Waynes Hillclimber part two

Hill climber #2

We’ve just come back from the Albany hill climb, and what an event. 
Rod, Glen and i headed off Thursday morning, Rod and Glen Harley mounted and me running backup in the old ute for a nice leisurely ride to Albany.
I wont spend a lot of time on the ride details because Glen is going to cover this in detail later but in short we had a rather uneventful run to Broomehill on the first day, which was great because Rods WLA had just come out of my shed after an overhaul, so to run the whole day at speed with no dramas or leaks is just fabo. Overnight at the Broomehill pub (excellent and cheap) then on to Albany through the Perongerups on the Friday. 

Saturday was the Poker run (Glen will fill in the details on this), then Sunday was the hill climb.
The hill climb is run on bitumen for about 800 meters up Mt Clarence just out of the Albany town centre, its a nice scenic piece of road that the council closes off and allows the Albany club to use once a year for this event, great scenery, nice smooth road and very well organised.
The idea of the Albany hill climb is for competitors to ride three runs and match your times each time, so rather than an all out speed event its a consistency trial. The easiest way to win this type of event is to have a low powered bike (std 741 or WLA is perfect) and go flat out every run, thus staying consistent. However quite a few of the guys do tend to run big h/p and go flat out, so to combat recklessness there is a time limit set, eg anyone running under 31 seconds is disqualified, but you can take as long as you like (70 seconds for the small machines is not uncommon) but usually most people run from 45 seconds to 35 seconds.
The event starts with everyone doing one familiarisation run up the hill (three groups), then two timed practice runs, after practice you must select the time that you want to match for your next three runs. I was having some dramas with my bike jumping out of gear (1st and 2nd) on my first couple of runs which gave me some fairly slow times (45s) up the hill, so i spent some quality time in the pits with my trusty shifter and screwed in the shifter detent a bit which helped heaps.
My first timed run went o/k, i was lined up against a Triumph twin running avgas and huge cams which sounded awesome on the start line and went very well, he ran a 44 and i ran 46 which was a bit disappointing (missed a gear) but nice practice.

A bit more tinkering in the pits and we lined up for run two, by this time i decided i wanted to see what the old girl would do rather than try and be consistent (I’d already buggered up my times anyway so what the heck), this time the old girl ran hard, i had a perfect launch, no shifting dramas and no jumping out of gears. So by the time i got to the top i had one very surprised pommy bike rider, one very happy wog pilot, and a 41 second pass, cool.

The old guy on the Trumpy found me in the pits after the run and said “Fook me Tha ol thin goes fust”.
I should mention that the organisers match up bikes so that there is one slow bike and one fast bike together, so that your not side by side going through the corners and its a bit safer, i suppose they figured a 27 Indian Scout would be much slower than a hot rod trumpy, well i don’t think they will assume that again, our old relics have some serious respect at the hill climb now, particuly since Charlie was giving the Norton twin he was lined up against a good kicking as well.
After i got the old girl running hard i just concentrated on my launches, much to the relief of the Trumpy rider, as long as i beat him up the straight i was happy. Once i got to the first of the bendy bits i let him go in front so he wouldn’t bugger up his times.  So for next year i think i will dress up the gear set (grind the teeth in the gear box) to eliminate the jumping out of gear issue and fit a King clutch (Kevelar) so the old girl doesn’t pull through the clutch at full noise. And with a bit more practice and the gods of speed on my side we should be running at just under Z900 times next year, not bad for a 90 year old bike built out of junk.

 

I would definitely recommend this event to anyone with an old bike, its just great. You can go as fast or slow as you like in the event or you can just come along and check out all of the machinery, Lots of very well presented machines to look at and interesting people too
 talk to, whatever suits you.  
There was well over a hundred machines participating, mostly English and Jap machines with a few European bikes mixed in for a bit of variety. Not so many American machines competing though, only two Indians and a Harley. I think we American mounted folks gave a good account of ourselves though, they won’t forget us in a hurry.  
So for next year, Charlie has been bitten by the go fast bug and wants to build a hill climber as well. We have a 28 - 101 frame and forks already allocated to the project, a 741 rear wheel, half a standard scout engine, a chief gear box and a few other bits and pieces, and the plan is to build a full house animal with a huge stroke (1000cc Scout), huge cams and open pipes so between us we can give the poms a sound kicking next year with some luck. I think i have Lyndon and Steve interested in putting a stroker WLA together as well,1000 cc with big cams should do some good times and represent Harley with some dignity as well. 
So hopefully ive inspired a few of you to come to Albany next year and check out something a bit different, its definitely not our normal type of event but its definitely a lot of fun.

Wayne DAM  
Member #2
El President’e -  Early American Motorcycle Club Perth Western Australia

Wayne's Chout Hillclimber build part one

In his own words



Hi Folks

I thought i might share a recent bike building experience with you all.
This all started in late August, we were having a bit of a discussion in the shed about doing a trip to Albany for the annual hill climb. We thought a whole week would be nice so we could check out the southwest and have a nice long ride as well, check out the hill climb in the middle of it and then mosy home.
About this time i thought it would be great to take a hill climb special along for the ride, I’ve been talking about building a special for years so this was the ideal opportunity to get off my bum and put a machine together.


What was needed was something light and fast, so a bit of a dig around in mine and Chris’s spares came up with a 27/28 short frame 101 designed for a 600 cc engine, i had a spare 26 front end which fitted nicely and an old 44 chief rear wheel that might fit. 
So in the space of an hour we had the makings of something that might work

Now the engine took a bit of serious brain work, a scout engine bored, stroked and ported might do, but for a hill we really needed big cubes and a long stroke for torque. So we started looking at an old seriously banged up chief engine I’d been carting around for ages. The cases were cracked and the magy mount and half of the cam case was broken off and missing, but a bit of artistic repair might just work, we didn’t need a magy anyway. 
Off to Dave the welders and had the cracks repaired, i made a blanking piece for the cam side and had that welded in, a bit of flat fileing and hey presto we had a set of usable cases, they didn’t look much like chief cases anymore but should work o/k. Now welding usually distorts aluminium a bit (a lot) so i had to set the case halves up in the lathe and make them true which wasn’t a drama but it did mean we had to make an oversize bearing race for one side, so off to my mate bob the machinist and he made, hardened and ground a special one for me.
I had a set of flywheels and rods left over from my 44 resto so i set up a nice bottom end with all new pins and bearings, and trued it up in my jig (0.00 runout, you have to be happy with that).

Barrels were another thing - i did have a set but they were ugly and i’d been avoiding using them for years, one of them was already 60 thou over, all of the head bolt holes were nackered and needed helicoiling, it was cracked from the inlet valve to the bore, two of the base mounting ears were broken off and the valve seats were badly recessed, and a heap of cooling fins were broken off. Usually something like this would go in the bin but hey the bike was only going to run for about half an hour a year so may as well give it a go, we welded the valve seats, repaired the base flange, made some fins and welded them on to replace the missing ones, sleaved it and bored it and hey presto we had a still ugly but usable barrel. 
The other one was fairly simple in comparison it just needed the base flange repaired and a bore and it was good to go, usually i don’t use parts this bad in a resto because you generally can’t rely on them but they seem to be holding up nicely so far.
Chris came to the party with probably the ugliest chief heads I’ve ever seen, they looked like they had spent the last 50 years in the ocean, serious corrosion of the fins but the combustion chambers were perfect so a bit of work by Charlie on the belt sander tidying up fins, Jimmy on the face plate making the mounting face flat, Andrew spot faced the head bolt seat areas and they fitted just fine.
The oil pump as well was ugly, it came from the same smashed up set of cases we were using so it seemed only appropriate we should repair it and use it, the bottom return pipe casting was smashed off so i pruned off all of the broken bits, removed all the unnecessary casting and made a base plate (the old one was broken in half) and fitted new return gears. Now because the whole front of the right side engine case was missing i had no engine breather either, i modified the oil pump (or what was left of it) and the cam cover to pull crankcase ventilation from there, piped it out the side of the oil pump and she was good to go, i even had it Cad plated to make it look good.
I had a cracked gearbox housing from a 24 chief and Chris had a banged up primary from a 23 chief, unfortunately both needed huge repairs to the cases (inner primary was broken in half) before they were usable but they too came up a treat, the best remaining gear set i had with new bearings and a new cluster shaft went in, a few mods to the drive side engine case and they fitted like they were supposed to be there. Also had a early scout shifter that someone had shortened hanging around in my junk pile, that got a tidy up and went on as well. 
So power plant all assembled with all new internals (pistons, rings, valves, guides, bearings, pins and housings) a bit of super secret porting to the barrels and heads and balanced to perfection and we had an engine ready to go.
Next step - make it fit a frame that was made for a 1927 600cc engine hhhhmmmm. 
Without the heads the engine fitted o/k (a bit tight), but there was only 15mm clearance from the top of the barrels to the top frame tube, modifying a good frame was not an option (don’t bugger up any usable Indian bits is my shed moto) so it had to be the heads, these were seriously nackered anyway so it was the best option. Lots of work with the sander and a half round file and a custom made thin head gasket had the heads fitting under the tube with about 0.5mm to spare, made some custom front engine mounts and it all fitted great.
So we had an assembled engine in the frame and a set of forks, next was the wheels, front was a bit of a problem, i didn’t have anything suitable, Steve came to the rescue with a 18in rim he’d found on ebay, so i made a front hub and axle and used the old spokes from Micks scout bobber project and wala a wheel, Jimmy donated the old tyres from his sports scout to the project and we were looking good. Rear wheel wasn’t too much drama, i had a complete 44 chief wheel, and Chris donated a rear brake drum that fitted up nicely after some repairs, new bearings and sprocket, i made a backing plate, brake cam and fitted some old unidentified shoos that i had hanging around and we had a rear brake and wheel.
A this stage im getting excited, its looking like a bike, only problem was i couldn’t start it (no kicker) a chief kicker won’t fit because the engines a chief  in an scout frame and a scout kicker won’t fit because its a later engine with a different driver so i had to make one, i found that a scout gearbox cluster gear had the same gear tooth pitch as the chief kicker gear, so i found a cluster gear set that had missing teeth on second gear (hey i keep everything Indian), then hack sawed off first gear (these teeth were o/k), split it in half, made a bush then welded on an old breaker bar from my tool box and hey presto i had a kicker, cool.
Chris has to get huge credit for this bike, he repaired a banged up, rusted out fuel tank and made it like new, he also supplied lots of parts from his shed so we could make it happen as well, so thanks mate it means a lot.
Last step was the start and final tuning,     Geo and Jim had dropped over for a chat that day so they both helped with the first start. Jim made a temporary oil tank (Chris hadn’t finished the main tank at this stage) and Geo supervised, i hooked up some wiring and after that the start up went without a hitch, once we had fuel, oil and spark (did i mention i had to make a complete dizzy as well) it started after two kicks with a huge roar and a couple of big macho barks out the pipes and then settled down and ran like a clock, with return oil coming straight up. Jim was amazed, Geo was gobsmacked and i think i had wood. What a day.

Once Chris had finished the tank all that was left was the first ride, this was also entertaining to say the least, as you can see in the photo I’m running a home made suicide clutch (spring return) and the flanders handle bars are a tad low so its not the most comfortable at low speed. But once she’s rolling she’s a rocket, surprising how much difference a huge weight reduction makes to a bike, the old girl has more grunt than a yard full of pigs and pulls hard up to about 80mph (haven’t tried going faster yet- still running it in), its also loud because of the short pipes and blows some impressive flames out the pipes when you back the throttle off – just love it. Andrew and Jimmy have both had a ride and have both claimed undying love for the old girl, Jimmy is adamant he’s going to send the old girl a valentines card - he loves it that much.
 I have a few bugs yet to sort out like it pulls through the clutch under full throttle in top gear (Kevlar clutch should sort that) and i might fit a steering damper to tame a slight head shake at 80 mph but apart from that we’re good to go for Albany.  
Now if we can just get matched up with a Goldstar (polka dot helmet boy would be great) or a Trumpy to embarrass when we get there I’ll be happy.
So the lesson I’ve learned from this is don’t throw broken bits away, because they can be used to make a tough special. 
Might have a dig around and see what other broken bits i’ve got hanging around, and build a 750 stroker version for barbagalo.

Wayne Elezovich DAM

Waynes hillclimber Chout

 

Build write up to follow ;-)