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Ready for the Road.

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It has already seemed to be a long hard winter. Apart from the obvious I guess in part it’s because I’ve not been able to take advantage of those odd days we get when the roads look dry, the sun’s out and with some extra layers on I could get out for a decent bike ride. I had plenty of jobs to do in the workshop but after a while the absence of going off to do the obligatory road test takes the edge off things. I am very lucky to have a reasonably large and dry workshop, albeit crowded with my six bikes, but it’s never very welcoming first thing in the morning. Apart from the air temperature every tool you handle has been soaked in sub-zero temperatures overnight. Nevertheless there’s always the situation where you don’t want to be missing those first few weeks of good riding weather because of a bikes out of commission, so needs must. As mentioned in the last chapter, my Ducati’s had a cam belt change and full service, so with an MOT it’s good to go, but definitely one for warmer ta...
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Almost a Sticky End

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  I wasn’t sure whether to call this chapter; “The Epilogue to the Epilogue” or “It’s Deja vu all over again” but read on and more will become clear. In many ways there’s a certain, albeit unwelcome, symmetry to this moment in time. We emerged from the original lockdown, the museum opened with genuine enthusiasm, and our Motorcycle Team put on a great season of demonstration runs.  We made it through by the skin of our teeth, putting a show on nearly every day with only bad weather getting in the way. There was a tinge of sadness on Sunday, as the demos came to an end and we seem to be heading back into lockdown, but a collective spirit that we would be back up and running as soon as possible As suspected several of the bikes had mechanical issues resulting from the increased frequency of use. It’s interesting that frequent short duration low speed runs caused almost as many issues as track events.  I don’t think any of the bikes ran faultlessly, and indeed my own perio...
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Epilogue – Marge takes to the track

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  Having got my 1932 BSA B31-2 to the point where I had the engine running, and had completed a few laps of my back garden, I took the opportunity to bring it into Brooklands, where I could run it for slightly longer without trying the patience of my neighbours, and check the carburettor settings. I had planned for one of the maintenance days, with not too many people around, but with the recent poor weather it ended up being last Thursday. With the Brooklands demo bikes set-up ready to go, I wheeled the BSA over, with the sole intention of running it up after our morning session and adjusting the air-slide. It fired up pretty easily on the new starter and before I knew it someone was bringing my helmet and gloves over. Not really needing a second invitation I set off and did a few unofficial laps of the start-finish straight. I realised that I had previously been setting the air-slide per my Norton, but when I’d got it fully open the little bike ran well with about 2/3 of the av...
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Chapter 20. The Final Chapter???

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When I started this blog I had no real idea how long it would run, partly because I was unsure how long the build of my BSA B31-2 would take, but mainly that it was impossible to tell when Brooklands would open again. I decided in any case to keep it going at least to the latter occasion. As I write this I can say that the Marge is essentially complete, albeit with a fairly healthy “punch” list of items to take care of. Also I have now completed more than a week’s worth of Brooklands visits, one day as a gardener, an induction day, the public opening day on 2 nd August, Sunday helping out with the demonstration runs and today on the maintenance crew. I know it will take quite a while before we can all get together as the Motor Cycle Team on the same day, but let’s hope it’s not too far away. The last week’s build has been quite frantic in some ways, with some jobs going really well and others taking much longer than expected. I spent quite a while designing and fabricating a clamp...
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Chapter 19 Excitement builds

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By now quite a few of us will have been back into Brooklands. I’m very lucky in that I’ve stayed fit and well, and I’m not quite into the vulnerable age category, so I’ve taken advantage of what’s been on offer. As I said last week I did some gardening duties on the start – finish straight (hopefully that’s it for the year) and this week I attended one of the Volunteer Induction days. On the survey that was sent round I was enthusiastic about this approach and felt it was worth supporting the initiative as well as familiarising myself with the new set-up. We will all have views on the organisational upheavals that have taken place, often with sad consequences, but I have to say that all the staff I met with were extremely positive and helpful. For our Motor Cycle Team it must be in our best interests to do our best to help to make the museum re-opening successful as the alternatives are not good. From a simple self-interested point of view, a lot of emphasis seems to be placed...
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Chapter 18. Finishing Touches

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A shorter one this week as I’ve been in at Brooklands, having managed to get myself onto the volunteer team this Wednesday. That was the fun bit. After the initial excitement of going back into the place, along with a dozen others, we were assigned the task of “weeding” the top half of the finish straight and the first part of the banking. Its probably a good way to examine the track surface and all I can say is that as we skid off on the loose gravel we can now all be confident that we won’t get green stains on our white overalls. I guess the good news is that they sound enthusiastic about running vehicles on the finish straight as a regular feature. Apart from us lot it was very quiet, but I did manage a sneak view into the Campbell Shed and everything looks in order. One thing I’m learning as I write this blog, is that being a bit full of myself one week often has the effect of coming back and biting me the next. Last week I went on about my procedure for changing tyres and...
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