5 The butterflies were on steroids 4 Winston dreamed of beaches & landing fields 3 The rider dreamed of a clean shift to second 2 Winstons bark became a roar 1 Meet Team Winston Trustme , Sue , who is way more trustworthy, Rebecca, the photog & Winston Winston is a 1976 Triumph Bonneville, I bought him as a basket case some years ago . The motor was supposed to be rebuilt & all the bits were there. [ sound familiar ] I intended to put him back on the road but somehow could never get enthused so he sat in the corner of the garage for a few years, tinkered with but never really given full attention. I'd always hankered to have a go on a racetrack & in a weak moment Sue said ' Why don't you '. Leave pass was granted . An adventure began. Adventures are a journey into the unknown & I sure as hell knew nothing about racing, so I looked around for a bike , I did not really consider Winston & then I thought ' hell, why not ' I'm partial to flat trackers so I figured while I would never win , I might as well look styley losing Stuff came off , stuff went on thanks to www.omarsdtr.com, www.britishspares.com & Cycle Torque Work in progress We had a few false starts at Puke while testing, The clutch needed input from Volty & Motu as did setting up the timing I did a bit of this Thank god for willing pushers/mugs Finally the big day at Puke, somehow Volty & I teamed up, it was the blind leading the blind, neither of us had raced, neither had a clue 'Ummm is that the gear lever ' 'Wheres the bloody kill switch ' As innocents abroad we went looking for grid placings. The print out had lots of names with lots of figures Trevor 107 Jim 97 Florence 98 Zebedee 102 Not a mention of Volty or Trustme. We were crest fallen, ' Bugger me! we did not even qualify ' Ya Plonkers those are noise readings Wahoo , we won , we won. Winston ran pretty good through practice Friday & early Saturday. On the first lap of the first race , he turned decidedly sad at the hairpin & ran only ran on one cylinder. Volty & Ixion were a great help as we looked for the problem It had spark , fuel , . lots of head scratching. Then Les realised one of the inlet valves was not opening. A push rod had gone walkies. I had retorqued the head & reset the tappets during the week, obviously one of the tappet lock nuts was not tight enough. We took Winston home & I had him fixed around midnight to be back at the track shite & briney next morning. So this is the joy of motor racing. Sunday was trouble free but man are those top guys fast Winston finished his first weekend of racing in one piece I was happy Volty won a handicap race , he was fizzing I had no expectations for Winston, I did not know what was inside the motor or if it would hold together for the weekend , so far so good I now knew Winston was very slow, when bikes pass you on the inside & outside , you know you are slow. I also knew I was slow. Puke was a baptism by fire, I don't like the track, I suspect I never will but it was a great weekend I was hooked
Awesome absolutely awesome. I seem to remember Winston on the bench a long time ago on another thread. Hmm I'll see if I can find it
He spends a lot of time on the bench, he's a bench jockey. Picking him up from the welder today to go back on ' guess where '. I'll run through the history / background stuff first before I get to the rebuild of the motor. Gotta take a work break now :eek1
If I recall the first time I saw Winston was at an AMCC ART day in Jan.....I was on the Thruxton and I wandered over to ask how it was going......can't recall the reply ...... " its not %$#@%$ going......" ( you can use this in the book....)
That was a very very frustrating day. I had been running Winston up & down the road terrorising the neighbours the previous day & he ran goodish. Puke & he would only run on one pot, went round & round swapping carb bits, plugs & coil leads but could not nail it down. New plugs & a big heavy earth lead from the head direct to the battery seemed to fix it. The first time he ran properly was at practice for the races. Just picked up the frame, the welder & I spent an hour with soapy water & low pressure air chasing down leaks at the swing arm boss where it welds to the main frame tube, hopefully that is most of the oil leaks fixed. Pics coming once I get this up to date.
I'd love to be living your frustrations, however sanity is a precarious situation these days. I know you're a bit on the big side, but you're on a flattracker - balls on the tank and chin over the steering head, get that weight forward...and a bigger front tyre to take the extra weight.
nice bike.. like the flat tracker look... Question.... Are those TT100 tyres on it... Dose Dunlop still make the TT100 tyre .. or are they just very old tyres...
Next race meeting was at Hampton Downs, a completely different type of track. HD undulates , it is technical, it is not such a power track as Puke, turn 1 takes a fair bit of getting used too, it is sort of off camber & over the brow of a rise on the front straight so you can't see the corner when you start to turn in. They say it is a leap of faith, well my faith had well & truly lapsed. All in all things went pretty well , Winston ran good all weekend. My kids turned up to watch the last race but he got his revenge by getting a flat tyre on the start line so that was a DNS, rats There was this one time I even got to lead Volty Winston went to a hillcllimb at Pateatonga, if you ever get a chance to do one grab it. Low key laid back good fun day. Triboy & Kanny showed up for moral support . I had fitted a belt drive & new clutch which was dragging. Lucky Triboy is a mechanic, cheers mate The final race for the summer was at Taupo, it is a tight little track & was really the first time I started to feel comfortable, still slow but actually managed to pass a couple of guys. It's a very laid back meeting, no entry fee for spectators , fewer riders. This was the first time I started to really get the tyres working. Winston did not burp all weekend, really did not put a spanner near him The photog seemed to be on strike that weekend , having her mate along distracted her It takes real effort for Volty to retain that svelte figure See that bike broken down in the infield. It isn't Winston Normal transmission has been resumed The intention was to do the 3 summer meetings the strip Winston down for a looksee, work got in the way so I managed to do very little over winter. I brought some cams & had them reground , I pulled the head off for an overhaul which turned into another tale of woe that I will save for tomorrow. My wife thinks more time goes into fixing these things than riding them, wives are always right.
You can still get TT100's . Have just fitted metric equivalents 130/80x18 & 100/90x19 race compound tyres, they have only just become available, $250 rear & $230 front. Avons are over $400 locally so it was not a hard choice for a slowbee
The winter break did not go as planned, work meant I was away most of the time so bugger all got done.I did manage to upgrade the trailer for carting Winston, bit of welding, bit of riveting , a couple of cans of spray paint, $60 of sign writing & a Bunnings box & ' hey presto ' I took the head off for some porting . The expert took one look & said ' Hmm , best you find a new head ' . someone has opened up the inlet ports so that air flow hit this big open space & lost all speed into the motor. He quite rightly said this thing will be like a slug out of corners , we can weld up the ports to start again or find another head. I found a head to which he fitted Black Diamond valves & Kibblewhite springs , all the good stuff. Mean time I had bought a set of 32mm carbs off Tardme & given them a birthday along with a set of cams that were reprofiled by Franklin cams. By the time I got my act together the Taupo round had gone but I was ready for HD, well sort of. The Barry Sheene Festival began with practice on Saturday. Other than a run up & down my street Winston had not run since Taupo, Saturday was spent sorting jetting on the new carbs , fixing one carb that kept flooding due to a worn float needle & changing plugs from B8 to B10's . As Graeme Cole said ' Mate your racing, not riding on the road , fit colder plugs, easier said than done when you don't have any, Chris Hyland from Motomail to the rescue with a couple of his cast offs. Sunday started off garbage weather wise & it was all down hill from there. The first race was wet, Then it got red flagged due to a crash , they restarted the race , this was a circus because noone knew what the hell was going on resulting Volty & I started from pit lane along with another slow learner Then it really rained I pulled off at the end of the first lap, the visor had fogged, water on the inside & the outside, no fun at all It just kept on raining Some of us sat in it Some of us sang in it Racing was running well behind , when they called our second race there was thunder & lightening. A higher authority said ,' you are not racing in that ', I love upper management. Then racing was suspended . thank goodness, it was crazy out there. Sunday was fine, 2 races by early afternoon , dry track , life's good On to Manfield, lets have a road trip Practice was, surprise surprise , Wet Sorry some of these are repeats Racing on Sunday was fine but windy Winston went pretty well, he got a miss on full throttle down the back straight into the wind but was fine on full throttle down the front straight with the wind. Buggered if I know. Brent & Graeme were having their first race meeting & just finding their way, I think both Volty & I took a shine to them, hey that was us a few months back, now we're old hands . Then the long drag home So that was the first season of racing All in all I'm very happy the bike survived, I survived & learnt a lot. I met some great people & had a ball . Huge thanks to my wife & daughter for their support & Volty for his camradeship There is plenty to work on in 3 main areas 1/ The rider , he is bloody slow, as Graeme Cole said ' you gotta grow some balls , get that corner speed up, you cut lap tmes more by riding harder than by getting more horsepower ' . He added ' it's hard for us old buggers because our sense of self preservation kicks in ' . I must be bloody old 2/ Greame Cole again, put another disc on get those brakes working & sort the handling 3/ Everyone else says their Bonnie is standard , ' Yeah right'. Winston needs more power, to that end Winston is once again a bench jockey Let battle commence The weapon of choice . Blingy Bits
All I can see is extra weight and what.... a new 5th gear? True about the corner speed and being old...... I find I break to early or just use 'road' engine braking......worked that out during the last race chasing the 850 Norton...... it all takes time... and its hard to improve and learn the track at the same time.
Yup , new 5th. The old set were through the hardening. A new AP caliper is on the way for the second disc. I'm not great on brakes either but it used to get pretty squirrely [ is that a word ] when hard on the brakes into the hairpin at HD. A fork brace is in order as well so I'll chase up your BFTP engineer mate. Tim at British Spares tells me there is a kiwi bloke developing new internals for Trump forks, adjustable comp damping on one side rebound on the other, still a few months away. Twin discs, I'll have brakes for Africa . There will be no stopping me now
The last time Winston will look like this, & no clip ons are not coming In we go Cross hatching still visible Running a bit rich especially on the left , look closely at the valves Oh Oh. Valves have been having a secret rendezvous with pistons I don't think the valves are too bad, filled the ports up with Kero & they did not leak Primary drive Avert your eyes, this is ugly Winston had developed a serious oil leak. something even a Triumph would be proud of. Finally found it after the BS weekend at HD. The swing arm boss had cracked on the frame spine tube so there was a constant weep. The welder had a crack at it but it was too awkward with the motor in . I applied plastic metal, radiator metal stuff, silicone & black paint to cover my sins, worked well enough for Manfield Off it comes , sorry crap photo
Could you not ditch the Oil in Frame tank and fit a separate one where the battery lives? Interesting thats its running rich, thats apparently reduces power...... runs cooler though.... You'll need to break out the solder for doing a piston/valve check on assembly..... won't it be more kissy with your new pistons?:huh
If you have a careful look at the pistons in the bores you will see they are like a cock in a sock. Pistons measured 76.35mm & barrels 76.7mm. .Clearance of 0.35mm when it should be 0.127 , could that piston be flailing around in there so clearance goes out the window. Buggered if I know. The head man is checking his settings.
With 3 keyway camgears you could retard the inlet timing a tad...later closing could give some more top end. Do you still run the breather into the primary case ? I guess the plastic belt must be able to handle the oil....
