1938 Rudge Race Bike

BigEd

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I hope to be racing the 1938 Rudge Special at Darley Moor this weekend and with quite a fiddle managed to fit a Norvil Commando hydraulic steering damper. Perhaps not the most elegant of installations, but it has been done without modifying and Rudge parts.
I will report back on how it goes.
Have good meeting at Darley Moor. We are up North for a long and maybe damp weekend around the Doncaster area. I hope it remains dry for your meeting.
 

Bill Thomas

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I hope to be racing the 1938 Rudge Special at Darley Moor this weekend and with quite a fiddle managed to fit a Norvil Commando hydraulic steering damper. Perhaps not the most elegant of installations, but it has been done without modifying any Rudge parts.

I will report back on how it goes.

View attachment 16464
Good Luck Dave, Have you got a big washer below the front rubber ?, The rubber bush can work it's way out sometimes. Cheers Bill.
 

vibrac

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Darley Moor! they should to put a preservation order on it, Its the one track that still resembles the tracks of the sixties no decent toilets no food after five, and punctures galor from the rubbish on the cracked concrete paths that are the paddock, The one thing missing is the guy we had at Little Rissington who would cycle on an old upright push bike round the paddock with one hand steering and the other holding a rolled up newspaper funnel shouting "350, 500 practice!"
 

Nulli Secundus

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How was it??

Well although the bike did not wobble at Darley Moor I do not think this was necessarily due to the hydraulic damper calming things down because apart from flicks from side to side at Wilsons’, there were no real high speed corners like Gerrards at Mallory Park. The Esses at Darley Moor are also a fast section of kinks, similar to Wilsons’, but these could be taken on a straighter line and therefore to me were easier. So at the moment I cannot really make a conclusion on whether the hydraulic damper was doing a good job. One job it was doing was giving me a feeling of reassurance, but this could be misplaced. Maybe only a return to Mallory will provide an answer?

Unfortunately I cannot do the next two meetings which are Cadwell Park and Anglesey, so hopefully my next race will be at Lydden Hill. I also hope to do the second Cadwell Park meeting. All new tracks for me, but Lydden Hill will seem 'familiar' due to spectating there.

Getting back to Darley Moor out of the small group of girder fork machines that were running with the Ducatis and Bantams I finished 3rd out of five bikes, 4th out of four bikes in a very wet race, 4th out of seven bikes and finally 4th out of six bikes. A 1934 Norton CS1 won all four races. Me and the rider of this Norton were both given 10 second penalties for jumping the start in the third race. The Norton rider also jumped the start in the fourth race.

I should add that the 1934 CS1 Norton and a 350 Velocette both had steering dampers fitted. The Velo's was the same as mine. However, the Norton rider told me that his bike, which has a full cradle frame, unlike my Rudge, can still wobble when pushing hard. He also told me it was probably just "part and parcel" for this type of machine. Not exactly music to my ears, but at least the bikes were !!

I am disappointed with not only my lap times, but also the lack of consistency between them. I also think the bike was over geared, so some faster laps might be achieved with not only lowering the gearing, but also in the future when I have greater familiarity of the circuit.

Overall it was a satisfactory weekend and I came away with two more requisite signatures on my novice competition licence, which is my main goal.
 

greg brillus

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I found when I first started solo racing in 2014, that you feel as though you are going faster than you actually are. It is not until you are going hard into a corner and someone else sneaks up the inside of you, the sound of their screaming engine gives you quite a fright, and there is very little room between you and the edge of the track anyway, but there they are......squeezed into that tiny gap and passing you. All the while you try like buggeries to maintain your line or else you might actually hit each other. I don't know if I really had that kind of nerve to do that, finding it easier to just pass them again on the next straight, which seemed so easy on a twin with so much torque. The guys that do it are very experienced and possibly have nerves of steel, but I had neither, just sheer enthusiasm, and obviously way more power than them. It's a lot of fun, but can be quite scary at times......having a good reliable bike is a definite bonus.
 

vibrac

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Unfortunately I cannot do the next two meetings which are Cadwell Park and Anglesey, so hopefully my next race will be at Lydden Hill. I also hope to do the second Cadwell Park meeting. All new tracks for me, but Lydden Hill will seem 'familiar' due to spectating there.

Take care at Lydden, This clip also shows what happens when you mix classes - early post war and the big boys, look what happened to this Rudge? (could be early Velo) rider at 2.20 Ben was lucky as he was already past him and went on to win. but as he said no-one was looking when he went over the finish line!
 

greg brillus

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I have no idea how the guy on the pre unit Triumph got away unscathed in that battle. I'm guessing his butt must have been very puckered up..........o_O
 
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