107 cu inch Mountain Motor!

[grbrown]

Thanks for your comments chaps! I am off on the National Rally this weekend, which will put another 600 miles or so on it.

[Tony Cross]

Originally Posted by grbrown

Thanks for your comments chaps! I am off on the National Rally this weekend, which will put another 600 miles or so on it.

Used to do that some years ago. An ideal chance to loosen up the motor and get a real feel of the bike. Hope all goes well for you. Report back; I have enjoyed following your story on here. Fingers crossed the cost of petrol does not break the bank.

[grbrown]

Originally Posted by Tony Cross

Used to do that some years ago. An ideal chance to loosen up the motor and get a real feel of the bike. Hope all goes well for you. Report back; I have enjoyed following your story on here. Fingers crossed the cost of petrol does not break the bank.

Tony,

Thanks for your wishes! It is many years since I last did it, but I have started collecting major anniversaries - visited Harley's centenary (with this bike), also those of the TT and Brooklands. The best I can manage this year is the National Rally's 75th! But I will be doing it with a 50th anniversary S&S motor - sad I know!

[michael_dinwiddy]

What National rally are you referring to?

[PhillSpace]

Originally Posted by michael_dinwiddy

What National rally are you referring to?

BMF jobbie Mike ... sort of a road trial on steroids

INTERPHONE NATIONAL ROAD RALLY

[grbrown]

Originally Posted by michael_dinwiddy

What National rally are you referring to?

It is actually organised by the ACU! A 'scatter event', or some such description, which involves travelling up to 540 miles in a maximum of 20 hours, visiting a variety of check-points, each entrant choosing their own route. This year the final check-point is Bletchley Park.

National Road Rally 2008 - 75th Anniversary

The modern event is but a shadow of the earlier ones, which were 600 miles in 24 hours. 75 years ago that would have been a serious undertaking, but these days a 150cc MZ is probably the most suitable mount, to get a proper flavour of it!

[Steppenwulf]

I really enjyoed reading the history of the rally, t'was excellent.
That's the kind of event I'd really enjoy, this year's entry is closed but I'm going to have to put it in my diary for next year.

I hope the motor loosens up even more for you GR, glad it's coming together. I'd be interested on how you got on in the rally, you should have the perfect tool there.

[grbrown]

This is by way of a brief report on the 2008 75th anniversary ACU National Rally and an update on the state of my 107 engine.

When rallies such as those organised by HDRCGB became popular, some wag observed that attendees travelled a wide variety of distances to attend, so came up with what for most of its life we have known as the ACU National Rally. Although participants were not compelled to travel the maximum distance, the basic requirement was to travel 600 miles in 24 hours, finishing at the rallying point, normally some suitable high profile venue. More recently, and despite the many developments which make that ambition so much easier, the target has been reduced to 540 miles in 20 hours.

This is achieved by providing a wide variety of check-points around the country. This year there were 50, alphabetically from Abingdon to York and geographically from Warrington and Winchester to Ipswich, with preset travelling distances between each check-point. Earning the maximum award requires recording the 540 miles with visits to the maximum number of check-points, which this year was 22. The formula of the event enables participants to start at any of the check-points, except final control at Bletchley Park, and select their own route, there probably being a great many possibilities.

Much of the fun is working out the maximum possible number of check-points and planning a suitable route in advance. The availability of satnav, rather than a pocketful of maps, probably has that wag I mentioned spinning in his grave! The event attracts a wide variety of competitors and machines, the most extreme we saw being two-up on an elderly Honda 90, which kept pace with us until we lost touch with it at night. We saw early Japanese bikes like Kawasaki triples, also even earlier British bikes. Most entrants looked old enough to know better!

My motivation for taking part this year was three-fold. I have a new engine in desperate need of miles, it was the 75th anniversary event and I am 'collecting' major biking anniversaries, but also as a mark of respect for my middle brother. The three of us are all keen motorcyclists and did the Rally many times together, but Stephen died unexpectedly on this very weekend last year (in his sleep, not on the Rally). The family has only recently finished sorting out his affairs and the Rally seemed a poignant conclusion to all our efforts, so my other youngest brother and I entered.

Saturday dawned fair, despite the weather forecast and the fact that it was Wimbledon finals weekend also the Silverstone F1 GP, both events that experienced traditional British summer rain! Our route took us from St Neots, starting at 2.00pm, up the East side of the country via Ely and Wisbech to Lincoln, before turning towards Manchester. We enjoyed a marvellously sunny dry day, but as we got further North heard tales of stupendous rain from those who had travelled up Westerly routes. From Manchester we turned South to Congleton, which we reached around 10.30pm, when we experienced our first rain. We then travelled to Bakewell, along roads that are a dream in good weather, but in the dark with squalling driven rain and fog! Thence on to Stoke, Stafford, Stratford and Abingdon, before turning towards the finish at Bletchley Park.

I set off from home around 12.30 on Saturday and got home again about 22 hours later, in which time I had covered 600 miles. My right boot leaked, so I had one soaked foot, two pairs of drenched gloves and more aches than I could count. My left fingers and elbow ached from countless gear changes and my right wrist from operating the throttle. I had got to the point when as soon as I put my hands back on the bars after a stop, they immediately resumed aching, even though I had not yet done anything to provoke them! A long soak in a hot bath cured most of those, helped by an afternoon's sound sleep. The first time I did the Rally in 1970, full of youthful exuberance and no route planning experience, I covered over 900 miles and slept from 3pm until the following breakfast.

Something that was notable, travelling so far and wide in a short time, is just how many ruddy speed camera threats there are, also the widespread use of speed limits that are lower than the national speed limit - even on clear easy-going roads. So any exuberance we might have felt, when the roads were quiet and visibility was good, was routinely challenged by the threat of prosecution. As my brother observed, we both have probably the most powerful bikes we have ever owned, but are least able to use the performance available to us - what a sorry state the country has got into!

Of the trip as a whole the majority was done on two lane roads, some of them quite challenging minor A or B roads, relatively little on dual carriageways and most of that in the small hours. We covered a third of the mileage at night and more than half our mileage was done in the rain. We had a couple of hour-long stops and several lingering rests, to break the trip up, but no sleep!

But how did the bike go? Bearing in mind most of it is over 18 years old it did not miss a beat, started and ran without fuss throughout. Handling is so much improved with that third stabilizer, which greatly improves confidence when riding almost blind at the dead of night in heavy rain along winding unlit roads. The last thing required in those conditions is high performance, but easy and gentle pulling power to deal with unexpected bends and changes of gradient. The 107 did this well enough, although I reckon my old 89 would have done at least as well.

When cruising empty roads we travelled in the middle of that wretched vibration band I have referred to previously. My gearing is 24mph per 1,000rpm so three grand is 72mph on the speedo. With the weather as it was we never travelled any faster than modest motorway speeds, so this did not prove to be an opportunity to test the engine's upper performance levels!

Having ridden it in normal conditions since last weekend it seems to have benefitted slightly from the experience. The engine seems easier and a little smoother below 2,500rpm, where it spent most of the night in the rain, but I can find little to cheer about above that. The comfort I mentioned previously is only relative to the earlier dire vibration. I am not enjoying riding this bike very much at present.

By Monday morning my kit had not completely dried, so I travelled to work by car - it rained!

[grbrown]

Briefer update, this time on the 'new' engine. I have approaching 5k miles up now and am feeling rather better about it than previously reported. While giving the bike a pre-season once over, I recently discovered that the hose clip at the gearbox exhaust pipe fixing had broken. I have Samson true duals, supplied with hose clips which are cut to provide the 'thread', leaving very little metal at the end of each slot, so it is no wonder it broke. Replacing it with not one but two proper pressed clips has restored a solid mounting and smoothed things noticeably, which is very welcome.

This newly found smoothness really emphasises the torque of the thing. With little more than 2 grand on the tacho it rolls on in top in a fairly leisurely manner, until an attention grabbing, fast approaching bend suddenly rushes up, demanding hasty action. I have just come back from a lengthy shake-down run and had to employ the brakes rather more often than smooth progress would normally demand!

Having had early problems, with the rear pipe vibrating against the primary chaincase, I now wonder how long that clamp on the front pipe has been broken! It was not obvious. Perhaps this thing will now prove to be as smooth and impressive as Michael Dinwiddy's! Here's hoping we all get a great riding season.

[grbrown]

Originally Posted by grbrown

Here's hoping we all get a great riding season.

Well we did, topped off for me and my wife by our June tour through Holland and Germany to the Czech and Slovak Republics, we even had a brief pop into Poland. The Tatra Mountains are well worth the visit and we enjoyed great hospitality throughout the trip, covering 2,500 miles return.

Our route took in very varied roads, from clinical autobahns to the most rural of Polish and Slovak country lanes. Fully laden at around 1200 pounds all up the bike performed extremely well, I have to admit. My S&S 107 is plainly never going to run as sweetly as my old stroker, but I have now grown accustomed to its ways and must admit I am really enjoying it.

I do envisage visiting Matt who installed it again, before too long, to give it a further dyno run. I am curious to know what it is giving now it is run in, but also want to investigate any further fine tuning that may be possible. A US specialist has suggested some carb mods to iron out the transition between pilot and intermediate jets.

Winter project however is updating the rear suspension!