Good weekend and bad too

Well the weekend was in a blur.

Saturday began with the Ducati going leaving just the 2 Matchless, Ossa, Bsa, Alvis and the two trials sidecars!

The evening was filled with great merryment at the Dabbers quiz, we managed to score less points than we do at a trial.

Sunday started or didn’t start in the case of the Alvis, fortunately I managed to borrow Sarah’s Volvo to get over to Marks to spend most of the day on the bus Electrics. The discovery is a load of relays missing, which, might be why the wires got so hot, and a broken flasher unit. Mark is finishing the job off this week hopefully so we can get to Stradsett.

A lift back to mine for Mark, a lot if swearing at the Alvis, followed by ordering some new bits, battery, points, plugs, leads, coil, condenser, distributor. Once they arrive hopefully the Alvis will be running again.

Leave A Comment, Written on April 23rd, 2012 , Alvis, Bus, General, Trials
Busy weekend

Well another trial completed. It did not go to well, with some deep boggy sections that we knew the Ariel would not get through.

We had planned to do the second lap on the new to us ex-works Bultaco sidecar. But it having only been collected the day before and having been left standing for 15 years decided that it did not want to start.

We did the lap on the Ariel with Mark managing to go the opposite side of a tree to the bike, it was quite spectacular I am told and he did fly a long way.
This bent the forks and added to the already grabbing clutch.

For the next event Mouse will be being the monkey as it’s Elsie’s birthday party. Hopefully we will have the Bultaco clutch rebuilt and that running nicely.

Leave A Comment, Written on March 26th, 2012 , Race Report, Trials
Spring clear out

In a usual fit of madness I am thinking it might be time for a big sortout.
As I am back working in London the need for modern reliable vehicles no longer exists. So probably time to sell the civic even after its Stirling service in the snow!
But what of the other items in the collection. Well the plan is
Sell the Militant – the bus is nicer to take to the shows
Heater upgrade for the bus and electrics sort out
Service the Alvis
Get the Ossa road registered
MOT the 1924 Matchless with the intention if using it a bit
Keep the Matchless csr running
MOT the ducati then maybe sell it for another classic bike

If there is additional time somehow paint the Alvis as the paint has worn out.

Along the way numerous shows with the bus and spending time with the trials and North Norfolk Railway. Not to mention the girls too, think they want to help with the restoration of the Alvis which is great.

Leave A Comment, Written on February 7th, 2012 , General
Dabbers Christmas Trial 2 Jan 2012

Well the Dabbers Christmast Trial 2012.. it went very well although  not that the results show that.

Mark had been busy making a few minor changes to the bike – mainly adding the long over due rear foot rest. This has resulted in a completely different bike with a couple of major differences.. rear wheel traction being the main one so no need to charge up hills quite so much. The other one being the ability to pull nice long wheelies now!

Again the bike behaved perfectly, far better than the driver and jockey…

Leave A Comment, Written on January 2nd, 2012 , Uncategorized
Dabbers West Raynham Airfield

A truly spectacular location… for a great fun but very very hard trial.

The moved sidecar bar made all the difference although I did have to learn some new positions to balance the bike… but could get right on chair high to keep things more stable.

The issues we had were… a lack of skill… and Mark getting his foot stuck repeatedly.. the bike behaved for once…

We did manage to roll a few times, a combination of steep hills and holes… but generally we went very well. The bruises will heal..

To do for the next meeting is to sort out the brake pedal so Mark does not get his foot stuck…

Overall Result was second in class… interestingly I think our 0 or 5 approach cost us on this occasion!

Leave A Comment, Written on November 21st, 2011 , Uncategorized
Dabbers Trial 16 October

Now that was a hard trial… OK a few sections we could not fit around…

The issues we had… lots of chair up cambers… so I was having to get out a long way.. and the discovery.. the grip bar for me is in the way so that is going to be moved for the next event. We hope this is also the reason why we had nearly no front wheel grip.

The only other real issue was lack of space to attack some of the hills so we just could not get traction to get up the hills.

The plus points… The clutch was perfect.. Hills are no longer an issue if we can get some drive into them. We are still better being able to use momentum to get through sections than try to be too graceful. We got round very quickly, the only downside is due to no fan club sadly no photos.

All that and also a class win… OK the only other person in the class retired.. but it is still a class win!

Leave A Comment, Written on October 19th, 2011 , Race Report, Trials
Beamish Tourist Trophy

We managed it… just… never think we have worked so hard on the bike ever…. only took about 6 hours! (And got lost 3 times!)

How well did we do? We got a finishers award…

What hurt the most? Probably some of the sections between the sections the 20 – 30 mins of offroad.. one section at the end of it neither of us could talk… (That is the excuse for the wrong turn!).

The event was amazing fun… sorry no photos but we did not have a support crew… there are some on www.beamishtt.com…

http://www.beamishtt.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=138129142

http://www.beamishtt.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=138162462

 

Was it great fun… you bet!

Leave A Comment, Written on September 24th, 2011 , Race Report, Trials
Wisbech Historic Vehicle Club Run

After much debating the decision was to perform the Wisbech Historic Vehicle Club Run… in the Coach.. Neither the Matchless or the Ariel are ready yet.. and we could not all fit in the Alvis.

The day passed without any bus issues – with the gearbox behaving much better – although third does still like to hide.

It was a lovely run from the middle of Wisbech through Spalding to Perkins at Peterborough. Then back to Wisbech. The surprises for us was that the route – one that we have taken many times on the fast roads… was really interesting with some lovely sights along the way. The turn out of the fans to wave at us all was huge and really made the day.

From Matilda Age 5

We went to Wisbech on the bus. We had fun. We waved at lots of people from the bus.

We had lunch on the bus. We had chocolate cake.

Leave A Comment, Written on August 19th, 2011 , Bus
Alvis Fuel leak

On Sunday on the way back from the Trans Pennine Run I noticed a strong smell of fuel in the Alvis…

When I got home I noticed that fuel was dripping onto the exhaust… a quick pouring of some water on the area to reduce the fire risk and the bonnet left open to cool.

The discovery was that the fuel pipe had come off… 2 minutes with the spanner and then a quick test and all seems OK again.

Next to resolve the drivers door not shutting issue…

Leave A Comment, Written on August 10th, 2011 , Alvis
43rd Trans Pennine Run

With 2 days to go to the run the bus was in bits.. with a broken alternator and waterpump. On the Thursday a marathon session in the rain resulted in the bus getting a waterpump and alternator fitted, the radiator back on and everything ready for a test run. The test run was postponed till the Friday due to the weather being so awful. All thankfully was fine following the run.

Well the run is completed… 400 miles in 2 days…

 

165 miles to the Services for the night’s rest… Discoveries made on the way:

  1. The coach is happy at 50 -55mph all day long.
  2. Diesel at Birch Services is a rip off at 10p per litre more than at most places!
  3. The coach averaged about 15mpg….
  4. Birch Services food is awful (there is a pub round the corner but we did not know about that until after we had eaten)
  5. 3 people can sleep OK in the bus

After a rest we got up at about 7am to make sure the bus was all clean and tidy, and check the water levels etc.

The Sunday was the 43rd Historic Commercial Vehicle Trans Penine Run.

Deciding that we did not need to be one of the first off we watched some very old vehicles leave…. Then decided at about 8:30 to set off with all the other buses.  Quite quickly we found ourselves on our own… Apart from Mark missing reading out one instruction the turn left at the bridge all went well. With a slow run across with a brief pause for a lovely filling proper bus breakfast from a roadside cafe. One of these days I will master the changes down from fourth to third…. We did not need to use crawler gear on any of the roads apart from setting off…

The slow amble up and down the hills suddenly seemed to end as we arrived a Harrogate. After parking up, grabbing some lunch and having a stretch we then carried on to get back to Norfolk.

Our thanks to the organisers of this great fun event…

Leave A Comment, Written on August 9th, 2011 , Bus
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