Wednesday 1 June 2011

Vespa World Days 2011 Gjøvik

Vespa World Days 2011. 7 Roughnecks. 7 Vespas. 1 Rally. 

I'd driven the Rally for one single day before driving 800kms to Gjøvik, and the scooter behaved all the way. Beat that!  
 On our way towards Hjelmeland - Haukeli - Notodden. It rained heavily & constantly for 11 hours and 45 mins the first day towards Notodden. The remaining 15 mins of the 12 hour trip, it rained only slightly. But everybody was well dressed; Gloves were a returning nightmare...

 Next day near Hokksund, towards Gjøvik: Teamed up with the Rivals from Kristiansand. Much better weather.

 The Rally behaved very well on its trip to Gjøvik, but a minimal oil leakage from rear axle and forecast of rain on my way home; I changed the sim.ring before it would make any trouble.

Out with tank, rest the old lady on her side in the grass, remove tire and drum... Easy fix.

Telltale of defect simring; oil stains coming from axle spinning out. 

Notice to myself regarding tubeless: Use weak thread lock on bolts... 

Sim-ring removed, 47-27-6 if I remember correctly. The sim-ring looked undamaged, and afterwards I suspect that a too loose axle bolt might have caused the leakage, allowing too much radial play. The simring was reused on DC's 1958 model with same issue, only more severe...

No other problems detected, possibly a small leakage from exhaust. 

 Roughnecks, me second to right.  

 I ended up driving Gjøvik - Stavanger all alone on my way home. The backup truck started 2 hours behind me, and passed me first on Suleskaret, near home. 

Except for running out of gas some kms before Notodden, the scooter would have behaved all the way home. But from Seljord and on, I experienced 6-8 motor stops, and several hundreds of hickups. Every time, just choking and starting the bike again would cure it. I suspect the 4 liter window cleanser can I used as an emergency gas can when running out of fuel still contained some window cleansing liquid... 


Motorstop @ Suleskaret. It was just like there was a "layer" of water in the tank. Shaking the tank helped a lot, and hickups went a way for a while... But I made it home!

Registration 2.0

Short story: Friday 13th the Rally was approved, thanks to my father who helped me while me being in Cyprus on holiday.

Some minor prepping of the scooter remained before I could join in on VWD 2011 Gjøvik the 18th, so when I got back from holidays I added a new petrol filter (Short story: New tank lacquer didn't handle petrol... ) and added tubeless rims and new wheels to the scooter. Ready for 18th!