Another great weekend of thrashing old bikes around a track. Good to see lots of BFTPers there. Tyler was riding a Norton ES2, a pushrod 500 designed in the 1920's but with 50's cycle parts. Punted it around the track in style, running just under 1minute 20 lap times ( he did tell me but I'm old ,deaf and forgettful...) Nick Cole was on a similar bike but with more power running on meth...... I think Tyler came 4th....(?) ...... Had they been on each others bikes it would have been interesting... I somehow got in a scratch race with most of the Red Devils ( Triumph 350's).....the BMW was like a bumble bee chasing some wasps...... The track had been parched on Thursday and they closed it mid Friday due to it causing crashes. they did some work on it over the weekend but that made it more slippery in a couple of corners, of course the good riders adjusted their lines to miss it.....moslty...... The BMW ran well all weekend, unlike the BMW sidecar that had its heads a pistons off...... Had a couple off good battles with some tail end Englanders on Triumphs and even bagged an 850 Norton on the finish line......real buzz passing an unapproachable Norton on the outside of Turn 6 on an old mans touring bikes and out powering it up the hill....yeehaaa..
Motu Ixion, I pretty much agree with everything you say & the gate guys expressed their frustration to the organisers & asked for changes . Hopefully it will be better next year. Still a pretty good weekend. Good to see you out there Volty.
If the ticket office was over by the gate it might work ok. Maybe next year just get a couple of Harleys ( the ones with humungeous wide rear tyres) and tow it over for the duration.
Thanks to everyone who called in to Team BMW's nice shady area, hopefully one day Hampton Downs will be finished off and then it will be awesome, in the mean time as a competitor I have no real complaints as its a huge undertaking mainly by volunteers and the track I heard was about 22K for the weekend.... Triumph looked to have a good display but I wonder how many modern Triumph riders can relate to the old bikes, as bike riding these days is about riding from home to the dealer for servicing and going to cafes on the weekend...
Actually, based on the discussions I had with various gentlemen about alternators on Speed Twins, SU carbs on Thunderbirds, pushrods and pushrod towers, leaks thereof, the Triumph Quadrant , and Tiger Cubs (Saturday must have been Cub day, I was falling over them at every turn), I suspect that modern Triumph owners are more clued up than most. Consider, that the main selling point of the Fakerville is "Oh, yeah, I had a Bonnie back in the day". So modern Triumph owners will probably be those who served their time on Meriden machines, or similar.
That's me, did my time on the Norton , still my fav bike, but the new Bonnies are just so damn reliable & user friendly . Yeah yeah yeah , they need more power & better handling, yeah they are fat, they are also bloody user friendly.
I saw that T'bird with the SU - very rare. Most took them off as they didn't understand how they worked. Modern riders are more ignorant and don't know they don't know how a CV carb works. I used to find plenty of manifolds, and fitted HS2's onto them. Found bits and pieces of T'bird SU's, but never enough to make a complete carb.
This didn't cut and paste very well but you get the idea...... Go Tyler In 0ver 500 OPC 30 bikes did practice, by Sunday last race there were 17 left. ( Mostly Briddish) B E S T T I M E S 09 February 2013 No. EVENT CLASS TIME NAME TYPE ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ 294 R27 OPC 5+ 1m15.19 STEVE BRIDGE NORTON F750 COMMANDO 98 R25 CMP500 1m15.63 NICK COLE NORTON ES2 125 R27 OPC 5+ 1m15.72 PETER TANNER NORTON MANX 28 R46 ALL500 1m16.70 DAVID HALL NORTON MANX 233 R10 CMP500 1m16.74 CHRIS SWALLOW BSA GOLDSTAR 517 R27 OPC 5+ 1m17.35 BERNARD RYAN MOTO GUZZI LM1 515 R12 OPC 5+ 1m17.41 JAMIE GALWAY NORTON ATLAS 137 R27 OPC 5+ 1m17.62 GREG SMITH DUCATI 900SS 75 R 1 CMP500 1m17.82 DAVE COLE McINTYRE MATCHLESS 231 R 3 OPC 5+ 1m18.12 CLOUD CRAIG-SMITH TRITON ANGUS SPECIAL 82 R 3 OPC 5+ 1m18.17 TERRY MARTIN ROB NORTH TRIDENT 135 R33 MANX N 1m18.17 WARREN MARSH NORTON MANX 52 R 6 FACTOR 1m19.04 HAYDEN FITZGERALD MATCHLESS G50 315 R27 OPC 5+ 1m19.55 TERRY GALWAY ROB NORTH COMMANDO 212 R 1 CMP500 1m19.68 ANDREW DRAKE VELOCETTE VENOM 28 R 1 CMP500 1m19.89 DAVID HALL NORTON DOMINATOR 75 R12 OPC 5+ 1m20.19 DAVE COLE DUCATI IMOLA 515 R10 CMP500 1m20.62 JAMIE GALWAY WESTON SPECIAL 82 R 1 CMP500 1m20.74 TERRY MARTIN NORTON MANX 61 R46 ALL500 1m20.84 TYLER LINCOLN NORTON ES2
Hey BMW are 90 this year...what are they doing this year...... suppose they are not racy enough....
Pillion Racing with intecoms and matching leathers
Bring back superchargers...
Also 2 strokes, PROPER F1 and Battle of the twins (proper version with trumpets, Hardleys, Guzzis n proper Ducatis)
Pretty much describes Open Post Classic, Commandos, Harleys, 900ss's, Guzzi Lemans, Trident. Still no movement of the pre 1976 cut off......may have been relevant in 1980.....less so now. They need to introduce the Jap bikes to keep it relevant to the youth market ....the 40 year olds....
Originally Posted by Monsieur Bring back superchargers... Ah, you are coming around to my point of view. Excellent. Now, I draw to your attention, that if you remove that superfluous mechanism on the top of the motor , which has no place on a racing machine, you will have a place of the most convenient to mount the well beloved supercharger, and even a convenient winch of making drive to power it . Eh bien.
