Early February 2007

41 members were confirmed. 

360 car and bike entries overall.  

Packed, absolutely packed to the fences. Papers said there were 10,000 spectators. 

 

42 riders on the track, 41 of us, and one lone rider who spoke to P Du Toit and wangled his way onto the track with us.
 

He was racing a car and just happened to have his historic bike there?
 

 

Day started off spitting with rain. Most if not all of us got up around 3.30 to 4.30am.
 

Hassles getting into the track because of the stewards arriving late, but no problems.
 

Practise for us was delayed for an hour due to the wet conditions.

 

We eventually got out around 8.30am. The track was still slippery and a few had a ‘moment’ on some of the corners.
 

 

9.30am was our first outing. A rumour that went around was the meeting was running 30-minutes late, this turned out to be rubbish. But the result of this was to delay everyone believing there was plenty of time, there wasn’t.
 

About 20 got to the pre-race paddock in time. Only 20 odd bikes got out, the late comers had to wait for one or two laps. Some weren’t happy chappies. Dave Petersen had a little moment when his bike went down at the 180, little damage and Dave was up again and back into the melee within 30-seconds.
 

 

Second outing at 12.40 was much better, track still a bit slippery due to the rubber laid down by the cars, but only one off.
 

J.B slid off at the kink just before the pit exit and had to wait for the end of the demo.
 

 

The suggestion to everybody to print out the timetable prior to the meeting went unheard. I heard members asking more than once, ‘what time are we out?’
 

 

Overall we had a few mishaps.
 

The electric rollers gave up. I’ll get back to you on the reason why.
 

JT had his engine die and decided to park it for the rest of the meeting.
 

My clutch was slipping when giving it stick, but otherwise went ok.
 

Ian Groat has a bit of panel beating to do.
 

J.B also has some fibre-glassing work.
 

I heard of a few other smallish engine problems and one suspension hassle.
 

 

Not one complaint. So I suppose it can be construed that we had a good time?
 

I certainly did!
 

 The digital Canon 830i camera gave up the ghost prior to the event. It works as a normal camera but wouldn’t work with an external race camera fitted. Changed two different race cams, power supplies, batteries to no avail.
 

 

I had a camera on my helmet for the second outing. I’ve got 25-minutes of good track time before editing using our companies digital recorder, the size of a packet of 30-cigarettes.
 

The Canon digital camcorder was carried around by one of our gophers and he took around 40-minutes worth of pit action, and views from the side of the track.
 

As soon as I get time I will edit and compile a DVD again.
 

Should be enough to make up a full hours entertainment?
 

 

A few thankyou’s.
 

Dave Petersen for riding with us and doing some filming of the HMG. This should appear on Two Wheels in the near future.
 

Rodney Grey for coming up from Durban with his 1100 chain drive Yamaha. The one he won so many championships with.
 

Jimmy Whyte for coming down from Zimbabwe with his 250 Ducati.
 

Alan Harris riding the Velocette.
 

And Jimmy Guthrie up from Durban who rode the 350 Manx.
 

 

Not forgetting Castrol who gave us some free-bees.
 

 

If Mr Gray passed you, apart from the bikes engine capacity, don’t be too concerned, Rodney was a past champion in the following classes.
 

1974. SA Racing Motorcycle Championship, champion.
 

1975. SA Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

1978. SA F1000 Racing Motorcycle Championship, champion.

1982. SA Formula One champion.

1983. SA Formula One champion.

1983. SA Superbike Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

1984. SA Superbike Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

 

I hope I didn’t miss anything out?

 

Dave Petersen is also a past champion,

1980. SA Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

1982. SA 750 Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

1982. SA 560 Production Motorcycle Championship, champion.

 

I hope I didn’t miss anything out Dave?

 

With regard to the crap that happened at the gate in the morning, in future I understand all meetings will not take cash at the gates. You have to book via Computicket.

 

Should be in April. At Midvaal.

Will post the confirmed dates as soon as I get it.

 

I saw in the Citizen newspaper that George Portman, he of clerk of the course and MSA fame and a consortium have bought Midvaal. They talk about upgrading the pits, entrance and exit roads etc.

Mel, the owner said later, ‘When they come with the money, then they can say, we own Midvaal’.

I wish them all the best. Many of our members like Midvaal.

Personally I would like to see some medical back-up, just in case.

 

Tyres get warm when riding for one reason. The molecular chains within the rubber compound rub against one another and the road and generate heat. This in turn allows the tyre to conform to the road surface better and the rubber compound also becomes grippier.

 

A newish compound mixed with the base compound rubber used for some years now is silica. It replaces some of the carbon mixtures.

 

Tread or grooves in tyres are there for one primary reason, get rid of liquids, i.e. water. The best gripping tyre is always the slick tyre until water gets between the tyre and the road. Then we need some method of dispersing the water so the tyre can get down to the road surface and maintain grip.

Manufacturers need to get this ratio of grooves to tyre rubber exact. Grooves too large and you have reduced the rubber griping the road unnecessarily. Too little and water above certain speeds starts to cause aquaplaning.

I may be wrong but my common sense tells me a 130 section tyre that has 50% of the total rubber touching the road cut away for grooves is really only half of the actual width. No matter what it measures with a ruler! This only applies when the grooves run in the same direction as rotation.

 

It is my belief that the majority of road tyres are generally designed for typical road usage, in that I mean 120 Km/hr average speeds and the mean average rainfall on a typical road surface. Also, if a tyre manufacturer makes for European conditions, RSA with temperatures far higher should wear faster but grip better?

Once rainfall exceeds the norms, you must slow down; tyres cannot expel enough water to make riding as safe as it would be when the road was dry. He same applies when speed increases over the norm. Even if the rain water is light, the water just cannot be expelled quickly enough and aquaplaning is the result. If you have never experienced it, it is like ice skates on ice. The coefficient of friction is very close to zero.

 

I think common sense tells you, you cannot have long wearing life and a very sticky tyre combined. But the better manufacturers do change the ratio of soft to hard rubber in different sections of the tyre. The centre section is obviously the hardest, where most of the wear takes place. This for road use.

You also have to choose between the trade-offs, do I want good all-round grip over long life, or will I trade some grip for the tyre lasting longer?

 

Tyre pressure has a great bearing on the life and getting the best performance from a tyre.

Low pressure may allow the tyre to distort to the road better, but in doing so, the tyre heats up quicker, may come off the rim in extreme instances and punctures are more common. Also stability becomes less with a feeling of vagueness about the steering.

 

Smaller footprint on the road, cooler running temperatures and less likely to get a puncture. The bike now feels very twitchy, following every groove and undulation in the road.

The correct pressures are as specified by the manufacturer for your machine. Keep to them.

 

Well 79% of the air we breathe is already nitrogen, so what do we get by paying for the 19% of oxygen and other trace elements to be removed and replaced with 100% nitrogen?

 

I can give you first-hand experience of Taiwanese over European inner-tubes.

The Taiwanese tubes that I fitted in error to one road machine, when I got a small puncture it went down fairly quickly and I was forever pumping the tyre up even when no puncture existed. These polypropylene tubes also split very easily as I found out.

The European natural rubber tubes in a few bikes I have, keep their pressures for 6-months or more without dropping pressures much. Also a puncture I got miles from home, became soft, but remained hard enough to ride home.

 

In the demonstrating arena we do, we are looking primarily for grip. Everything else is secondary.

So, in our case we are looking for a grippy soft compound treaded tyre and a good footprint.

The other variation we can make is tyre pressure. For demonstrating, 1.9 bar rear, 2.0 bar front is a good place to start.

We can however mess everything up by fitting a tyre to a rim that is too wide for the tyre section we have chosen and obviously the opposite as well. Consult the tyre manufacturer’s specifications. 

Lastly, keeping old and perished tyres on a bike that were originally made by John Dunlop’s dad is an accident looking for a place to happen.

Don’t do it.

 

I know very little about tyres apart from having a preference for certain makes over others, but I’m sure we all do have?

 

There is a promoter who is looking for historic road or race machines that will be parked in specific shopping malls over a weekend.

If you allow them to have your machine on the floor (suitably protected from fingers) and I have told them we would want insurance cover, they will in turn give you a hamper of new Dunhill fragrances.

That’s the smell nice bit. The famous part is your machine may or will become part of a national advertising campaign.

Knowing what most of you look like, even after a scrub-up, I don’t think you personally will be part of the famous bit!!

 

The locations and dates are;

Sandton City:     23^rd – 25^th February

Eastgate Mall:    2^nd – 4^th March

Menlyn Mall:      9^th – 11^th March

Canal Walk (CTN):   6^th – 8^th April

If you are interested, call me.

 

Personally, the cost in fuel, wear and tear, two days wasted sitting around and eating shopping mall food for R200 bucks of smelly after shave is not my cup of tea.

 

 

 

These emails bounce every time.

I have deleted them from our database.

 

 

Nigel Clark             nclark@oldbikemart.co.uk

Robbie Beeton.

Vryheid car club        glenbar@cybertrade.co.za 

mike milner smythe      milnersmythe@bigfoot.com

northern OFS            ronnie@alt.co.za

Eric McQuillian         emac@mmetroweb.co.za

morris minor            morris@gelvonor.co.za

 

 

 

From: "Bernie S" <bernard@slater4693.freeserve.co.uk>

To: cctv@icon.co.za

Sent: 07/01/31 00:50

Subject: Our forum

 

Hi Mike,

 

I am a member of a m/c racing forum here in the UK and we specialise in 1960's racing and we have got on to the subject of SA racers.

We know Paddy D, Stan Setaro etc and I remember seeing Errol Cowan in Europe then, I thought very fast and stylish.

Someone thinks he has a m/c business in SA and I see from Googling that he is a member of your group. Any info would be welcome.

 

very best wishes

 

 

 

Bernie S

 

I did reply, giving Bernie some info on Errol and our other past champions who went on the European circuits.

 

 

Good morning Mike,

Our Club has had a request for assistance in tracing any information on a gent who raced Nortons and Harley Davidsons in the early part of the last century. 1921 to 1926 to be exact.

I realize that what I am trying to do must be well nigh impossible but I was hoping that your group may have some records of the racing that took place in those times or perhaps be aware of some other person or group that may have such records.

The gent in question was a Mr. J.W.R. du Toit and was resident down here in the Cape, Stellenbosch in fact, He held several records and had won several races.

He was apparently known as the "Flying Dutchman" being of Dutch descent. Apparently the family sold off his bikes and trophies after his death, which I assume was some time ago, but now someone, somewhere, is trying to put the record straight.

 

At this time I would be more than grateful just to be able to trace any repository of information. The newspapers down here, who should be holding archival information, are unfortunately less than helpful and I am drawing blanks wherever I turn.

 

I really would appreciate any help you can perhaps give me. I will also be in touch with Western Province Motor Club and such like.

Kind regards,

Rai Heinze,

Vice Chair,

Cape Vintage Motorcycle Club.

 

Can anyone assist Rai?

 

I had to smile, there’s the Triumph guys overseas saying , ‘for a reliable power increase and reliability, swap the plain big-end bearings for roller bearings’.

The Ducati guys are saying ‘if you want reliability, swap the big-end roller bearings for white metal’.

Now whose right?

 

Working my butt off, that’s what.

The Ducati is finished and running well. Apart from oil and filter changes, not much to attend to! A clutch swap is about it?

I’m glad, my wallet has taken a beating. Much like the ball and chain coming back from shopping saying ‘I hope you don’t mind, but I bought something special on your creditcard that I’ve always wanted. I will be very nice to you?’

When they say ‘I’ll be nice to you’ you just know its going to hurt.

 

The bikes I put in a few newsletters back have all but one, been sold.

 

John Sermon passed away last Thursday morning.

He had a good life and rode bikes to the end.

 

John’s daughter is selling the following;

 

 

 

If you want pictures of the bikes, give me a call and I will email to you with contact details.

 

I didn’t realise that a few members keep the newsletters.

So to make storing easier and looking up old n/letters, I will make the newsletter a number in future. This will automatically save in ascending or descending order for you.