On a mental power trip
Rick explains his Goldie head job – but it’s something in the mind, not the metal...
You may recall the sad story of my BSA Gold Star. Briefly, on one glorious occasion, just before my Manx holiday, the silencer broke leaving me with a megaphone and shattering performance. I decided to take a load of jets to the Island and retune the carb to deliver this mega-power with my new silencer. But on day one, the piston hit the head and the subsequent rebuild demanded not only a piston but new cams and big end – plus a precautionary shim under the barrel. From then on, performance was lousy – was it the new silencer, the cams, or what?
Many frustrating years later, Jan de Jong of ABSAF suggested that the barrel shim had ruined the ‘squish’ – a taper gap between piston and head that virtually supercharges fuel scraped off the cylinder walls into the combustion space. He was right, and my Goldie was back – but that crazy power still eluded me. Was the exhaust restricting it?
I can’t run a megaphone on the road – so I tried an old silencer with the baffles blown out. But I lost as much power as I’d gained with that mega – and maybe that’s the point. A DBD Goldie is a racer on the road; a silencer is bound to affect it and I think that megaphone gave me a taste of track power. But racers use special oils, replace parts every so-many racing hours... why should I expect race performance without the effort?
Silly thing is, I don’t need that power – this is a 500 that can match a 650. It just bothered me that it was pulling its punches; but let’s face it, last time it packed that punch it blew up the following week! I took it to the Hamstreet Autojumble this month and really enjoyed myself chasing modern bikes around the lanes without worrying why I couldn’t beat them.
Maybe the most insoluble problems are the ones we create in our own minds...
‘I ENJOYED CHASING MODERN BIKES WITHOUT WORRYING WHY I COULDN’T BEAT THEM’