Now that the dust has settled and we are all getting on with life after the MadMopeddy, (is there really life after the Challenge?) I would like to thank all of those who have made donations via Pete's and Ken's links on the blog, to those who took the trouble to visit us on the journey and make donations, to the people who have sent donations directly to me and/or the others, and to those who still have collecting tins in place. I am uncertain of the final totals yet as we are keeping the "tins open" for a few weeks yet.
However having said that the known number of contributors from RC land and from this board is still very small. If everybody posting on here sent £5 it would greatly increase the size of the fund. If every non-posting visitor, watcher or lurker were to contribute £5 then we would be able to contribute thousands of pounds to H4H.
The Mad Moped Challenge was intended as a fund raising event, and it gave pleasure and entertainment to everybody I believe, so can I ask you all to dig deep and show your appreciation of the effort of Team RC, and all of the other teams. Please be as generous as you can, and more generous than normal.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Monday, 4 April 2011
TeamSteve H4Htrip in Words
This just in from Steve:
TeamSteve left Derby on Tuesday morning and journyed Northwestward in what can only be described as "ordinary" weather. We passed a large military vehicle on the M6, and a tea stop at the motorway services saw it join us. SteveB was in the pasenger seat like a rat up a drainpipe, interviewing the driver as best he could through the Liverpool accent he found himself confronted with.
Moving along, we decided to lunch in Morcambe as this was the nearest we would be to the sea on this trip. We saw a lot of beach, but not much sea, then rolled along the route that we hoped to ride the next day but in reverse direction.
Arriving in Keswick, we booked into the YHA not long before the mopedders began to arrive. We had heard snippets of the problems with our Chinese mount, and now had a chance to join in the stripdown. The more pieces that were removed, the more it became obvious that the engine was not turning over.
Having removed the cylinder head, we could see evidence of something impacting the head, and then noticed that the "something" was a needle roller nestling at the end of the bore. Craig, our volunteer mechanic for the week, had a little difficulty removing the cylinder. The reason soon became obvious. There was a broken off chunk of piston ring sticking out. The little end had imploded, and we only found 3 rollers, so the verdict had to be that our moped was beyond any help without spare parts being obtained. TeamSteve was now in limbo, and relying on the interweb to come up with help.
We could either worry about it or go to the pub.... no contest. R K Ick joined us, and we explained the meaning of our RealClassic monikers to each other (I admitted that I'd never read his properly, he thought I was a country bumpkin). A fine meal and some fine beer, including Jenning's Sneck Lifter ( a good half hour was wasted discussing the meaning of this peculiar name) later, we welcomed a couple of the other riders to our table.
At some stage one of the guys, Tristan, casualy mentioned that he had a spare moped that we might wish to ride the next day. I seized the moment and grilled him further before shaking hands on the deal. And so we retired for the night leaving Ken in the safe hands of the C90 stunt team and some dodgy photos of their escapades.
Wendesday morning dawned grey and damp, so SteveB nominated me to ride the early stint. After breakfasting in style at the YHA restaurant, we fitted our Hippo Hands to the Honda Zoomer we were to ride, and I test rode it up the street and back. What a super little machine! Shortly after, I set off 3rd in line of our party of 5. The weather had closed in, so it was disappointimg to be in such a beautiful part of our country with no view to speak of. However, the elation of actualy being able to fulfill my part of the charity ride more than made up for it.
Before long, we arrived at the garden centre for our tea stop, there to be joined by Malcolm (Pathfinder) on his Enfield. The staff had reserved us two big tables in the middle of the cafe, and it seemed that most of us had a big sticky cake to help sustain us.
Malcolm helped us get through Lancaster, then we battled our way through the outskirts of Preston. An interesting interlude was provide by a female driver of a VW Beetle who took exception to Fiona's headlights on the red Zoomer. So excited was she, that she reverted to Anglo Saxon to converse with John, our esteemed leader. She seemeed to think that he was overweight and of doubtful parentage (with a few choice F words added) How she could deuce that from driving alongside him I don't know. Maybe she has a sister called Sarah who works in Morcambe.
A planned lunch stop at a good looking canalside pub went awry. The pub had closed for refurbishment 4 weeks previously. Backtracking to the main road, we were welcomed to the pub where we turned off to the other pub. Although they could only provide sandwiches, it was all very pleasant. Being around halfway on our trip, it was time for SteveB to ride the Zoomer and me to drive his van.
This gave me chance to leapfrog whenever possible, and get some action photos along the way. The final stop for the 'pedders was another traffic calming exercise (dropping in to a layby to allow the following convoy to pass). So I nipped on ahead to the Travelodge at Shrewsbury where I knew MadMike was waiting. The NVT was already there and being mollycoddled, which was nice to see. Ten minutes later, and the gang rolled in and introductions were made.
MadMike proceded to remove any valuable items from the Dead-Ped.. valve caps, plastic number plate screws etc etc, whilst Craig flashed his spanners at the Peugeot. This needed a new shock absorber, an item collected by Craig and our Ken earlier in the day. The Mighty Gusset and Hazel dropped by, then all too soon TeamSteve had to depart.
I really enjoyed my couple of days, made some new friends, put faces to internet names, and hopefully did some good.
Thanks go to everyone involved with the organisation of this ride and, hugely, to John Tristan and Fiona for trusting us with their baby.
In case you've not seen the photo's, they're here:
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/mrrealtreat/H4H%202011/?albumview=slideshow
TeamSteve left Derby on Tuesday morning and journyed Northwestward in what can only be described as "ordinary" weather. We passed a large military vehicle on the M6, and a tea stop at the motorway services saw it join us. SteveB was in the pasenger seat like a rat up a drainpipe, interviewing the driver as best he could through the Liverpool accent he found himself confronted with.
Moving along, we decided to lunch in Morcambe as this was the nearest we would be to the sea on this trip. We saw a lot of beach, but not much sea, then rolled along the route that we hoped to ride the next day but in reverse direction.
Arriving in Keswick, we booked into the YHA not long before the mopedders began to arrive. We had heard snippets of the problems with our Chinese mount, and now had a chance to join in the stripdown. The more pieces that were removed, the more it became obvious that the engine was not turning over.
Having removed the cylinder head, we could see evidence of something impacting the head, and then noticed that the "something" was a needle roller nestling at the end of the bore. Craig, our volunteer mechanic for the week, had a little difficulty removing the cylinder. The reason soon became obvious. There was a broken off chunk of piston ring sticking out. The little end had imploded, and we only found 3 rollers, so the verdict had to be that our moped was beyond any help without spare parts being obtained. TeamSteve was now in limbo, and relying on the interweb to come up with help.
We could either worry about it or go to the pub.... no contest. R K Ick joined us, and we explained the meaning of our RealClassic monikers to each other (I admitted that I'd never read his properly, he thought I was a country bumpkin). A fine meal and some fine beer, including Jenning's Sneck Lifter ( a good half hour was wasted discussing the meaning of this peculiar name) later, we welcomed a couple of the other riders to our table.
At some stage one of the guys, Tristan, casualy mentioned that he had a spare moped that we might wish to ride the next day. I seized the moment and grilled him further before shaking hands on the deal. And so we retired for the night leaving Ken in the safe hands of the C90 stunt team and some dodgy photos of their escapades.
Wendesday morning dawned grey and damp, so SteveB nominated me to ride the early stint. After breakfasting in style at the YHA restaurant, we fitted our Hippo Hands to the Honda Zoomer we were to ride, and I test rode it up the street and back. What a super little machine! Shortly after, I set off 3rd in line of our party of 5. The weather had closed in, so it was disappointimg to be in such a beautiful part of our country with no view to speak of. However, the elation of actualy being able to fulfill my part of the charity ride more than made up for it.
Before long, we arrived at the garden centre for our tea stop, there to be joined by Malcolm (Pathfinder) on his Enfield. The staff had reserved us two big tables in the middle of the cafe, and it seemed that most of us had a big sticky cake to help sustain us.
Malcolm helped us get through Lancaster, then we battled our way through the outskirts of Preston. An interesting interlude was provide by a female driver of a VW Beetle who took exception to Fiona's headlights on the red Zoomer. So excited was she, that she reverted to Anglo Saxon to converse with John, our esteemed leader. She seemeed to think that he was overweight and of doubtful parentage (with a few choice F words added) How she could deuce that from driving alongside him I don't know. Maybe she has a sister called Sarah who works in Morcambe.
A planned lunch stop at a good looking canalside pub went awry. The pub had closed for refurbishment 4 weeks previously. Backtracking to the main road, we were welcomed to the pub where we turned off to the other pub. Although they could only provide sandwiches, it was all very pleasant. Being around halfway on our trip, it was time for SteveB to ride the Zoomer and me to drive his van.
This gave me chance to leapfrog whenever possible, and get some action photos along the way. The final stop for the 'pedders was another traffic calming exercise (dropping in to a layby to allow the following convoy to pass). So I nipped on ahead to the Travelodge at Shrewsbury where I knew MadMike was waiting. The NVT was already there and being mollycoddled, which was nice to see. Ten minutes later, and the gang rolled in and introductions were made.
MadMike proceded to remove any valuable items from the Dead-Ped.. valve caps, plastic number plate screws etc etc, whilst Craig flashed his spanners at the Peugeot. This needed a new shock absorber, an item collected by Craig and our Ken earlier in the day. The Mighty Gusset and Hazel dropped by, then all too soon TeamSteve had to depart.
I really enjoyed my couple of days, made some new friends, put faces to internet names, and hopefully did some good.
Thanks go to everyone involved with the organisation of this ride and, hugely, to John Tristan and Fiona for trusting us with their baby.
In case you've not seen the photo's, they're here:
http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn104/mrrealtreat/H4H%202011/?albumview=slideshow
H4H. Home at last
This just in from MadMike:
Well the ride finished yesterday at Lands End as you all know.
Our brave little Mopeedything died but its spirit lives on.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Zoomer team I was able to ride on Thursday as planned. I rode from Shrewsbury to to Bristol where we met the NVT Easy Rider with the Real Norman Hyde as rider.
Ken the rode from Bristol to Glastonbury on the same Honda Zoomer thing.
Yesterday they rode Zoomers and so we travelled in the support vehicle.
There were a number of "stars" on the ride. The NVT was the real star. The Bristol Boys for their sheer excitement and energy, they went fishing on Loch Lomond in the nude, rode through drainage gulleys in grass verges, and one even rode into Lands End naked.....well apart from a toilet roll middle and some gaffer tape to protect the parts that all beers eventually reach, and Glen a young chap who rode the whole distance on his Cub and who really impressed everybody with his determination. Sa, John the organisers son, who only has a CBT and rode with L plates and dayglo pink hair and says he never wants to hear another ringy dingy ding two stroke again. Then there was Craig, a young man who started up a motorcycle repair and spares business about a year ago, who contributed a whole week of his time to be a travelling mechanic and van driver. He was very kind and generous to us all and if anybody in the North East wants bike repairs done he is your man.
I haven't forgotten our own team members incidentally so here goes: -
Pete Sykes who rode 2 days through the Highlands of Scotland. Ken Rawlinson who rode in Scotland and was unfortunate enough to be the rider who was on board when the brave little mopeddy had its termional heart attack. Steve Burton (SteveB) and Steve Adcock (Dohboy) who had their own adventures as you have seen on the way to Keswick. Both were faced with no riding after the "break down" but the generosity of the Honda Zoomer team, John, Tristran and Fiona, in loaning their second bike allowed them, me and Ken to ensure that our team rode every day except the very last one. Ken for all his help to everybody and especially for putting up with my leg pulling for "murdering" the mopeddy. I was only joking Ken........honest I was. Also Ken for his passion about the event and the sheer hard work that he has put into fund raising.......Thank you Ken.
Thanks also to Will, DaveC, Pathfinder and NVNL for coming to visit us during our adventure. Board members The Nighty Gusset (sorry that should be Mighty.......man fingers/keyboards etc etc) and Hazel. They not only came to visit us at Shrewsbury but kindly offered to take the mopeddy to their place in Telford to try and repair/ sell for charity/raffle or otherwise dispose of the remains. Gus can you take off some parts like piston etc so that I can send souvenirs to the team, please. He was proposing to sell raffle tickets for £1 each with the mopeddy as the first and only prize, with all proceeds to go to the H4H collection. So please order your raffle tickets.
Special thanks also must go to John and Cindy Morris who proposed the ride, reconnoitered the entire route, booked accommodation and navigated and rode the journey with us.
John Young also deserves our thanks for keeping us up to date with events......I was in the pub you see.
This was a truly Mad Challenge, which was accepted and undertaken by whole bunch of brave and adventurous people. Please, if you haven't donated, please do so. The people who rose to the Challenge deserve your thanks and that can best be given by making those donations.
It has been a real privilege to have taken part in this event and to have met such a wonderful, kind and generous bunch of people.
One last thing Ken has a limited number of Mad Moped Challenge lapel badges. They are £2 each please buy them from him in aid of H4H. John Young has bought 30 (he actually ordered 25 but I think he needs more......don't you John?)
Here endeth todays lesson as they say. I shall post more over the next day or so. Now it is time for curry and then just for a change I shall go to the pub.
Well the ride finished yesterday at Lands End as you all know.
Our brave little Mopeedything died but its spirit lives on.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Zoomer team I was able to ride on Thursday as planned. I rode from Shrewsbury to to Bristol where we met the NVT Easy Rider with the Real Norman Hyde as rider.
Ken the rode from Bristol to Glastonbury on the same Honda Zoomer thing.
Yesterday they rode Zoomers and so we travelled in the support vehicle.
There were a number of "stars" on the ride. The NVT was the real star. The Bristol Boys for their sheer excitement and energy, they went fishing on Loch Lomond in the nude, rode through drainage gulleys in grass verges, and one even rode into Lands End naked.....well apart from a toilet roll middle and some gaffer tape to protect the parts that all beers eventually reach, and Glen a young chap who rode the whole distance on his Cub and who really impressed everybody with his determination. Sa, John the organisers son, who only has a CBT and rode with L plates and dayglo pink hair and says he never wants to hear another ringy dingy ding two stroke again. Then there was Craig, a young man who started up a motorcycle repair and spares business about a year ago, who contributed a whole week of his time to be a travelling mechanic and van driver. He was very kind and generous to us all and if anybody in the North East wants bike repairs done he is your man.
I haven't forgotten our own team members incidentally so here goes: -
Pete Sykes who rode 2 days through the Highlands of Scotland. Ken Rawlinson who rode in Scotland and was unfortunate enough to be the rider who was on board when the brave little mopeddy had its termional heart attack. Steve Burton (SteveB) and Steve Adcock (Dohboy) who had their own adventures as you have seen on the way to Keswick. Both were faced with no riding after the "break down" but the generosity of the Honda Zoomer team, John, Tristran and Fiona, in loaning their second bike allowed them, me and Ken to ensure that our team rode every day except the very last one. Ken for all his help to everybody and especially for putting up with my leg pulling for "murdering" the mopeddy. I was only joking Ken........honest I was. Also Ken for his passion about the event and the sheer hard work that he has put into fund raising.......Thank you Ken.
Thanks also to Will, DaveC, Pathfinder and NVNL for coming to visit us during our adventure. Board members The Nighty Gusset (sorry that should be Mighty.......man fingers/keyboards etc etc) and Hazel. They not only came to visit us at Shrewsbury but kindly offered to take the mopeddy to their place in Telford to try and repair/ sell for charity/raffle or otherwise dispose of the remains. Gus can you take off some parts like piston etc so that I can send souvenirs to the team, please. He was proposing to sell raffle tickets for £1 each with the mopeddy as the first and only prize, with all proceeds to go to the H4H collection. So please order your raffle tickets.
Special thanks also must go to John and Cindy Morris who proposed the ride, reconnoitered the entire route, booked accommodation and navigated and rode the journey with us.
John Young also deserves our thanks for keeping us up to date with events......I was in the pub you see.
This was a truly Mad Challenge, which was accepted and undertaken by whole bunch of brave and adventurous people. Please, if you haven't donated, please do so. The people who rose to the Challenge deserve your thanks and that can best be given by making those donations.
It has been a real privilege to have taken part in this event and to have met such a wonderful, kind and generous bunch of people.
One last thing Ken has a limited number of Mad Moped Challenge lapel badges. They are £2 each please buy them from him in aid of H4H. John Young has bought 30 (he actually ordered 25 but I think he needs more......don't you John?)
Here endeth todays lesson as they say. I shall post more over the next day or so. Now it is time for curry and then just for a change I shall go to the pub.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
The TR3OC NVT...
With the unfortunate demise of the RealClassic Moped (hopefully you'll be able to get another machine by tonight), the TR3OC NVT is now the sole remaining "British" interest in this run.
If you would like to follow this little bikes amazing adventures day by day , you can do so on by visiting :
http://tr3oc.co.uk/?page_id=526
If you would like to follow this little bikes amazing adventures day by day , you can do so on by visiting :
http://tr3oc.co.uk/?page_id=526
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Obituary
It is with great sadness that I must inform the great RC Family that our brave little mopeddy suffered a terminal case of a heart attack to its gudgeony area today. Lots of little rollers have infected the internal workings of its gallant little engine and caused terminal damage.
Two and a half days of heavy load and flat out running just proved too much for the poor little thing.....RIP Mopeddy.
Now if anybody can lend us a moped or a stepthrough which could be available say tomorrow night in Shrewsbury we could carry on. This is a plea from the heart after much hard work by the riders over the last couple of days. It would be a shame not to be able to arrive at the finish line. So can anybody lend the RC team a bike. There must be one available out there somewhere. Contact MadMike via the RealClassic.co.uk message board...
Two and a half days of heavy load and flat out running just proved too much for the poor little thing.....RIP Mopeddy.
Now if anybody can lend us a moped or a stepthrough which could be available say tomorrow night in Shrewsbury we could carry on. This is a plea from the heart after much hard work by the riders over the last couple of days. It would be a shame not to be able to arrive at the finish line. So can anybody lend the RC team a bike. There must be one available out there somewhere. Contact MadMike via the RealClassic.co.uk message board...
Day One and Two: From the Saddle
[This just in from Pete]
Days one and two
I was there.
The challenge started for Ken at 5:30 on Saturday as the car left Kent. For the bike it started 4 hrs later as it left Leicester and for me about 2:30 as I was picked up in Edinburgh. Its still 300 miles to JoG and the motorway runs out past Perth. The car arrived in Wick about 8:30 and the van with the bikes a couple of hours later. We had a long ride the next day and an early start so we sat in the bar for an hour or two. The lads from Bristol went out on the town – but as the town was Wick they were back before the clocks changed.
The following morning saw the bikes getting assembled in the car park at JoG. The tardis ( what else can you call it) had 4 running C90s and a spare one in it plus a settee, tents and a small boat. John Morris’s van had our mighty machine two 100 cc scooters and another Cub. Add the NVT Easy Rider and a couple of Honda Zoomers and you have the fleet. A few wheelies round the carpark, photos by the harbour with either Orkney or the derelict JoG hotel in the background followed by some general faffing about later and we were ready for the off. John decreed that the big scooters go first, the Cubs second and the two 50cc weedy bikes last, followed by the van. A couple minute later the weedy bikes zoomed off figuring that setting off first and being overtaken was preferable to waiting in the cold drizzle to be last.
The mighty machine is a JianLing Skywing 50cc moped. Its been modified by Mike with the addition of Hippo hands, a back pack full of tools on the pillion, Norton footrests and Norton badges. We had already removed the back pack so it could travel in the van. It wasn’t just to reduce weight as Ken was sitting on the pillion seat in order to fit his legs on the bike. More bits were taken off a time went by, The bike was made in December 2002 according to the plate on the headstock. It was acquired in Feb 2011 fresh from the crate and Mike said he’d run it in. As we set off I realised that 10% of its mileage had been put on it whizzing round the car park. 10km on the clock as we left. Its has a strange transmission: a centrifugal clutch by the engine drives a gearbox on the back wheel via a rubber band. A lever on the rear hub engages drive (not always reliably) If it has a variator, I never saw it or detected it doing much. Direct lighting means no battery, and no lights either to be honest. The photons kind of limp out the headlight and fall to the floor a few inches in front of the wheel. It really is rather basic.
I reckoned having seen the fleet I’d be slowest but was soon proved wrong as I whizzed past the Easy Rider. I ignored the fuel stop a few miles later as the tank was already full and kept pressing on. Caithness is quite flat, quite bleak really so the bike was willing to get to a heady indicated 50 km/h on the flat. Headwinds knocked that down a bit. The Easy Rider was maxing out at 20 imperial mph but he later found a second gear he didn’t know he had and things improved. At one point a small deep read weasel ran out in front of me, saw the bike, ran alongside me for a few seconds and back into the verge. Yes that’s how fast it was.
About 90 minutes later the bike came to a halt. Started again briefly and stopped within ½ mile. I waited for the van. The rest of the fleet sailed past and I got refuelled. We were a bit worried about that as it’s a 4 litre tank and we were doing under 40 miles to a tank. The locking fuel filler was also a problem as we had no key, but as it didn’t work that wasn’t (yet) a real issue.
Riding position is variable. I experimented with conventional, feet on the pegs. OK but I find I’m sitting on the metal bar between the saddle and pillion seat. Slide forward and rest the back of calves on the pegs. OK but the bike, who’s stability is questionable at the best of times, feels worse. Heels hooked on the pillion pegs by the back axle is 2mph quicker but my head is so far forward I can’t see the mirrors and when the traffic behind is twice your speed that’s important. Stability goes too.
The first coffee stop was at the Bay Owl Inn near Dunbeath. Not only did they organise a photographer but they had also done a bit of fund raising and handed over £650. Amazingly generous.
Onwards to Evanton and the Store House restaurant. Now I may have said Caithness is flat. Well Sutherland isn’t and the coast road has 13% hills and hairpins. The mighty machine slowed to 20 kph uphill. About the same as the Easy Rider’s 13mph.
After lunch, Ken took over for the ride past Beauly to Drumnadrochit and down to Fort Augustus. Plenty of ups and steep downs and from the van we could see he was really wishing he was on a real Norton. In Drumnadrochit we removed the Hippo hands. Ken wasn’t keen on them and I was happier without them so they are in the van too.
Into Fort Augustus and the C90 boys from Bristol loaded up the bikes with tents, wood for a fire, food to cook on it, and small inflatable boat to go fishing with the next morning. They left the settee in the van.
The rest of us went to the pub but managed to spend so long drinking that the pubs had stopped doing food. Never mind, Beer’s quite nutritious isn’t it.
Day two and its gloomy and overcast. John is winding us up about the awesome Glencoe hills (They are awesome, but the road isn’t so bad) Off to Fort William and the bike is getting more lively. Running in or wearing out, your guess is as good as mine. More fund raising in McDonalds in Fort Bill (I would have gone to Nevisport myself but I’m not running this) and off to Glencoe. The NVT guys are just blasting on. No stops apart from rider changes. I’d been with them for the Great Glen but didn’t see them again until the end of the day. The bile climbs outof GlenCoe and heady 40 - 45kph or 25 -27 mph to you. Stops at The Kinghouse and at the Green Welly then Ken took over again. The bike’s now quicker and the road down to Loch Lomond is a good one. The sun is out too. Past Tarbert and its wider busier and faster, so not so much fun on a moped.
We have also worked out that although the tank is 4l. It only takes 2l before the petrol filler spurts so although we are filling up every 60 km, its never more than 2l and usually less ( yes we have bought a jug) We have however broken the locking fuel cap as the dammed thing worked and locked. Nothing a strap wrench can’t open though. The locking bit is now lying by the side of the road and the cap reassembled with the assistance of a small hammer
The last stop was at Luss and that’s where we saw the bike dribbling petrol. The Norton footrests are bolted to the tank mounts and its created a leak where the mount is welded to the tank. Gummed up at present but no doubts things will develop.
I hopped off home on the train earlier this evening leaving Ken to ride tomorrow and Mike, Steve, Steve and Ron to complete the trip. I’ve done 200 miles on a moped in the last two days. My next ride will be a bit quicker.
I hear after Mike has ridden the bike home from Penzance that it'll be shown various places and flogged sometime later. If you can get a go on it, do so. Its fun .... in moderation.
I’ll post some pictures soon. Give me a chance to download the camera.
Meanwhile you know why we are doing this. Click on of the links at the top of the page
Days one and two
I was there.
The challenge started for Ken at 5:30 on Saturday as the car left Kent. For the bike it started 4 hrs later as it left Leicester and for me about 2:30 as I was picked up in Edinburgh. Its still 300 miles to JoG and the motorway runs out past Perth. The car arrived in Wick about 8:30 and the van with the bikes a couple of hours later. We had a long ride the next day and an early start so we sat in the bar for an hour or two. The lads from Bristol went out on the town – but as the town was Wick they were back before the clocks changed.
The following morning saw the bikes getting assembled in the car park at JoG. The tardis ( what else can you call it) had 4 running C90s and a spare one in it plus a settee, tents and a small boat. John Morris’s van had our mighty machine two 100 cc scooters and another Cub. Add the NVT Easy Rider and a couple of Honda Zoomers and you have the fleet. A few wheelies round the carpark, photos by the harbour with either Orkney or the derelict JoG hotel in the background followed by some general faffing about later and we were ready for the off. John decreed that the big scooters go first, the Cubs second and the two 50cc weedy bikes last, followed by the van. A couple minute later the weedy bikes zoomed off figuring that setting off first and being overtaken was preferable to waiting in the cold drizzle to be last.
The mighty machine is a JianLing Skywing 50cc moped. Its been modified by Mike with the addition of Hippo hands, a back pack full of tools on the pillion, Norton footrests and Norton badges. We had already removed the back pack so it could travel in the van. It wasn’t just to reduce weight as Ken was sitting on the pillion seat in order to fit his legs on the bike. More bits were taken off a time went by, The bike was made in December 2002 according to the plate on the headstock. It was acquired in Feb 2011 fresh from the crate and Mike said he’d run it in. As we set off I realised that 10% of its mileage had been put on it whizzing round the car park. 10km on the clock as we left. Its has a strange transmission: a centrifugal clutch by the engine drives a gearbox on the back wheel via a rubber band. A lever on the rear hub engages drive (not always reliably) If it has a variator, I never saw it or detected it doing much. Direct lighting means no battery, and no lights either to be honest. The photons kind of limp out the headlight and fall to the floor a few inches in front of the wheel. It really is rather basic.
I reckoned having seen the fleet I’d be slowest but was soon proved wrong as I whizzed past the Easy Rider. I ignored the fuel stop a few miles later as the tank was already full and kept pressing on. Caithness is quite flat, quite bleak really so the bike was willing to get to a heady indicated 50 km/h on the flat. Headwinds knocked that down a bit. The Easy Rider was maxing out at 20 imperial mph but he later found a second gear he didn’t know he had and things improved. At one point a small deep read weasel ran out in front of me, saw the bike, ran alongside me for a few seconds and back into the verge. Yes that’s how fast it was.
About 90 minutes later the bike came to a halt. Started again briefly and stopped within ½ mile. I waited for the van. The rest of the fleet sailed past and I got refuelled. We were a bit worried about that as it’s a 4 litre tank and we were doing under 40 miles to a tank. The locking fuel filler was also a problem as we had no key, but as it didn’t work that wasn’t (yet) a real issue.
Riding position is variable. I experimented with conventional, feet on the pegs. OK but I find I’m sitting on the metal bar between the saddle and pillion seat. Slide forward and rest the back of calves on the pegs. OK but the bike, who’s stability is questionable at the best of times, feels worse. Heels hooked on the pillion pegs by the back axle is 2mph quicker but my head is so far forward I can’t see the mirrors and when the traffic behind is twice your speed that’s important. Stability goes too.
The first coffee stop was at the Bay Owl Inn near Dunbeath. Not only did they organise a photographer but they had also done a bit of fund raising and handed over £650. Amazingly generous.
Onwards to Evanton and the Store House restaurant. Now I may have said Caithness is flat. Well Sutherland isn’t and the coast road has 13% hills and hairpins. The mighty machine slowed to 20 kph uphill. About the same as the Easy Rider’s 13mph.
After lunch, Ken took over for the ride past Beauly to Drumnadrochit and down to Fort Augustus. Plenty of ups and steep downs and from the van we could see he was really wishing he was on a real Norton. In Drumnadrochit we removed the Hippo hands. Ken wasn’t keen on them and I was happier without them so they are in the van too.
Into Fort Augustus and the C90 boys from Bristol loaded up the bikes with tents, wood for a fire, food to cook on it, and small inflatable boat to go fishing with the next morning. They left the settee in the van.
The rest of us went to the pub but managed to spend so long drinking that the pubs had stopped doing food. Never mind, Beer’s quite nutritious isn’t it.
Day two and its gloomy and overcast. John is winding us up about the awesome Glencoe hills (They are awesome, but the road isn’t so bad) Off to Fort William and the bike is getting more lively. Running in or wearing out, your guess is as good as mine. More fund raising in McDonalds in Fort Bill (I would have gone to Nevisport myself but I’m not running this) and off to Glencoe. The NVT guys are just blasting on. No stops apart from rider changes. I’d been with them for the Great Glen but didn’t see them again until the end of the day. The bile climbs outof GlenCoe and heady 40 - 45kph or 25 -27 mph to you. Stops at The Kinghouse and at the Green Welly then Ken took over again. The bike’s now quicker and the road down to Loch Lomond is a good one. The sun is out too. Past Tarbert and its wider busier and faster, so not so much fun on a moped.
We have also worked out that although the tank is 4l. It only takes 2l before the petrol filler spurts so although we are filling up every 60 km, its never more than 2l and usually less ( yes we have bought a jug) We have however broken the locking fuel cap as the dammed thing worked and locked. Nothing a strap wrench can’t open though. The locking bit is now lying by the side of the road and the cap reassembled with the assistance of a small hammer
The last stop was at Luss and that’s where we saw the bike dribbling petrol. The Norton footrests are bolted to the tank mounts and its created a leak where the mount is welded to the tank. Gummed up at present but no doubts things will develop.
I hopped off home on the train earlier this evening leaving Ken to ride tomorrow and Mike, Steve, Steve and Ron to complete the trip. I’ve done 200 miles on a moped in the last two days. My next ride will be a bit quicker.
I hear after Mike has ridden the bike home from Penzance that it'll be shown various places and flogged sometime later. If you can get a go on it, do so. Its fun .... in moderation.
I’ll post some pictures soon. Give me a chance to download the camera.
Meanwhile you know why we are doing this. Click on of the links at the top of the page
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