- Sun Jul 05, 2015 9:16 am
#5276
[center]
A Tale Of Three Enfields (including) A bodge too far!
The first, it was a Woodsman,
it brought back all the fun,
The second was a bullet,
they say 'Made like a gun',
the third, it was much older,
A veritable liner,
English made in fifty nine,
and named Meteor Minor
Well today (no start again, been awake two days) YESTERDAY, Andy had started on his journey from Bristol as planned with the bike trailer. I hadn't meant to 'put' on Andy quite like this, but Chas Mortimer had failed to respond to a second request for a quote, and another company wanted £495 plus VAT each way which worked out to just under £1200. In desperation I had rang Andy said I would rather pay a friend half that amount, than spend all that on bike transport. Meanwhile Kevin took me to see Chris, the Royal Enfield Mechanic who had mentioned that Tornado was in thousands of bits in the workshop and so off we went to see.
Having surprised me by saying that he had never ridden an RE twin, Chris jumped at the offer of a ride around the block.
Having returned, and almost without looking, Chris reached down and adjusted the throttle stop screw on the Amal Monobloc. At least I knew where that was now!
Chris informed me that the bike was a joy to ride, and that he was very impressed, But then as so often happens, the double edged sword popped it's blade up as Chris said, "Well that's the good news, you'd better hear the bad.
He did, seriously offer me a chair which I declined as we walked over to Tornado, who seemed to have spread out to some mess tins as well as much of the bench.
Avid scaliens (those of you who actually read my postings), will be aware that Tornado has had a few problems with what I had diagnosed as a sticking inlet valve and at last, something worrying had been uncovered.
Although the piston had coked up to the extent that the dimples in it were unable to be seen, Chris had done a nice job of cleaning it all up, but this was nothing compared to the horror that he was to show me next...
The lighter silver coloured area around the outside is what is left of the inlet valve chamber. ALL that grey uneven stuff in the centre is one of those 'chemical metal' type resins. POOR TORNADO! Somebody had done what can almost only be described as a masterpiece bodge, which had worked for two years, but why had they gone to so much trouble instead of replacing the head?
The answer was about to come via some guesswork and a telephone call.
"Well," said Chris, "a barrel is about £150 and a head is a bit more intricate, so we are probably looking at £200 here."
"OK, well I will just have spend that then." I replied naively.
Seeing that I am off to France in the evening for at least a couple of months, we need to get a price sorted so that I can leave Chris some money to pay for the part and work. He rings up our hosts, and after hanging up gives me the bad news in the form of £512-00! I managed to verbally stick a four letter word in between 'how' and 'much' which for simplicity, we will just abbreviate to 'HFM'?
Always quick with the options, Chris asks very carefully, "Do you still wish to keep the bike?"
Although there was no way that I would sell Tornado, this did catch me offguard as it reminded me that the reason for the trip to France was twofold. The first part was the joyous occasion of taking Kevin, my 1959 Meteor Minor out to the house there, but this was tinged with the sadness that as Kevin arrived, Thunderbolt, my first and greatly loved Woodsman EFI would be departing from my ownership, due to reasons beyond my control. At least he would be going to a good home, Andy's!
Anyway, with my debit card still reeling from a hard spanking that it had just received from Chris's card reader, I thanked him for looking after Tornado and rode Kevin back towards base.
I made a brief stop to paint an art deco 'Craven A' clock face for a friend before my mobile startled me. It was Andy saying that he was 'outside'. Well he might be but my reply of, "I am just leaving Tunbridge Wells" probably gave him the intended impression that I was most certainly not 'inside'.I had assumed (wrongly of course, that by working backwards, I could guess his arrival time. Ferry, 23:59, and hour before to get booked in, 22:59, 90 minutes to an hour to get there, 20:59. The fact that he arrived at four in the afternoon had totally amazed me!
Fifteen minutes later I arrived back and soon, for the second time in a week, Kevin was popped on the trailer and we made our way to Dover. Calais had been shut until the day before due to the French on strike, but we were booked to Dunkirk with DFDS. Wether people had been put off booking a ferry around this time, or just due to luck, there was only a short wait at the checking place and the official informed us that he had got us onto the earlier ferry! We made our way around the corner and only waited for 15-20 minutes before boarding, whilst an interested Gentleman took Kevin's mugshot whilst others just looked on with interest.
Now for those of you thinking of taking your bike on a ferry, this is how it's secured.
Some companies will do it for you but... It's your bike, YOU make sure it's upright and tightened down.
The straps and cushions will be adjacent to the bike parking. Sometimes they can be hard to undo at the far end, and the owner of this bike needed help from Andy to get it to release.
Of course, we were sorted with the trailer.
I seem to have that 'Enfield' grin again!
Having poked down a steak & chips each, we happily started off again from Dunkirk. I was doing the directions and fifteen minutes later, we entered Belgium. In what can only be called a defensive manoeuvre, we ended up heading back towards Dunkirk, on a new quest for the correct road. (It was about 4am by this time).
After a very long run (Even longer for Andy, who had come up from Bristol in the first place), we made it to Nods. This would be the only time that I would see Kevin and Thunderbolt together, so I took a photo or two.
Here, Andy had just taken Thunderbolt down the road and also the farm track. He seemed very pleased.
Soon, the bike positions were reversed with Kevin taking up residence, whilst Thunderbolt was put on the trailer.
Trying to remain cheerful, I went around wiping the dust off Thunderbolt as I had so many times in the past, but this was to be the last time. As I said to Andy, "I can't have him going along not looking his best!", But to be honest, I was finding it rather hard to let go.
The plan had been that Andy would spend a few hours sleeping before setting off back to Bristol, but he changed his mind. Well, if you had been waiting for one particular bike for several months and had finally got it on your trailer, wouldn't you want to go just incase the seller had a last minute change of heart? Andy knew that I didn't want to sell Thunderbolt, so with a 'Thanks' and a beep of the horn, what had been a very happy chapter in my life came to a close, but there again, just behind me, another chapter was just beginning!
I think it all ended up ok. Sometimes things happen and I really will miss Thunderbolt, but I have Kevin and Tornado, and everything will soon be rosy again. But please don't talk to me for an hour or two, and I won't be answering the phone either! I just lost a member of my 'family' and I need a little time...
So it's back to two tanks to feed, neither of which are for sale or ever likely to be in my lifetime.
Thanks for making this possible Andy mate, (CGT 535). Let me know you both got back ok.
Tabellarius de verbis ostensor gaudium
A Tale Of Three Enfields (including) A bodge too far!
The first, it was a Woodsman,
it brought back all the fun,
The second was a bullet,
they say 'Made like a gun',
the third, it was much older,
A veritable liner,
English made in fifty nine,
and named Meteor Minor
Well today (no start again, been awake two days) YESTERDAY, Andy had started on his journey from Bristol as planned with the bike trailer. I hadn't meant to 'put' on Andy quite like this, but Chas Mortimer had failed to respond to a second request for a quote, and another company wanted £495 plus VAT each way which worked out to just under £1200. In desperation I had rang Andy said I would rather pay a friend half that amount, than spend all that on bike transport. Meanwhile Kevin took me to see Chris, the Royal Enfield Mechanic who had mentioned that Tornado was in thousands of bits in the workshop and so off we went to see.
Having surprised me by saying that he had never ridden an RE twin, Chris jumped at the offer of a ride around the block.
Having returned, and almost without looking, Chris reached down and adjusted the throttle stop screw on the Amal Monobloc. At least I knew where that was now!
Chris informed me that the bike was a joy to ride, and that he was very impressed, But then as so often happens, the double edged sword popped it's blade up as Chris said, "Well that's the good news, you'd better hear the bad.
He did, seriously offer me a chair which I declined as we walked over to Tornado, who seemed to have spread out to some mess tins as well as much of the bench.
Avid scaliens (those of you who actually read my postings), will be aware that Tornado has had a few problems with what I had diagnosed as a sticking inlet valve and at last, something worrying had been uncovered.
Although the piston had coked up to the extent that the dimples in it were unable to be seen, Chris had done a nice job of cleaning it all up, but this was nothing compared to the horror that he was to show me next...
The lighter silver coloured area around the outside is what is left of the inlet valve chamber. ALL that grey uneven stuff in the centre is one of those 'chemical metal' type resins. POOR TORNADO! Somebody had done what can almost only be described as a masterpiece bodge, which had worked for two years, but why had they gone to so much trouble instead of replacing the head?
The answer was about to come via some guesswork and a telephone call.
"Well," said Chris, "a barrel is about £150 and a head is a bit more intricate, so we are probably looking at £200 here."
"OK, well I will just have spend that then." I replied naively.
Seeing that I am off to France in the evening for at least a couple of months, we need to get a price sorted so that I can leave Chris some money to pay for the part and work. He rings up our hosts, and after hanging up gives me the bad news in the form of £512-00! I managed to verbally stick a four letter word in between 'how' and 'much' which for simplicity, we will just abbreviate to 'HFM'?
Always quick with the options, Chris asks very carefully, "Do you still wish to keep the bike?"
Although there was no way that I would sell Tornado, this did catch me offguard as it reminded me that the reason for the trip to France was twofold. The first part was the joyous occasion of taking Kevin, my 1959 Meteor Minor out to the house there, but this was tinged with the sadness that as Kevin arrived, Thunderbolt, my first and greatly loved Woodsman EFI would be departing from my ownership, due to reasons beyond my control. At least he would be going to a good home, Andy's!
Anyway, with my debit card still reeling from a hard spanking that it had just received from Chris's card reader, I thanked him for looking after Tornado and rode Kevin back towards base.
I made a brief stop to paint an art deco 'Craven A' clock face for a friend before my mobile startled me. It was Andy saying that he was 'outside'. Well he might be but my reply of, "I am just leaving Tunbridge Wells" probably gave him the intended impression that I was most certainly not 'inside'.I had assumed (wrongly of course, that by working backwards, I could guess his arrival time. Ferry, 23:59, and hour before to get booked in, 22:59, 90 minutes to an hour to get there, 20:59. The fact that he arrived at four in the afternoon had totally amazed me!
Fifteen minutes later I arrived back and soon, for the second time in a week, Kevin was popped on the trailer and we made our way to Dover. Calais had been shut until the day before due to the French on strike, but we were booked to Dunkirk with DFDS. Wether people had been put off booking a ferry around this time, or just due to luck, there was only a short wait at the checking place and the official informed us that he had got us onto the earlier ferry! We made our way around the corner and only waited for 15-20 minutes before boarding, whilst an interested Gentleman took Kevin's mugshot whilst others just looked on with interest.
Now for those of you thinking of taking your bike on a ferry, this is how it's secured.
Some companies will do it for you but... It's your bike, YOU make sure it's upright and tightened down.
The straps and cushions will be adjacent to the bike parking. Sometimes they can be hard to undo at the far end, and the owner of this bike needed help from Andy to get it to release.
Of course, we were sorted with the trailer.
I seem to have that 'Enfield' grin again!
Having poked down a steak & chips each, we happily started off again from Dunkirk. I was doing the directions and fifteen minutes later, we entered Belgium. In what can only be called a defensive manoeuvre, we ended up heading back towards Dunkirk, on a new quest for the correct road. (It was about 4am by this time).
After a very long run (Even longer for Andy, who had come up from Bristol in the first place), we made it to Nods. This would be the only time that I would see Kevin and Thunderbolt together, so I took a photo or two.
Here, Andy had just taken Thunderbolt down the road and also the farm track. He seemed very pleased.
Soon, the bike positions were reversed with Kevin taking up residence, whilst Thunderbolt was put on the trailer.
Trying to remain cheerful, I went around wiping the dust off Thunderbolt as I had so many times in the past, but this was to be the last time. As I said to Andy, "I can't have him going along not looking his best!", But to be honest, I was finding it rather hard to let go.
The plan had been that Andy would spend a few hours sleeping before setting off back to Bristol, but he changed his mind. Well, if you had been waiting for one particular bike for several months and had finally got it on your trailer, wouldn't you want to go just incase the seller had a last minute change of heart? Andy knew that I didn't want to sell Thunderbolt, so with a 'Thanks' and a beep of the horn, what had been a very happy chapter in my life came to a close, but there again, just behind me, another chapter was just beginning!
I think it all ended up ok. Sometimes things happen and I really will miss Thunderbolt, but I have Kevin and Tornado, and everything will soon be rosy again. But please don't talk to me for an hour or two, and I won't be answering the phone either! I just lost a member of my 'family' and I need a little time...
So it's back to two tanks to feed, neither of which are for sale or ever likely to be in my lifetime.
Thanks for making this possible Andy mate, (CGT 535). Let me know you both got back ok.
Tabellarius de verbis ostensor gaudium
REOC 15084
Tabellarius de verbis. Ostensor gaudium
Tabellarius de verbis. Ostensor gaudium
