August 2007
 

Newsletter
 

 

August and still no Sun!

We are still seeking the elusive sunshine, I believe one of the tabloids had a wanted poster within its pages containing a picture of the sun just to remind its readers what it looked like!

I have had some sunny days but not the pleasant balmy days I was looking for, we seem to be stuck in an April showers type scenario and worryingly could head straight into a rainy Autumn type weather pattern next, Oh well I suppose being British it’s given us plenty to talk about. The weather does seem to be discriminating though as the Southern part of the country has been having recently its share of the warm sunny weather, well after the National rally took place anyway!  I suppose the manufacturers of rain gear must be rubbing their hands and It appears that there are more people taking their bikes out when it wet, probably thinking it’ll not improve so must use the lump of metal in the garage. The Manx Grand Prix practice starts on Monday so for the sake of the competitors I hope it clears up. More importantly we will be there next week also so it had better clear up!

National Rally 2007 Isle of Wight

When it was announced that this years National Rally was to be on the Isle of Wight two things immediately sprang to mind, the first was that the run all the way there if you are time limited is quite boring, M74,M6,M42,M40, A34. The second was that at least it’s the furthest South you can go so we should half way through July expect good weather. Unfortunately the first part was right and the second part wrong. The Commando was still blowing oil out of the cylinder head and blowing the crank seal so I decided to press the Triumph into service for this boring motorway trip, at least that would make it easier I thought. Timescales were short, I only had the Friday and Monday off but needed to be back on the Sunday night to see some visitors we had over from Belgium.. In order to cut down the journey I decided to leave on the Thursday after work and stay overnight near Carlisle, that would knock off the first 100 miles anyway. So at 9am on the Friday we set off accompanied by Alex who was miraculously 10 minutes earlier than we agreed. We donned the waterproofs anyway even though it wasn’t raining at this point and set off, just as I saw the sign saying Manchester 19 miles the rain started, heavy at first and then just got worse. A lunch stop on the M6 Toll road at Norton Canes highlighted the fact I was soaked through, and the place was heaving with people as it was the start of the English school holidays! Brilliant!. As we reached the end of the M6 Toll road the queues started to form  and the flooding on the roads got worse as did the rain, mile after mile of filtering through the traffic was quite tiring and needed extreme concentration especially the stretch where there appeared to have been a diesel spill to make things more difficult. Then a river burst its banks and the M40 was only passable in the outside lane, a river crossing on the M40, ridiculous. The A34 was no better with traffic jams, crashes and flooding. We got the ferry from Southampton to Cowes after being reunited with Alex who had got separated from us in the mele. We finally arrived at the site at 8pm very wet and very tired and not too happy when we found out there was no food left. The site was though ideal, a 60’s style hi de hi holiday camp with chalets for those who didn’t fancy camping. We had to go another three miles to a pub to get fed and finally got the tent up around 9pm. We retired to the bar, as always good to meet up with old friends. George , Sandy and Peter were also there having travelled down earlier. I will own up to the fact that Sandy and George were the only two on Nortons from the Tay Valley club, except that is if you don’t include Julian who for the first time in decades has got his Commando going and was on it. It was however looking a bit too clean so I suspect it was taken there wrapped in bubble wrap.

Friday ended at around 03.30 on the Saturday morning after a rather hectic session at the bar.

Saturday looked a bit brighter but after a small run along to a local village dressed in the only pair of dry jeans I had a large black cloud came along and spoiled the illusion. I got back to the site with the rain running out of my arse and with my kilt my only remaining bit of dry clothing. Sandy, Peter and George were sitting around chewing the fat and had been most off the day, we joined them and waited for the run to return. The weather got a bit better and the bikes were all lined up in front of the Holiday camp bar, some were suspiciously clean, they must have gone a different way to us to get there, a good international turnout as well with the French particularly well represented and the good thing was lot’s of new faces.

In the evening we retired to the bar and  as you might expect it all gets similar from then.

The run home on the Sunday was actually fine, reasonable weather on the way up the road and we done it in one hit, George & Sandy split it over two days and encountered more rain, South of England in July, never again!!!!!

Next year its up to us to organise the sunshine. 

Georges Woes

Returning from the Rally George’s Rotary was going fine then last week it wouldn’t start. Nothing simple I’m afraid so George hired a van and headed down to Norton at Rugley. He was waiting on them to open and luckily they diagnosed and fixed the problem and he was on his way home that night. Sounds like good service to me.

Fair Spares

I popped into Les Emery’s shop the other week on a trip down South for work. I got another tour of the workshops which seemed to be really busy, several Nortons in differing states of build were packed in all over the place, Les told me he’s completed 26 new Nortons so far this year. They are all obviously hand built and are built from 100% new parts. Good to see this name being kept alive even in a small way although at £8800 + VAT (£10,340) it does seem a tad on the expensive side for a Commando, or does it? Good debate for the Christmas party.

Christmas Party

I intend booking the Clachan Hotel again unless anyone can come up with a good alternative on the 17th or 24th of November (or possibly 1st December)

I need your thoughts and your bookings please ASAP so we can get this sorted out soon.

Gino’s Woes

MVD944L has been blowing oil at a fair rate recently, constantly blowing crank oil seals and leaking from the cylinder head so I decided to change the head gasket and do some investigation. I lifted the head and found the gasket and the sealing area to be pretty soaked with oil, hmmm never seen this before I thought, I decided to lift the barrels and as I did so heard the clink clink as if I’d dropped washers onto the bench. The noise was coming from the parts of top ring, now instead of one piece rings I seemed to have multiple pieces of ring in each piston. Also a bit of piston had come adrift from the left hand piston. I suspect the damage was done last year when I drove the bike to Portsmouth with the timing several degrees out. It’s testament to the motor that it ran at all and I think I’ve been lucky as the bore seems OK. Anyway it’s prompted the well overdue overhaul so it’ll be out of commission for a while and the JPN will be pressed into service for the island..    

 

 

 

 

The Small Print

The views and opinions contained within this publication are not necessarily those of the NOC or of the branch but are probably mine as I wrote it.

No one accepts any responsibility for anything, if you have a good time don't say I didn't warn you.

Gino Rondelli