Hi Ray - hope you don't mind, but I've "emigrated" your last post over here!
I forgot to say earlier that one other reason that I preferred the Metisse was that while I sat on top of the Macchi like a monkey on a stick, I found that I sat down "into" the Metisse, and felt myself to be a part of the bike.
Speaking of 1978, here are two photos - as you may remember, Thursday afternoon was even worse than race day - you can see the track through the water at Signpost!!
Member
Posts: 76
Joined: January 09
Hi Larry,
Happy New Year! Thanks for your post, and sorry I missed it - haven't been on here much since Christmas!
I agree with you about the standard Aermacchi - I think you got used to it jumping about, but I had some comments from other riders now and then, saying they had been behind me and it was wriggling around! It improved a lot when I rebuilt all the cycle parts while Francis Beart did the engine - I renewed every bush and bearing in sight, replaced the worn out rear units with the correct length ones, changed the fork oil (what little there was in the first place!) and discovered why the front brake kept locking up!
Initially we thought it just took a bit of getting used to, going from the Ducati brakes to 'real' ones, and I put huge champfers on the leading edge of the linings, trying to make it more progressive. It was just as bad, and after another fall at Snetterton, Dennis had a go on it at Brands and came off in a big way going into Paddock, just missing an unprotected edge of Armco - lucky! When we took it apart I noticed some scoring on the 'fillets' of the hub. It turned out a spacer was missing, and the shoes had worn a 'slot' in the fillets.Not a problem until you put the brake on, then - metal to metal contact on four shoes!! One small spacer, one big problem solved - the front stopper was brilliant after that, but it was a shame I missed it the first time. It sounds like you had your Metisse well sorted. You mentioned Kate's Cottage - oddly enough it's where I often watch the racing when I go back to the Island - I think it's a bit smoother now.
Good idea to take the linkage off the rear - wish I had done that! I think that rear brake was bigger than the front one on my old Ducati (!), and as you say, way too much!! I didn't really use it a lot, but felt the return spring was very feeble, probably about alright for a ball point pen, but not that great big brake, and I think it used to 'servo up' once the shoes made contact. After some rummaging in the parts boxes I found a much stronger thing to replace it, and it snapped the lever back like the jaws of a crocodile!! I was still very wary of it though.
I found some photos of Dennis on his Aermacchis the other day, one taken splashing his way out of Governor's in that soaking 78 Manx. I will put them on the Aermacchi thread when we get another scanner sorted out, and I can track down the photographers.
All the best.
Ray