Just a bit of general chat really
Cranks. These should be finished and with Stan Thomas ready to despatch by May 25th.
I do apologise for the delay, but the company who did the CNC machining were more than six weeks late before they started them. I then had to do a modification to one of the cranks that suit my cases, as they had made a mistake. As the hardening costs about £750 for a furnace load, I could not send the batch till all was ready.
At the first Mallory event, we suffered a broken layshaft in the replica Scott four speed gearbox. I re designed it to make it stronger and emphasised to Paul Dobbs that it is necessary to change gear using the clutch, as I have no damper in the drive train.
The four speed box is difficult to set up and I have just succeeded in making all the adjustments so that it will change gear correctly.
Tomorrow (21/05) I take the Moritz Tauber (ex John Griffiths) Scott to set it up on Dave Holmes H&F dyno. I will also take my MM in case we have time.
Classic racer are due to race test our Scott at Mallory on June 1st. The tester will be Mike Powell who has raced BSA Bantams for years. I watched him at Mallory and admired how he maintained speed through the corners. This is typical of those who have learned to ride low powered machines. Mike’s Dad has a Scott, so his comparisons will be interesting. I must be sure that there are no other problems lurking. The bike is generally very reliable and is still on its original chromed barrel from 1975. It has only about 0.001″ wear in all that time.
To those who are waiting for other work from me, I thank you for your patience. I have had a couple of unexpected and lengthy jobs, but we are getting back on track now.
Ted Hills, our designer is making great strides with putting our drawings on to CAD for the future and refining the designs.
No bearing company will recommend a bearing without a cage in applications above 1000 rpm, yet our big ends exceed that greatly.
I have had cages in my engine since 1973 and they have contributed greatly to the reliability, but they were expensive to make and we had to charge £250 per pair the last time we made any.
Ted Hills has made a new design that we hope might be more economical to produce using a large CNC lathe with live tooling.
There is much that can be done to give the Scott greater durability and power without losing its attractive wide spread of torque. The difficulty is always doing these things in small quantities at prices that are acceptable to the majority.
I am 64 now and intend to try and work less hours from next year.
Instead of spending 7 days a week in my plant, it would be good for me to remember that I will not live forever and should take some time to ride my own bikes and spend time with my much loved wife Marina.
I send Kindest Regards to all Kindred Spirits
Roger
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