August news

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carillo2
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 01, 1990 12:00 am
Location: UK

August news

Post by carillo2 »

The M16 of Vic Walton had suffered from an oil scavenging problem. With the engine dismantled it became evident that the inner main ball bearing cage had broken up and bits of this were partially blocking the oil pick-up. Unfortunately some debris had been sucked up into the pump and damaged the bore in the crankcase. A spare crankcase has been sourced and the motor is being rebuilt. Geoff Fletcher and his brother rode to the festival of a thousand bikes on an M18 and Triumph p/u 650. They mostly resisted the temptation to dice with the superbikes on the journey to and from. John Allen has become an exhibitor at the Thornbury Model engineering exhibition. He is showing 3 things, one of which is the Westbury Whippet 10cc water cooled side valve engine. John’s run from Keynsham took us out over the prairies of the north west of Salisbury Plain past white horses carved in the chalk hillsides near Westbury. We did catch a heavy shower or two but the bikes needed a wash anyway. Vic led the last evening run of the season towards Clevedon, sensibly keeping it short as there was only about one hour of daylight. We were held up mid run by someone who was on a vehicle over which he had almost no control; it was a horse. We were also nearly late starting as a German coach tried to drive across the Clifton Suspension Bridge and had to reverse down the wrong side of the carriageway. We blame satnavs! Geoff Fletcher’s Cotswolds run was a super route with weather to match despite dire forecasts. We had 2 interesting 2 strokes at the start, an Ariel Golden Arrow complete with red handlebar grips, and Alan Freke’s 250 Calthorpe with outside flywheel, chain drive engine speed mag, leather belt final drive and a piston machined from bar. As it has a top speed of 30 mph Alan did not intend to do the run, just show it off. It did finish the Banbury run though, presumably including Sunrising Hill. Determined to get his name in print Terry Edmonds has severed important things in one of his fingers with a 9” angle grinder. He’s a grindstone cowboy.
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