Big Bang at the Beezumph.
After rebuilding the bottom end of the engine; a routine rebuild after 4 hours track time; the team set off to the Beezumph Rally at Cadwell Park on the 14th and 15th of August.
The Beezumph Rally is a two day track festival organised by the Trident and Rocket 3 Owners Club (TR3OC) and we had been persuaded by Team Triplebrew's Grant and Ian Tapsell to join them.
Reg Charlesworth was there, but with his cousin in the chair as Kerry couldn't get the time off of work. Mike Bellaby and his passenger Carl Underwood; who Mike has now officially adopted on a permanent basis as opposed to merely borrowing him from Gristwood & Toms when needed; were also in attendance with the mighty JRS Weslake.
The basic format for the sidecars is two 20 minute track session each day........good value for 60 quid!
Unfortunately, neither Andy or Howard could make the trip to Cadwell due to work commitments, so we were very pleased to meet up with Graham Pearce, an old friend from years ago, who agreed to help out.
The first thing was to sign on, which ended up being a bit of a challenge in itself! The young lady in the circuit office wouldn't accept my competition license, but wanted to see my normal driving license!
After that, we had to run the gauntlet of the Noise Meter Nazis. Mike had already warned us that they didn't appear to have a clue what they were doing, he was right!
They tested us at 110 dB, which is a little strange, as the bike had registered 100 dB at Pembrey, and 102 at Brands Hatch (with a lot of background noise).
The guy with the meter was actually pretty reasonable, and allowed to let us ride, even though the limit is actually 105 dB.
Mike's approach was a little more innovative, he stood his bike on a piece of carpet, and threw a blanket over the engine!!!!!!!!.........Maybe he's after sponsorship from B&Q?????????
The first session on Friday was great, we gently increased the revs, the bike performed perfectly, and Shelli got to grips with the very technical track, and the stupid chicane at Mansfield. All of the other CRMC teams had similarly good results: Grant's wrist was hurting him after his Brands spill but the Trident ran superbly, Reg's cousin enjoyed himself and Mike went of in search of some avgas for the B&Q Express.
We checked the bike over and had a very relaxed few hours admiring some of the wonderful bikes on show.
We all went out for the second session, apart from Grant and Ian, as Grants wrist wasn't up to it, and everything was fine for the first six or so laps, then IT happened.........
As we changed down to go through Hall Bends, there was an almighty bang and I whipped the clutch in and coasted onto the grass. A couple of spectators who were stood 50 yards away told us that he bang was so loud, they though we had smashed on of the lower frame tubes into the kerb!
After the bike was pushed back to the paddock by the extremely helpful marshals, the three of us set to work stripping the gears box. It was soon apparent that the gearbox layshaft had broken clean in two!
We started hunting around the paddock in the apparently vain hope of finding a spare layshaft, and Graham went to find his friend Barry, a keen auto-jumbler, to see if he could help.
Barry said that he didn't have a layshaft,but that a friend of his, Tom, was on his way to the track and he would be able to help.
When Tom arrived, he said that he had a complete gearbox back at his house (about 8 miles away) and that we could have it.
Graham and I followed Tom back to his house and the three of us stripped the gearbox and pressed the gears onto a new layshaft before returning to the paddock.
First thing on Saturday morning, we started rebuilding the gearbox, and by 9.30, it was back together, but unfortunately it was clear that something else was wrong. The gearbox wouldn't select gears properly.
When we got home, I stripped the gearbox again and found that the gearbox quadrant had spun on it shaft, so that the gearbox would not index correctly.
This was fixed by welding the shaft to the quadrant (they are normally a simple press fit) and the gearbox was reassembled using a brand new 4 speed cluster that we had in stock.
One small footnote: Tom was so anxious to get us back on the track, that he refused to talk about money while we were at his house, and arranged to sort it out he following day.
Unfortunately Tom never turned up on the Saturday and Barry was taken to hospital following a fall from his solo on Saturday morning.
We left a note on Barry's van asking one of them to get in touch but we have heard nothing, so if anyone knows who the mysterious and generous Tom is, please let us know so that we can give him some money!
The bikes now back together ready for Snetterton on the 12th and 13th of September.
All the best.
Nick