Upcoming Event!

The Maine Coast BikeFest and Antique Aeroplane Show will be held THIS SATURDAY, June 23rd, at the Owls Head Museum near Rockland, Maine. If you register as an exhibitor (bike must be pre-1986) then entry is free. The unique attraction of this event is that, weather permitting, WWI aircraft will be flying all day. And not just one:

• 1917 Curtiss Jenny
• 1916 RAF F.E.-8
• 1918 Standard J-1
• 1916 Sopwith Pup
• 1917 Fokker DR1 (the "Red Baron" aircraft!)

If you have your own aircraft, you can fly right in to Knox County Regional Airport where the museum is based. However, as a lesser mortal, I plan to be there on the Bonneville, riding up the coast from the Boston area. Route: I-95 N, then I-295 at Portland, then US-1 from Brunswick to Owls Head. I shall ride up on Friday, in order to be at the start of events early Saturday morning (there is plenty of accomodation in the area). It would of course be a delight (as well as more secure) to share the ride in convoy with other enthusiasts. Mail me on stephen.ratcliffe@gmail.com if interested.

Museum link: http://www.ohtm.org

Blued pipes

Though I have not really been involved in it, the header pic of my Bonnie was the starting point for the recent (and for me unexpected) posting furore in the Bonneville Owners' Club group on whether blue pipes are a good thing or not. I have to admit its not that important to me, but since the first poster told me to take a bit more pride in my bike I decided to try and polish it off. Normal chrome polish just doesn't work, so down to Ace Hardware and asked for the most agressive rubbing compound known to man. Came back with a tub of something called Mother's (yes I know, don't ask) - which also happened to be the cheapest thing on the shelf. Result - disappointment and a sore thumb. As you can see the impact on the blueing is almost zero. It did shine the timing cover up nicely though. Open to (polite) suggestions on where to go from here...

Bonneville vs. the rest at the Experienced Rider Course

Ten bleary-eyed riders assembled before 7am on Friday June 8th at the Massachusetts State Police Training Ground in Ayer, MA to submit to a gruelling 5-hour training followed by a handling skills test to get the Motorcycle Safety Federation card for experienced riders. In my case, the objective was to get some useful skills (in my 42 years of riding I have NEVER been trained - scary eh) as well as to qualify for a full Massachusetts bike driver's licence. The other guys were a mixture; some who have always ridden on a learner's permit (and now want to be able to ride out of state, or in the dark, or with tottie on the pillion), and some who already have the full licence but want the insurance discounts that completion of this course enables. The Bonnie appears in the opening shot here, hiding behind a Coke bottle.

The course was excellent and worth every penny of the $150 fee. Paul the instructor (baseball cap and clipboard) together with Neil the demonstrator (baseball cap and Honda VT500) gave individual feedback to every one of the riders throughout the dozen or so set piece driving exercises which we performed on the 200mx100m exercise area. Things warmed up a bit during the morning but everyone saw the course through. However the same could not be said for the bikes. Apart from the Bonnie they were all Harleys or Suzukis with one Honda I think. One Suzuki (Intruder) and one Harley (nice-looking bobber) gave up the ghost halfway through the morning, the Suzuki with clutch failure and the Harley with... - well it just stopped. Needless to say the Bonnie never missed a beat. However it did have one senior moment when the float jammed in the left hand side Concentric whilst waiting in a queue, sort of minor incontinence you might say. The resulting tsunami of petrol/gasoline stopped after some frenzied tapping of the float chamber with my cellphone, and from then on there was no more trouble.

The other photos show a resolutely stationary Harley and Suzuki, the bikes in a group toward the end of the morning (note the 2x 250cc Honda Nighthawks borrowed from the trainers to replace the failed bikes, and Neil's demonstrator Honda in the foreground) and Paul Luevano debriefing us on our scores at the end of the test. Yes, we all got to hear how each one of us did. And which rider/bike combination do you think passed out top of the class with significant lead over the rest of the pack?

I heartily recommend Ironstone Ventures (www.ironstoneventures.com) if you are on a learner's permit in Massachusetts. Passing the course automatically exempts you from the official RMV test. If you pre-pay the fee (which you can do by phone) you don't even have to go over to the RMV afterwards - they mail the full license to you. I can't wait.

My Hero

A digression from the topic, but I couldn't resist this photo. Here he is, in one of his less polite moments...but sitting on what looks like a 1970 Bonneville. And as for the other photo, we all know who that isn't, don't we?

Photos from a sunnier swapmeet...

There was a variety - to say the least - of Triumphs available at the Massachusetts British Iron Association meet on May 27th at Oxford MA. My favourite was the 1969 machine shown here in its correct orange livery, which is how my bike should look. I got up close to this beast, looked underneath the engine to see completely clean crankcases with not even the slightest oil seepage or discoloration. First thought - cheat! Someone has trailered this bike to the show! I then put my hand on the timing cover and burnt myself.

BSA Club Swapmeet, Auburn MA June 3rd

This was the biggest and also the wettest event I have yet attended in the USA. A shame for everyone that the heavens opened around 1pm just as the concours judging was closing and the contestants started leaving in droves. Fortunately I was able to find (i.e. stumbled on) an autojumble stall selling wet weather gear and got a very acceptable suit for $40 to ride home in and stay dry.

The autojumble was small but with some nice pieces, just look at that '69 UK Bonneville tank in its original Olympic Flame paint! I was very tempted but they wanted $500 for it. Moved on very quickly. The bikes were nice, there were some excellent restorations and a few pre-war bikes including an M20 from Rhodesia - and how about that lovely 1951 Norton International? Most of the machinery was BSA and Triumph twins however. The fans who came by my bike were frighteningly knowledgeable and I was soon in trouble when they identified me as English, got me talking about my motorcycling history and then started asking probing questions about specification differences on Triumph Bonnevilles. Does anybody know why some of the 1969 bikes have a small bump on the top of the oil tank, and some don't? (It is almost totally hidden from view by the seat subframe by the way). Met some great people, everyone was unreservedly friendly. Bought a timing disc adaptor, a Melco plug spanner, and a T-shirt.