What have you done with your bike/s today?

[greybloke]

Got the rear wheel bearings out. It would have helped if the service sheet noted the 4 cut outs on the distance piece that need to fit between the hub rivets. Live and learn. Waiting on a spoke spanner (over a week now) so will give wheels a rest. Brushed/wooled/dremmeled a ton of oxide off the lump and rockers. Damn, there is metal under there! This is keeping me fit, I think.

[greybloke]

Thought I'd whip off the mag and dyno. When I say 'whip' I mean get 2/3 mag nuts off and order nuclear sized mole grip for long nut. Better luck with the dyno. Damn, dyno retaining clip pivot screws are a test. Overtightened at some point (yeah, could've been me) so a couple of mm run out added to front one. Slot head on the clip hinge ain't up to it, small long nose death grip plier on the way. And as I was getting greasy I whipped off the rocker covers. Could be worse, mating surfaces not bad, push rods may do a turn after some ultrasonics. Think I'll whip off head and barrels before removing lump from frame, save me back.

[Swarfcut]

 GB2   Drive side wheel bearing is supported by a thin metal ring 65 5884. Bearing sits on this, retained by the locking ring 67 6076. This bearing is the datum for everything else, so tighten the locking ring. The bearing spacer has to go in the right way round to avoid the rivet heads. Fit the other bearing but just nip up the locking ring to avoid side thrust on the races. Thread lock useful here. Open bearings and plenty of grease. If bearings are shot, rubber sealed modern ones will do. Both locking rings have left hand threads. BSA learnt  this second locking ring was unnecessary, early S/A bikes with similar  rear crinkle hubs have a the single locking ring on the drive side.

 Reckon that 015 GAP rocker box cap is off a Triumph. Fits oil tank and primary case as well.

 Looks nice and clean inside. Use heat on stubborn fixings into alloy, as well as when removing bearings from alloy castings.

 Swarfy.

[greybloke]

GB2    This bearing is the datum for everything else, so tighten the locking ring.
 Reckon that 015 GAP rocker box cap is off a Triumph. Fits oil tank and primary case as well.

 Use heat on stubborn fixings into alloy, as well as when removing bearings from alloy castings.

 Swarfy.

Obliged, Swarfy. Gonna go for sealed bearings, orig are grumbly. 015 is the spec gap for 49 long stroke, there's a hardened cap sits over valve tip, too. Rattly (in a nice way) when you fire up, quietens down when up to temp.

Heat gun at ready. Better get another bottle, 80 spokes to coax loose...

[CheeserBeezer]

I went out for a 100 mile run with the Cheshire BSAOC. We stopped for refreshments at the Monsal Trail and at Froghall Station where the steam train was pulling out. We had a fantastic day. Seven of us were joined by R.T. at the Refreshment stop. There were some crazy lanes, akin to green lanes, but well suited to the Super Rocket which was suitably nimble and powerful to deal with the hills and twists. A fabulous summer's day out on a nice bike with good mates. Photo is my mate's GF and my SR with a modern Bonneville centre, at Froghall Station.

[trevinoz]

Swarfy, .015 gap is correct for long stroke. They are BSA caps.

[Greybeard]

I joined a VMCC ride yesterday. Cornwall and Devon members. We rode around Dartmoor. We passed Dartmoor prison - the place where the baddest of bad men get locked up. it's a horrible looking place. Hard labour would have been the most common sentence once upon a time. The roadside walls in the area were all made of large chunks of granite. I spotted a site on the hillside that had been a granite quarry and below it huge piles of rough cut stone blocks. I felt sympathy for the poor devils that had to work this incredibly hard rock in all weathers with no protective gear.

[BagONails]

VMCC ride.  They seem to be mostly modern bikes GB1 or is that the Vintage Motor Cyclists Club?

[CheeserBeezer]

Yes, VMCC, completely lost its identity IMHO. Known locally as 'The yellow number plate club'. However, nice people, and at least somebody is organising rides to join in with. Doesn't have the same 'feel' as the VMCC when everybody turned up on proper old stuff which astonished us when they actually ran!

[Angus]

I have said it before and I will say it again. The VMCC when it was started the 'old' bike being ridden were as 'new' as 15 years old. The founder Titch Allen brought in the rolling 25 year old rule in the early 1960's so 60+ years ago, nothing has changed since then. With Hindsight it would have been better to adopt the DVLA's 40 year historic date, but that was not about in the 1960's. It is only in the last couple of years that we have been officially allowed to let non eligible bikes out on our runs.
I would agree that the club should change its name to something like the vintage and classic motorcycle club, which is the name of the current club magazine. CheeserBeezer is correct in that the clubs sections organise over a 1000 motorcycle evets a year from runs & shows to club nights.

[Greybeard]

A rule has been introduced that allows branch chairmen to allow suitable motorcycles to join.

I joined the VMCC while I had my classic BSA.

The VMCC have special events for the really old machines

[Joolstacho]

A similar thing happened with the Aussie VJMC (Vintage japanese) Used to be great, similar to this site.
It was taken over by people who, without member consultation, started too much referencing fartbook and changed things as they saw fit, which changed it for the worse.
They would see it as 'modernising' it, but that's precisely what was wrong.
I had to leave it.

[Worty]

Re 'modernising' - not everything needs to be modernised, and neither is it always a good thing to do so.  There is merit in not changing some things, because some things don't need to be changed - a bit like the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' maxim.

Unfortunately, the mantra these days is that everything that went before has to be tested (or judged) using modern methods/attitudes in order to have credibilty, or authenticity, etc.  The problem is that so-called 'modern' methods have, themselves, their own flaws.

As Jools alludes to, I don't know why things can't be allocated their own place and kept as such.  Have a bike club which only allows 1919 Traubs.  Sure it won't be a big club, but it will have its own, distinct identity!

Other examples of trying to impose 'modernity' include (amongst others) women's football, or all the other 'inclusion' crap like trying to include every type of weirdo or nationality in Midsomer Murders (which is supposed to be a quintessentially English, rural crime drama).

What really 'bakes yer cake' is the ever-changing interpretation of morality - something that Israel is currently redefining in the most hideous way possible.

[Joolstacho]

Dead right Worty.
(And sadly, I don't think the words "Israel" and "morality" can be used in the same sentence now).

[Greybeard]

Someone's quote:
Progress can not exist without improvement