I set off from Porlock on the Sunday morning in pouring rain, but thankfully, although it remained dull and a little damp at times, the weather improved within 20 minutes or so. I pulled in at Stogumber station on the preserved West Somerset Railway, I was rather hoping the people there might be able to supply tea and cake. I was not to be disappointed as Stogumber station is the place to visit for Lydia's home made cakes. The cakes were I thought a little average but what I had was tasty enough along with a cuppa, the prices were cheap too and the staff very welcoming. A few minutes after I arrived this train pulled in, the engine is Western class diesel hydraulic. I had never seen one of these working before. It's a fine looking thing but a little quiet in operation and therefore not very exciting.
Stogumber station has a nice garden to sit in and while I ate my cake this little creature wandered about on my crash helmet. I don't recall seeing such an insect before, I have no idea what it is.
Eventually this train pulled in coming from the opposite direction the one previously photographed. This one is really special as the engine is the Tornado, only about 2 years old, and a replica of an old class of locomotive, the A1. All were scrapped in the 1960s so a bunch of enthusiasts decided to build a replica from scratch. Full details if you are interested here

http://www.a1steam.com/

I was also in the station master's good books as I was able to lend him a screwdriver to fix a notice on to a door in the building.

I spent a pleasant evening at a friend's house in Bristol and then rode home the next day, getting a couple of clues on the way. I was chased by a violent storm all the way, nearly getting very wet near Buxton. it was a memorable ride trying to get home without a soaking. However the storm decided to bear left and went to Manchester instead, allowing me to get home dry. Half an hour after I arrived home the heavens opened and a storm raged all night so I was lucky.

The MZ did really well, a fair bit of gearbox oil leaked out but it seems to be from the oil seal behind the final drive sprocket which is easily repaired. Not bad for a 40 year old bike, it covered over 1100 miles in 7 days.

September Holiday 4

The next day, being Saturday, was the main day of the MZ national rally. This lovely MZ outfit turned up, the sidecar was occupied by a fine old gentleman called Geoff from nearby Minehead, who must have been in his 80s. Geoff owns this bike and many others, but due to his advanced years, and quite bad arthritis, cannot ride any more. Undaunted he gets in the sidecar and gets a younger mate and club member to ferry him about on nice days. It was good to meet him face to face, we had only ever spoken on the phone before.
Robin had to depart on the Saturday due to work commitments, but another mate, Gresh from just up the road from where I live had travelled down to the rally and after the AGM meeting had taken place we went for a ride through to North Devon, Lynton and the Valley of Rocks to be more precise. Here we found a cricket match in progress, which made Gresh very excited as he loves cricket. I would normally not be even slightly interested, but this must surely be the most spectacularly sited cricket pitch in the UK so I was happy to watch the spectacle for a few overs.
These little chaps were running wild in the area too.
Half a mile on we pulled up again to admire the spectacular scenery the Valley of Rocks offers.
A kind passing pedestrian offered to take a photo of both of us.

Further on we got a toll road which hugged the coast amid stunningly beautiful scenery. It was well worth the pound toll charge. This was just one of the views (apologies for not getting the horizon level) and I was highly amused by the sign some wag had put in this field.

We travelled on to a splendid pub I had visited earlier in the summer in the car called the Hunters Inn where we had an excellent meal before heading back to Porlock. I had delicious fish and chips but why is it that southerners leave the skin on the fish, heathens the lot of them!

September holiday 3

The next day Robin and I set off for the MZ Riders Club national rally, held this year at Porlock on the north Somerset coast. It was a bit of a dull ride until we started following our noses through the lanes of Somerset. We stopped at a lovely old pub in the village of Crowcombe and I was amused by the provision for smokers in the rear yard of the pub, very inventive!
We stopped at a lovely spot later on, the Clatworthy reservoir on Exmoor. An impressive structure but rather difficult to photograph.
Nearing our destination we stopped at the top of Porlock Hill and admired the fine view.
I decided that as I was on holiday, I would get B and B for the time of my stay in Porlock. How's this for a great view? The photo was taken from my bedroom window, looking down the valley, over Porlock village to the sea.

A pleasant evening was spent with other MZ club members in the various pubs in the area.

September holiday 2

The next day we went off searching for more RBR clues in Mid and West Wales. Robin's youngest daughter came along with us this time. She is called Teifi (pronounced tie vee) after the river of the same name. After getting one clue we diverted off up a narrow road to take Teifi somewhere she had never been before, the source of the river she is named after. I took this picture from this road. Hills as far as you can see, magic!

Here she is looking down on the Teifi reservoir which dams the springs of the river. A lovely and peaceful spot.

We went on to Devil's Bridge where we had lunch at the steam railway station, got a Round Britain Rally clue on the outskirts of Aberwystwyth and then travelled down the west coast road to Cardigan. Here can be seen where the river Teifi flows into the sea.
Later on we stopped at some waterfalls on the Teifi in a village where the national coracle museum is (another clue) but it was closed by this time late in the afternoon.
We then headed back to Robin's house. Once on the main roads, the Trophy Sport had to be worked hard which caused problems with the carburation again. However, on the Heads of the Valleys road, it started to go a bit better. This is making me think that the exhaust silencer may be blocked and the heavy mileage being covered in a short time may be gradually decoking it. I hope so as a new silencer is a lot of money and the old and presumably original one is still in passable condition.

September Holiday 1

A few weeks ago I had a grand holiday, staying with my good friend Robin and his family in South Wales, touring around for a couple of days and then moving on to the MZ Riders Club national rally and AGM at Porlock in Somerset. I chose to go on my MZ ETS 250 Trophy Sport, which was good as gold I am pleased to say. I had to adjust the back brake which arguably I should have done before I set off and it did leak a little bit of oil, not bad for a 40 year old bike. I managed to get 2 Round Britain Rally clues on the way down and then stopped off at a pub for a meal somewhere south of Builth Wells. It was one of the worst meals I have ever had, sadly, so I won't bother mentioning the establishment. Pictured above is the bike in the car park of the pub, well loaded as can be seen.

The next day Robin and I set off exploring, searching for more RBR clues and looking at anything else we found to be of interest. First stop was the very excellent transporter bridge at Newport, recently restored to working order. It's a fine old thing, now over 100 years old and used to get traffic from one side of the river to the other. There is a good website all about it at

http://www.fontb.org.uk/

Our visit did not quite go to plan though and we were not able to take a trip across the river. I knew something odd was going on when I drew up to a pelican crossing right by the entrance to the bridge and had to wait for Batman to cross!
It turned out that members of the Father for Justice organisation had taken over the transporter bridge earlier that morning. Here are some of them, a mate of theirs, the Incredible Hulk was on top of the structure and so it had been closed off by police. While I can understand the frustration of a parent who is unable to see their child, I am not sure what this was actually achieving to help matters along. Virtually nobody was taking any notice of them, and I can't help thinking that any self respecting child who found out that their dad was dressing up as a superhero and making himself look an idiot and a nuisance would surely choose to keep away from them anyway! Still, it takes all sorts to make a world and I am sure the transporter bridge will still be there next time I am down that way.
Here's a view of the travelling part of the bridge upon which light vehicles and passengers cross the river.
And here is a view across to the east side of the river.
Afterwards we went to the charming town of Usk to get a clue and have some lunch, then went to look round the castle, which is in private ownership but for a bargain fee of a pound can be wandered around. Here is the fine view scross the town from the grounds.
Here is part of the castle structure, a more peaceful spot it would be hard to imagine, but I guess being a castle it was anything but at other times in its history.

From Usk we headed westwards across the valleys to get some clues the other side of Cardiff. We stopped off on the way at the Llandegfedd reservoir where it can be seen that Robin's 800 BMW dwarfs my little MZ! The view across the reservoir is rather pleasant as can be seen below.


We got the clues we were looking for and headed back to Robin's house, pausing on the hills somewhere near Caerphilly to watch the glorious sunset. A good end to a great day with perfect weather.

A minor disaster with the "Shed"

I chucked my MZ TS 150 roadster, affectionately known as the Shed, up the road on black ice last February. I was fortunately unhurt, just a bit shaken up and damage to the bike was minimal, just a bent footrest and a broken mirror. I had not fallen off for almost 14 years at that time, so no complaints other than why can't the council grit the road?

I straightened the footrest by jumping up and down on it and all was well. Until last Friday evening that is... I parked the bike in the dark on an uneven surface on the side stand near my favourite chippy. When I came out I went to put the wrapped up chips (to accompany a home made curry in case you think I am a total junk food eater!) in my tank bag. The bike was almost vertical due to the uneven ground and therefore decided to throw itself on the floor as soon as I touched the zip on the tank bag. This resulted in another broken mirror and a badly bent footrest again. I straightened it and rode the bike home, but the footrest moved far too easily for my liking. After curry and chips, I examined the bike and sure enough the footrest bar on the right hand was cracked through and about to shear off. The above photo shows what it was like. I had quite a job getting the remains of the footrest bar out of the bike frame as it was very tight and there was not much left to get hold of. By removing the exhaust silencer I was able to gain access with a large pair of stilsons which enabled me get the remains of the bar moving and then it was fairly easy to remove. I have used the footrest bar off the recently purchased 150 Trophy to get me back on the road and I have ordered a new one to put back on the Trophy.

I can think of more pleasurable ways to spend a Friday evening, but it was all done by 12.30 AM and I could then sleep easy. I can't leave jobs like this alone as they prey on my mind if I do not get on with them.

All character building stuff I guess.

Another day out in the Peak District

A few weekends ago I was invited out for a spin by my friends Diesel Dave and Sandra. Very kind of them and a good day for a ride out. The day did not start too well though as I could not get the disc lock off the Guzzi and had to saw it off which took the best part of an hour. While doing this I managed to catch the front left hand indicator with my shoulder and promptly managed to break it off. It's made of cheap, brittle plastic and therefore is very easy to damage. I was unimpressed, but as can be seen the day was saved with some very stylish bright orange duct tape! (As an aside the whole thing was a farce as I must have had a brainstorm, I was using the wrong key all the time and therefore wrecked a perfectly good disc lock unnecessarily. How stupid was that? I think I am losing my marbles....) I managed to catch the others up, by which time they had met up with another friend of theirs, Cath.
Here we all are having a stretch-a-leg in Hartington village, from the left, Sandra, Dave, Cath.
Soon after there was a mix up and Dave and I got separated from the girls. While he went off to rescue them I sat in the sun. The Guzzi is such a pretty bike in my opinion, it gives me great pleasure to look at it.
Here is a the view from where I stopped, very nice and relaxing. We were soon all back together again and we went to a place called Wetton Mill for tea, sandwiches and cake. It was a nice spot but very crowded and we were plagued with wasps unfortunately. We took a twisty route home and were back in time for a curry locally. A grand day out, thank you Dave and Sandra!

New arrival 3

I wasn't expecting to get this one, I saw it on Ebay, put in a lowish bid and went out for the evening. I was quite surprised to see I had won it when I returned home. It's a 1976 Simson Schwalbe 50 CC scooter. They were never imported into the UK, when I get it ready for the road it will therefore have to be registered here before I can use it.

I haven't owned a 50 cc since I was 19 and had a Honda CB50 after my Jawa outfit expired. That was not a happy experience but I am very interested in this little scooter. Although they are very rare in this country (this is the only one I have ever seen) they were truly the machine of the people in East Germany. Most ordinary working folk either could not afford anything else or were not allowed anything better. Over a million Schwalbes were built over a period from the mid 1960s to the 1980s and I am impressed with the general quality of build.
It's got a 3 speed fan cooled engine developing a heady 3.6 horsepower, apparently good for 38 MPH.
It runs very well although it is in bad need of some work doing on it. The major problem is the kick start gear keeps jamming. I thought it would be easy to do, on an MZ 150 it is a simple case of taking the primary drive apart to replace the kick start quadrant gear, but I have discovered that the crank case has to be split meaning a total engine strip down. I intend to get it done this winter, including the engine rebuild which I hope to do myself. Yet another project!

A brief ride on a Guzzi V7 cafe racer

I have had my Moto Guzzi V7 Classic a year now and so it had to go back to the shop for a major service. The courtesy bike lent to me was the cafe racer version of the same bike. This has a single seat with a bum stop on it, upswept exhausts and clip on very low bars. The engine etc. is just the same. It looks very smart in a light green matt metallic finish. I soon discovered that cafe racers are not for me though. I just rode it to work and back and that was enough to make my wrists, forearms, neck and lower back ache. I don't think I could last more than about an hour on it, my more upright classic model is comfortable enough for hundreds of miles in a day. The sales rep did admit that although the cafe racer is a beautiful bike they have sold about 8 times more classic versions because they are slightly cheaper and way more comfortable.

The bike had an expensive service, but the shop did download an updated version of the fuel injection map onto the bike. This has resulted in better starting from cold and the engine is even better than it was before, accelerating more cleanly and I thought it was fabulous before!

An evening run out in the Peak District

A few weeks back, Kevin and I had a run out on a Sunday evening to get some miles done running in his MZ. We had a great time although it was a bit cold. We found Arbor Low, an ancient monument estimated to be between 3 and 6 thousand years old. It consists of a stone circle (the stones have fallen over but are still there) within a massive earth henge. It's an impressive place and as it was evening we were the only ones there. We met a hippy type woman when we got back to the bikes who used to have MZs and has fond memories of them.
Then we went to Middleton Top, which is the start of a steep incline on an old freight line which was worked until the 1960s. As can be seen it is now a right of way and very steep for a railway at 1 in 8.
Here is the engine house used for hauling the wagons on a steel rope. It is possible to go round it but we were far too late for that.
Here is Kevin examining some old boilers.
We then had some tea in this rather grand looking pub before a rather damp ride back. I did about 135 miles on the shed, most enjoyable.

New arrival 2

Another machine I saw on Ebay, a real rarity in this country, an MZ RT125/3. This must be the most copied motorcycle in the world, it is what the BSA Bantam was copied from. The original RT 125 was a pre-war DKW bike, and seeing the need for cheap transport for the masses, the allies took the design as war reparations after hostilities had ceased. The bike was copied in West Germany, Russia, England, Italy and America to my knowledge, maybe other places too. After the war, the DKW factory was in Russian hands and eventually became the MZ factory. This the /3 model is the last of the line, this example dating from 1960. The /3 is the one to have in my view as by this time it had gained full width brakes and 4 gears instead of 3 making it more usable in modern day traffic.

The photo shows the bike in the driveway of the seller, with one of his friendly dogs in attendance too. The bike needs a lot of work as although many parts of it have been powder coated, it has then been loosely assembled to make it mobile and easy to sell. I can tell that there are several small parts missing but I relish the challenge. I am not sure when I am going to get to it though, loads of engineering projects to do here.

Jawa Carnage - all is revealed!

In a previous post some time in May I wrote about how my 350 Jawa had expired in the driveway outside my garage. I got the engine out and sent it off to Andy at Moll Springs Motorcycles ( http://www.mollsprings.co.uk/ ) to be stripped down and assessed. As I thought, the left hand big end bearing had failed but the true extent of the damage I would not have guessed. The bits of bearing rattled about in the bottom of the engine then came up through the transfer ports. Evidence of this was all over the top of the piston and the inside of the cylinder head, but what I hadn't realised is that one of those bits managed to smash the bottom of the skirt off the piston, making more bits to rattle about!
When the gearbox was stripped it was seen that a dog had broken off one of the gears too (there should be four, the missing one is at 9 o'clock). It was laying in the bottom of the gearbox portion of the crankcase casting. I had no inkling of this as it changed gear perfectly.

Luckily I have two engines and the other one has donated a good gear box and pistons, barrels and heads which are like new. I have ordered a set of big end and con rod kits from a Jawa dealer down south and I am awaiting the arrival of them from the Czech Republic. I should be back on the road with this bike in the Spring.

New arrival 1

As a fanatical, perhaps slightly obsessive collector of old motorcycles, it is inevitable that occasionally I buy yet another when an irresistible opportunity presents itself. And so it was that I arranged to sell one of my old bikes, a 1979 Moto Guzzi 1000 Spada to a good friend of mine who will use it as I wasn't doing so. Instead of waiting for the departure to take place and for the money to arrive I just had to make myself temporarily skint by buying more MZ bikes (like yer do!). The first to arrive was a 1969 MZ ES 150. I saw it on Ebay and pressed the Buy It Now You Impetuous Fool button soon after. I had a later model some years back and know that they are a lovely thing to ride. This is an early model, the later ones are rare enough in this country, this is most unusual. It differs to the other one I had in having an aluminium cover to protect the carburettor's modesty (!) and voluminous legshields. Being from 1969 it qualifies for free road tax and it should be a hoot to ride.

I was taken to collect it from Wellington in Shropshire by my good friends from the Jawa CZ club, Pete and Steve (that's Steve's car that can be seen). Pete is standing in the background looking suitably amused.

The paintwork is quite poor, having obviously sprayed with rattle cans and to my horror it wears original East German Pneumant tyres which have a deserved reputation for having the grip of teflon and will have to be replaced as I refuse to use them. Apart from that I don't think it will take a great deal to sort out so I am confident it will be on the road next Spring.

A momentous occasion...

On August 1st 1970, My MZ 250 Trophy Sport was put on the road for the first time. Presumably some person who may no longer be with us rode round showing off the new bike with the then brand new J suffix letter on the registration to their friends. This means the bike was 40 today! This occasion could not go uncelebrated so today my mate Kevin (still putting running in miles on his MZ 250 Trophy) and I went on a 100 ish mile trip round rural "Lancashurr". Here are three photos taken at a viewpoint on a hill above Burnley (the first 2 photos) and at the end of a dead end road we were hoping would get us back on course after we had taken a wrong turning. Why is it that Lancastrians rarely seem to bother to put up sign posts at road junctions??
Apologies again for the slightly poor quality, I forgot my camera and had to use the mobile phone again.
We had a great ride out, the bikes going really well. Somewhere near Whalley we stopped to look at some Moto Guzzis outside a bloke's house and he and his mate came to chat to us. The house owner has an old 250 4 speed MZ TS, and his mate tried to sell me his 5 speed TS. He is however in disgrace after admitting to cutting up an MZ and throwing it away just yesterday because he thought nobody wanted it. Both were very interested in our bikes and we spent a very pleasant 5 minutes chatting.

We had a delicious pub meal in Chatburn near Clitheroe then back home almost entirely on moorland single track roads.

The carburation is still a little out on my bike but it seems to be that if I open the throttle too much or too quickly it gases up and runs very rich. Nursing the bike and opening the throttle gradually seems to result in good performance and less problems so I can live with that for the time being at least.

Will the bike still be around in another 40 years time? Will there be any petrol left then? Who knows, the most likely scenario is that I will not be around to care! I will look after it as best I can and hopefully somebody younger will take it on in due course. I intend to go to Somerset on it in September so it will certainly be used all the time I own it.

Stress busting ride home from work

Last Friday I had had a stressful afternoon at work, the weather was fine and warm and so I went home the twisty way. The little MZ 150 climbed from Elland right over the top of the Pennines at Buckstones mostly in top gear and then down to Denshaw on the Greater Manchester side. It's a great bike which goes far better than such a simple and small capacity bike really should do and despite its very ratty appearance, I am very fond of it.

Taking the Delph Road I soon turned left and followed some lanes which were not familiar to me. To my surprise I came across a llama farm with two of them in a field. Apologies for the poor photos but I did not have my camera with me and had to use the indifferent quality camera on my phone. I don't recall ever seeing a llama before.

A mile or two further on I came to a cross roads. Two of the ways were bridle tracks with all motor vehicles prohibited and not liking to retrace my steps unnecessarily I took the track marked "unsuitable for motors". As can be seen from the above photo they were not kidding. The centre stand took a real battering on some of the rocks and with road tyres I was sliding all over the place. At one point I had to get off and walk alongside the bike and the steep bits were done in neutral with the engine switched off, but it was good fun.
Shortly after returning to tarmac at the bottom of the track I found this ford which I did not know existed. I'm like a kid when it comes to fords and enjoyed splashing through it.

I got home about 8.30 in a much better frame of mind. MZs should be available on the NHS!