Tim,
Having just read your Racing survey in MPH have you thought of, or tried, entering Ben's Comet in the Girder Fork class as the class currently stands?
The scrutineers do not appear to do eligibility checks and are only concerned, I assume, with safety.
At the last, and first for this year, BHR meeting at Mallory Park, I was still plagued with wobbles on my recalcitrant Rudge and whilst, in one race only, I posted a slightly faster lap than I achieved last year I am very disappointed to be a long way off the pace of the leaders.
With everything going on I did not get time to study every girder fork bike, but what I can say is I saw that at least three had hydraulic suspension damping (I guess as many as five had hydraulic damping) and these were front runners (well one would of been had the rider not broken his pelvis after crashing a Manx in an earlier race).
I chatted with one rider of a Rudge, that had a Hagon hydraulic suspension damper, and in a tongue in cheek way I said "I suppose you will not get championship points with an illegal damper". He seemed a little miffed and said it offered very little damping" (well whilst it is not a good design in terms of fitment, I doubted his claim). Later on he commented on my Facebook post that I had a very nice 1930's steering damper. OK I have a hydraulic steering damper, but I cannot see they are breaking the rules.
As things currently stand, I cannot have a dream of chasing a championship, so I am currently considering joining the band of cheaters. If it makes my bike safer and more rideable I would be a fool not to.
At the Esses the rear wheel of my bike jumped left, whilst I was bucked up and out of the saddle to the right. The bike felt like it was on a trajectory to go off track, but I had the inside of my left knee hooked against the saddle and managed to get back on board. Thankfully the bike was also now back under control. Now the antics of my bike had nothing to do with the tyres sliding. It was, I think, the rear wheel just trying to obey the wobbling front wheel.
In another race I had been following a 350 Velocette MAC and it was wobbling so badly around Gerrards, making it look like, to me, the rear wheel was jumping from side to side. Whilst I was having my own similar problems, I was more worried he was going to crash right in front of me, so I made a very concerted effort to pass him and no sooner than I did the wobbles on my bike got even worse. I was convinced he would get back past, but guess he thought it safer to not get too close to me !!!
Another rider of a wobbling 350 Velocette MAC blew up his engine and then spectated at Gerrards. He came and found me afterwards to say mine was the worse handling bike round there. Just what I wanted to hear !
Stu Rogers also came and found me in the paddock to offer advice on the handing, so word was getting out there about the handling issues, for I had never spoken to him before.
I have since, found issues that will not of helped the handling on the day and they will be sorted, but I think improved suspension damping will prevent the pogo sticking which I think might be initiating the wobbles.