly to fit the frame and Dad is also going to do a modification on the rear brake pedal as it is a little high at the moment.

Beezerpost 38

A little more progress today with the exhaust set in place and the front pipe tacked along with locations and brackets prepared for welding. It will be off to Ian Bullock for welding up on Thursday (Thanks in advance for helping out Bully!!).

Also today the oil filter has found a home under the seat which should keep it tucked up out of the way and far less intrusive than the old one (in fact it may even leave sufficient space to think about a small air box behind the carb.

Pictures are of today's progress. I am pleased that the exhaust has fitted into the space so well and doesn't look out of place.