Racing again (at last)

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You guys can laugh about drum brakes, but I cannot. My excuse for using them is I did not know any better. What is yours' ?
When I think of the racing I did between 1965 and 1975, I just feel sick. I should be dead. I was only seriously injured once, but that time I went very close.
Yes, we all know your about your bad experiences with drum brakes, I myself have had one or two, the same situation, almost, with disc front brakes. If you don't know any better, you can feck it up setting up either type, as you see on this website every so often... . .
You don't appear to have had, down under, any drum brakes specialist who could reline your brake shoes for you, like in the UK, but even they did work from overseas. One firm even had their own race van that went round the race circuits in the late 1950s, complete with a lathe in the back, offering a brake relining service. I doubt if you had anything like that?
 
I am just absolutely stoked to see that somewhere in the world there are people who are still road-racing motorcycles. The virus really shits me, it seems to be never-ending. You never know how much you really need something until you cannot have it.
Open Test and Tune comming up at Winton next month Al. Ready to go?
 
Yes, we all know your about your bad experiences with drum brakes, I myself have had one or two, the same situation, almost, with disc front brakes. If you don't know any better, you can feck it up setting up either type, as you see on this website every so often... . .
You don't appear to have had, down under, any drum brakes specialist who could reline your brake shoes for you, like in the UK, but even they did work from overseas. One firm even had their own race van that went round the race circuits in the late 1950s, complete with a lathe in the back, offering a brake relining service. I doubt if you had anything like that?
BGT Brakes in the Melbourne suburb of Melbourne were excellent. When I was racing my Triton, I always rode in All-powers C grade against Z900s H2s and RD350s - all had disc brakes and I had AJS7R drum brakes, front and rear . If you get a drum brake good enough to race in that class, it will always be dangerous. You can be the biggest bloody expert in the world and you will still crash. Disc brakes are fare more controllable. At least you can grab a handful with confidence. Whenever I raced, I always had extreme anxiety - the brake and the power band. The brake was always dangerous and If I dropped out of the power band in a corner, the bike would always go sideways when I slipped the clutch to power out of the corner. It all usually used to happen at speeds above 70 MPH going into and around high speed corners.
The bikes I used to race against did not hang about, and on occasion I led them.
 
Back in those days, there were 3 main linings available - MZ41, MZ42 and ME36. ME36 was the softest lining and would work when cold. I used different linings on the front and rear shoes and always set up in the lathe by the experts. When I sold the bike back to my friend who had originally built it, the first thing that happened was I got a phone call about the brake. He had changed the liinings and could not get it to work. The reason he changed the linings was the brake frightened him. It was one-finger operation, anything more was too much. But it had to be like that or you would not be competitive. It was OK, but you had to stay in practice. If you over-reacted even slightly, you crashed.

'I doubt if you had anything like that?' - I suggest you try it for yourself. Even if you fit hard linings, they can suddenly heat up and grab. I rode for 12 years with that shit, so I know what I am talking about. Every crash I ever had except for one, was due to the front brake. But these days I use dual discs on the front, so life is much easier. For 20 years I never rode in historic events until recently. I am much faster than most.
 
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Al , there are very successful racers in NZ in the Pre 1963 class, all have drum brakes (no discs) and dont seem to have the same issue you have or had. These guys have raced at Phillip Island as well and had no issues there , so bagging drum brakes doesnt sit well over here!!
 
Well....has anyone got anything to report on racing in 2020? It is a year this weekend since my last race, and very unlikely I will get an opportunity in less than 6 to 8 months from now. 18/20 months is a long time away from a race track at any age, after 65 who knows how difficult it will be to come back to it at all?

It will be more encouraging to read about what people are doing now, than harping back to what we might have done 20 to 40 years ago.
 
Al , there are very successful racers in NZ in the Pre 1963 class, all have drum brakes (no discs) and dont seem to have the same issue you have or had. These guys have raced at Phillip Island as well and had no issues there , so bagging drum brakes doesnt sit well over here!!
Drum brakes are not so bad if every bike in the race has them. Then everybody is that bit slower. You can only go as fast as you can brake. We have period 3 in Australia too - if I wanted to compete in that I would buy a Grimeca or an Oldani, and be careful. With disc brakes, you usually don't have to even think about them because they never do anything stupid - like heating up then grabbing or simply refusing to work because they are too cold.
If you put twin discs on a Manx in that Pre 1963 class, you would have the others all crashing behind you trying to keep up. I watched it happen many years ago , when John Maher fitted discs off a Yamaha road bike onto his TR3. All the other guys had the big drums. About 4 of them crashed when he out-braked them into every corner on Calder Raceway in one race. John became known a King Of Calder. In those days all road race bikes had drum brakes, but the Yamaha XT500 (?) had twin discs in about 1968. It was the first time we had seen them except for the Lyster brake on one bike, which did not seem to do much.
 
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I can't believe you guys. I put a topic up on this forum and discovered there are people who race without steering dampers. Locking the front brake can lead to the biggest tank slapper. Without a steering damper you can almost immediately get launched.
So what you need to avoid getting Covid 19 is to go racing with a pudding-basin helmet, drum front brake and no steering damper ? - risk minimisation.
 
I enjoy discussing road racing with you guys. It reminds me that I survived. I just hope to get the opportunity to do it again.
Are any of the smaller race meetings in the UK televised ? - I might get a proxy server and watch. I've been watching the British Superbikes on Youtube - I can't identify with what they do. I never watch MotoGP - I find it boring, like V8 Supercars and F1.
 
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Hi Steve
Like you a lost year at the wrong end of the time we will have left to race/parade.
I am actually more positive about next season. Not that we will get out but with Ralph, Steve's, Mike, Fred maybe John, Al etc.
we have a group of Commandos racing!
I started getting the bike ready for Pembrey. Spoke to John about an entry & started to sort my eye test for the ACU. All to nought.
Next year though, I intend to do every round I can. Plus choosing circuits I want to race at, at home & abroad. Lol so same as always lol. And as always we will see what happens & where we go. But the garage is a happier place to be at the moment with the thought of being out on track with all those Commandos.
 
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Hi Steve
Like you a lost year at the wrong end of the time we will have left to race/parade.
I am actually more positive about next season. Not that we will get out but with Ralph, Steve's, Mike, Fred maybe John, Al etc.
we have a group of Commandos racing!
I started getting the bike ready for Pembrey. Spoke to John about an entry & started to sort my eye test for the ACU. All to nought.
Next year though, I intend to do every round I can. Plus choosing circuits I want to race at, at home & abroad. Lol so same as always lol. And as always we will see what happens & where we go. But the garage is a happier place to be at the moment with the thought of being out on track with all those Commandos.
Hopefully a vaccine will come early 2021 so us old creoaks wont wont lose another year racing. I'm booked in for the double day meeting at Darley mid October if it goes ahead
 
Hi Steve
Like you a lost year at the wrong end of the time we will have left to race/parade.
I am actually more positive about next season. Not that we will get out but with Ralph, Steve's, Mike, Fred maybe John, Al etc.
we have a group of Commandos racing!
I started getting the bike ready for Pembrey. Spoke to John about an entry & started to sort my eye test for the ACU. All to nought.
Next year though, I intend to do every round I can. Plus choosing circuits I want to race at, at home & abroad. Lol so same as always lol. And as always we will see what happens & where we go. But the garage is a happier place to be at the moment with the thought of being out on track with all those Commandos.
See you next year, I will be trying to do as many as I can, Commando and 500 Dommi. All subject the current carry on of course.
 
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