Cancer Research UK Charity Ride

I mentioned this in a previous post, but today was the day I accompanied Russ for the Wales leg of his round-Britian charity ride.

There was a slight misunderstanding over meeting times, but eventually I tracked Russ down in a petrol station in Llanrhystud, on the coast road South of Aberystwyth at about 9:30 am. The day was cool, with a bit of rain in the air, so my choice of leather jacket and jeans wasn't too bright. We set off onto the B4337 and passed through Lampeter before stopping for a coffee and a bacon baguette (mmm) at the famous West End Café in Llandovery. We then carried on down the A40 to Brecon and Abergavenny, where we had another coffee at the Bus Station, another favourite bikers' hang-out. In the car parking area of the Bus Station, we saw this weird device:



I understand it is a BMW, although whether produced by the motorcycle or car division I am not sure. It looks wildly top-heavy, and on its tiny scooter wheels I can't imagine it is very stable. But the dapper and bearded gentleman who climbed off it (or should that be out of it?) seemed unconcerned with such matters.

I planned to ride with Russ as far as the A449 at Raglan. However, I had already run onto reserve and when I realised that I would have to join the A449 and ride it for some miles before I could turn back (and I know for a fact there are no petrol stations on that stretch), I bailed out into Raglan town to look for fuel. Russ carried on towards his goal of a campsite at Weston-Super-Mare.

Russ turned out to be a thoroughly nice guy, and his passion for the cause of cancer research was clear. He's already a long way to achieving his fund-raising goal, and I wish him well with it. I hope the bacon baguette was a suitable contribution to his well-being for the day.

I decided to make a meal of the journey home, so I hunted around the road map until I saw something suitable. By going back along the A465 Heads of the Valleys road as far as Merthyr Tydfil, I was able to pick up a tiny unclassified road that led me to the start of the Brecon Beacons Mountain Railway. I almost took a turning that would have led me to the infamous Gurnos Estate, and if I had I probably wouldn't be writing this now. The road picked its way alongside the Pontsticill Reservoir and across the top of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Strangely, I passed within a few yards of the Taff Trail, the scene of the killing of the biker with a metal bar across the trail (posted here). That wasn't deliberate, I assure you. The land there shows the evidence of years of coal mining, with strange lumps in the ground which have now grassed over and look almost natural:



The reservoir, on the other side of the road, was deserted and eerily peaceful.



Once out of the valley and on the tops, the views were stunning:



I have never been on this road before, but I know I will have to do it again sometime. The road finally descends past Tal-y-Bont Reservoir into the village of Talybont-on-Usk, where I surprised to see a swing bridge in my way, and even more surprised to find that it crossed a canal, complete with narrowboats, that was a good five metres higher than the road I was riding on:



And so back to Brecon, the A40 (and a roadside burger) and home.

I was a little anxious about the bike. I always am until any work I have done has proved itself in action. I needn't have worried. The bike went like a dream all day, coping with traffic, A-road blasts and dual-carriageway high-speed cruising as well as I could have wished. Its good manners in slow traffic haven't been compromised, but the hefty belt of mid-range that the airbox and carb mods have delieved is astonishing. Overtaking was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair*, and the bike seems happy to cruise a full 10 mph faster than before. Great for performance, not so great for my neck muscles. The most amazing and gratifying thing was the numbers when I finally filled the tank before returning home - a very reasonable 55 mpg average, which is almost identical to previous long runs before the mods. I did a couple of plug readings on the way home, and they were normal. I think we'll call the work complete for now.

Oh, and the 285 miles I did today has also finally killed off the rear tyre. It is now officially bald. New one should arrive in the next few days. And waiting at home for me was my latest eBay purchase, a Vango 3-man tent, bike-camping for the use of. I'll post about that shortly.

*OK, that's an exaggeration. But it was a damn sight easier and quicker, that's for sure.

Plug chop

Well, not so much a chop as a quick whip-out-and-have-a-look.

After a couple of hours of whizzing round town and a leg-stretch on the A40, I got home and pulled the plugs to see how things were cooking in the Bonnie's insides. I was expecting a black, sooty mess. Instead, I got this:



It's a poor photo (iPhone camera), and it doesn't really show the colours properly, but the results were good. Both plugs were an even pale brown, one slightly darker than the other, on the insulators and the tips. No signs of overheating, fouling or over-richness. Pretty much what I would expect from an engine running the correct mixture and in the peak of health.

I am going to be on the road for most of tomorrow, so maybe I will get the chance to do a roadside plug chop to see what it's like at 3/4 and full throttle, but it looks as though those 140 main jets were in the right zone, at least.

I love Italians

A young woman on a public beach in Anzio is sunbathing topless and applying sun-cream. Another woman objects (apparently, her 12 and 14-year-old sons were 'troubled' by the sight - I'll bet they were) and calls the police. The police turn up and the sunbathing woman argues with them, still topless, to the amusement of everyone around.

Choice quotes are from the sunbathing woman's lawyer:

Let's be clear my client is tall, brunette and has an ample breast and is therefore going to naturally be sensuous when she applies cream to her chest.

And from a police spokesman:

We have opened a file on committing an obscene act as we are committed to following the complaint. From what I heard she was very attractive.

Only in Italy would a policeman give a personal assessment of a woman's attractiveness as part of a public press release.

I love 'em all.

Who to believe?

Barry Cloughton, 78, from Cornwall drives a Reliant Robin. He parks it outside his home in St Austell. Twice in the last week, vandals have tipped it onto its side, causing considerable damage.

The BBC programme Top Gear featured a similar stunt last June (and repeated last Sunday), where Jeremy Clarkson tipped a Robin over in a similar fashion every time he walked past it. I think we can conclude that the two are not unconnected.

Mr Cloughton is clearly distressed by the events, but who does he blame? Well, that depends on who you are talking to. Bearing in mind that the BBC is the organisation that makes Top Gear, and the Daily Mail is a newspaper that relies on whipping up panic about non-existent threats, see if youj can guess which news organisation was responsible for each of the following quotes:

1. Reliant Robin attack blamed on 'Top Gear copy cats'
Former plumber Mr Cloughton told BBC News: "I don't blame Jeremy Clarkson, I blame the kids who did it.

2. Pensioner slams Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson after copycat pranksters roll his Reliant Robin over
It all followed Top Gear where a car like mine was being flipped over. I think they saw the broadcast and that put the idea into their heads. It might all be a laugh for Mr Clarkson but believe me this is not funny for me - I've been vandalised and nearly ended up in hospital.

Yup, (1) and (2).

Actually, I quite like Reliant Robins. A friend of mine used to have one when he got his first teaching post (another fell-by-the-wayside biker) and I was impressed. 60 mpg, nifty acceleration, and surprisingly good road-holding - until the back wheel lifted and you went straight on into a roundabout or tree. After all, 800cc, 450kg all-up weight and low gearing - what's not to like?

Tuning the Bonnie

This week, I have been messing about with the Bonnie, trying to squeeze an extra couple of horsepower out of that unsophisticated engine. I know that when I got the Bonnie I said I wasn't interested in outright power, and that's still true. I'm having more fun with 61 bhp on the Bonnie than I did with 125 bhp on the Pan. But a couple of extra ponies wouldn't go amiss. Especially if they were virtually free of charge.

I read a bit of information that mentioned a restrictor plate inside the airbox, with the additional information that removing this would give a noticeable increase in performance for no penalty in fuel consumption or driveability. This seemed too good to be true, but for the sake of half an hour's work it had to be worth a try.

The inlet tract of the standard Bonnie is a pretty convoluted affair. There's a rubber intake snorkel, which has a 90° bend in it, and then the air goes through the paper air filter, through another 90° bend, then through 90° in two directions, through a plate with a small oblong hole in it, through another 45°, twice, and into a chamber which feeds the carbs. Removing the snorkel would straighten the path of the air considerably (straight path = less resistance to flow = more air) and removing the plate would allow the full measure of oxygen to pass directly to the carbs. The bike already has the Truimph "Off-Road" (TOR) silencers fitted by the previous owner, which are far less restrictive than standard, so this should match up inlet and exhaust and let the bike breathe better.

So I set to and removed the snorkel and then partially dismantled the airbox, and took the plate out. What I had failed to take into account was that more air needs more fuel to retain the proper air/fuel ratio, so when I tested the bike it ran like a dog, and not a very fast dog at that. In fact, truth be told, I had ruined a perfectly good motorbike. Not permanently - the plate slid out and could slide right back in if I so chose - but disappointing nonetheless. I needed a pair of bigger main jets.

My local dealer had some of the right size so, at a pound each, I took them. Of course, they were the wrong fitment and had to go back - Sod's Law. The ones he did have that would fit were slightly bigger than I needed, but at that price I thought I would give them a try anyway. (One point to watch - the standard jets are 110s, and when the TORs were fitted the jets should have been replaced with 115s, but what was in there were the standard jets. Take nothing for granted, even a dealer's word that the bike had been correctly jetted by his own mechanics.) I ended up with 140s. I had to take the carbs off to fit them, as getting to the jets was impossible any other way, but the effort was worth it. At first, the bike idled very badly but I took it for a test ride anyway. The bike went well, confirming that the problem was with the idle jets, not the mains. I must have got some dirt in one when I had the bowls off. Carbs back off, blow through the jets, and back together. And a test ride ...

Well, it's like someone had taken the engine out and given me a bigger one. It rides slowly just as well as before, but open it up and there is a huge surge forward that wasn't there before. I haven't tried it for maximum speed yet, but for the part of the power curve that makes riding enjoyable and easy (the mid-range, where you do most of your accelerating and is vital for easy overtakes) it is massively better.

Yee-har!

I need to fine-tune it, as I suspect that the jets are too big and the bike is running a bit rich now. A plug chop will tell me all I need to know. And I will need to check the fuel consumption as well. No point in having 10% more power if it's going to use 20% more fuel. As the modification is geared towards gaining more airflow and therefore greater efficiency, there should be no increase in fuel consumption, and people I have spoken to who have done this confirm that, but I need to see the numbers for myself.

So far, though, a big success.

The last thing was to make a little mesh screen to cover the air filter, now that the restrictive snorkel is no more. I made it out of a stainless steel Tesco kitchen sieve, and I think it looks quite good. Perhaps not 'factory', but tidy enough for me.



I'll report some results when I have them. I am doing a bit of a charity ride on Friday (see this post), so that will be at least 240 miles to check it out. I'm looking forward to that.

Next - new rear tyre. I'm down to the limit.

UPDATE:

Plug readings normal, fuel consumption unaffected. Thunderbirds are GO.