Manx Grand Prix Adventures

My son, Rob, and I have been fairly regular visitors to the Isle of Man for both the TT races in May/June and also the Manx Grand Prix / Classic TT races in August, but it was 5 years since we both last went. So a plan was hatched that Gloria's first big adventure would be the 2022 Manx Grand Prix. 

Rob's daily rides tend to be big sportsbikes but, to keep things fair, he came on his little Honda 125 "Grom". The bikes turned out to be pretty evenly matched up to about 55mph, then the G5 still had something left in reserve. But the Grom's luggage capacity was nil and Rob had a huge backpack load on the way there and back.

Gloria was prepared and waiting as Rob travelled the 2 hour journey up from the Midlands to Chester.

We managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before quietly sneaking out into the road and setting off at 1am, bound for Liverpool Pier Head and the IoM Ferry.

Gloria made it onto the ferry without incident and was tied down with the other bikes for the 2.5 hour journey.

We got to the campsite at Douglas Rugby Club before 7am and very quietly set up our tents before snuggling down into sleeping bags to catch up on a couple of hours sleep.

There was supposed to be a practice session and the first race on our first day, but variable weather across the island meant that the racing was postponed and then cancelled. We had a great day over on the west side of the island though, heading out to pay our respects to the fairies before exploring around Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin and included taking in a couple of laps of the Southern 100 road circuit.

The "roads closed" time for Saturday racing was postponed by a couple of hours, so we took the chance to do a lap of the 37.74 mile course. We've done that many times over the years but this was the first time on smaller bikes and we both loved it being able to have a blast without ever feeling like you were riding beyond the bike's limits. Gloria had the upper expanses of her rev range tested out and passed admirably - made me laugh later when Rob referred to them calling a good thrashing an "italian decoke" when they are struggling to set bikes up at work.

Finally, we made our way to our first vantage point at the bottom of Barregarrow, a fast left hander with a vicious dip on the bend to unsettle the bikes. 

We watched the "practice lap" for Senior GP and Classic Superbikes followed by the postponed lightweight 250 race from here and then made our way up the lanes on the inner part of the island to get up onto the top of the mountain part of the circuit, at Brandywell for the Junior (supertwins) race. I find the variety of scenery on the course stunning and it was lovely being up there in the sunshine for the first race.

And to round off our "spectating from places beginning with B" day, we then made our way back down the lanes to Bradden Bridge. I adore spectating from there - it completely sums up the madness of the place, sitting on a stone wall 10' above the circuit, with an ancient oak tree plonked in the middle of the chicane, and a churchyard full of spectators opposite! To see, hear and smell the Classics racing through there is most definitely one of my real happy places in life. Rob is the 3rd generation of Shearers to spectate from there, as my mum and dad also used to go there in the 50s.

A wonderful day, with excellent riding, company and weather, was rounded off in the Rugby Club bar, where we shared a pint with a lovely French couple, Evelyne and Francis, visiting for the first time from Pau in the Pyrenees. What an adventurous pair, backpacking around England and Ireland (and wherever else took their fancy!) in their 70s.

Sunday was a non-race day and we did more exploring. We went up to the Grandstand and explored the pits; then went down into Douglas and were again struck by how bizarre the IoM is as a horse drawn tram trundled past our row of parked bikes on the prom.

While we were parked up, Rob spotted that Gloria was having an OCD moment...

We also did another lap of the circuit and I was chuffed that one of the photographers got a couple of good shots of us approaching and taking the Gooseneck, as we headed up onto the mountain.

We took the back road from Douglas out to Laxey and had ice creams on the beach and then made our way up to the Point of Ayre in the remote North Eastern part of the island where, for a minute or two, we were the most northerly people on the island!

On the way back, we swapped bikes for a while. The Grom was great fun - tiny and very flickable and surprisingly good acceleration for a 125, but I was glad to get back on Gloria 😁It did give me a chance to see what she looked and sounded like though while Rob was riding her.

The last day of racing was the bank holiday Monday. Three new vantage points for me today, the first being Ramsey Hairpin for the practice lap. One of Rob's work colleagues was racing (see next two videos) and it gave a really different perspective to understand the financial and time commitment that he had made to be there.

Next we moved a short distance up the circuit to the Gooseneck to watch the Senior race (which was where we had been "papped" the previous day 😄) .

And then for the final race we decided to head to Windy Corner on the way down from the mountain. It looked on the map like we could get quite close on the bikes and then walk the final part, but the last part of the track was on a goat track up the mountain! We ended up walking about a mile and a half in leathers up a 700' climb. It took us so long that we missed the first lap and just saw the second lap coming around, but then we also got to see the last 2 laps. Again, spectacular scenery and we were kindly offered a lift back down to our bikes by a couple of island residents in their Jeep.

That evening, we headed into Peel for fish and chips and then back to the campsite for a couple of pints of Bushys Ale. I found this plaque in the bar that they were selling and presented it to Rob in recognition of a fantastic few days!

So, our last day finally arrived and we had the morning spare before heading for the afternoon ferry. After packing up our gear, we headed off to Jurby Airfield where the VMCC had organised a race / track parade. As always, it was as interesting looking around the bike park, as it seemed that every visitor on a motorbike had descended there!

We then raced back to the campsite to pack the tents away and headed down to the ferry terminal, arriving with minutes to spare before the official check-in time! 

So, to sum up, a wonderful few days in motorcycling heaven. Gloria performed flawlessly, other than the iffy float valve that I've been working around and will fix in due course. In total, we did just under 400 miles and I really started to get to know her character and how best to ride her. There were some hills where some extra power would have been nice, but none that we couldn't make it up by changing down a gear and taking it easy! A lot of the time, it was me trying to ride her like the big bikes I've had in the past and relying on raw power!

Roll on the next adventure.

Day out - Middlewich Classic Car and Bike Show

I was feeling confident enough now to take a trip out to the Middlewich Show, just a half hour or so ride away on 16 - 17th July.

It was a lovely sunny weekend - perfect riding weather and I went up on the Sunday. Gloria rode beautifully on the way there, and I found that my work around for the weeping float valve worked well (apart from the time I forgot to turn the fuel back on and she started spluttering as she ran out!!)

There were some lovely bikes there from all eras and Gloria drew some admiring glances and sparked up some great conversation as always.

There were some great cars there as well - one that caught my eye was a Lada 1300, that I was amazed was still in existence, as they used to rot so badly. My sister had one that I took my test in and it used to break down with amazing regularity. It only just made it around my test route! This one hadn't been restored but had obviously been well sheltered for most of it's life.

And then there was a lovely display of old Minis of most variants. Who doesn't love an old Mini?

The journey home was equally as nice - one of those where you start to think whether there is a way to extend the route as you get towards home, so you can enjoy things for just a bit longer 😁. It was lovely to start to feel the confidence building in Gloria now, that she'll get me home from our adventures each time.

 

First camping trip

After the successful day trip to Hooton Show,  I'd been itching to venture a little bit further to build up a bit more confidence. An opportunity came up to grab a quick night away and I booked a campsite in North Wales at short notice. It was also a great opportunity to try out some new bike luggage and camping equipment that I had been gathering.

Nothing had been done to Gloria since the previous outing, so I was fully prepared to still be suffering from some rough running at low to medium revs but thought she'd probably be OK on open roads.

The bike luggage was an old Oxford tank bag that my son had re-donated back to me, after I had given it to him when I sold my last bike several years ago; an old work duffel bag for the tent etc and some old but unused Oxford panniers that I got off EBay, specifically because I thought they'd match the era and style of the bike.

All packed up and ready to go, I swung a leg over and jumped on the kick start - nothing! After lots of sweaty effort I pulled the spark plugs and unbelievably had another dead plug. Either the quality of NGK plugs is rubbish now (that's 2 duff ones I've had) or there is something happening that is killing them. However, all of the ignition side is new now so I'm fairly confident it's not the latter. Once a fresh plug was swapped in, she started first kick.

I subsequently read that it is not uncommon to get duff NGK plugs, which is not very helpful, so now make sure I have a spare with me.

I'd planned a route out to avoid the motorway like A55, so made my way through Chester and back out past the Airbus factory at Saltney and was soon onto the lovely roads up towards Llandegla. I crossed Llandegla Moors and then headed across the Nant-y-Garth pass towards Ruthin before taking a quiet road off towards my campsite for the night at Cefn Coch. I can highly recommend Clywdian Holidays site - just a small camping field for about 5 tents but amazingly good facilities, including a really well equipped camp kitchen if you are travelling light.

I quickly pitched my new tent - a Vaude Terratrio 2P which I had got as a retirement gift from my very generous ex-colleagues. A really versatile and easy to erect tent - only my second time after trying it out in the garden, but all was up and ready in less than 15 mins.

Gloria performed fine, apart from the rough low speed running I was expecting, and I am getting used to having interesting conversations with old bikers each time I stop! Most are very complimentary about Gloria's fine lines, which seem to be better appreciated now than when she was first around.

I had been intending to cook at the site, but was getting harrased by a bratty child (with an annoyingly unconcerned parent) from an adjoining tent, so I wandered up to the local pub half an hour or so away for fish and chips and a pint and then turned in after watching the sunset.

The weather was fine again the next morning and I got to try out more retirement / 60th birthday gifts - this time from my 2 sons. A jet boil stove system and ground coffee press meant that I had a fine cup of coffee and muesli for breakfast.

It warmed quickly in the sun, so everything was nice and dry as I packed up and reloaded the bike. Gloria's "loaded up" handling had been great on the journey out and was to get better and better today, as I got more used to riding her.

For the journey back, I mad my way onto one of my favourite bits of road; into Ruthin, then across to Denbigh before heading back across to Mold - beautiful flowing A roads through Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. I have ridden that route many times on much bigger bikes but never enjoyed the riding so much as on the 250. No pressure to perform or go at any great pace, so you could just focus on enjoying the journey.

The low speed fuelling didn't seem to be as big an issue today, but she is still not right so more work to be done there. 

From Mold, there was no simple way to avoid using the A55 so I sat back and cruised it at 55 and was soon back home. All told I had only done about 70 miles, but it was an important step in building up confidence - I had set out accepting that I may need recovering as a worst case, but actually I quickly felt that Gloria would get me home one way or another!

I've now got a bit of a list of further work to do to get her running really nice, but have gained some lovely happy memories of this first camping trip. 

A trip out to Hooton Park Show

I'd been provisionally booked in to display Gloria at a small local show, dependent on me getting her running OK to make it there and back, and I finally had her running reliably (fingers crossed!) the day before. 

Given the myriad of little gripes I've had to overcome to get to this stage, I half expected to try to kick her over in the morning and find that she wouldn't run, but she fired up first time and settled into a smooth steady idle 😀.

It was less than a 30 minute ride up to Hooton, but the sun was out and I was on quiet A roads all the way for a lovely ride in the Spring sun. All went well and I slowly got used to her individual character - things like getting to know the "sweet spots" and gear/speed combinations she doesn't much care for.

I pulled up and was parked up next to a beautiful old Vincent, so everyone ignored Gloria on the way past! There was a good mix of British, Japanese and American bikes there but it was fairly small - maybe 25 bikes and a similar amount of classic cars and buses.

Hooton Park itself is an important site and contains three remaining WW1 hangars on the former RAF airfield, which was subsequently built on by Vauxhall Motors. The three original, Belfast-trussed, hangars are Grade 2 listed and interesting to see this form of construction if you have had anything to do with construction, together with the historic aircraft collection inside.

Anyway, I stayed into the afternoon and then as things started to wind down, made my way back home with an equally uneventful return journey in the sun again. The whole thing was less than 30 miles, but these little first journeys are what helps to build up the trust for the longer ones. 

So Gloria is back under her cover now, waiting for our next adventure, and I am moving back onto the long term restoration project - my Royal Enfield Crusader 250.

Deep Service and first ride

And so, once the bling had been sorted, it was time to make sure that she was actually rideable!

This is how she was running when I first got her - not exactly the smoothest, most refined engine I've ever heard! I started worrying that maybe I had  suffered a severe dose of "looking through rose tinted glasses", remembering how my previous bike had been 40+ years ago.

Stripping down for some access, I found that the plugs indicated some pretty rich running. 

The throttle return cable is quite difficult to fit on these and so a previous owner had just zip-tied it out of the way!

The carburettors were just about clinging on to the manifold by their fingertips!

The air filters look like they haven't been changed this century - hmm not encouraging.

So, plenty of scope for improvement there then.

I adjusted the cam chain tensioner. There was no massive take up of slack, which was quite encouraging. 

Then I set the tappet clearances. One of the adjusters was broken and I had to order a new one - lots of spares are still available for these bikes from David Silver Spares and Wemoto. Many of the cycle parts are common to the iconic Honda 400 Four, which helps a bit. I learnt a useful tip doing this, that using an offset 10mm spammer helps to reach down to the locknut in a quite tight space.

The next job was to set the points gaps and the static timing. This is relatively complex on these bikes and needs to be spot on for them to run properly. I noticed that the condition of the wiring loom to the points was pretty iffy; too short so the connections are stressed and with what looks like some old petrol pipe instead of the proper heat shielding. I added a job to the list, to make a new loom.

I also took off the backplate and checked / lubricated the auto-advance mechanism. 

While the points backplate was removed, I took off the two sets of points to clean up the faces etc. The faces were quite pitted and ancient and I also noticed that one of the insulating washers was missing, which was probably not ideal!  

After a pretty unsuccessful attempt to get things running decently, I decided to replace all of the ignition "consumables", so ordered a new condensor and points, and made the new loom as well.

A tip I have found when setting the points is that there is a mark on the end of the camshaft that, when aligned with the "heel" on the respective set of points, will be at the point of maximum points gap. You have to remove the bolt and washer holding the auto-advance unit in place to see it.

At some point in all of this, I tried running her again. There was a petrol leak, only running on one cylinder and generally she was not happy with the world!

So I thought it would be a good idea to strip the carbs down. The previous owner told me there had been some work done on the carbs, including replacing the diaphragms, so I was hopeful that they would be pretty clean but this was not the case! Everything came apart nicely and at least one of the diaphragms looks new - I'm not convinced they both are, but neither appear to have a hole in it, which is the important thing.

When I was taking one of the fuel pipes off, I found this split in the pipe, which is probably what caused the leak! But I was glad to have been pushed into checking the carbs over really. I fitted new fuel pipes, which had been on the to-do list anyway, to make sure they could deal with the ethanol in modern fuel. 

Removing the carbs is a difficult job on this bike (on most bikes actually!) and that was why the paint on the frame rails was so scratched. The key for me is to remove the inlet stubs first, which is a bit fiddly but gives a lot more room to play with.

At this stage, the carbs had been cleaned and reinstalled; new fuel lines fitted; throttle return cable connected and next was to replace the air filters - these are getting quite rare now and not cheap, but definitely needed doing - look at the old and new filters below!

One feature of lots of older Hondas is that the oil filtration is all done within the engine - there is no external spin-on oil filter cartridge like you might have on a more modern vehicle. To clean the filter, you have to remove the right hand exhaust, kickstart and then the clutch/side engine cover. The camshaft runs in plain bearings in the cylinder head and is really susceptible to damage, if regular oil changes and filter cleaning aren't kept up. If the bearing face is damaged, then the whole head is scrap - not ideal. And because it's not simple to clean the oil filter, a lot of owners neglected this in the past, particularly when these bikes were used for day to day travel rather than as cherished classics.

I haven't opened up the head on Gloria yet, so fingers are still crossed that all is good there. But it was definitely sensible to do an oil change and clean out the filter etc before going any further.

With the oil drained and the engine cover off, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the engine cases were very clean. In the picture below, the round chamber with the circlip on is the centrifugal filter, which needs cleaning out.

And the small metal chamber with the pipe on the next photo is the oil pick up, which has a gauze mesh to filter out any particles etc - also needs a good clean.

With the circlip removed and the cover off, the centrifugal filter was completely clean - very pleased at that!

The pick up strainer had a few bits on it (possibly camchain guide rubber), but it's been doing it's job and I wasn't unduly worried. (My son's 3 year old Honda Grom looked not much better when that was done.)

Nice and clean ready to be reinstalled:

Overall, I was really very pleased (and relieved!) with the condition inside the engine.

While the engine cover was off, I took the chance to give it a quick rub down, prime and a coat of silver enamel - a huge improvement for an hour or so of work. Then the cover was refitted with a new gasket and stainless steel bolts and refilled with fresh oil.

Before I refitted the exhaust, I pulled the rear brake pedal mechanism apart and refurbished that. It looked like the bike had been gently dropped at some point and bent the pedal adjuster, so that the brake pedal sat about 2" above where it should be, which is not a very comfortable position at all! 

It was fairly simple to strip it and bend the adjuster back into place, then fit a new adjuster bolt and locknut. But it was very fiddly to reconnect the operating rod to the brake pedal. I'm sure there is a simple way, but I couldn't find it!

I've also done some other routine servicing stuff - stripped, cleaned and greased the front brake caliper holder, which has a habit of seizing up but was nice and free; replaced the brake fluid when I bled the brake after fitting the new master cylinder; adjusted the clutch; fitted a new horn and lubed/adjusted the rear chain. The general feel is that Gloria has been really nicely cared for over the years. I'm saying that with fingers crossed for when I ultimately remove the head and check the camshaft bearing!

A few electrical gremlins have come to light while I've been doing all this. The first one was the loom to the points that I've already shown above. That was causing one cylinder to cut out, as the connection between points and coils was so bad and also under tension with the result that it came apart slightly.

Then I lost all power when the ignition was switched on. That was traced to a poor repair to the main connector block serving the ignition switch. I ran a new power cable to give a little more length and then soldered in a new connector block.

The rear tail / brake light started playing up and that again was traced to a loose connection between the rear and main looms.

Finally, one of the rear indicators started playing up and I traced that back to a corroded joint on the earth cable inside the indicator. Five minutes with a soldering iron soon sorted that.

I've been all over the wiring trying to make sure all connections are tight, but I think it could really do with a thorough inspection and overhaul of the whole wiring system, probably when I take the engine out next winter. 

As a precaution, I also replaced the 3 fuses and cleaned up all of the fuse box connections to make sure they were secure. I had a thing on my original G5, where the main fuse would occasionally stop making contact in its holder and the bike would just die - it memorably happened twice in exactly the same spot in the Mersey Tunnel and once on a 400/4 that I later had (same fuse box arrangement) as I was riding through Handsworth in Birmingham about an hour before the "Handsworth Riots" broke out - lucky escapes all 3 of them!

I mention the electrics, as I have just finished installing the new points and retiming the ignition etc. I came to try and start the bike and it was completely devoid of any power! Following the principle of 2+2=5, I assumed that the aforementioned ignition switch connector block fix had failed, but all looked sound. I got the voltmeter out and found a completely dead battery 😧. It's an AGM battery and, when I did a bit of research, it seems they don't like irregular use / charging. I've ordered a new, traditional lead acid battery to replace it.

The new battery turned up and highlighted yet another electrical gremlin - a short circuit across the starter solenoid (which is probably what had drained the other battery!) I definitely need to have a deep dive on the electrics sooner rather than later. I sorted that out and also rerouted the electrics under the seat and around the battery box; I think probably to how they should be, as there is much less tension across connectors and no crossing wires to chafe against each other now. 

All sorted and - no spark on LH cylinder. This one was traced to a faulty spark plug. I had previously checked both for a spark but, hey, she's an old, temperamental lady! With  new spark plug fitted, she fired up lovely and I rebalanced the carbs. She is now running much sweeter and I managed to get 15 miles test riding in.

I'm not sure how well this video really shows the difference between when I first got her and now, but it seems immensely better to me! There is still some way to go on fine tuning the carburation I think, but we are definitely getting there 😁.