A Foray To Foreign Lands On Vintage Bicycles

The team were in training for the raid with a trip to France for the famous Boulogne Bicycle Rally last weekend. For the uninitiated this is a 26mile cycle ride on vintage bicycles with a mandatory bar stop for beer or Paul Ricard's Patis every couple of miles. Apparently the route follows a pre-war motor racing track although where the track actually went has long since been forgotten and a number of different routes are used to travel the short distance between each bar.


A special mention should be made of Matt Sheperd who decided that the gruelling 26miles on an ancient bicycle with the equally gruelling number of alcohol stops was not enough of a challenge and duly proceded to ride the entire route with two flat tyres. An interesting technique that probably won't be seen again for a number of years......


The Createure and Vicko tear down a track through the woods:

It was wet, very wet.

I thought a picture of the weekend taken from the other angle should be presented... Extreme weather testing seemed to go swimmingly! The morning practice session was completed in true mongolian monsoon conditions. I blame the slightly fuzzy edges to all my pictures on all that cider the previous (dry) evening!

Tea inside - very wet Mors, Jeremy (non-tea drinker), and dedicated bystander outside.


The car can cope with the weather, but can the support crew?! Thank you to Gazebo owners everywhere, especially the up market ones who have sides, which proved invaluable for the new types of sideways and upwards rain. I regret ever doubting their practicality and camping prowess.

and finally a marketing shot for the VSCC newsletter... inspiring! The cider seems to have made my head heavy in this picture, tilting it to the side slightly.

sud le cidre

WOW!

What a sight! The Mors arrives at Wiscombe after 150 faultless miles, headlight ablaze!


Oli flies up the hill - to miss first in class by a fraction of a second.

SATURDAY THE BIG DAY!

Weather forecast indifferent but Oliver is prepared for the 150 mile trip to Wiscombe Hillclimb in a car that has a total mileage in the past 80 years of approx. 10 miles!
Mecaniciens (Oli, Jeremy, and myself)worked through the car on final checks. Oliver fitting last few bodywork panels, checking Oils and water, final brake adjustments.
Jeremy checked over the locking wheel nuts and reseated the exhaust manifolds which were rather gappy.
I made up a MSA oil catch tank and breather system fitting it to the rear filler position. Fitted two Air cleaners (we will certainly need these in the Gobi)and did a nut and bolt check. Stopped for a bite of lunch and charged up the battery. We have not yet finalised the charging system.

Oliver and Jeremy then donned suitable atire (ties of course) caps and goggles.
jeremy was to drive the BIG Austin (10 ltre, 4 cylinder) and Oli the Mors. The Austin has no starter so this was attached to the Range Rover and after a short tug it fired into life.
Oliver pumped up the fuel pressure to 1 psi pushed the starter button on the Mors and with its usual instant bang it roared into life. Quick oil pressure check (50 psi)and they were off!

I had agreed to go with them in the Range Rover the first 10 miles to Midhurst down the A272 to ensure all well. I ran on ahead and what a magnificent site in the mirrors! Coming out of Petworth there are two short stretches of dual carriageway. As they appeared to be keeping up well I accelerated up to 65mph and then suddenly first the Austin flew past in a great wall of sound a thumbs up from pilote Jeremy and he was gone! Whilst fascinated by the sight now ahead, suddenly again, this time a different sound, sharper yet smoother the Mors flew past like an Exocet missile clearly intent on keeping pace. Another thumbs up from pilote Oliver who appeared to have a very large grin from ear to ear.
I followed them to the edge of Midhurst and turned for home wishing I could have been somehwere ahead and seeing these two Beasts forging through the countryside.

Tuesday Evening

Fitting of the body back onto the chassis is going well with just the fixings to finalise. Have fitted a couple of original Curtiss aircraft exhaust manifolds today to try and quieten things down a bit - just too noisy on stub exhausts for both the occupants and the neighbours! The manifolds have made a huge difference and I have run it for about half an hour in total today, the engine is settling in well and when warm ticking over at a couple of hundred RPM on all eight cylinders.

Wiscombe hillclimb and the 120 mile drive to Devon this weekend is fast approaching. It should be a very good test of all systems!......

WEEKEND PROGRESS

Most of us did the 2 day expedition First Aid course while Oli toiled away on the car.
We are now trained up for Snake Bites, Broken Limbs, Choking on Sheeps Eyes and even Gobi Desert Sunburn and Heat stroke.
Oli is sorting the final bits of body work and finally refitting various panels. Its really looking good!

Jeremy worked on EB4 (The BIG Austin) on Monday to prepare it for Wiscombe next weekend. It seems to only want to run at high speed and is very fluffy at low speeds.

I spent yesterday machining 8 magneto high tension lead adaptors for the original mag and early this morning finally finished soldering them to the HT leads. Also finished fitting a modern remote type oil filter which must be a sensible precaution.
Oli decided to fit the original exhaust manifolds at least for the Wiscombe event and although horrid on the bench they don't look too bad on the car.

We have an organisation who are making positive noises about getting us the permission to go through China.

Getting home early...........Maybe a test run tonight!

FIRST AID !

Most of us are going on an intensive 2 day First Aid course tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday. This is set up for expedition members who may need First Aid but are not within reach of a Hospital. Looking at the front end of "LE SANGLIER" I can imagine we may have to treat shocked bystanders in remote areas.
As far as progress on China is concerned we are pinning our hopes on starting immediately after Prescott Hill Climb in August. This will mean very High Humidity in China and very hot conditions in the GOBI, not ideal but it is probably the only sensible window left for us.
The car is looking great. Made up some curved and swaged exhaust stubs today at work to be able to turn the 8 manifold pipes into a simple manifold.
I need to finish the oil filter system and also will be working on the Radiator plumbing over the weekend with revised hoses and water manifolds.
We need to run the Beast again on Sunday for more testing.
Would be good to drive it to work next week! Oliver is aiming to drive it to Wiscombe Hillclimb next weekend (130 miles) but we ought to get more running in sorted before then.

Run for your lives!