Richard and I will take part in a Classic track day on Friday 27th Sept at Cadwell. This should help to build confidence and wear off the mould release agent off new tyres. We will take part in the BHR (VMCC Races) on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th.
I have arranged that Bill Swallow will ride my bike on Sunday 29th as it will be nice to see what a good rider can do with the bike. Richard and I participated at the Morini club and the Beezumph at Cadwell a few weeks ago and enjoyed the outing very much. Richard’s bike, based on a 1930 Flying Squirrel Tourer chassis is now running nicely on alcohol and seems to be equal or better than mine, but then, the engine is almost identical and has the same exhaust system. The alcohol gives a better spread of power which largely compensates for Richard having a 3 speed box against my 4 speed unit.
the meeting at 3 Sisters was a trial, as it is now quite bumpy and on a rigid bike this means you have to be taking your weight on your legs for most of the time, or the bike spends most of it’s time bouncing in the air. I am no longer strong enough to do this and when in the air, the rear wheel spins and when it lands, it tears big lumps out of the tyre. I had to cut these off with a sharp knife between each race. Luckily, Cadwell is much smoother and so you can mostly ride seated.
Unfortunately, I am told that we can expect heavy rain, which rather spoils the fun. I need to fit new tyres and bush the rear hub as the drive side bearing has been rotating in it’s housing. Change the primary chain, just for safety as this IWIS item has been on for two years and given the price of the entries nowadays, it is better to be safe than wait till something breaks. I still get accused of having Yamaha parts in the engine, but any observant person could see that there is no room to put side transfers in the barrel without it is very evident, so no, it is a genuine Day Cycle humped piston as Alfred designed. Just a few engineering refinements and made accurately. It is always a pleasure to show the doubters what a Scott is capable of and I hope that Bill Swallow will do just that!. I will just have to accept that in doing so, that he will demonstrate the rather big difference in our riding abilities, but that reminds me of an experience. A few years back, I was invited by the club to bring my bike and some spare parts to a Stafford show. The bike and new engine components were of interest to show visitors and I was lucky to be given an award for the machine of greatest technical interest. The award was to be presented by ex world champion racer Kork Ballington and I duly went up to be presented. I felt the need to say something, so I said “I wish I could race like you”, to which he replied “I wish I could do engineering like you, if I could, I would still be doing it!” A reminder of the short span of success in the life of many sportsmen and made me thank my lucky stars that engineers do not suffer quite such a decline. Pardon me, I talk / write too much and drift into philosophy, but I never claimed to be perfect! Kindest Regards to all. Roger PS. I am converting my Silk Scott into a track racer with an identical engine and exhaust to get a second track ride. Should be fun with suspension!