During the first day riding from Lands end to Warwick any speed over 40 mph resulted in a seize, I must have seized it that day more than 20 times but it made it and loosened up a little as the day went on, by the end of the day I could just about sit at 50 mph.
Day 2 was Warwick to Jedburgh in horrendous weather, the rain helped the motor in that it kept it cool as it was still very tight. That day I only seized it 5 or 6 times and was travelling a bit faster than the day before so it was improving.
Day 3 was Jedburgh to Fort William, great roads through the Highlands and that day I only seized it once.
Day 4 was Fort William to John O Groats, Again the motor ran better and better all day, with about 50 miles left I decided that as it now had 900 miles under its belt that I would ride it normally. on the last stretch of road which leads to the Finger post at John O Groats I finally opened it wide open and let it rev out in 4th only for it to seize yet again just before the end of the road.
Every time it seized that weekend I never once pulled over with it still seized, i rolled and let the clutch back out to get it running again, I’m sure if I hadn’t done this I would not have made the trip due to gummed in rings.
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With the Euro in Davos coming up I needed to get the bore sorted so i decided to take the barrel and piston to Ralph Saxelby for him to bore it while i was there.
When he measured the barrel the bore was very tight at the bottom and oval, the most clearance was near the exhaust port and even then it was just under 3 thou.
My only conclusion regarding the quick bore it had had was that as the piston was only 0.25 bigger than the piston that was in it that the bloke hadn’t measured the bore at all but had tried the piston in the bore and just given it a hone.
Ralph bored it and gave it 4 thou clearance, the clearance I had asked the first guy to bore to.This meant I had to run it in again before the euro.