1938 Rudge Race Bike

Nulli Secundus

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Thanks Tim for your advice for Lydden. Could you suggest a top gear ratio that would be suitable for my Rudge at Lydden?

Whilst I do not want to be revving the nuts off the engine (I saw 7000rpm at Mallory in a lower gear, but would prefer to stay below 6500rpm), I also do not want to be rediculously over geared like I think I was at Darley (4.53:1).
 

vibrac

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I would think that Lydden is slightly lower than Mallory that climb up the hill from a fairly sharp corner is punishing on a smaller bike I think that we did not alter from the Mallory gearing for the Egli but we did for the Comet
 

Nulli Secundus

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Well the Lydden Hill race meeting has been and gone.

I lowered the gearing, but either did it too much, or not enough, depending on how you look at it. Basically I was running out of third gear and then not really getting any benefit from top, so I either needed to lower the gearing more, or raise it and only use the first three gears.

When I started upping the pace during Saturday morning practice the front end wobble returned at the Devil's Elbow corner, which has recently been resurfaced. It seemed to be worse on a wide exit line, so consequently I started taking a tighter line and things seemed to improve. However, with hindsight I was probably taking this corner slower, but at the time I was thinking this is working and was concentrating on keeping it tight around that corner. Unfortunately I made a stupid riding error, may be because the bike turned in quicker than I expected and I clipped the kerb on the apex, when I should of sat the bike up to advoid it. I am not sure exactly what happened and neither is my son Bradley, who was watching me.

I think the bike went into a tankslapper and spat me off, the very thing I was trying to advoid. Both me and the bike stopped in the middle of the track on the uphill straight that approaches the hairpin.

I laid there for a few moments just to assess if I was hurt, but then thought "if you want to lay down there are far safer places than this" and therefore got up. I was disorientated and looked round to decide whether to exit stage left, or right, whilst checking that no bikes were coming.

The session was not red flagged and I had to report to the medical centre when the session stopped. I had banged my left foot quite badly and I think twisted the left ankle. The worse injury was to the back of my knee and I think my wife might be right when she thought the oil tank filler cap probably did it. Also my left arm and hand plus my right shoulder were knocked about a bit.

The medics were waiting for me and said "Why have you come here, we saw you jump down from the tyre wall?". This I did but I nearly collapsed on landing, so I knew I had injuries.

After an examination and ice pack treatment I said "I know it is not down to me, but if it was I think I am OK to ride" and indeed it was with the medic too.

I went with Bradley to collect the Rudge from the Scrutineer's Bay. As soon as I saw the bike I said to Bradley and the scrutineer that it looks like it is game over. The scrutinner went through all the damage and Bradley said to me on the push back to our paddock spot that he thought that the scrutineer seemed surprised to my throw the towel in attidude.

I was gutted and could of almost cried when I realised my daughter was driving 100 miles to bring my grandson so they could see me race.

However, I did not reckon with the help I would receive from fellow racers and members of the public. The worse damage was a snapped alloy footrest that was a very bespoke design and I had no spares. The gear lever was bent, but easily straightened. The handlebars were badly bent that on full right hand lock it looked like the right bar was actually on full left hand lock. With some borrowed tube and members of the public bracing the bike against my pulls we got the handlebars good enough.

The footrest repair was a right bodge made from a coach bolt and tubing. The main bodge being how it was attached to the bike.

I put on my riding gear, fired the bike up and presented it to the scrutineer and he passed it all. I kept the engine running because I thought he would want to noise test it, as I had missed noise testing, which was to be carried out on the way in from practice. He looked at the stickers on the number plate and said "Well it has been noise tested before" so with a grin on my face we were good to go.

I missed my first race, but did the other two on Saturday and two more on Sunday.

Roy Robertson watched on Sunday and he thought I was good at the Devil's Elbow but slow at Paddock. I was pleased with that as I had reverted to a wider line again and am pleased to report that the wobbles were not so bad. As I was getting faster I was trail braking with the rear at the Devil's Elbow and wonder if this calmed the front end? Second opinions welcome please !

Whilst I was racing with newer bikes I was only racing against two other bikes in my specific class and finished second every time to a Norton International. I did my fastest lap on the last lap of the last race.

I also made good starts and led around the first corner in the last race and kept in front of the Norton for over a lap. My times are still nothing to write home about but I am pleased they were a little more consistant.

Despite the damage to me and the bike I enjoyed this meeting more than any other.

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Nulli Secundus

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BHR Round 6 - Cadwell Park - 23rd and 24th September

The warm up for our holiday this year was the last meeting of the season at Cadwell Park. We travelled up on the Friday and unfortunately the traffic was bad, including the M1 being closed for over an hour and a half due to an accident, so we arrived a lot later than we had planned. This made getting the Rudge and my riding gear scrutineered, plus the bike noise tested (102 Dba), a less than relaxing affair, but at least by having this all done it would take some of the pressure off for the following morning.

After scrutineering we did walk parts of the circuit and to me it looked pretty daunting. It is the longest track I have been to and is 2.2 miles long. It has been described by some as a mini Nurburgring.

Saturday started off wet. I went out in the first solo practice session and did just four steady laps and when I came in I was thinking "I still don't know this track".

All the races were four laps long and by the time my first race (Race 6 for the Tuer's Garage Girder Fork class and the Lacey Ducati Championship) was called the track was mostly dry. The sighting lap was another chance to learn the track a little more. The girder fork bikes were at the back of the grid, which as it happens was just as well. The starting lights went out and I reacted instantly, but unfortunately the bike didn't, for it had slipped out of gear. By the time I got it into first and raced away the pack was gone, which was a shame because following other riders would have helped my lines and improved my pace. Annoyingly I was slow enough to just get lapped before crossing the start/finish line to start my last lap, so it was only three more laps for me, bringing my tally to just eight. Apart from the two retirements I embarrassingly finished last.

However, not only did I know I could go quicker with more familiarity of the track, but also had I of made a half decent start I would not of been lapped. Every lap counts, as I was told this is a harder track to learn.

For my second race (Race 18 - Girder Forks and Ducati Championship again) the track conditions were more or less perfect. I made sure the bike was not going to slip out of gear on the grid and made a reasonable start. I was now lapping a fair bit faster than I did in the first race and this meant the front end of the bike was now misbehaving a fair bit on quite a few corners. I finished fifth out of ten in my class and passed Andy Hunt on a 500 Norton International a lap earlier than I intended, for I had to keep my head down to stay ahead on the fourth and final lap. I now felt a little better about the dismal result in the first race.

Due to several stoppages, in other races, I did not get to go out in my third race, which was for novice riders on a mixed field of bikes (Yamaha SR500'S, Suzuki GSX400, RD400 Yamaha, T2 600 Ducati, Honda K4 350, 350 Greece Oulton, 250 MZ Supa 5 and a 350 Velocette MAC), so this race and other postponed races would be carried over to Sunday.

On Sunday the conditions were good and I lined up near the back for the Novice Race (Race 24), which was also run with the BSA Bantams' Championship Race. I made another good start and whilst I considered I was only realistically racing the chap on the 350 Velo I still kept trying to the end. I was way down the field, but ahead of the Velo and a few newer bikes and as I took the chequered flag I was surprised to see it waved, when normally it is static when I finish the race. Apparently I had won the race on corrected time due to a handicap system. I guess that having the second oldest bike in the race helped me, as perhaps did my slow lap times in my first race........

Whilst the results sheet say I won it still does not feel like much of a victory for me. Also, I did make one mistake and went across the grass at the chicane, but kept it shiny side up.

My fourth race (Race 30) was another Ducati and Girder Fork affair and this time Mike Farrall would be joining us on his super fast Rudge, so I naturally expected to finish one further place behind.

I made another good start and was pleased to note that my initial launch was not too dissimilar to Mike's, but then his bike just keeps pulling and he was soon gone. There was some excitement when I was following two Velocettes and the front one crashed, but the other one and myself managed to avoid getting involved in the accident. As predicted I finished sixth out of ten in my class, but only because of the Velocette crash.

Fewer bikes lined up for my final race of the day (Race 43 - Dukes and Girders). I had a lonely ride and finished fifth out of six in my class. Mike decided to leave early, so was part of the reason that the field was depleted.

It was a very enjoyable race weekend for me and I must say I like Cadwell Park.
 

vibrac

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Ah! the girder fork championship that's the one that specifically says girdraulics are not allowed
Nice to know that the spirit (predudice) of the 1950 Clubman's is still alive....
 

Nulli Secundus

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Ah! the girder fork championship that's the one that specifically says girdraulics are not allowed
Nice to know that the spirit (predudice) of the 1950 Clubman's is still alive....

Tim,

When I collected the results sheets I was surprised to see that Adam Pope (rider number 29), on a Vincent, finished one place ahead of me in my first race, but behind me in two others.

He was not listed in the programme, so must have been a late entry. However, I did not see a Vincent on track with me and on looking at Lee Hollick's photography website it looks like he was riding a Velocette.......

Cheers

David
 

vibrac

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Actually BHR races are becoming a shambles in the BEARS races (British European and American) they let a Suzuki GS varient race as well
good rider that he is it absolutely devastated the field not only was this outsider continually refered to as the winner by the commentator some genuine riders were lapped and lost a quarter of their ride and Ben who had built both bikes that came 1 & 2 in the official race (Ben came second) was ignored
Oh and the Suzuki's time went into the record book for the BEARS class
This sort of thirst to fill grids and mixing classes is destroying incentives and with the slower machines is downright dangerous
 

Nulli Secundus

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I did not know this and agree with you Tim. There must of been a class the GS could of ran in other than the BEARS.

At Mallory the Girder Fork bikes were mixed with the Japanese bikes and also the Super Monos, which as you say is dangerous.

It is not quite so bad when we run with the Dukes and perhaps Bantams.
 

vibrac

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The very least they could do is institute a control over numberplate colours or tab-bards something needs to be done to penetrate the commentators brain I have a job sometimes to identify what I am looking at so the public must be miles away in knowing what's happening to put a IOM 2017 bike in with a MZ supa is asking for trouble. and the pre 82 Jap bikes had a FZ600 in the mix let alone the Girder forks.
The rot started when the old VMCC die hards tried to stop the 25 year old clock at 1958 and the CRMC was formed, and they are almost as bad there is nothing for pre 1955 bikes in their program but 2010 Manx Nortons are welcome and for some reason they wont let Bens ex touring bike race against their precious eighties Japanese fours. they say its water cooled - good job no-one wants to race the pre war AJS vee four:eek:..... go figure
 

Bob Zwarts

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Adam Pope, who is a prominent and successful sidecar racer with bhr, was, I am informed, riding a Rudge machine which is owned by the VMCC and lent out to suitable applicants for exercise. Adam had earned this privelige by getting the machine back into race trim after a long period of non use.
 
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