Broomsticks and Shock Absorbers

We just had a short weekend away in the Kootenay Lake area of British Columbia – it’s a very nice part of the country, and we were staying with some friends who have a house there. It’s about a 6 hour drive from Calgary, making it just beyond what most people would consider an easy commute for a cottage, so it isn’t quite so heavily built up as some vacation areas and this seems to suit the local folks just fine.

Since we were not too far from Nakusp, we travelled up there for a day to stop in at Wolfgang’s Laverda shop which is nestled away in the hills above Nakusp. It seems like an unlikely location for what is probably North America’s largest supplier of vintage Laverda motorcycle parts and services, but obviously it must work. Wolfgang also stocks parts suitable for other makes and models., and I particularly was interested in picking up a pair or two of the Ikon rear shock absorbers he sells which are made in Australia, very good quality and more importantly are the correct length to fit my GT750’s. We had a good look around his shop and warehouse, sorted out the parts and then had a very nice drive back down to where we staying. The next day we stopped in at Crawford Bay to see the North Woven Broom company. Again, it seems an unlikely place to find something like this, but North Woven Broom has supplied brooms as props for movies and television shows like Bewitched, Road to Avonlea and Shanghai Noon as well as for the Canadian distributor of the Harry Potter books ! Needless to say, we bought a broom for ourselves and it is currently looking very nice in our front hallway !

As I’ve written previously, we generally look for Shell stations as we travel as they are the folks paying my pension, but they sure don’t make it easy. On the way home, it was disappointing to note that we were able to drive 942 km (585 miles) without seeing a single Shell service station the whole time ! Weird.

Victoria’s Quilts

Giving something useful back to the community is always worthwhile, and as every family at some time or other is touched by illness, accident or tragedy, if that ’something’ can provide a bit of comfort during a difficult time then I think that is doubly good to do. Victoria’s Quilt s Canada is probably not very well known – certainly people always seem surprised to hear about it when we talk about it, but this is a group of volunteer quilters from across Canada that produces hand made quilts as gifts to patients dealing with cancer. The quilts themselves are beautiful, and the amount of donated material, craftsmanship and time that goes into each one continues to amaze me. These are offered by Victoria’s Quilts Canada to cancer patients in response to requests by a family member, friend or relative – and at no cost to the person receiving the quilt. Here in the Calgary Victoria’s Quilts Chapter, there are about forty-five full time members plus probably an additional thirty or forty quilters who contribute time and additional resources. Its a very good cause.

Shell Canada Ltd. offers Community Service Fund cash grants of varying amounts to specified groups, charities and organisations in which Shell staff and retirees participate, and in 2008 Shell Canada Ltd. donated more than $490,000 to some 350 organisations across Canada benefiting directly from this programme.

Today I was very pleased to present to the Calgary Victoria’s Quilts executive, a generous cheque from Shell Canada Ltd. , which was gratefully received, and which will be used to fund the cost of materials used in the production of quilts for cancer patients in the Calgary and surrounding area. In the presentation photo to the right we have the Calgary Victoria’s Quilt executive who are (from left): Laura Deschner(Vice-President), Sharron Blaine (President), Marilyn Lichtenstein (Treasurer), myself doing the presentation and Donna Sandy (Secretary).

If you want to make a contribution of either fabric (please be sure to check the specifiations before donating fabric) or money, or if you are a quilter and want to donate some of your own time just contact the national office or the branch closest to you.

At the moment, this is a North American group, but I suspect groups will eventually pop up in other countries – I think its needed.

Back to Wetaskiwin !

My Dad came for a short visit this past week, and as a result aircraft were on the agenda ! He trained at Napier & Sons in the UK, and then after emigrating to Canada was involved for a short while in aero jet engine design at Orenda, working on the afterburner design of the Iroquois engine being readied for the Avro Arrow. While the few completed Avro Arrow’s were cut up for scrap, there are still two Iroquois engines in existence  - one in Hamilton, and one in Ottawa.

As this year was the 100th anniversary of flight in Canada there were several good exhibits available to visit in Alberta – including the full size Avro Arrow replica in Wetaskiwin, which we visited just over a year ago with my father-in-law Warren, shortly before he passed away.  I previously wrote about that here.  The Avro Arrow replica is on display is at the Reynolds  Alberta Museum and Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in Wetaskiwin till September 23rd and (I think) it is well worth seeing – you really cannot appreciate just how big an aircraft the Arrow was till you stand in front of it – the model looks quite good although they obviously had a problem dealing with the weight of the wings and so to avoid them ’sagging’ there are some supports under each wingtip, which I edited out of the photos I took to mark the event. I suppose that’s cheating, but the photos look much better as a result so I really don’t feel too bad !

One of the other places I took him to, was the Lancaster bomber exhibit in Nanton just south of Calgary. This is a real ‘must’ see as it is one of the very few Lancaster’s still in existence that you can actually go inside of, plus currently two of the four engines actually work – they run them several times per year with the next ’showing’ being September 26th.

There is quite a story that goes with how this plane came to be in the middle of Alberta – if you get a chance, check it out as the museum, the exhibits and the aircraft on display are well worth a look.

We finished off the week with a day at the Military Museum , which used to be called the Museum of Regiments and which was just recently reopened after a major refurbishment – it now combines museums representing all the Canadian forces.  Again, lots to see and of course, several aircraft were on display in the naval gallery.

All in all it was a busy week – checking out aircraft during the day, and then relaxing with a glass of wine while sitting on the back deck watching the activity in Fish Creek Park in the evenings. Its a tough life, but someone has to do it !

1973 GT750 Rebuild – Rethink

More problems – so making a few changes to the project plan.

Once I had the Calgary donor bike stripped down, I was able to put its frame along side the Kincardine frame and then noticed a few differences. Earlier GT750 frames in 1972 had a 2 bolt hole side stand and in late 1972 for the 1973 model year, this was changed to a 3 bolt side stand mount. For some reason, the Kincardine frame was the earlier 2 bolt hole style, and the side stand itself was not original and would need to be replaced. As well, on closer inspection I found that the Kincardine frame had a broken engine mount. The engine and frame for the Calgary bake were original and so the serial numbers very nearly matched (Suzuki frame and engine serial numbers seldom match exactly, and can actually differ by a wide margin). As they were original and close, it seemed a shame to give that up. The frame was cracked in the rear fender stay – not really a key structural member and so could easily be welded. The centre and side stands were both in very good shape. The engine was another story entirely. The Kincardine frame of course had no engine, and so would have been a ‘bitsa’ bike anyway – given a choice then of building a ‘bitsa’ or doing a restoration, I decided to restore the Calgary frame and engine. Of course nothing is ever easy …..

Whenever the Calgary bike had been parked – sometime back in the 1980’s – the oil was allowed to drain out and then it had sat outside in the snow and rain for the next 25 years or so. The barrels came off easily using the puller, but the sight that met my eyes once I cracked open the side cover wasn’t pretty.

There was a lot of rust – my guess is that the engine probably had been in good condition when parked, but over the years had gradually become seized solid with corrosion. Basically other than the cases, barrels, cylinder head and side covers there wasn’t much else I could really use – luckily I have several sets of transmission clusters, and crankshaft assembles so I can replace all the internals with parts from other engines. This does cause a bit of a potential problem though, as the number of teeth on some of the drive and intermediate gears changed over the model years, and I’m not sure which model year cluster sets I have on hand. As well, I will have to mix and ,match the gear sets a bit to minimise the lash in the drive train. Normally there are paint codes on the inside of the engine case, and sometimes on the gear clusters also to assist with lash adjustment, but for some reason this engine had no paint codes inside at all. The water pump, not surprisingly, is shot but I can either rebuild it or replace it. More work than I had expected, but all very doable.

Today I took in a GT750 crankshaft to Greg’s Cycle here in Calgary to have new seals installed. Assuming that nothing much else is wrong with it, I expect It should be ready in about 2 to 3 weeks.  I still need to check the barrels to see whether I need to use over-sized pistons, or just re-use standard size ones, but that can wait till after the crankshaft is finished, and I have the gear clusters, crankshaft and all the other bits and pieces back in the cases.

The next few weeks then will be busy getting the above items sorted, plus I have another item I need to prepare for also. Our club is having a ‘powder-coat’ day here in Calgary in early September which I’d really like to take advantage of. This is made possible by a local supplier and basically you show up with your items prepped and ready to go, and take them home freshly powder coated for very reasonable rates. With a bit of luck I hope to have both a GT750 and GT500 frame ready to go, together with all the bits and pieces (battery box, side and centre stands, swing arm etc.).

Of course that means I’ll need to strip down the 1977 GT500, which I haven’t really even looked at yet.