ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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June 2006 Club News

Lower King | Squid Shack | Annual Inspection | Nunijup | Gymkhana | Trial | Calendar

Slow BBQ at Lower King

Saturday it rained all day, first time for a while. Sunday the weather looked good. I kicked over the BSA Gold Flash for Chris and kicked my AJS 500 into life - first start after rebuilding the engine - the gudgeon circlips had disappeared and the gudgeon pin had made a lovely groove in the barrel.

So after taking it all apart fixing the problem - new cylinder liner and piston - the bike started real easy.
Great - sounds good and good compression too. Except while riding out to the tavern I could hear a noise that wasn’t there before. Mmmmmm, got to the carpark and I had one very hot engine. So after it cooled off I took it home and grabbed the ‘51 BMW instead.

Later I found that the AJS head wasn’t getting any oil. With the singles the oil is pumped up to the rockers and then gravity fed down the push rod tubes. The mains coming from a different feed, if you check the oil return in the tank it looks fine. Ah well put it down to experience. (The noise turned out to be the rear chain rubbing on the back of the primary chaincase - not one problem, but two).

Apparently before I got to the carpark Daniel had turned up on his Ariel, deposited a substantial amount of oil in the carpark and high-tailed it back to Bow Bridge. But there still remained a good and varied turn-out of bikes old and new.

Clive had brought Marilyn on the back of his Bathtub Triumph. I thought Marilyn adjusted well to the different pillion position of the Gold Wing, I must ask her which she prefers most - I bet its the Triumph?

Elleker morning cuppa stop
We set off along the Upper Denmark Road, down Marbellup Road to Elleker for a cuppa. Then it was back into Albany, up Serpentine Road to the Mt Melville look-out.

I reckon if you asked most of the locals when was the last time they went up there they’d be scratching their heads. Its a very pretty drive with some nice bends and brilliant views.

We then headed into town and around the Drive, Middleton Beach to Golf Links Road and Lower King Road, very pleasant. The BBQ area at Lower King on the side of the river is very pleasant - it was a pity that the one BBQ was out of gas and the other a bit slow, but it did eventually do the job.

After a very leisurely lunch it was time for most to head home. By the time Chris and I went to leave there was only Phil and Lurl, Ray, Des and Andrew left. Andrew’s ever-reliable 250 BMW decided to have a bit of fun and games by putting out a spark, plenty of fuel but no go! It turned out to be internal injuries. But we managed to get Andrew and bike home without too much trouble in Des’ ute.

Thanks to John and Jan for going back-up.

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