It's high summer and I'm behind on my blog, but I'll first tackle the 21-22 July Vintage Days at Mid-Ohio.  I took my '70 H-D ERTT and '46 Moto Guzzi Dondolino, and my old friend, Gordon Pulis, came with me.

Talking with Thad Wolf with Gordon Pulis on the right.  Photo by Darleen Drehmel

Both bikes worked well in practice and I didn't change anything on them.  First up for me was the Class 'C' race.  I got a decent launch of the line, but by the time I was coming out of turn one, I had lost power and the motor sounded strange and I pulled off.  It turned out the exhaust valve adjuster had fallen out. and the rocker itself was just barely opening the valve.  I didn't have a spare, but  I was able to bodge one by finding a 7.0 X 1.0 bolt, cutting off the head and putting a screwdriver slot in the end and getting a lash cap from Larry Poons.

1946 Moto Guzzi Dondolino.  Photo by Darleen Drehmel

But that was after the GP 350 race, which was oddly gridded between Middleweight Original Superbike and Euro American Twins.  I quickly got into 4th place behind two superbikes and Doug MacRea on his 750 Norton.  I made a somewhat ambitious pass on Doug going into the 'keyhole' and promptly missed a downshift and cut across his bow as he went back by.  Somewhat chagrined, I shrugged as he looked back when we got on the back straight.  But, a lap or two later, I was able to make a clean pass on Doug and closed down on the 550 Yamaha Seca of Wayne Shelton who was running 2nd to Jeff Uher on a 550 GPz Kawasaki.

I'm on #7 chasing Wayne Shelton on a Yamaha 550 Seca after I got past Doug MacRea on a 750 Norton.  Photo by Darleen Drehmel

Sunday, the Dondolino seemed to work fine with the bodged rocker adjuster, but the Sprint sounded a bit off in practice and I found a big piece blown out of the megaphone.  Larry Poons came to the rescue again as he had a broken, somewhat flatten megaphone he let me cut a piece out of and I was able to braze this patch over the hole.  In Sunday's Class 'C' race, I was left at the line when, once again, I thought it was in gear, but wasn't.  I was able to get through the Class 'C' hand shift, and GP 250 fields,  and closed on Neil Pooler on his 125 CanAm, but Ryan Ambrose on Big D's pre-unit, rigid 500 Triumph had thing well under control at the front.  Still, I was pleased how the Guzzi ran and my fastest lap was second only to Ryan.
http://gallery.americanmotorcyclist.com/AMA-Racing/2012-VGC-RR/24395208_SbhJV4#!i=1988829206&k=GcdPVk8

Gordon Pulis helps me start the ERTT on Stu Carter's rollers for Sun. morn practice.  Darleen Drehmel photo

In Sunday's GP 350, even more oddly, they gridded us in the front of the superbikes and Euro-Am twins, and I was quickly able to get into the overall lead.  On the 6th of 8 laps, my spark plug lead came off the plug and my race was over, allowing Doug MacRea to win overall.

In the 'keyhole' before the plug lead fell off.  Darleen Drehmel photo

The entries were disappointingly small, but the weather was great and swap meet and spectator crowd still seemed good.  And the track was great as ever; one of my favorites.

I read a very interesting book recently: "Taking it to the Limit--20 years of making motorcycle movies" by Peter Starr.  I have a memory of seeing the film "Taking it to the Limit" in the Isle of Man in the early '80's.  The film was similar to "On and Sunday" in that it was a documentary potpourri of motorcycle sport: roadracing, flattrack, MX, drag racing, trials, speedway and even play riding.  I didn't remember the film well,  but the one surviving memory was Mike Hailwood going around the IOM TT Mountain course with a camera mounted bike in the mist (as the Brits call fog).  After reading the book, it turns out, once again, that my memories are suspect.  The film was first released at Daytona in 1980 and only ran a few weeks before the distribution company went bust.  The film was then tied up in litigation for the next four years and was never re-released in the original form.  Once Starr regain control of the rights to the film, he made a deal with Kawasaki, who wanted to use the slogan 'Taking it to the Limit".  The film was remade with about 2/3 of the original footage and 1/3 new material featuring Kawasakis.  So, maybe I didn't see it at the IOM, but rather Daytona, or maybe I saw the remade film much later.  But, I did see the bit with Mike Hailwood on the TT course in the mist.  What I didn't know until I read the book, was that this was filmed before Hailwood made his comeback in '78 on the Ducati.  It was done in practice for the '77 Manx GP and done on an OW31 750 Yamaha, a bike Mike had never ridden before.  Not only was it done with a big film camera in the front of the fairling, he did it with a microphone in his helmet and carrying a tape recorder on the bike.
These days, we take the onboard video for granted but, in those days, filming onboard was a huge deal.  Not only were the cameras very heavy, bulky and expensive, the film canister only lasted for a few minutes.
"Taking it to the Limit" is only a small part of  the motorcycle films Peter Starr has made for theater and TV.  For example, it was Starr who got the footage of Kenny Roberts winning the '75 Indy Mile out of the last corner on the TZ 750 dirt tracker.  And, Mike Hailwood is only one of an incredible list of motorcycle greats he has worked with.  In fact, the book ends with 15 pages of short profiles of the great competitors he has filmed, starting with Agostini and ending with Jeff Ward, with Steve Baker, Russ Collins, Roger DeCoster, Ricky Graham, Eddie Lawson, Ivan Mauger, Gary Nixon, Scotty Parker, Kenny Roberts some of the names in between.  Among the "S's" alone are Gary Scott, Sheene, Shobert, Malcolm Smith, Marty Smith, Spencer, and Springsteen. 
The book is a fascinating insight to the technical problems of filming motorcycle competition but also a great review of the competition of the '70's and '80s.
The book has a wealth of wonderful period photos and comes with a DVD with excerpts from some of Starr's films.
I highly recommend it.  Available from www.classicbikebooks.com.

Recently, I've been sent a couple of photos that are worth sharing.  First, Dave Crussell sent me a photo from the 29 April, 2012 AHRMA F-250 race at Willow Springs.

Crussell, on the #1 Kawasaki Bighorn, is riding around the outside of me on #7, Kerry Beriont's Suzuki X-6, in turn#3.  I comment to Dave that I never noticed that sign before and Dave said he hadn't either. In the photo, it's hard to believe one could not notice it, but it's not where one is looking while racing.  It makes the photo, though.  I don't know where Dave got the photo or who took it.

Then, Jason Roberts sent me a photo he says Allan Engel took that he found on superbikeplanet.com.  I search superbikeplanet.com and found plenty of other Allan Engel photos, but not this one.

This is Cal Rayborn with the H-D 350 Sprint I currently own and campaign.  The scene is Daytona in 1970.  That's clearly Mert Lawill on the left.  That could be Roger Reiman sitting on the bike, but what is he doing?  He could be plugging in the battery or tickling the carb, but why is Rayborn holding the bars then?  This was the first time Rayborn raced the bike.  The AMA had just changed the rules to allow 360 four stoke and two stroke singles  race against the 250 two stroke twins in the Lightweight class.  Rayborn finished 10th in his heat.  In the final, the Cycle News report on the race says: "Cal Rayborn (350 Sprint) ran 7th until a rubber grommet in one shock absorber split.  'It made things pretty shaky up on the banks,' Cal said, dropping out of the chase."  The June, 1970 issue of Cycle World reported that "Cal Rayborn pitted at the end of Lap 5--to find an empty pit.  Apparently the mechanics were more concerned with finding more horsepower from the big machines for the Sunday race."  This was the first year of the iron XR-750 and they were all melting pistons.

June 30th was the Doug and Amy Roper 4th annual Tiddler Tour.  First arrival and winner of the Long Distance award was Mike Gontesky, from Hampton, Va., via Binghamton, N.Y., where he was visiting relatives.  Mike brought an early '60 Lambretta 150 which he had recently been given and had just rebuilt and was using the TT as a shakedown for the fall Giro.  A fender mount on Mike's trailer had broken, so we dragged out the MIG welder and Douglas welded it back on.

Because of the small wheels on the scooter, it's forks were fouling the chock so, while we had the welder out, we widened the chock to clear the forks.
Later Fri., Leif Gustavson arrived with his comical TW200 Yamaha.
Sat. Tiddlers showed up from as far away as N.H., Dorchester, Ma., and Sparta, N.J.  The oldest bike was probably Bill Burke's '55 NSU Max Special and smallest bike was a '81 AR 80 Kawasaki.  A total of 19 bikes took to the Sat. am  loop: ten Japanese, four German, two Italian, two Spanish and one Czech.

Bill Burke in front of the 175 CZ talks to Mike Gontesky behind his 150 Lambretta.

Rich Hosley stands near his Ossa Wildfire with Henry Sypher's 175 Bridgestone in the foreground

As my Moto Guzzi Airone is still apart with crankshaft woes. I rode Doug's 65 CZ 175 again.  The CZ is a great little bike; very comfortable, handles well and good brakes.  But, it's no fireball, as the AR80 could out drag me on the CZ.  Once again, my brother had chosen great roads, heading south and west in the morning down to the shore in Guilford then back up through Durham.  There was a bit more traffic than we usually see in that area, but we still got plenty of empty roads.  Near the end of the morning loop there was a long uphill slog followed by a fast downhill section that I though would finally allow me to break 60 mph.  But, when I rolled off slightlly for a bend, the motor started to tighten and I clutched it and coasted to the bottom.  I let out the clutch just before I stopped and the motor started up and seemed none the worse for it.  We carried on and got some lunch at Higgies in Higganum and brought it back to Doug and Amy's house, a total of 85 miles.  After lunch, Douglas decided he was going to ride his 200 Bridgestone and offered me his 260 Benelli that he had ridden in the morning.  I didn't find it as pleasant as the CZ.  While the engine is much more powerful, the shift was bad, esp. on the downshift.  This combined with a very grabby front brake made corner entry awkward.  The seat was hard and rear shocks oversprung for me.  I didn't like the handling as well, it feeling top heavy.  Which isn't to say I couldn't have fun on it.  We rode on the east side of the Ct. River in the afternoon and Douglas made a loop that incorporated three legendary roads in both directions in Lyme and East Haddam.  I rode with Rich Hosley on his Ossa Wildfire, Leif on his TW, Henry Syphers on his 175 Bridgestone and Rich Midgley on his CB175 Honda, and we had a great 65 mile scratch.
After we got back, I was admiring Dale Hoyt's '63? Bultaco Mecurio 175 and he suggested I take it for a ride.  I did and it's a sweetheart.  It has a very willing motor with a surprisingly wide powerband,  is extremely agile, and has a very comfortable seat.  The brakes, as Dale warned me, were marginal at best.

The food and drink ensued with many non tiddlers showing up, some in some interesting cages.

Beth Braun admires a '60 Triumph TR3 and '56 Buick Skylark and a '38? Chevy.

We capped off the evening with fireworks that were good enough to bring two cop cars.  No one went to jail and, in fact, the cops let us do the final shoot.

June 7th I set off for back to back race meetings at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wi. and Grattan, Mi. the next weekend.  I drove by way of Waterdown, Ont., Canada and spent the night with my friend and great vintage racer Dean de St. Croix.  The next morning, Ken Rosevear drove down from Utopia and delivered my Dondolino motor, which he had just finished rebuilding.  For those of you who weren't paying attention, a year ago I had 'magneto failure' on this bike at Grattan when the broken connecting rod knocked the magneto off the crankcase.  After much welding and machining, a new repro crankshaft assy, a new flywheel, a new cyl. liner, and new piston a new magneto, and many new bearings, Ken got the motor squared up.
Shortly before I arrived at Dean's, my van's anti-sway bar broke and the van was all over the place.  It scared me enough that I decided I had to fix it, which is against my nature.  Dean got on the internet in the morning and located one and we drove there and picked it up.  Ken had arrived by the time we got back and, after some breakfast, the three of us installed it in the van.  This set my schedule back some and I didn't get on the road until almost noon but, without Dean and Ken, it would have been much later.  I had no trouble at either border crossing and, after the usual slog through Chicago, got to Road America about 10:30p CDT.

My pit at Road America.  Photo by Terry McGuire
Sat. practice went well and I lined up on the pole for the 350gp on my H-D Sprint ERTT, but gridded behind the F-750 and 750 Sportsman classes.  My arch nemesis and good friend Bruce Yoximer was on his Seeley AJS 7R but hadn't completed a lap on the bike as the primary belt had broken first thing Fri. and he didn't have a spare.  He had some Fedexed in, but they didn't arrive until after practice had finished Sat.  Bruce got the holeshot follow by Paul Germain on the Yamaha DT-1 he had previously won the 250gp race on.  But, Bruce missed the 2nd to 3rd shift and I went by both of them into turn #1 and led for probably 3 laps.  By then, Bruce had got his break markers and apexes figured out and he came by me (after he went by Germain pulling off with a flat rear tire.)  He had motor on me, but I was able to out brake him and we swapped back and forth several times.  Somehow, I managed to drop over a sec. on the last lap and Bruce tried a little too hard in the last corner and ran wide loosing his drive on the rumble strip and I beat him by 0.259 secs.

Craig Breckon prepares to push me off.  Photo by Terry McGuire

I immediately went back out on the same bike for the 'bump up' race: 500 Premiere.  When the #1 board went sideways and I put it in gear, the bike jumped and stalled as the rest of the grid launched.  My clutch wouldn't disengage and I had to find neutral to push it off the grid.  I thought maybe a clutch plate had broken and jammed but, when I took it apart, the plates were all intact.  I took the inner hub off and fount the nut retaining the outer shell had backed off and was hard against the inner hub preventing one from turning in relation to the other.  That clearly was the problem.  But, when I tightened the nut up, the inner still wouldn't turn in relation to the outer.  I ended up taking the whole primary/timing case off and then found the primary gear didn't want to slide off the mainshaft.  Finally, with some prybars and brute force, I was able to pop the gear off.  Evidently, when the nut backed off, it forced the outer shell inboard and the needle bearing cage had welded itself to the thrust washer.  I dressed everything up as best I could and reassembled, hoping for the best.  With the nut tightened up, there's a little clearance in there and the clutch seemed to work fine in practice Sun. morn.

My friends Terry and Sharon brought their 11year old neighbor to the track Sun.  Here I am introducing her to Leah Orloff after she finished 3rd in the CB160 race.  Photo by Terry McGuire

In Sunday's 350gp, I managed to get by Bruce in turn #2 on the first lap, but he was up to speed sooner and back by me before the lap was over.  He would pretty consistently pass me on the front and back straights and I would pretty consistently pass him on the brakes into turn #5.  I began to think he was content to let me lead and he would just out drag me from the last corner to the finish line.  And that's almost what happened, but he passed me a couple of feet after the finish line.  I won by 0.067 secs.

Out braking Bruce Yoximer into turn #5.  Photo by Terry McGuire

Again, I immediately went back out on the same bike for the 500 Premiere race.  I had just about no hope against Wes Orloff on a 500 Honda twin and the plan was to just cruise around smoothly.  Going through the carrousel I thought to myself "the rear end is moving around a bit; this tire has a lot of miles on it."  Two turns later, accelerating out of the chicane, I spun it out and backed it into the dirt.  For the second day in a row, I went from hero to zero in a flash.  I just banged my foot a bit, and the bike wasn't too bad, but I just created a lot of work for myself in the week between Rd. Am. and Grattan.  The right clip-on was bent and torn, the shift lever was broken off, the megaphone was torn open at the rear mount, the windscreen was broken and fairing torn up, and there was dirt everywhere.

The ERTT after Sunday's crash in the 500 premiere race.  Photo by Terry McGuire

Dumping the dirt out of the ERTT after crashing it Sun.  Photo by Kenny Cummings.

I moved to the Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago with old dear friends Terry and Sharon from college days and got to work on the bikes.  I needed welding and a call to Big Bob Burns got me set up with Fred Cousins, at 'the Bunker' that evening.  In the mean time, I pulled the cyl. head and cleaned the dirt out of the combustion chamber and lapped the valves.  Fred's day job is working at a vintage car restoration shop, Cooper Technica (Preserving the Art of Fine Mechanisms), but does bike work on the side at his Triple O Service.  We heated up and straightened the clip-on and megaphone, then he MIG welded them and the shift lever while I cleaned the carb in his solvent tank and, after much fiddling, finally got the slide to close all the way.  Fred did a great job and really saved the day.  The next day, I finished up the H-D and started to install the newly rebuilt Dondolino motor in it's chassis.  This involved pivoting the front end of the chassis up so we could slip the motor into it's cradle.  Many thanks to Terry for pulling away from tending their beloved garden to help hump the motor in.

Installing the motor in the Dondolino

Wed. Terry and Sharon were off for three weeks in Spain and France, so I moved to some other friends in Chicago, Tigerlady and Dick Watts.  Dick rearranged things in his wood shop where he makes custom guitars, so I could continue on the Dondolino.  That evening we went to Cooper Technica and Fred gave us the tour.  He was working on the most modern car there, a '62 Ferrari 250GT.  There were two '42 Alfas and a Mercedes from the twenties with English body work.  But, the car that impressed me the most was a '34 Tatra T77, a streamlined Czech car with an aircooled flat eight in the rear.  From Cooper Technica, we went to the ChiVinMoto 'garage crawl' which, that week, was at Burt  Richmond's townhouse.  Burt runs Lotus Tours with his wife Dianne, and has a big collection of little scooters, motorcycles, and cars.  Burt had several new additions since I was last there in 2008 including a Dunkley, a 61cc four stroke British scooter and a Polish scooter I had never heard off.  A bunch of the people I had seen at Rd. Am. and would see at Grattan were there including Big Bob Burns, Rebecca Berneck, Pat Fitzgerald, and Dan Waite.
Thurs. I finished up the Dondolino and Fri. morning headed to Grattan via Richland, Mi., where Buck and Constance Boudeman live.  Buck is the owner of the 1894 Slyvester Roper steam cycle.  Slyvester is my 2nd Cousin, 4 times removed, and he invented the motorcycle in 1869, a 'boneshaker' now in the Smithsonian Institute (http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/themes/story_54_1.html).  Sylvester made many steam vehicles during his life, the last being a Columbia 'modern safety bicycle' into which he put and boiler and steam engine.  According to the Boston Globe, he went 40 MPH on this on Dorchester Ave. in 1896.  Later he challenge a bicycle racer to a race on a cycle track in Cambridge and, after blowing off the 'push bike', opened it up on the back straight, went into a wobble, and died of a heart attack at the age of 72.  When Buck got the Roper steam cycle, he powered it up with compressed air and everything worked.  But, he hasn't fired the boiler, knowing that Sylvester was very weight conscious and made it very light weight.  Now Buck has decided to get it running and has asked me to ride it 'at Goodwood or somewhere'.  Buck has been to Goodwood five times with his Stanley Steamers and Miller cars.  This probably won't happen for a year or two as he wants to finish his current massive project of restoring/reproducing a Miller V-16 four wheel drive car from 1933.  He has a few of the original parts and has acquired the original drawings and most of the original patterns.  From this, he has cast up the crankcase and other motor castings and is building a motor around an original crankshaft.  This man is not afraid of a project.  BTW, Buck's wife Constance is the granddaughter of F.E.Stanley, one of the two Stanley brothers of Stanley Steamer fame.  Buck and Constance met through steam.
At Grattan, I fired up the Dondolino for the first time in a year and it seemed good; smooth and no smoke.  In the race, I was running a distant 3rd behind Alex Mclean of Bob McKeever's rigid cammy Norton and Ryan Ambrose on Big D's rigid, pre-unit Triumph twin, when the Dondo lost power on the third lap and I shut it down.  Alex went on to win when Ryan dropped the Tri. in Turn #3 on the last lap.  I didn't find anything obviously wrong with the Dondo and fired it up again, so I decided to try it in Sun. morning practice and decide if I was going to race it.
In the 350gp, once again Bruce Yoximer got the holeshot, but I soon outbraked him and led overall after we had gotten by some Vintage Superbike Lightweights.  Starting the last lap Bruce came by me on the straight and I followed him until the turn #10 hairpin when I did a somewhat rude stuff pass.  We crossed the finish line side by side not knowing who won.  The transponders said I won, by 0.001 of a second.  In three races, I had beat Bruce three time by a total of less than 1/3rd of a second.  While I knew that last pass was a hard one, I didn't think there was any contact.  Bruce however wasn't happy and apparently my bike had hit his elbow and knocked his hand off the handlebar.  I apologized and resolved to do better.  I love these close races but don't want to win by bashing into people.  BTW, Bruce had the fastest lap in the race.
It rained hard Sat. night and was still drizzling for Sun. practice.  I went out on the Dondo and it was slow and wouldn't rev.  It felt like retarded timing.  Paul Germain, Francis Ganance, and Jon White helped me analyze the situation.  Using the outside flywheel as at timing disc, we roughly calculated that the points were opening at around 5 deg.s btc, not the 40 they should have been.  Apparently the mag gear had slipped on the armature.  Paul packed up and went home to Winnepeg, Manitoba, scared of a little rain.  Francis, Jon and I pulled the timing cover and move the magneto gear two teeth (40 deg.s).  In the class C race, I blew the start when I thought I was in gear but wasn't and got off last.  The track was wet, but drying and I was pretty tentative initially, but the bike ran great.  Again, I finished a distant 3rd and again Alex McLean held off Ryan Ambrose for the win.
For Sunday's 350gp race, they gridded the Vintage Superbike Lightweights ahead of us.  Again, Yox got the holeshot in the 350gp and again, I out braked him going into turn #1.  It took me a couple of laps to get by Craig Breckon on his FT 500 Honda and his cousin(?, nephew?) Chad Wiers on a GS400 Suzuki.  A couple of laps later, I got balked by a back marker and the two of them came back by me.  I was able to get them back and win overall, all the time expecting Yoximer to come by.  But, turns out he had retired with a sticking throttle.  Then, in the post race 'hot tech', I saw I had failed to switch my transponder from the Guzzi to the H-D.  This left me the option of paying $50 be manually scored or being disqualified.  I opted for the DQ, in part as a gesture to Yoximer for my rude pass of the previous day and in part because I'm a cheap SOB.  And, I still have a decent lead in the 350gp championship, if that means anything.

All in all, a great trip with close racing, a largely successful relaunch of the Moto Guzzi Dondolino and quality time spent with good friends.  

Seal Cove Auto Museum I drove up to Bar Harbor, Me. to visit a dear old friend and one of the things we did over the long weekend was go to the Seal Cove Auto Museum.  In addition to having many fine brass era car, it has a reasonable collection of early motorcycles and bicycles.  There were at least four Indians including a 1903 Camelback. There were two Pierces, a four and a single, from 1911 & '12.




They also had an FN four, always an interesting comparison to the Pierce.  One I had never heard of was a Thomas, built in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1901. 
 
There was a very interesting 1913 Thor, that has a rotary intake valve, something I hadn't realized engineers had played with until much later. 
The 1911 Flying Merkel V-twin had a very impressive brass fuel tank.
There was also a 1911 Pope, built in Hartford, Ct.
 
 Probably the most impressive car was the 1913 Peugeot which had been restored in the early '60s.
Check out the many trumpeted bulb horn.


 All photos by Phyllis Aschenbrenner.

Last weekend, in preparation for Steve Rossi's  Tiddler Tour, I fired up my Moto Guzzi Airone and noticed sparks coming off the outside flywheel.  It was hitting the footrest, but why?   Turns out, I had a ton of up and down slop in my crankshaft.  It seemed wise not to run it until after I stripped the motor.  Once again, my brother Doug came to the rescue, offering me his '65 175 CZ, which he had recently gone through.  About seven Tiddlers show up and Doug & Amy's house Sun. morning and we rode over the Connecticut River to Steve Rossi's house.  About 32 in total showed up.  Oldest on the tour was a '52 BSA B-40, that reputedly came out of Borneo, ridden by one of the two fellows from New Hampshire.
 
 Newest on the tour was a 2009 Aprilla 125 two stroke the Bud Clauer had somehow managed to register.

 

After the Tour, Bud let me take this little pocket rocket for a quick spin.  It's utterly civilized, but you have to  ring it's scrawny little neck to make it fly, and fly it does.  Killer brakes, too. 

Smallest on the tour was this '81? Kawasaki AR 80

 Before taking off on the route, a tour of Steve's garage is always a must.  New items from last year were a Hercules wankel and a '51 Aermacchi 125 scooter

                                                      Steve's  '56? Moto Guzzi Galetto

Steve's 65cc Moto Guzzi Legarro

Steve's latest acquisition, a rotary engined Hercules

A 175 Benelli next to a V-50 Guzzi

After a good schmooze, I decided it was time to get this show on the road and took off with Mike Peavey in my draft on his newly imported Moto Guzzi Airone.  The seller thought it was a sport, but Mike figured out it was a Turismo that had been 'Sportized'.  The CZ, while not real fast, handled well, had good brakes and was comfortable, and we jammed hard to the lunch spot in Coventry, Ct.

 My brother's '65 175 CZ and Mike Peavey's '56? Moto Guzzi Turismo/Sport

 Just after we pulled up, and elderly gentleman walked up and said when he heard the CZ, he had to come over to check it out.  He was from Czechoslovakia and had owned a 150 Jawa in the old country.  He regaled us with stories of the good ol' days (and not so good ol' days; he had swum across a river to his freedom in 1971).  After chatting a bit, he continued his 7 mile walk from his house to his daughters.  After lunch and a good schmooze, Mike and I left last on the afternoon section and managed to pass everyone on the way back to Steve's house.  After another good schmooze, I headed back to Doug & Amy's house to pull the motor out of my Airone.  I ended up having some of the greatest minds in M/C mechanics helping me yank the motor out.  Food and drink followed.  Memorial day, I stripped the motor and found the drive side main bearing was shot and the timing side was loose.

  But, more troubling was the conrod  and crankshaft was heavily worn on the timing side indicating something was forcing the rod to that side.  This was the same condition I found in my Dondolino after it blew up, and it seems something is out of square.