Sheringham Classic Car & Bike Show

Well, its that time of year again. Sunday brought us bright sunshine, hoards of people, dozens of cars and a few motorcycles into our little seaside town for the annual Sheringham Carnival Classic Car & Bike Show.

Of course, I took Amelia for the first time this year. We were the second bike to arrive, after this lovely G2CSR Matchless which was in the same spot last year. I have a soft spot for these, and my own G2CSR has its own blog page.

Despite living about 300 yards from this parking spot, it took ages to get here. All those little lanes and that sunshine were too tempting, but I can report that the front brake is much better now and while not powerful has a good feel.

I took my Bantam as well, which needed a good polish up after the winter and a some general neglect. Sorry Beattie... She always attracts a lot of attention, and we had an eight mile run to get here:

Smart modern scooter:

Very nice 1974 Suzuki AC50:

Every year, a group of local ladies dress up and go about the town collecting for carnival funds & the RNLI. There is a different theme each year:

Groovy Hippy Chick collecting for the Carnival & the RNLI

A nicely patinated C11 next to my Bantam:

One of the most modern cars at the show was this Tesla, which aroused much interest:

In case you were wondering what was under the bonnet of a Tesla

This Tesla Model S belongs to local artist Brian Lewis and is charged in his garage by solar panels. Brian's pictures are a delight enjoyed by many folks all over Norfolk and depict local scenes, towns, buildings, dogs & seals - all in Brian's inimitable style:

Beside the Waves - Sheringham's western slipway

Brian's website is at http://www.art-e-mail.com/, which operates an on-line shop where you can buy prints of his work.

Here's a smart BSA SS80, and  a Vincent Comet:

Apparently this Comet has an electric start. The only give-away is the big red button on the handlebars and the owner's sheepish face when he doesn't use the kick start:

This Commando special appeared near the end of the day, and I followed it up our street. I'm not sure who was making more noise...

Next event is the NNR Transport Festival. Details at http://www.nnrailway.co.uk/page.php?pid=35. Beattie and Amelia will be there!

Shark Evoline 3

Back on the Ariel after a two week work break and it's on with the Hi-Viz Shark Evoline 3, my new helmet:

It's a flip front (or modular for you guys in the US), homologated for open face or full face use:

Looks a bit ridiculous on the CycleMaster, but safety is paramount and its great for the other bikes. Visibility is excellent and it is very comfortable.

As for the Square, the steering is much better now I have sorted the head stock bearings, but the forks definitely need re-bushing. The front brake now has a lot more feel, and I have nipped it up a couple of notches.

A little trip to Cromer

An evening ride to Cromer revealed a front brake that was much better, but which now had too much lever movement. Nipping up the adjuster two clicks improved the lever movement and there didn't seem to be any brake binding, which was excellent. There was still a juddering from the front, particularly on braking. Getting it home, I found that wheeling the bike backwards revealed that particular groan that only binding brakes make, so I've backed the adjuster off one click.

Back in the workshop, a quick check revealed loosened head bearings - wheeling the bike forwards and putting the brake on reveals a 'jolt' from the headstock which you can hear. To check them more physically, put the bike on the main stand and put your thumb here in the dim & dark recesses of the top yoke, across the gap between the dust cover and the headstock:

The Engineer's Thumb

With your other hand, grasp the front wheel and rock the bike backwards. This has the effect of pushing the steering column up through the headstock against the weight of the bike, and your thumb will be able to feel any movement. Don't vigorously rock it backwards & forwards - you don't want it rolling off the stand.

Mr. Waller suggests lifting the weight off the front wheel to perform this job, bit since I have no bike lift or any desire to damage my back I use the method described above.

So, having found some movement we need to sort out the problem. First slacken off the lock nut under the top yoke with your head race spanner. Clay at Acme Stainless has these, but you can also pick original ones up on eBay. Be very careful not to damage the paint on the tank - make sure the spanner fits well (so that the spanner doesn't slip) and that the tank is protected (for when the spanner slips):

Now, grasping the wheel again, roll the bike backwards against the main stand whilst attempting to tighten the lower of the two nuts. You will find that the nut is now loose and can be tightened down - you will want to perform this feat of coordination two or three times.

When you are happy that the bearings are snug, and you can feel no more movement, tighten down the top nut. Move the handlebars and satisfy yourself that they are not binding anywhere. 

If you use your steering damper, reset it and you are good to go.

Restore, Ride, Fettle, Ride, Fix at roadside, Ride, Fettle...

So of the course the latest little jaunt around the countryside heralded the same old problems with the front brake...

No obvious overheating this time, but only because I was watching for it and acutely aware of the vibration from the front forks. Resting my gloved hand softly on the lever, you can feel that sometimes it is tight and sometimes not. Sometimes there is a lot of play at the lever - I suspect it is not returning too well. Parked up, I backed off the cable a couple of turns and it felt much better.

So back in the workshop, the cable is obviously too long. It doesn't run down smoothly through the yokes, and it feels a bit dry:

We'll look at getting a new pair of shoe return springs, but for a start let's sort that cable out. No going back now:

This is how you fill up the nipple with solder. You want to avoid it running down the cable, and you need to be careful to avoid excessive heat.

More cable making information here.

Oh, and the speedo needle is sticking again:

But she still looks nice in period surroundings, albeit with a bit of PhotoShop!

One for the Bridge Club

I've recently spotted that the Bridge Club have some of my posts on their blog spot, which I am delighted to see. In line with their ethos, I have started taking pictures of bridges...

This is the bridge that carries Sandy Hill Lane over the NNR and into Station Road at the delightful Weybourne Station. Look at the soot all over the bridge! This comes from some of the fantastic locomotives shown on the NNR locos page.

This next one is the same line, different era. These are the two viaducts at East Runton, just after the duck ponds on the way to the village. The far viaduct carries the Bittern Line from Sheringham to Cromer, and was built by the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway. During the M&GN days, a train could continue straight over the near viaduct straight on to Sheringham from the shared line that ran from Norwich into Cromer High. Both the route over this viaduct & Cromer High station itself are now just history (though the viaduct is still in place, and Roadkill Customs occupies part of the Cromer High Station yard). 

During the M&GN (and indeed the LNER and later British Railways) period, the trains would go from Norwich, through Wroxham and North Walsham before reaching the Runton Triangle, cross the now disused near viaduct before bearing West on to Sheringham or back to Norwich. When Cromer High was closed and all trains went to Cromer Beach (which is in the town centre - unlike Cromer High), the loco would be facing the wrong direction for the run on to Sheringham and would be turned on the Cromer Beach turntable. When the turntable was removed (when?), the loco would run-around the train at Cromer, and use the triangle to change direction. The loco would cross the (currently used) northerly viaduct in reverse & then travel forwards onto the southerly viaduct, finally reversing back onto the train at Cromer, ready to return to Norwich.

Of course, all this changed with the post-Beeching era and the modernisation of our railways. From the '60's, the driver would vacate one cab of his DMU & wander up to the other end to run "backwards" on into Sheringham.

Spot the Ariel

Phased Rebuilds

Another example of why, if you are not too familiar with a machine, phased rebuilds are a good idea. This little clip, which retains the brake cable from flapping about, was fitted back to front and was merrily removing the paint from the fork shroud:

Glad that's not new paint on there!

False Alarm

Well, thankfully the dribble of oil, grease or other shiny substance appearing at the edge of my brake drum appears to be tiny, and dry.

Pulling the brake apart took me fifteen minutes, thanks to the front stand, a wonderful invention - not only because it lifts the wheel off the ground, but also because it stops the headstock swinging about.

So easy to use...

This is the leading shoe, a little high in the middle - maybe about 60-70% contact:

Leading shoe wear

And this is the trailing shoe, wearing as you would expect - a little more than 50% contact:

Trailing shoe wear

So, we have something like 60% contact overall. A little relief on the high spots should help tremendously, which I can do with some 60 grit paper and a file.

As for the grease, just a little dribble. We will clean that up tomorrow.

And there is a lucky eBay find on the way!

For those fortunate enough to be less geeky than me, this is an original Ariel brake fulcrum spanner. Very rare. Here it is in action:

North Norfolk Canter

I thought I'd take the SQ4 out for a little gallop along the coast this morning. We had a nice little trip along to Holt, to visit the North Norfolk Railway. This is a most excellent standard gauge line, with steam and diesel engines running most days in the summer, and a variety of special events throughout the year. This is the end of the present line, where trains from Sheringham terminate after a 5 mile trip through Weybourne & Kelling. You can take a bus into Holt, or look around the museum, or take the train back again:

North Norfolk Railway - Holt Station

Then a trip north through the countryside to the coast at the aptly named Cley-Next the Sea

Cley

Then along the gloriously twisty A149 through Salthouse & Kelling:

Salthouse Marshes

Stopping at the Muckleburgh collection on the way home:

Muckleburgh Collection

Twenty-one miles in all, no mishaps, apart from the fact that the front brake is being 'grabby' again. We did some more temperature measurements when we got back, which you can read about here. At the end of the run the oil pressure was reading about 20 psi at 25 mph.

Temperature testing also revealed that the front brake drum was at 117°C when I stopped. Hmm...

Maintenance

Well, the Square is finally in the garage (as opposed to the workshop/shed/summerhouse where I restored it) and is getting into the swing of being a mode of transport rather than a project. Well, nearly...

I'm going to try and ride it a little every day now it is nearby, at least when I am not away working, and that should build up some miles: and of course that means maintenance.

I'd puzzled over the best way to fill the primary cases. The big filler hole is directly above the level plug and I had formed the opinion that dribbling oil into the filler ran down the inside of the case, around the footrest tunnel and out of the level hole, and that my primary case didn't have any oil in it, because none came out of the chain oiler. So I left the drain plug in and poured a decent amount of oil into the filler...

And out it came, pouring from the clutch cover drain! The primary case obviously doesn't hold much oil. I drained it all out again via the level hole, and hoped it hadn't gone all over the clutch plates.

A little trip out, to check the tyre pressures at the local garage, proved that all was well with the clutch.

I adjusted the front brake a little - it is really not very effective. The rear one is good though, fortunately.

  

Trip to the Seaside

After an uneventful run up to Sheringham, North Norfolk.

This may not seem much, as a 27 mile trip, but its the first time that I have been out riding on a route that was not circular around my home - the idea being that as you shake the bike down the radius gets larger. The first trip I do on a rebuilt machine goes out of the gate and I turn left and keep turning left until I get back, 10 minutes later. I increase the radius of the circular route as I get more confident with the machine.

As you all know, I have been having overheating problems leading to low oil pressure; as many people have said, Mk1 engines run very hot when newly built - at the end of this trip, the SQ4 had clocked up 117 miles since rebuild. 

So, following your advice, I am breaking it in slowly and keeping an eye on the oil pressure. I'll run it around each day and build up some miles.

Out & About

This is just an excuse to post a picture... Some more temperature testing today. 5 minutes warm up, some miles around town a bit of traffic, a little open road. Down to 10 psi at hot idle, 20 psi running at 25-30 mph.

Clamping Down

One of the many problems that have arisen so far during my shakedown period has been the inability to get my levers and twist grip to clamp onto the handlebars. The bars are polished stainless, and I guess that 19 mm OD stainless is of sufficiently less OD than chrome plated 3/4" tube, enough to allow the parts to move. They are not that loose, just enough to worry you. 

So, a few minutes with shears, a fine file and some 0.5 mm brass sheet produces a neat & tidy solution.

All is now rigidly clamped in place.

Oops

Well, I got out on my test drive, and it feels much happier - smoother, more torque at the bottom end...

Unfortunately, about 5 miles in, a misfire appeared and the engine stopped. Having experienced this many times during the fuel filter saga, I was quick to look for fuel supply problems and cracked the fuel supply banjo to find all was well. The bike started again, only to stop again after about 100 yards - this happened once more, and then I was close enough to push it home...

Charging had looked good on the ammeter from the first day. All the lights worked perfectly, apart from one indicator which persistently rotated around to face the floor, but in general everything had been fine. However today, when I had the bike running again, switching on the lights would kill the engine.

The Lucas C35SD gives 70 W at about 1700 rpm which equates to 32 mph in top gear, but when you are running around town the ignition, brake light and frequently used indicator loads soon drain the battery, which appears as a fuel-starvation-like misfire. I cursed that fuel line again until I realised what was going on, and a CTEK battery charger came to my rescue. Actually you need about 20 W for the ignition alone, or about 3 Amps; in top gear, you get 3 Amps from the generator at an average of 23 mph – these bikes are really not for town use.

My 1951 Mk1 has a 20 Ah battery bank hidden in the Lucas GU11E style fibreglass box. I'd be surprised if you could even get to the shops with the earlier small battery...

Valve Timing

So, we had another nice little run out yesterday, on a shopping errand this time. No dramas, Amelia running nicely with her new brake shoes. She attracted some attention from a cyclist who came over exclaiming: "Oh, a Squariel! I haven't seen one of those in years!" He proceeded to tell me about his Triumph TSS and T120R, which apparently was fitted with a Morgo pump as well.

You meet the nicest people on an Ariel.

I'd heard mention of the effect valve timing has on overheating, and it occurred to me that in the joyous response to the problems I had had setting up the valve timing initially I had possibly not been too careful to get it spot on, being happy to go with the factory timing marks. Ariel folk lore tells us this is not wise.

So, when I arrived back from shopping I whipped off the offside rocker cover, the #1 plug and the front crankshaft cap and had a look - and it looked like number one inlet valve was opening near TDC - it is supposed to be 3/16" before TDC.

So, late in the night, and with the head torch on I took off the timing cover. I discovered that if you remove the dynamo sprocket you can reset the valve timing without removing the camshaft sprocket (and hence you can leave the oil pump in place too) After 4 or five attempts I finally got the timing as close as I could - which I think is spot-on. The cam chain tension makes a big difference, and you have to test it with tension on the cam chain.

I may need to change the cam chain at some point - a worn chain affects the valve timing.

So that done, I reset the ignition timing, a job which is very easy in the dark, because you can see when the points open if you turn the ignition on, since there is always a little spark when the points open. However, testing it all again the next day revealed the valve timing was indeed spot-on, but the ignition timing was way to far advanced, as evidenced by several kick-backs and spitting at the carburettor. Realising what these symptoms meant, I reset the points gap and the ignition timing again.

And after all that, as usual, she starts easily; but probably more easily than ever; she runs eagerly (though I could only manage a couple of miles) and she idles very much more smoothly.

We have some errands tomorrow; we will see what happens on a longer run

17 mile test run; fun with brakes

Lovely test run out to Bawburgh today, about 17 miles around the countryside. Bike is definitely running less hot, since after 8 miles I still had maybe 25 psi oil pressure at 30 mph, but that was dropping to 10 psi on the gauge at the end of the trip. I measured the oil temperature - 95 degrees C in the tank (about 200 F), which is much higher than I have seen after, say, a 5 mile trip.

As you can see the bike is on the sidestand - what I noticed later was that the carburettor drips fuel onto the dynamo in this position. I had left the fuel on though. 

The engine sounds happy enough; I'm not too sure about this gauge - I keep wondering how I would feel if it had never been fitted. I'm tempted to buy one of the club reproduction gauges, or to get this one calibrated.

Out on the road though, the Ariel was handling fine for the first few miles until I became aware of a juddering from the front end, which I initially put down to the road surface. On braking however I found no movement in the front brake lever, and realised the brake was seizing on. Near home, I stopped for traffic lights and saw smoke coming from the front brake (I've been here before, with the Bantam)...

Arriving back I was greeted with grease everywhere. As we all know, hot brakes cause the grease in your hubs to melt...

Stripping the brake down revealed some serious damage to the linings, and bits of lining (2-3 mm bits) all over the drum. The linings you see in the pictures are greasy, but those matt grooves in the middle are way below the wearing surface:

Greasy

Cratered Lining

Now, I don't know if this is a result of heat, or the heat is a result of this breaking down. I'll take it back to the supplier tomorrow and see what they say.

Odd, since it had been bedding in nicely and getting quite effective.

Michelin...

Hurrah for QD rear wheels:

It makes changing tubes so easy. A lot has appeared in the press lately about the quality of unbranded inner tubes, usually relating to poor vulcanising around the valve. The tube I took out was not unbranded, but wasn't one of the big names. It had a small split along one of the mould lines:

Its under that blob of Tyreweld. All fixed now, with a nice new Michelin tube from Vintage Tyres.

Oh, and it started first kick (well, first enthusiastic kick)!

Dealing with teething trouble...

So this week, I've been out and about for another short ride, but first I refitted the Morgo pump. I did about 8 miles as usual, out of town and up to 40 mph. The lubrication job I did on the speedo seems to have stopped it sticking at full range.

The Morgo obviously provides more oil flow than the plunger pump, and I finished the journey with about 10 psi on the oil pressure gauge.

I also finished the journey with a completely flat rear tyre, which looks like it might be a valve failure. I wobbled along the road, complaining about the tramlines the council left when they resurfaced, only to keep my wobble, rapidly turning into a squirm from the rear end, when I ran out of tramlines. I recovered the puncture with a handy can of tyre weld I had in the pannier.

Of course, the low oil pressure problem is not sufficiently improved with the Morgo to use the bike in anger. Lifting the rocker covers with the engine running (rather dangerous - they are very hot) you can see little jets of oil coming from the rocker oil holes. I've fitted three new old stock rocker shafts to deal with the wear I found in the shafts last year - one was already fitted due to a damaged thread:

A thought occurred to me, corroborated by AOMCC forum members - retarded ignition causes overheating. Checking accurately revealed that the ignition was indeed retarded: I moved the distributor about 10 degrees, equating to about 20 degrees at the crankshaft, to get it right (thanks MikeN!).

So we will have to see what happens. Just waiting for a new inner tube...

Another Test

Another little test run today: 8 miles or so out of town and at the end, 10 psi at tickover. And the speedo is sweeping round to full range and staying there (that is poor lubrication)