Bike Show at Dr B’s

It is the time of year when the hope of better weather brings out the flyers for the upcoming bike shows, this is the local Dr Barnado’s bike show.

Dr B’s Bike Show.

Although I think the time should read 10am until 4pm.

I Passed By Jack’s…

Wednesday just gone I got a call to a job just along the road from Jack’s, so I called in for a tea, and to grab a couple of pictures.

Velocette

Norton Engine

Now tell me this, what poseses a man to make his bike this shiney, it just shows what a long winter will do to a person, he must have gone stir crazy! But fear not, I promise you this, my Norton will never be this clean, good grief I would be embarrassed to go out on a bike like that

More pictures here…  http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/p221103632

The John Bull Rally, 2013…

Blimey, where did that weekend disappear too? the john Bull Rally, over there in dat der Belgium, well so much to say, so complicated, so confusing, so well Belgian!

I left home late on Thursday on my old trusty Beemer, heading for the channel ports, in amazing spring sunshine, a sub plan existed, along the lines of, a beer with Graham, before meeting up with Geoff and Sarah, at the hotel, this would be the hotel that charges some people £45, and me £89 for the same nights stay! Bastards. But I digress, I did get to the hotel, and all was looking fine, the sun was still beating down, and my bike was running great, so I pop in to register at reception, and then pop back out to go for beer, with Graham, but the now flat tyre put a stop to that!…

So I have a puncture, no worries, I will just get out my kit and fix it, except, the spare tube, tyre levers, and repair kit are all back at my house, because I forgot to pack them! Arghhh.
Ok then I thought, I shall give Geoff a call, to see if he has a spare tube in the M21 outfit…

Now this is where things start to go off at a tangent, as my tyre flat takes its place behind this little tale…
Hi Geoff/Sarah, do you have a spare tube in the outfit, I could use as I have a flat, “yes we do, but we are not in the outfit, we are heading down now on the Triumph”
Well I am sure you have all seen the old silent movies, with Buster Keaton, or Charlie Chaplin, where the sidecar outfit is passed by its own wheel, well that is what happened to Geoff and Sarah, when the axle broke as they headed down hill to a roundabout, and ended up embedded in an embankment! I kid you not.
But they were both fine, the outfit was recovered home, and they loaded the Triumph and once again headed south.
At this point I phoned Ed, and asked him if he could help with a tube, he could, and would, but not till later, but that was fine, meantime Geoff’s mate Alan, turned up on the other M21 outfit, and he immediately set to helping me with the Beemer, wheel out tube out, and a small hole was found, but no cause could be seen anywhere? then Ed pulled up with a new tube before flying off again for a curry.

So we threw the tyre and tube back together, and gave it some air, but the new Avon would not seat on the rim, we tried everything, but it would not seat, 60psi with a foot pump over and over again, but still no joy, it was now dark and cold, and still flat.
So I called the breakdown services to get them to bring a compressor round, that combined with a liberal coating of silicone spray finally had it fixed.

So we all adjourned to the pub for a well deserved Beer, because in the morning we are off to Belgium.

Tea please

John Bull, A Family Event

With the morning came the rain, and we all awoke to a wet grey day in old blighty, but it was only a short hop down hill to the ferry port, and we were soon getting on the outside of a very nice breakfast. My tyre on the BMW was still inflated, Mr Ed and Bryan, had joined us by this time too, so we were looking forward to a ride, and the forthcoming rally.

The ride to the rally site itself was pretty uneventful, but pleasant enough in the cold grey morning rain, but by the time we arrived at Karelstaat, it had dried up, so we set to with getting the tents erected, and heading off for a beer or two and a big bowl of Chili.
The morning was dry and bright with the promise of a nice day, so I thought I would get the camera out for a few shots before breakfast..

Nice Single AJS

BSA Combo

So that was another John Bull Rally, it was overall a good rally, with great hosts, the site was fantastic, and it had a great atmosphere, the only negative to the whole weekend was the fiasco over the beer vouchers, that some of us, including me had paid for, but were  missing from our envelopes,  and although reported, no one wanted to believe us, they thought we were trying it on!  I opened my envelope in front of five or six regular rally goers, they all saw that the beer voucher was missing.  I never got a replacement voucher, or an apology! Bad form I think.

More pictures here…  http://kevindean.zenfolio.com/p291777001/slideshow

Guzzi in the Spring Sunshine…

Just a short bimble on my Guzzi…
Just to warm it up so I could change the oils, and find the stripped threads left by a previous owner, that now need sorting out. Luckily they were only on a level screw, and not a drain plug.

Spring Sunshine

Cooling Down by the Kennet

At the Kennet and Avon Canal

I now have a new oil leak, after curing all the others, this time from the distributer, I guess there is an oil seal or o-ring at the base where it goes into the block, although it does look like it is coming from above the distributor stand? we shall see.

Drum Doctor….

Here is a neat old machine, this is a “Drum Doctor” for skimming and truing brake drums, as you can see there is a Norton wheel being done, they have to be built before truing the drum surface, otherwise the act of building a wheel can distort the drum.  It works just like a small automatic lathe, the cutting head drives in, and back out automatically.

 

Drum Doctor

 

Brake drum truing

 

 

More Norton’ing…

Another big part of the puzzle fell into place today, in the shape of an ES2 500 iron barrel, it has had a repair or two in its life, as you would expect, it is also on the top end of the bore size at 82.3, but I am looking for a late 40′s AJS piston to fit in there, but if I fail in that direction I shall have a look at getting a liner fitted, and taking it back to standard (79mm) bore size.

Roll out the Barrel

500 Barrel

I also started looking at how to fix my newly aquired Smiths tacho, which I want to fit in a jaunty old fashioned classic race style.

Tach Mount

Norton Dash

A Little Rambling Post…. John Bull, & BSA Bantams..

I have now booked myself in for the John Bull Rally over in Belgium at the end of the month, hopefully I will be on my Moto Guzzi, but if not it will be with my trusty old R80st. So if you see an old guy with a shaved head, and a camera glued to his hand, that will be me,  so stop me and say hello.

John Bull Rally, details can be found here…..  http://backstreetthunder.wordpress.com/tag/john-bull-rally/

I always have a camera with me, I never leave home without it, so I always have some odd pictures kicking about the hard drive of my PC, nothing fancy, just shots I take as and when I get the chance.  But the thing is, I always intend to use the pictures, but as I take so many, they soon start to add up, and often get forgotten about. Such is the case with these next few…

BSA Bantams

Bantam

BSA Bantam