The Ride Round The Top

Supporting

The Gutjwa School Appeal

Final Round Up

Summary

It’s a couple of weeks, no! … nearly THREE now, since the Ride Round The Top ended, and I’ve been asked by various people for a ‘Round-Up’. In any case, I’ve been feeling a summary and retrospective would provide proper closure, and also give us a chance to thank all the various people involved.

The first thing to be said is we managed what we set out to do and rode around the top of Scotland and back, and much, MUCH more importantly, raised around £4,500 for Gutjwa School in the process.

Thanks To Our Donors

So, the first acknowledgement is to the around 150 individuals or couples who so generously donated to the Gutjwa Appeal – from England, Scotland, France, Italy, Spain and Andorra, Canada and the USA, Australia and New Zealand, thank you all very much.

Confession

Next up is confession time – I said we did what we set out to do, but that’s stretching matters a little. True, one Boyhood Brit Bike made the trip (well, just about – see later!), and indeed the Brace of Buffers also made the trip, but the Brace of Buffers on THEIR Boyhood Brit Bikes proved too much to achieve, despite best efforts – and probably just as well, too (again, more anon!).

Peter (L) and Neil (R)

Neil’s gallant efforts to ready the 1960 Norton ES2 500cc single-cylinder Wideline Featherbed framed bike he bought in 1968 failed by literally a matter of only a day or so – we’d got her screwed back together AND started, but consistent starting proved all-too-elusive, and the necessary MoT certificate was therefore unobtainable in the time-scale left to poor Neil. Things had been stretched and stretched by the incredibly slow progress on the paint-shop items, late delivery of the rebuilt engine and gearbox, and continual problems with ill-fitting and often just plain WRONG parts supplied. The debate on Norton parts-suppliers will run and run, but I too have experienced similar problems too often for it to be just a flash-in-the-pan. The answer, I’m afraid, has to be to lower one’s expectations and build-in such set-backs as a highly likely factor to contend with, but that’s being wise after the event, unfortunately.

Plan B

Whatever - Neil reverted to Plan B, and the Honda FireBlade, all 125 horse-power of 1998 ‘Urban Tiger’ (albeit the Silver and Black version thereof) was rescued from off-site storage for saddlebags and tank-top to be strapped onto, to keep Peter’s 40 hp 1959 Norton Dominator 99 Wideline 600cc twin-cylinder machine company. Note that Honda do NOT use words such as ‘Featherbed’ to describe their frames / chassis – there will be more on this later!

The FireBlade at the Skye Bridge

Preparing the Dominator 99

I had also left preparation of the Dommy somewhat late – it had been run reasonably regularly with only one apparent problem, the oil-burning from the right-hand cylinder, and I was pretty confident I knew what the problem was, had all the parts necessary to cope with my anticipation (new piston-rings, new valve-guides, valve-guide seals, gaskets etc), so no need to panic, right? Well, guess what! Plain WRONG!! Whilst I was on the right track, the exact cause of the problem was not worn rings (though I replaced these as a matter of course once the engine was apart) nor a worn valve-guide, but a LOOSE valve-guide, allowing oil into the hot exhaust gas-stream between guide and cylinder-head, rather than the more usual internal wear of the guide, allowing oil through between guide and valve-stem. Expletive Deleted, several times!!! Fortunately there is a cure, over-sized valve-guides being available, but not being a regular feature of my parts-bin, suddenly there’s a totally un-foreseen rush to get bits sourced, so thank you indeed, Norvil. Having invested in the three different over-sizes available, and multiples of them, the parts-bin now WILL cater for future repeat incidents.

The errant exhaust valve-guide peers out of the exhaust port during initial assembly back in 2006

Crisis Time

that sorted, the Dommy is now 100% right, right? Errr - no!! On the Monday before the scheduled Friday departure, the garage is filled with the strong smell of petrol; ONLY a crack in the underside of the fuel-tank, that’s all, and no, of course I’ve not got a stock of the necessary rubbery aluminised paint that acts as a tank-sealant, so it’s a panic order through the Internet. Our friends at Frost Restoration Products ignore my request for 24 hour delivery, so ANOTHER day passes before I can effect a cure, and even with my departure on the RRTT delayed by a night without the need to help-out Neil with any last minute bike-issues thanks to the decision to FireBlade the trip, the ‘cure’ time for the cure (i.y.s.w.i.m) is down to 36 hours, way, way off the 96 hours needed.

The Dommy 99 back in 1969 outside 98 Broom Road Teddington,
Val’s parent lovely house there, Val in the saddle, Peter doing the leaning bit

Peter’s start from Childrey; note how tiny the Norton is.

Fuelling Problems

Somewhat inevitably, this causes immense problems with fuel blockages throughout the first day (all recorded in nit-picking detail in the Day 2 report on the www.rideroundthetop.org website – I know, should be Day 1, but Days 1 and 2 got rolled into Day 2, a result of the last-minute departure-delay) as the sealant was regularly flushed from the tank into the fuel filters and carb jets, where it did its level best to do what it was intended to, i.e. seal those parts!!!! Ho, hum, so lots of tap, filter and carb cleaning-out, but we managed to keep her going, and eventually the problem dissipated, such that by Day 3 this was no longer a factor.

Tthe start from Shirley

Day 1-2, Childrey to Sherburn-in-Elmet, Yorks, via Solihull

part from fuel starvation from time-to-time, the Dommy was running well. Largely first-kick starting, adequate power for the sort of roads we’d chosen to stick to, transmission fine with a reasonably gentle clutch and positive gearbox, good brakes, though I suspect a well set-up standard Norton brake would have proved perfectly adequate at the speeds we were maintaining, and the huge Grimeca Four Leading-Shoes brake I’d indulged in was over-kill really (but hey, it LOOKS fabulous, dunnit?!), plenty of lekki-juice to run with headlamp-on for improved safety, and the fabulous handling the famous Featherbed frame is expected to deliver – in spades!!

PICT0309 – the powerful Grimeca 4 L/S front brake

Ride Quality

The big bonus is the ride quality, which I’d managed to hugely improve thanks to fitting later-type Commando progressive-rate front-fork springs from RGM, and Manx damper-tubes and caps with Dural damper rods from the Hemmings establishment, all damped courtesy of Duckhams 20-50 rather than straight 20 grade oil, which works really well in my experience. Result? Not only does the nigh-on 50 year-old Norton corner on rails such that it’s not disgracing itself even in the company of a race-track replica modern Jap bike, but when we get to the bumpy bits, such as by-passing Sheffield over Strine Moor, the super-supple ride enables me to actually romp away from it!! Extraordinary, really, but the complete truth, I swear it! The hard suspension of the ’Blade means the bumpy road-surface is almost directly connected to Neil’s arms and wrists that are taking more of the load than a FireBlade is intended to allow through to the rider. The natural high-speed gait and resulting wind-pressure better balances the rider, and would normally be relieving the weight Neil is transmitting through his arms, so the combination of the supple ride and more upright seating position, not to mention better-padded seat of the Norton wins out hands-down on this sort of going, despite the huge power discrepancy – interesting, huh?

PICT0300 – the excellent modified Norton Roadholder front-forks

Day 3 – Yorkshire to Alloa

After the worrying and time-consuming fuel starvation problems of Day 2, Day 3, the chase across Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland to Bonny Scotland proved to be a comparative breeze, despite early fears it could turn out a nightmare thanks to the need to don waterproofs to cope with the downpour, and a completely blocked A1 main highway. But, the sun emerges as we cut through the flanks of the Pennines, and continues with us in varying degrees until we reach Alloa shortly after 9 at night, after a long albeit late day in the saddle, having departed Norton Day between York and Leeds shortly after 2 p.m. The Norton and its rider have thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the ride, the Yorkshire Dales, The Durham Fells and the Northumberland Moors, then the Border Country, even the shores of the Firth of Forth, and the Honda whilst not ever being stretched in the slightest has found most of the going more to its liking.

Although the fuelling of the old Norton has ceased to be much of a problem (I do one final clean-out the following day, after which it’s completely sorted), other niggles have started to emerge – she’s using around a litre of oil every 200 mile or so i.e. per tankful of gas, some being burnt, but some also being leaked, including onto the back tyre, though not enough to cause me ‘moments’ on some of the wonderful swervery we’ve taken in throughout most of the afternoon and evening. Indeed, it’s been the horribly high, blustery winds that have been the constraint on cornering enthusiasm, possibly affecting the Honda more than the Norton. The Norton is tiny by comparison, albeit actually weighing MORE than the ’Blade; it carries its weight lower, has a much smaller frontal area, and not being faired like the Honda, has much less ‘windage’, though a particularly scary moment in Yorkshire, when emerging from the shelter of trees well cranked over and almost being blown over, has severely constrained my enthusiasm.

There’s nothing significant I can do about oil consumption, of course, and all I can do from now on in is wipe-off the grot at our stops, and ensure there’s a spare litre of oil in the pannier bag j.i.c., but the previously immaculate Norton is now looking rather the worse for wear, with burnt-on lube on exhaust pipes and silencers, and a miasma of oil from the engine backwards.

Even after a long Day 3 in the saddle with comparatively few and then only short stops, I step off the Norton without major discomfort. The upright ‘natural’ riding position is the essential foundation of this – the physically small and low Norton is bang-on the right size for me, and I’ve carefully and deliberately set footrests, handlebars, brake and clutch lever, gear-change and rear-brake pedals to minimise unnecessary movement so they operate smoothly and slickly. The tank-bag takes some of the slip-stream off me and provides me with something to lean on at higher speeds, and the sheepskin I’ve draped from headstock at the front of the tank to bumstop at the back of the saddle provides protection from the underside of the tank-bag for the tank’s Norton silver-grey paintwork and serves to help it grip and not slide around under acceleration and braking etc; equally importantly, it gives my posterior additional padding, though the modified hump-backed semi-race-style seat I had made for the Dommy during its 2006 rebuild is in any case more comfortable that the standard Norton squab.

The famous sheepskin and ‘humped’ modified seat

Day 4 – Alloa to Tain via the Great Glen

All this is very encouraging, as we have another long day in front of us, from Alloa to Tain via a long diversion west to get us into the Great Glen, made even longer by our desire to take in Loch Lomond. It’s a great day’s ride, with Rannoch Moor and Glencoe the visual highlights, but the Great Glen, especially the Lock Ness section also offers some wonderful biking roads. Meeting NOC member Neville Goldsmith on his immaculate Concours winning Commando is a nice bonus, part of the camaraderie of Norton riding, and I’m rather amused at his obvious concern whether this dirty, oily heap is really going to get me Round The Top and back home. Whilst it turns out his scepticism is not entirely misplaced, it’s nothing to do with its grubby nature, or any of the causations of this, that grids it to an eventual stop over t’other side of Scotland. Anyway, I have great fun showing his beautiful and much more powerful bike a clean (only bit that is so!!) pair of heels over the valleys and hills from Lock Ness to Beauly and on towards Tain. A big Thank You to Neville for coming out to play and keeping us company, and for his very generous donation to Gutjwa – it was a real pleasure meeting you.

Rannoch Moor

Fellow NOC member Neville Goldsmith and Peter at Drumnadrochit

Meeting David Sim in Tain that evening was another moment of very enjoyable NOC camaraderie – we’d had a wonderful, rain-free ride through 100% glorious motorcycling scenery, traffic free roads, and the Norton hadn’t missed a beat (nor had the Honda, of course, but from now on in, you can take this as read!!). A super B&B had awaited us, the shower was hot and powerful, and the company, food, drink and chat were great – life was pretty damned fine that night.

Day 5 – The Tipping Point, Tain to Ullapool

Day 5 made up for it though!!! The puncture on start-up just set the tone of the entire first part of the day, and running out of fuel two miles short of the day’s ultimate destination, Ullapool, just sealed it. In between, the bleak road-side stop to fix centre-stand, puncture and now dragging clutch in the middle of MAMBA Country (miles and miles of bugger-all!!) on the east coast leading up to John o’Groats, followed by the second (successful!!) attempt at the latter in Wick will remain seared into my memory, only relieved in part by the kindness of Davey and a local teacher on his genuine and spectacular home-built rat-bike in Wick – oh and the old fella i/c of the Shell Station regaling us with his tale of a visit to the Norton factory at Bracebridge Street, Birmingham in the 1950s. Boy, 18 inch tubeless tyre carcasses are SO stiff compared with the old 19” tubed tyres, real sods to get on and off, and particularly to get the tube’s valve through the rim hole.

The errant clutch and belt-drive

However, once sorted and now with only about half the time previously available for a long day’s ride where we know the road will often be narrow and slow, the rest of the day is pretty wonderful. From west of Dounrey and the Caithness / Sutherland border, the scenery is just amazing. The north coast is pretty darned wonderful, the Firth of Tongue and Loch Eriboll are just gorgeous scenery, then the craggy landscape of inland Sutherland just blows us away – wow!!!!

Loch Eriboll

The mountains of Sutherland

Running out of fuel a couple of miles short of Ullapool was just my damned stupidity – we’d filled at Wick and been so eager to get on with things we’d not done the sensible thing of doing it again some 30 miles later at the last known gas-station in Thurso, which would easily have seen us through. However, we learn and it’s the last time we suffer this (except through running with the choke on, of course, come Day 9!), but twice in one day is just dumb on my behalf, and I can only plead the frustration of the long stop in MAMBA Country.

Day 6 – Ullapool to Mull

Day 6 is largely okay – the Norton behaves perfectly apart from its mysterious total loss of drive that my paranoia convinces me to get the spanners out to fix what I suspect is a major break, and subsequently turns out to be nothing more than a false neutral!! Doooooohhhhh!

Loch Torridon

The scenery is again outstanding, the string of sea-lochs from Loch Broom in the north to Loch Carron before we ride the Skye Bridge into, then the ferry back out of the island to Mallaig, are just beautiful, with the slow detour around the Applecross Peninsula well worth the extra time in its own right, never mind the spectacular climb up, over and then down the Pass of the Cattle – not to be missed if anywhere near the area, believe me! This is one of the very best rides / drives in the British Isles – outstanding.

The Pass of The Cattle, Applecross

The Bridge to Skye

The Ardnamurchan Peninsula is very beautiful, but very, Very, VERY slow – an hour for 20 miles is all even a pair of motorcycles can manage, so be warned if ever you decide to take this obvious route southwards via Mull which, despite our seeing very little of thanks to our tight timetable, is still my favourite microcosm of the West Coast – I would just LOVE a cottage there to retreat to when things get heavy elsewhere! The Mishnish Hotel is a complete institution, a great harbour-side bar (albeit only with the usual dreadful Scottish beer, Edinburgh a noble exception, of course), a nice first-floor restaurant, but simply DREADFUL rooms – do not be tempted, go elsewhere, anywhere elsewhere, the waiting room for the ferry back to Ardnamurchan, fer instance!!

Parked up in the gathering dusk outside the Mishnish Hotel, Tobermoray, Mull

Apart from the false-alarm of the suspected broken drive-belt, it’s been a spannerless albeit waterproof-clad day (only towards the end, though).

Day 7 – Mull to Arran

Day 7 starts off well, and I hardly count the lost clutch-lever pivot bolt, almost instantly sorted in nearby Tarbert, as a problem, but after looping around almost the …….k-entire Kintyre Peninsula to less-than-lovely Cambeltown via a belter of the west coast main-road, the rain sets in pretty hard, and on slippery, narrow, twisty roads back north along the east coast, we only just make the last ferry to Arran.

Craignure, the ferry from Mull to Oban

The ‘landing-craft’ ferry from the Kintyre Peninsula to Arran

And then the troubles started – onto one pot off the ferry, down to NO pots a mile short of the B&B, and a complete mystery that threatens to defeat my diagnostic abilities – sometimes I may not be able to fix things, but I ALWAYS know what’s gone wrong, darnn it!!

I really hate to admit defeat, but admit it I have to. Once the bike’s pushed-in, and I’m showered and changed, sitting down over a beer and a pretty fine meal I figure it out as duff ignition (I think!!), and we’re in for a drag-in by the RAC tomorrow.

Brodick Bay, the view form our B&B, Arran

Day 8 – Arran to Whitehaven, Cumbria

Day 8 confirms the diagnosis of burnt-out coils – dunno why it’s happened, but in future I’ll hang ’em out in the breeze under the fuel-tank (or junk them altogether and refit a magneto!!), and in ‘fixing’ it, we then burn out the electronic ignition control unit, so that really is it, and I suspect most would have abandoned ship at this stage, and taken the Recovery truck all the way back to Childrey.

The errant coils housed in the tool-box under the saddle

Except that one of the three major Norton parts suppliers is not so far away from Ardrossan where the ferry will be taking us, and nice Mr RAC ends up dragging us to Cumbria where RGM fixes us up with the necessary solution – thanks very much for opening up on Saturday for us, Roger.

Our saviour Roger Myers, proprietor of RGM Motors

The Honda has convoyed down with us, and recorded around 150 miles that the Norton has not rolled its wheels over, so my final total mileage will have to be adjusted from the 1800 I’d estimated / advertised as the length of the RRTT from Childrey.

It’s a bummer – all the other slings and arrows have been sloughed off via the spares and spanners I’ve been carting around with me, but burnt-out 6 volt coils have defeated me for those 150 miles; however, I feeling better through a restoration of confidence that my diagnosis has eventually proved correct, which is perhaps little consolation, but hey, better than none!! And we’ve been extremely lucky to be reasonably close to RGM and the salvation it’s provided – the stop in Beckermet has proved very congenital, with meeting the boss and bossess of RGM socially in the pub / B&B to chew the fat a bit, a very decent and reasonably priced room for the night, and an excellent meal served by very pretty waitresses. Every cloud……………!!!

Cats prefer Hondas, obviously

The RGM Inner Sanctum, the machine-shop where Norton parts are made.

Day 9 – The less-than-grand finale, Whitehaven to Childrey, via Solihull

Day 9, the last day as it turns out, is so full of incident and mileage, it’s difficult to place it properly – the ignition solution, its subsequent short-out and need to re-sort, the appalling weather, the ‘short-cut’ over the Fell and through the swirling mists, the clutch-fix, the decision to take the motorway, running out of fuel through riding with the choke closed, the endless open-road stupid limits and speed-cameras back to Brum from Stoke-on-Trent once off the M6, and my eventual decision to complete the jaunt all the way back to Childrey, in what turned out to be as bad, wet, gusty, generally HORRIBLE weather as we’d experienced throughout the entire rest of the jaunt, all lead to a strange sort of feeling of anti-climax – not so much we’ve done it as we’ve FINISHED it!!

Through all the vicissitudes and difficulties, the generally rubbish weather, the slow, difficult roads, the mechanical problems, running out of fuel, we’ve made it, but the feeling is more of relief than elation, partly engendered by the rotten riding conditions of the final day, and the Norton’s misfire and clutch-slip all the way back from Birmingham. Instead of a grand-finale, the normally thoroughly enjoyable thrash over the Cotswolds has degenerated into more of the endurance feat, not the way I’d have liked things to finish.

The Norton 99 at Yew Tree House

But, I’ve covered around 300 miles that day, a record for me and the 99 in the 42 years we’ve been together outside of the very artificial circumstances of the 600 miles in 24 Hours of the late-1960s National Rallies, often with Neil as pillion / navigator, and whilst for sure I’m very grateful to sink into a large, hot bath, I’m surprisingly not significantly uncomfortable (just cold and wet, with coal-black hands from the dye from my otherwise excellent gloves), a tribute to the Norton’s excellent ergonomics and comfortable, confidence-inspiring handling and ride-quality.

Success – of a sort

At the end of the day, we’ve largely succeeded – the entire trip, door-to-door has amounted to 1814 miles (how’s that for an estimated 1800!!), less the 150 miles on the back of the breakdown truck. I’ve nursed the Norton through all its problems, and Neil has survived the discomfort of the FireBlade well outside of its normal operating conditions.

Low-Rent ‘Long Way Round’?

Neil and I have emerged from all these shenanigans still talking to one another, indeed even planning another motorcycling episode for next year, hopefully REALLY a Brace of Buffers on their Boyhood Brit Bikes this time. He’s been a real rock, unflappable, sympathetic without ever criticising or being patronising, and a great riding companion. I know EXACTLY who I want by my side on the next long ride! Sort of low-rent Ewan and Charlie, huh?

Now, the ‘Thank You’s’!!

So, that’s a huge thank you to Neil, of course.

And to the guys and gals at RGM for the urgently needed parts during the trip.

To Norvil for spares for the 99 in timely manner before the off.

To Mick and Angela Hemmings for parts, advice and unfailing good humour.

To Angus Lambey, garagist of Brodick, who melted and helped greatly including with replacement coils, albeit ultimately to no avail.

To Wayne Judge, the lovely breakdown truck driver.

To our B&B hosts in Tain, Ullapool, Brodick and Beckermet.

To our two Scottish NOC members who took the time and trouble to support us with their company.

To my old hotelier George and his lovely wife Margaret for repeat hospitality in Alloa.

To all those at Norton Day who dug hands into pockets to donate to the Gutjwa Appeal. 

To the Norton Owners Club for its support for the RRTT and the Gutjwa Appeal through publicity in the pages of Roadholder, the Club’s magazine, and setting up the credit/debit card facility on the website (www.nortonownersclub.org / merchandise / donate to Gutjwa).

To my buddy John Gray and his designers at M4 Design of Newbury who turned my rough sketch idea into something presentable as a logo.

To Neil Stafford (again) for taking that and producing T-Shirts for the ride, and the collection-envelopes for Norton Day.

To those all-too-few bike magazines who took up our tale and provided pre-publicity for the RRTT.

To all our kind supporters who’ve taken us to the £4,500 mark.

To my Bank Manager, who’s agreed to transfer money to South Africa free of the normal charges, bless ’im!!

To the many people who stopped and chatted to us, and helped make the days pleasant.

To the two ladies running the hardware store in Tarbert for the £1 fix for the clutch-lever problem and good craich.

To Stuart McMillan who designed and ran the RRTT website (www.rideroundthetop.org) – what a star!!

To Vodafone for a crackingly reliable mobile Broadband service – very impressive; wherever there’s mobile-phone reception, you’re on Broadband, and none too slow either, for a very reasonable £7.50 per month.

To the indominable Ted Simon, global motorcycling gypsy and writer, for early moral and financial support for the RRTT.

Ted (middle) with Lorraine and Wayne Hird in Tunisia some during their separate but there inter-twined motorcycles Odyssey

To Nick Sanders, the fastest man around the world on wheels, for HIS support.

Nick Sanders fitting a new tyre to his world-record beating in Istanbul

To author Sam Manicom and photographer Brigit for their willing shoulders to the wheel of publicity for the RRTT.

Sam the Man Manicom and faithful BMW R80GS

To New Zealander Des Molloy, author and fellow old-Brit bike rider on the rather more adventurous Silk Road for his encouragement.

Des (R) on his 1960s Panther 600 single with fellow Silk Roader Dick Hurriman (L) on his 19S Norton

To fellow (should be fellowess, of course) Kiwi Lorraine Hird, our inspiration for the RRTT, and a constant source of support – and ‘hi’ to her other half, Wayne, of course!!

And lastly to our other (much better!!) halves, our dear wives Val and Janet, who backed us to the hilt, despite personal reservations and natural concerns regarding our safety (and sanity!!)

Brickbats

A few brickbats perhaps – to the officious Caledonian Macbrayne loading erk (jerk?) at Armadale on Skye who threatened to make life difficult.

CallyMac to Lewis out of Ullapool

The Mishnish for dreadful rooms and a nice wee fly in my breakfast egg.

The Wheelgate in Sherburn-in-Elmet mobile-home B&B for a pretty rotten all-round experience really c/w dog-shit.

To Motorcycle Sport & Leisure magazine that promised support then failed to deliver – so much for Neil’s and my getting-on for century of combined subscription to the rag!!

To Real Classic mag, whose editor steadfastly refused us coverage, despite my personal friendship with Frank.

But as you can see, the plaudits vastly outnumber the raspberries.

Gutjwa School

So, hopefully together we’ll have made a real difference at Gutjwa School with the £4500 raised – Neil and I enjoyed ourselves in a masochistic sort of way, and would probably do it all over again if necessary. I’m already itching to spend more time up in the far north and west, next time in a camper-van, and yes, with a bike tacked onto the back of course!! It would be really rude not to ride again and again those Sutherland roads in particular but nice to be able to choose the right weather for it!!

Our Supporters

Support came mainly from personal friends, acquaintances and family, rather that the UK’s motorcyclists – I have to say, support from that direction has proved disappointingly slim, less than 25% of what we’ve collected overall in fact, and I just don’t know what would motivate the UK classic-bike scene to be more supportive. It’s a real shame, as biking is the link between Gutjwa and us, via Lorraine of Two Kiwi Bikers, and I had really hoped we could create a long-term swell of support from the motorcycling community.

The Gutjwa Appeal Continues

My commitment to Gutjwa School continues – I’m the UK representative of the Gutjwa Appeal Fund, so am starting to turn my mind to the next fund-raiser that will not, you will be relieved to hear, be targeted at the same group as was the RRTT. If any of you have any bright ideas for fund-raising to the world at large, or to a local community such as Wantage and District for example, please do let me know, especially if you know it’s worked well.

And now????

Whither hence? Well, the Dommy hasn’t even been looked at since I rode it home that Saturday 3 weeks ago – too much of Spring and early Summer went into her and the 1955 88 500cc Dominator I rebuilt to swap for the 850 Commando now cluttering up the garage. Now domestic chores call, the delights of peeling off flaking window and door-frame paintwork on the exterior of Yew Tree House before re-coating at least three times (boy, I just LOVE that job!!), sorting out the garden as it’s remodelled after the land-swap and associated new brick boundary wall we’ve indulged in with neighbouring Penn House to improve side-access and the approach to the house, and then turning our attention to redecorating the interior, some of which has survived the 18 years since we moved-in remarkably well, but everything has its day eventually!

The 99 and 1955 Norton Dominator 88

The Dommy WILL get some much-needed t.l.c. of course – first-up is to drain the tank, clean it out thoroughly and apply the sealant PROPERLY this time. I have a spare set of barrels going off for re-sleeving by RGM, with a face-grind first to accompany the cylinder-head’s re-facing as well, to hopefully sort out one of the oil-leaks for good. I’ll probably also get the crank balanced for a smoother power-delivery in future. And the gearbox, clutch and primary-drive will receive a good going-over, with the Norvil clutch push-rod-seal removed to revert to a more reliable clutch-centre fixing nut arrangement. The ignition system will receive a thorough review, and I’m very tempted to revert to a good ol’ fashioned magneto once more; the project 82 degree crank Slimline 500cc Domiracer will require electronic ignition anyway thanks to the asymmetric timing naturally involved, so it can inherit the 99’s new RGM-supplied set-up. But all that’s probably for the winter, with just the tank-seal, clean up, clutch adjust and misfire sort-out for now so she’ll be usable through what remains of yet another dismal-thus-far British summer.

The Domiracer has a tank, anyway!!

Then there’s the Commando Special to finish-off – it’s probably about 95% complete, with only the rear-brake master cylinder to sort out before she can be MoT’d and put on the road as my ‘every-day’ bike, but we all know these apparently simple little tasks nearly always take much longer than forecast, and I’m sure I’ll find other wee issues to sort out as well on the way thorough. This machine should be an intrinsically more reliable mount than the 99 and much more suited to modern road-conditions, motorways etc, and I’m hoping it’ll prove up to carting me over to Austria for the 2009 International Norton Owners Rally next summer, though there’s already some mutterings about trailering or even a van, preferably of the camper-variety!

The Commando Special as it once was, before Peter’s acquisition

Neil still has to complete the last task or two on the ES2, and we’ll hopefully get together on the Brace of Boyhood Brit Bikes in the next month or so, with an rdv somewhere in the Cotswolds for a day’s ride or two, to shake the Easy Two down, and confirm I’ve righted the 99’s immediate wrongs.

The next Buffers Outing?

That leaves us planning our next proper Nortons outing, with early speculation that a tour of the west coast of Ireland, maybe as far as up to the Antrim coast in the extreme north, would be a damned good plot, with the ladies very welcome to join us in a car. - leisurely days with perhaps only 100 miles or so under the tyres and plenty of time to take in the sites and sights, thank you, no more of this all-day bum-in-saddle stuff. I’ve been several times before on four-wheels, and know the roads, scenery and light-traffic conditions can make it a motorcycling paradise, not to mention the very biker-friendly attitude of the Irish, some lovely accommodation, great food and an ‘adequate’ supply of the black-stuff that come in pint glasses. Perfect then?! Well, there IS the weather …. oh, and the midges!!!! We’ll see, but the going will suit a pair of Featherbed Nortons to perfection, and Neil need not suffer the discomfort of the FireBlade’s rather extreme riding position next time! Maybe – Neil has still to be convinced, but I’ll duff him over a few times, so we’ll see.

Project work at Gutjwa School

And lastly, to Gutjwa – as you know, we’ll be passing some £4500 of YOUR money over to Lorraine Hird to spend on projects to improve conditions and facilities at the school, targeted very directly at the pupils rather than anyone else. The money will be spent locally on materials and labour, thereby also contributing significantly to the local economy. If you’d like to see specifically where your money is being spent, do drop in occasionally to www.gutjwa-appeal.org to get a sit-rep. Val and I already have in mind a holiday in South Africa, to include a visit to Gutjwa of course, and if any of you, our kind supporters, feel like doing the same, do please inform me and I’m certain I’ll be able to facilitate your visit, and provide the warm welcome I know you’ll get there.

Thank-You, Thank-You, Thank-You!!!

Thank you all for your moral and financial support – we had an adventure, we DID enjoy ourselves, certainly in terms of achieving a sense of accomplishment, and partook of some wonderful biking roads and traffic-free conditions through miles and miles of the best scenery by far in Great Britain – if you’ve not traced any of our steps previously, you owe it to yourselves to do so soon. I promise you’ll not be disappointed – we have some of the most wonderful scenery in the world right on our doorsteps, not even a ferry-ride away, and I’m continually amazed at how many of my fellow-citizens of these Septic Isles haven’t taken advantage of the fact. Go see!!!