Wed., 8 June, 2011 We made some good progress today. We got the the gears with the freshly undercut dogs installed in the gearbox. But, we found the bolts that hold the gearbox in were too short, so Richard made some studs and installed it with nuts. We suspected the mount for the carb bolted to the crankcase might be transmitting too much vibration and making the fuel froth. So we made a hanger with a rubber block from the frame to the carb. When we started the motor, we found the fuel line had cracked and had to solder a sleeve onto it. Finally, the moment of truth. With a couple of guys pushing and me holding in the valve lifter until we got some speed, it fired up and I took off across the lawn. The Indian moved under it's own power for the first time ever. Not that far, as when I turned and headed up a small grade it stalled out. The throttle linkage was binding, so we massaged that and tried it again. The handlebars moved when I hit a bump. The handlebar arrangement is completely bicycle technology and we decided there wasn't enough 'pinch' on the clamp. We tried it again and headed down the driveway and went further, but I had to kill it when a car came up the lane. We decided to pack it in for the day and the plan is to take the bike up to a quiet road in the very north of the Island tomorrow and see if we can get it up on the cam. Time is running down, as Signing On and Riders Briefing are tomorrow. We're supposed to do a 'slow parade' on the Prom tomorrow evening with interviews and such. This all could be altered a bit as the first race today, the Supersport, was red flagged because of rain and today's events were rescheduled for tomorrow.

I spoke to Malc Wheeler and Phil Read today, both in the parade. Malc is riding a '37 Norton, representing Freddie Frith, who he worked with in his youth, and Phil is riding a 250 V-4 Yamaha from '67. After Phil told me that I was a brave man to ride the Indian, then told me to stay to the left as he was coming by on the right.

Sorry I haven't been posting more pictures, but I forgot to bring my cable thingie, so I'm relying on others to email me photo which I can then post. Plenty of photos are being taken, so they'll get posted eventually. To answer Buff's question, the tires on the bike are 28 X 2 1/4- 2 Universal Tire Co. clincher tires made in Lancaster, Pa. They are unused, but of i unknown age.