Buckie rally.

An email came through a while back saying that there was a new classic rally up in Buckie. That's only about 40mins up the road from Cubbie Towers. I imagined that seeing as the mail from from the Garioch vintage rally organisers, a rally that is mainly cars, that the Buckie rally would be mainly cars. But as it was a new rally, I thought it would be good to try and get some of the Grumpyones to go up there with me to support it. So in the end, there were 3 of us. The Man from Muckle Flugga was on his '81 Yammy XJ650, The Man With No Name (you'll understand the reason for this later) was on his modern BMW after a hiccup involving a wet grassy slope and his Honda 400/4, and I was on my MZ Skorpion. A 1994 model, so nearly a classic.
We had a good run up there, in the dry but chilly conditions, on damp roads, and once in the vicinity of Buckie, the organisers had thoughtfully put up some very clear signage. Just as well, 'cos I didn't have a clue where Linzee Gordon Park was. We pulled in, parked up, and waited for the hoardes of bikes to turn up, cherishing our free tea tickets that had been given to us at the gate. Thoughtfully, again, the organisers had provided bits of wood for the bike stands. Another Grumpy member arrived soon after, with his two Yamahas on a trailer, well, you can only ride one at a time - more about his bikes later (in the Alford report, which will follow soon), and we met a chap and his wife who'd brough their little Raleigh along for show. Another couple of club members turned up later on but were bikeless, but at least they made the effort to pop in, as did a couple of Hinkley Triumph riders. Oh, and then there was the guy who rode in on the BSA but I didn't get a chance to speak to him. And then there was Fido, an ex-Grumpy member who is moving to Hungary. Not much in the way of Brit bikes out there, he reports.
The free tea and butteries with jam (yep, go on, what's a buttery? It's a chewy solid kinda thing that's made in this neck of the woods, traditionally using lard I believe. Yum) were doubly nice cos they were free, and instead of tea I managed to wangle a glass of squash. After wandering round the rows of cars on show several times, I somehow managed to secure a ride in the smart red 1933 Alvis. But not til 3pm.



So as it was only about midday, the Man With No Name decided to wander off home while we other two decided to go Chocolate Hunting. 3pm took a heck of a long time to come around, well, about 3hours I suppose, but soon it was time to squeeze into the Alvis whilst wearing my full biking kit, minus the helmet of course, and owner Hal fired the engine up. Boy what a sound. Verrrrry nice. Twiggy the dog sat on my lap and hung her head out of the window (so did I, to be truthful) while we joined in the parade lap of the town, to show the public the wonderful old cars. Hal obviously enjoyed driving his motor as we listened to the roar of the 2511cc, 6 cylinder beastie, accompanied by the 4 speed crash box.

Upon returning to the field, the rest of the exhibitors were setting off home, so after thanking Hal and Twiggy, it was time to tog up and head back to Cubbie Towers. But first, a word on the rally. The men to thank were Brian Reid, Charles MacKintosh, Ian Ross and the boss himself, John Ferguson. These guys only decided very recently to put on a classic gathering, and in the space of a few weeks, secured the use of the local sports pitch and pavilion, provided free refreshments and sorted all the admin and advertising out, and they arranged for a rain-free day. If only classic bikers would turn out in numbers like the car enthusiasts, we'd be ok for impromptu rallies! Thanks for the show guys.

Oh, I nearly forgot, out of all the classic cars, these ones were my favourites alongside the Alvis, for reasons that are probably obvious...

And as for the Man With No Name, a short post connecting him and Terry the Terrier, will also follow shortly...if it doesn't, you'd better nag me!

Festival of 1000 Bikes - the Man in Black.

Just to let you know that the Vintage Motorcycle Club event, the Festival of 1000 Bikes is being shown on ITV4 tonight at 8pm and Thursday 6th Oct at 7pm. Look out for our Man in Black, Mick Elstone from the NE Scottish VMCC section, riding bike number 921, his rather smart AJS 7R.

Time for some Haggis.

Well, that's Us just back from setting out the route for the Haggis Run tomorrow - we left Cubbie Towers at half 11 this morning, and only just back at 9pm. Goodness knows how many sign boards we put out, but hopefully it'll be easier for the riders to follow than a soggy route sheet. Must go and get on with other pre, bring on the Haggis!

Terry update. Plunger.

Ooh, we're getting somewhere, albeit, nowhere particularly fast, but at least with that plunger unit removed I can have a think about what to do next. Had a spare 10mins after finally getting the 4x4 back together and noise-less yesterday, so had a closer look at the plunger set up. I had made up my mind to replace the springs anyway, as they had suffered a lot of heat in a bid to get the thing undone, but then in a fit of temper, I had attacked one of the shrouds - actually, it wasn't really a tantrum, but I thought if I could expose more of the spring, I could perhaps compress it and then get the mole grips or similar, on the rod which would give me a better grip than the broken screw slot. But it didn't work, because I couldn't get enough of the shroud out of the way. Anyway, that's not the problem. The problem is at the end where the rod screws into the frame. The Tractor Fixing Man pointed out that the thread isn't up to much inside the 'lug' on the frame, and I see now what he meant, but the odd thing is, the 'lug' on the other side of the frame, is larger - no wonder that plunger had already been removed, it probably just fell out! I haven't measured it in a very technical manner, just stuck the digi-measuring-thingy on it, and the left side is 13.7mm and the right side is 15.4mm. So have you got any suggestions as to how I can get the two lugs tapped and made to match the size and thread of the new rods that I'll need to buy?

Terry progress!!!

Oooh!!!! Exciting news people!!!! Took my Terrier frame to the local tractor fixing man, he hummed and haaa'd and did that sucking air through teeth thing, said he wouldn't be able to do it today so I left it with him. 20mins later, got a text saying it was ready for collection. A simple fix, weld a nut on the top and undo it. Bingo. PS, must learn to weld. Seems to be a multi-use skill for farm yard and bike building alike.

Slacking again!

Yep, sorry, I've not been keeping up with the blog much lately, I do apologise. But...and there is always a 'but', I've got good reason. That 4x4 has been causing some headache, with an unidentifiable noise, which was then identified as a wheel bearing, so that was then followed by a search for the right one, which I eventually found....but then when the hub etc was rebuilt, the darn thing still didn't fit. The problem was that the drive shaft wouldn't come far enough through the stub axle to get the circlip back on. It was only by chance that the drive shaft then kinda got kinda 'stuck' and it was decided that the next step was to open the CV boot up and examine the joint, in case it was damaged. It didn't look damaged, so next the plan was to remove the drive shaft completely. Well, not having the correct Haynes manual for it made the job a little harder, for example, when it said to remove the 4 bolts that hold the drive shaft in place and simply withdraw the unit, it was discovered that the unit cannot be withdrawn. One reason being that the steering knuckle to come off too, so it was a chance for the Big Hammer to be used to aid splitting the ball joints. That, along with copious heat and constant hitting freed the knuckle and as it was pulled off, all the needle rollers inside it, fell out. Ah, the source of the noise, perhaps? I'm sure.

The next step was to post messages for help on the Frontera forum, where the guys helped with information and advice. The state of the bearing inside the knuckle was so poor that it was hard to see which bits of seal, washer and other bits of metal had to be removed. In the end, I took the unit down to the local tractor fixing guy, who attacked it with a special hooky tool and his welding torch and soon had the remains of the bearing on the bench. I'd fired off several emails to suppliers and one of them had come up good, Autovaux. They priced up the bearing kit (the whole kit inc P&P was nearly £50, ouch) and said they'd post it out ASAP. I also got prices for new balljoints, top and bottom, but they were twice the price of a company called Milner Off Road. Two days later, both orders arrived, so tomorrow, Saturday, is the day of the rebuild, again. Just hope this cures it and the truck can be put back on the road after, erm, about 4 weeks in the sick bay.


Ball joints took a bit of persuading.........................before the knuckel could be removed.....

Not much of a bearing left..................................Ah, a nice shiny new bearing, cheap at just £22

The seal however was a stunning £17!

In between truck fixing, a couple of attempts have been made to remove Terry the Terrier's stuck plunger unit. This one though, is proving a tough little devil. All that's been done is a good application of a concoction of nail varnish remover (aka acetone) and ATF (automatic transmission fluid), kindly recommended to me by a fellow VMCCer who saw my Scottish Column in the VMCC mag, where I was moaning about not being able to move on with work on the Terrier, more heat, and more violence. Nothing has moved though, other than half of the screw head which has parted company, so for now, I've taken the frame down to the tractor fixing man and we'll see if he has any magic tools to assist.

First, mix up the flammable potion......................and soak the offending item in it.....

...and then set fire to it. Don't worry, thats not the gas line being set alight!

Besides the mechanical works, there have been one or several additions to the fleecy flock at Cubbie Towers. Two little Ryeland ewes called Nel and Gwyn, and two whopping great big Ofxord ewes whom I think we're going to get away with calling Morse and Lewis...

Pics would have been added then posted but last night the car had an electrical hitch so I've been working on that this morning, but no joy! GRRRRRRR!!!

**Added some pics for your entertainment. The car however, is another entertaining story. It's now Saturday, and after going to test drive a replacement car, work commenced on the 4x4 once more. Then rain stopped play, so it was time to put the poorly strimmer on the bench and take the carb apart. Got a good healthy spark but no go-go. Gave it a whizz out with the compressor, put it back together, still no go-go. I do hope things aren't going to keep braking this winter!

Un-Conventional.

Yep, well thats me! Just home from my second stint at work today, firstly in Aberdeen then home to collect something, then back out to Huntly. Mrs BC's just getting me some tea (to eat, not drink) then I'll be printing off membership forms, dragging tables down out of the loft and emptying the car ready to go to the Motorcycle Convention tomorrow at Alford. If you're on Facebook you can expect a few piccies to be posted, but if you're on the blog only, it might take me a day or two to get some pics on here for you.

Hope y'all have a good weekend.