Delhi onwards.

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Assam

Delhi traffic was something  to be experienced and the type of riding was the same when we arrived in Guwahati. Guwahati is the capital of Assam it used to be Shillong until the British moved out. Assam is the tea growing area of India. It has the right climate to grow the best tea in the world. It is black and strong and better than any of the stuff you will get in the UK unless it is genuine Assam tea. My wife comes from Assam and we are there for a family visit so we had to meet everyone in Guwahati and anyone else in travelling distance requiring a visit to a tea plantation just a few kilometres from the Bhutan border.  I had never known how tea was produced. I just thought you picked some old leaves and dried them or could smoke them. This could not be further from the truth as here is a strictly controlled process of drying and preparation that attains the quality of tea that we have today. This tea plantations carries on the traditions that were in place when the British were managing them and that includes the “Club”. The hospitality from the family and everyone was amazing and we are invited to go back. It is a place to have quiet sanctuary and “dance with the elephants” as they go by the tea gardens or sometimes through them when they migrate.

 Back in Guwahati more family visits and a chance to talk with Pritam about how good Enfields are and what I ride and what the museum is like. We have a good bikers chat while the rest of the family talk about me! The next day we fly off to Dibrugarh in the heart of Assam. More family to see and I get to have a ride around on a Honda CBR , In India it is only 125cc.

 I have a chance to ride around the block with my cousin Rischi on the back directing me. I use the horn in the best Indian traditions and making the most of my advanced riding skills. I now felt I could handle some Indian city traffic. Sadly Delhi Belly and a bad cold prevented me doing much more while I was there.

 I did get a chance to talk to another cousin Chinmoi when he came to visit with a friend and there was lots more bikers talk. Before I left Dibrugarh I was invited back to be a celebrity at one of the Bihu (traditional dances) gala events. Back in Delhi the big chill had hit. Instead of being a comfortable 25C it was a chilling 8C. In the UK at the time it was a warm 14C.  I was so cold, even with heating that I had vest, shirt, pullover, fleeced waterproof, scarf and beanie on. I couldn’t put gloves on as I needed to hold a cup and that is difficult if you have gloves on. I did have a remedy to the cold and that was to put vast quantities if whisky in steaming hot tea. I also heard we had just missed snow at Shimla. I could have gone skiing! I had got out of Delhi to Goa as fog set in and enjoyed the warmth of being so far south. In my travels I have read the IAM autumn magazine, the LE club “On the Level” MAG’s Road and a book about a Mr Clancy who rode around the world in 1912 on a Henderson! Some feat that was! I have also gained a sun tan!

India first Report

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News from Delhi.

You may wonder why you have not seen postings for a while, but I have been planning a tour of India and this is my first opportunity to report back on what has been happening. Arriving in Delhi was an experience. The traffic is about seven times that of London, never stops and fills every inch of tarmac and where possible pavements too! I have seen bikes and cars trying to beat the traffic, most of the time unsuccessfully. I have spent many miles as a passenger in a taxi observing the antics of riders and drivers they have a different set of rules to those we use in the UK. The “safety bubble” and “keep your distance” do not apply. There is a level of closeness that would feel uncomfortable to most riders in the UK. I have more to comment on as the tour progresses. Playing chicken is normal with almost forcing other road users off the road and sometimes hitting them. No one seems to bother to stop unless the person doesn’t get up again. Even cows get in on the act.

The first adventure was a train trip to Shimla. Taking the train from Delhi to Kalka and an overnight stop before continuing on the narrow gauge railway up to the town rising more than 1800m. The railway was built by the British and completed in 1903. It was and still is a feat of engineering and an experience to be had. On the way I picked up a complementary paper that was reporting on the activities of the local police motorcycle display team showing off what they could do.

They are obviously short of Enfield motorcycles and I captured this image of them rushing to an incident after these other two guys had been showing off.

 

 It was cold in Shimla and I stayed at the Clarke’s Hotel. It is an amazing place with all the waiters in traditional costume; including hats that were so well done they looked like a very well dressed army ready for a ceremonial occasion. One day at Shimla then the return trip on the toy train and then back to Delhi that evening. I got back to my accommodation only to be told that my flight to Guwahati the next afternoon had been cancelled and the alternative  was now at 7:30am with no direct flight it was diverted through Calcutta making a 3hour flight into 5 hours having to disembark at Calcutta to get on another plane. This meant that I had to be up at 4:00 am to be ready for 5:00 am to take the taxi to the airport to catch the plane with time to spare. On arriving in Guwahati and taking a taxi to visit family I saw the first accident. A car was doing a creeping overtake of a tuc-tuc, as the drivers do even against oncoming traffic, he failed to see a car coming towards him swerved into the tuc-tuc bouncing it sideways and putting several dents in his car. The tuc-tuc looked no worse for wear and carried on slowly regaining some composure as the car sped off and did a swift left turn to escape from his misdemeanour. I have taken many rides in tuc-tucs, as they are called in Thailand, auto rickshaws in India and most other places call them more unpleasant names. In Thailand tuc-tuc comes from the sound that the diesel engine makes as the go along. Piagio make them as do Bajaj and Mahindra.

  They are extremely robust with a chassis that will not break. Ideal for taxiing and most other commercial uses. There are lightweight bikes and scooters everywhere and on every journey I could see different makes and models with the usual presence from Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki with only a few Kawasaki, but new to me were the Indian Hero Honda, Bajaj, Mahindra and TVS.

Enfield photos

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Enfield and Triumph

It was the last Tuesday in November as we sat down in the Admiral Hawke Pub to enjoy the evening with Chris, Sue, Peter, Anne, Steve myself and Gita. Sadly to say George and Antje were unable to get there as they were travelling back from Hamburg. The pub did us proud as they had decorated the bar and restaurant earlier than planned to create the Christmas feel just for us. The meal was very good with such generous portions that we were unable to finish the main course. We had to save room for some Christmas pud!

My Monday at the Museum had me taking down a couple of the barriers to get some clear photos of the Enfield and TT winning Triumph of Bruce Anstey's. I am hoping to visit both factories in India sometime soon and travelling with some nice photos of the bikes and any literature about them  will help to establish important links. I hope to post things as they happen while I am away. Closer to home I have just returned from staying at a spa hotel in Budock Vean near Falmouth and as usual I left fliers promoting the Museum. They were happy to put them on display as they frequently have visitors from London.

Once again the wether has not been kind. It seems that every time I get out there it rains. All through the summer, albeit the best one for ages, the weather changes as soon as I ride down the road from beautiful sunshine to monsoon rains. I have tried the oversuit insurance scheme and the rain has still found its way inside. I need to buy some new gear!

A visit to the Imperial War Museum

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A visit to the IWM.

Another busy week with being out and about with being at the Museum on Monday and off to Bristol on Tuesday, back Wednesday, Thursday at the Imperial War Museum London. Only a couple of bikes there. Family stuff over the weekend and Monday back at the Museum for another international day with visitors from Spain, Australia, America and South Africa. Tuesday I was out to visit Wycombe MAG in the evening to see if they wanted to have a special visit to the Museum during the winter months when it is not so pleasant to ride. It is being posted on their Facebook page.

While in Bristol I happened to be having a casual read about Jowett Cars and the side valve flat twin engine they used in their early cars. Jowett was one of the early car manufacturers and like many of the ones in the 1900's people had associations that seem odd. This is a reference to the early Scott motorcycles. Alfred Scott had one of these associations with the Jowett Car company who assisted him greatly to get his first motorcycles made. They put much effort into sorting out the first models in 1908 and when produced were badged as the Scott-Jowett. Only 6 were made and remained with Jowett to dispose of as Alfred went into partnership with Eric Myers and Adolphus Philip to form Scott Engineering.

The 1908 Scott-Jowett with a 333cc water cooled two stroke twin.

On to Thursday and a visit to the Imperial War Museum. I spent all day there with my nephew and felt a bit traumatised by the Holocaust display and the inhumanity of it all. Moving on I did find some bikey bits and had a close look at the Brockhouse WW1, the Corgi in its civilian form. The military version is a bit primitive compared to the one on display at the Museum. The other motorcycle on display is a BMW outfit that has the sidecar wheel driving from shaft final drive. It has a proportioned differential to get it around corners otherwise it would just keep going straight on!

We went around the World War One display and much centred around how the casualties at the Front were treated and found a reference to Elsie Knocker's diary and Mairie Chisholm who was also a keen motorcyclist. They set up a Front Line First Aid and were known as the “Women of Pervyse”. Elsie earned the name "Gypsy" because of her love of the open road and membership of the Gypsy Motorcycle Club. She possessed a number of motorbikes including a Scott, a Douglas solo, and a Chater-Lea with a sidecar which travelled with her to the Western Front. (We have a 1922 Chater-Lea outfit at the Museum) I think I will now have to read the diary. This is a very interesting lady.

Caistor Castle Motor Museum

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Caistor Castle Car Collection.

Back from the Lake District, a day at the Museum, then off to Martham on the Norfolk Broads. This was a good ride on the Buell for a family visit while they are on holiday there. It was another international day at the museum on Monday, with visitors from America and France. It all adds to the fun of being a volunteer to hear peoples' stories. I had only one full day on the Broads and the weather had turned cold with wind and downpours. I had spotted a car museum sign on my travels and thought this might be the best place to spend a wet afternoon. Family in tow we headed off in my brother's car to find Caistor Castle Car Collection.

I had looked it up in the morning on my phone and got some details and directions. It is reported to be the largest private collection in Britain. A must to see if your are in the area. The only problem it is only open May to September. We were lucky to get a visit in as it was closing for the winter in a couple of days.

I did see some interesting things like the 3 wheeler Scott that looks like it should have had four wheels but one fell off! One of the first electric motorcycles, a Socovel made in Belgium around 1922 and many interesting bikes among them a Nimbus and a beautiful looking Henderson.

As usual I have left fliers behind and brought some of the Motor Museum back with me. My appreciation of the visit goes to Debbie, the Curator of this Museum, who was kind enough to put up with my ramblings and as the Motor Museum was about to close she would pass the fliers on to the local motorcycle clubs for me. I will need to send her more fliers for when they re-open next May. I had a good run back although the wind was stronger and it was cloudy and not so warm. I have a new rear engine oil seal to fit on my little car. It's a bit of a job as the engine needs to come out to get to it. Never mind it is what you have to d to keep the old cars running.

Transport Museum Stand

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London Transport Museum

In the last few weeks there have been a few more things going on. Almost 2 weeks ago I was out for a ride on the Buell and lost the rear end crash protectors, disappearing somewhere on my travels around Chieveley. This started off a series of events that meant a trip to R&G racing near Alton in Hampshire to get replacements and where I left more fliers for them to send out to unsuspecting customers. In the middle of that I was out to the Wey Valley Advanced Motorcycle Club meeting on the Sunday and spent the Monday at the Museum having another international day with visitors from America, Australia and New Zealand. The guy from New Zealand knew Bert Monroe and suggested I go pay the Bert Monroe Museum a visit the next time I'm in New Zealand. I have seen the film “the Fastest Indian “a few times and it reminds me of many things I did with my dad working on motorcycles late into the night in my youth. On this Monday the ABC Skootamota, the Zenith Gradua and Trusty were missing from the display. Gone, but where? They must be out for a show somewhere. I needed to know. It only took a phone call to find out they were loaded and ready to go to the London Transport Open Day at the Acton Depot for the coming weekend. It is also the Brighton Burn up Sunday too. I was not able to contribute much towards these as I was entertainments officer for my sister-in-law and nephew. I was out on Tuesday to the weekly Wycombe MAG meeting at the Stags Head Flackwell Heath on the Kawasaki. Wednesday to R&G Racing near Alton, just 100 miles round trip staring about 9:30 and back for lunch. Friday was a trip to Brooklands, free to BMCT people like me and after a very interesting day meeting some German guys with their racing Austin Sevens the family missed out on the Concord flight but did do the new show of 150 mph around Montilhery in the1922 550 bhp Napier Railton that managed 144.3 mph lap record in 1928. 

It was a bumpy ride in the simulator. Saturday was a family day and on Sunday morning I was doing a little woodwork and did not quite manage to amputate my left index finger before breakfast with a Japanese saw. I may have exaggerated a little but it was messy and I now have a very stiff sore finger! After being patched up I thought that trying to ride a bike in London traffic with a disabled finger on my clutch hand was not a good idea so I elected to use my Freedom Pass and use the public transport to get me to Acton. I got there around 2pm and spent the remaining time talking to prospective visitors and seeing little of the what was at the Transport Museum. They have this open day only once a year and it has some very special bits to it. This years theme was World War One and hence why Trusty was paying a visit. 

Almost next to the Museum stand was a 1916 army bus that started life as a London Bus. Done over in Army brown it was a drab version of the bright red that it would have ben on the streets of London. Best bit of all, a visitor whose grandfather had served as a dispatch rider on a Trusty was station in 91 regiment and the bus next door was 92 regiment. We have more information to come on this. The army uniform form the bus display was one used by the dispatch riders and we have had taken a lot of information about the arm bands they wore. 

Further to that RAF Hendon are restoring a 1915 Trusty. I was there only a few hours but it was well worthwhile. I was pleased I had used the buses as parking is not good at Acton. This museum is almost opposite Acton Town railway station. I nearly made it home but at the bus stop in Greenford the E6 was displayed with a 28 minute wait so the calvary was called and I was home in twenty. Sore finger and all, typing with one less finger that it pointing to the air taped into immobility is a bit difficult. More to come when we see it.

WVAMC meeting

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Insight into MotoGP

Having had more fun at the Museum on the Monday and wondering why the LE was not running well on the way home I decided to have a look at it. It turned out that a burnt out exhaust valve on the left cylinder was the culprit. It was not until I started to grind in the valves that I was able to see there was no seat contact on about a third of the valve. No wonder there was no compression! A new valve was fitted and performance restored.

On Thursday I headed out to Ripley village hall for the meeting. It was not a good ride as there was so much traffic. I think I filtered almost all the way from home, around the M25 to the A3. I arrived late but still in time for the start of the talk by Neil Spalding. Those of you who follow MotoGP will have heard him many times on Eurosport talking of the technological developments that the teams are coming up with. He explained about how the power was delivered to the rear wheel and how it relates to the firing order of the engines. Different configurations give differing power delivery. It seems that a vee formation is good for even power delivery with the crankshaft having the minimum variation in momentum as the pistons slow at the top and bottom of each stroke. He explained the difference between bike and car engines and how the crankshaft on a bike was much heavier to ensure a smooth power delivery. In MotoGP you do not want 200 plus bhp coming in like putting on a light at the switch. He spent some time talking about the Honda RC211V vee 5 engine of 2002 and that the carburration was split between the front 3 cylinders and the rear 2 at certain throttle openings. 

Honda Vee 5 engine.

To manage the power when the throttle is opened only the front 3 cylinders were used so that the power delivery was metered very accurately and above all smoothly. There is even computer control that compensates for the angle of lean. Once you have something that works the chassis then has to do its job. Apparently the centre of gravity for a MotoGP bike is somewhere in a 6mm square on the machine and it is not easy to find. The design of the engine and where the gearbox should go is very important so things can be positioned in the best place. There was some discussion about why Ducati's had been so good with Casey Stoner and with no-one else. It turns out that he just rode every corner like he was going to crash. Now Ducati are sorting the problem out and it seems they had too rigid a chassis. With the modern bikes reaching silly angles of lean the suspension that operates up and down in the plane of straight line riding do not work when cranked over at 60 degrees. If there is no give the wheels just bounce and traction is lost and down you go. To get the tyres to continue gripping something has to give so the chassis is designed to flex in that plane to achieve this. 

Bautista in action.

At present the MotoGP teams are signing up people who can slide the bikes and this gets around a number of the handling issues with riders skill. Talking of tyres, Pirelli had made tyres to suit the bikes but with the change coming using Michelin tyres the bikes will need to be designed for the tyre and not the other way around. Neil gave us an immense amount of detail about what manufacturers had done in their quest to be number one. It was a very enjoyable evening that gave an insight into making a winning bike.

Jack's Fish and Chip shop

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More for August

Monday at the Museum on the LE and it didn't run very well so Tuesday I discovered there was no compression on the left pot and it required a strip down of that side to discover a burnt out exhaust valve. This was only discovered when I started to grind in the valves and the exhaust valve had about a third of the seat not touching. Chuck it away and find another one from my box of bits. The replacement one was not in good condition and it took about an hour and more to get a reasonable finish for the seat. I have now got valve grinders wrist. It was a bit late in the day so I finished it Wednesday morning and it was all sorted by 10:30. There was enough time to get myself cleaned up and off to Jack's Fish and Chip shop on the A30 at Bagshott. I also needed to drop on a few bits to a 2CV friend who lives close by and I did not see on Monday at the local 2CVclub night. I thought I he might like them for the weekend. Jack's do deals for the senior members and it is a congregation point for vintage and classic bikers.

I knew I would not be there until after 1pm and I would miss the 12 to 1pm senior deal but I was on a mission so I had lunch before I left home. Out on the Buell for a brisk ride and still get to Jack's to see a good selection of bikes. There I met Velocette man who has an MSS at the Museum and today was out on his 1926 Triumph.

Even though I had been to Jack's before there were still people who did not know about he Museum. There are still some who know but have not yet visited. I am ever hopeful that another handout of fliers will get them to come along. I met a guy who had visited the Museum with the Enfield club the other week and he was impressed by our hospitality and how good the Museum is. There is a promise of another visit from the Enfield club and I do hope the Meteor comes along too.

I didn't stay long but I did manage lots of pics of the bikes I saw there. I thought the Honda engined Norton Commando was quite interesting

BSA Gold Flash,           AJS  big Twin    Pre War Harley and a BSA B33