The weekend of the International Rally finally arrived. This was to be the Crusader's longest journey yet at just about 160 miles each way and I was really looking forward to seeing how she dealt with it. I waited for an enormous rainstorm to pass before setting off - so much for the heatwave we'd been promised!
Mileage as we set off was showing just under 750 miles since the rebuild, so she's pretty well run in now and certainly will be by the time we get home.
I'd decided to try and do without the tank bag this time and took a small rucksack instead. This proved to be a bit of a mistake as the load was clearly now concentrated too far to the rear with the rack and top box, even though I'd tried to load the box fairly lightly. As I set off there was a very noticeable wobble from the bars, which fortunately stabilised as we built up some speed. But it never felt like a bit of a mini tank slapper was far from the story! I'll use the tank bag again next time to move some weight forwards.
We took a nice relaxed pace, doing around 45-50mph most of the time which seems to be her sweet spot. If we built up any traffic following, I just pulled over to let them pass and carried on; all very relaxing 😊
I stopped in Dolgellau, roughly half way, for some lunch. The oil hazing off the cylinder was noticeably worse each time I stopped, which was a minor concern.
We rolled onto the rally site at Baskerville Hall, just outside Hay-on-Wye, at around 5pm and after checking in, quickly set up camp. Total distance was 157 miles.
When I checked the oil level it was just below minimum, which was a bit alarming! I've now realised she is leaking from the head gasket and possibly base as well. I managed to speak to a couple of the Crusader Gurus over the weekend and what I am experiencing seems to be very common. Most of the problem is the very marginal arrangement for clamping down the head around the pushrod tube. They gave me several tips to try and help her incontinence!!
I think that she is probably running lean in the midrange as well - not much "pull" there compared to how I think it should be. That would also explain why she is running very hot and also the "blueing" of the exhaust header. So I think I need to raise the needle a notch in the carb to get more fuel through.
There were probably about half of the attendees there on the Thursday evening with the rest drifting in over Friday and Saturday.
I picked up the obligatory goodie bag with rally sticker and badge!
The Hall was pretty impressive, although inside looked like it had seen better days! It turned out to be a great setting for the rally though.
I loved this tree carving in the grounds.
On Friday morning, they had a thing where you could try an old bike. I had been really taken with this 1953 350 Bullet when I was walking around the site and was delighted to see it was one of the ones you could try. I don't know what it was about it that got under my skin - certainly wasn't pretty as it had been painted (everywhere!) a long time ago in silver hammerite and there wasn't a spot of polished chrome on it, but it just looked so RIGHT as my idea of a motorbike.
I managed to get a couple of spins around the estate roads on it and it was absoloutely gorgeous to ride. Felt right, sounded right, went right. I adored it and it was all I could do to not surf EBay afterwards trying to find one!!
Wandering around the site, I came across a couple of other interesting bikes. This 700cc Constellation (or "Connie" as he called it) is what I remember my Dad telling me was his last bike (with a sidecar).
Then in the afternoon there were some slots left to take out a 450 Himilayan, so I grabbed one of those. Can't say I particularly liked it really. It reminded me a lot of my Honda Transalp actually, but I think I've completely moved away from that type of bike.
In the afternoon, there was a bike show in front of the hall. I took my place amongst 170 or so others.
Jacqui Furneaux was a very interesting woman, who took off at 50 and travelled through 20 countries over 7 years on a 500 Bullet. Obviously, I bought her book!
And so Sunday came around and it was time to head for home. I had a leisurely breakfast then packed up and headed for home.
I deliberately took it slightly easier on the way back, trying to cruise at 45. We took exactly the same journey and the average speed was pretty much exactly the same! Stopped halfway at a cafe for lunch but pretty much just sat it out for the 2 x 2hr stretches. That saddle definitely needs sorting! Oh, and we crossed 1000 miles just as we came past Dolgellau 😃so definitely run in now.
So, the total adventure was 314 miles at an average speed of 37 mph, which doesn't sound like much but is actually not very different from the Ireland and France tours that I did on the GPZ500.
The "touring mods" I'd made all worked well, apart from the afore-mentioned wobble at low speeds, but that was down to weight distribution and is easily fixed.
The tool bag is great and just holds the right amount of stuff neatly. The chain oiler worked well. The fly screen did (I think) make a small difference in the rain at the expense of creating a small amount of wind noise. Most importantly, it provided somewhere to put the rally sticker!!
Roll on the Classic TT adventure next weekend!!
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