Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Tues., 7 June, 2011 No work on the Indian as we didn't get the gears back from being undercut until this evening. So, first thing tomorrow we'll put the gearbox together and install it in the bike along with the clutch, primary and secondary drive. Hopefully, we'll be able to test it tomorrow afternoon.
So, we went to the Ramsey Sprints where there were mostly modern sportbikes running, but a few vintages ones and one moped which had a trap speed of 37mph in the 1/8 mile. The vintage MotorCycle Club had their ride terminate there and there were some really interesting bikes. To me, the prize goes to the 1914 Calthorpe. It had overhead valves, but they were horizontal, with 9" long rocker arms. It had a 2:1 compression ratio and a 2 speed gearbox with belt final drive. It, like all the bikes in the show, was ridden there. There was a New Imperial there that I had never seen before with a massive cyl. head. A guy had ridden his 250 BMW there from Germany as he had for the last 22 years. Plenty of Rudges and Velos, 3 Norton Electras, a nice Guzzi Falcone and much, much more. The Red Arrows, the RAF jet display team put on a show. We got to talking to a young couple at lunch and he had to duty to lead Loris Capirossi around to remote spectating points on a race day last year on dirt bikes. He said Loris was a really nice guy and incredibly fast off road, but also sliding the bike around on the pavement. They were neighbors of Milky Quale and she went to school with him when he was know as Sploge. It seems everywhere you go, people are so friendly and interesting. I saw the first rain in a week, but it was just a couple of showers, nothing serious.

2 comments:

  1. 9 inch rockers.... Whoa! Good luck with the gearbox today-
    Hope you can do some miles. What kind of tyres are on the bike? - buff

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  2. Sounds like the bike was built but never run. Is that correct? Now; you all will be vintage Indian (for that model) experts! Sounds like you are making great progress. Looking forward to hearing about that FIRST RIDE! - Beth

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