Report by Dean Carpenter (Chippy)

On Sunday 3rd April 15 members of the club turned up in Tidworth to attend the Airhead Mechanics Day that was organised by Richard Evans. We were blessed with fine weather and lots of bikes to look at, talk about and even a couple to fix. 

Richard Evans briefed the massed crowds prior to the day commencing promptly at 10am. Stands included Richard displaying his R80GS and demonstrating servicing, carb setting up and anything else that was asked of him. Bob Denman brought along an old R Series frame to demonstrate head bearing removal but this proved to be unfruitful as it was in solid but it had been in the garden for 20 years. Mike Delacoe brought along some tools and manuals to browse through and for members to hire. These manuals proved handy when Fred Lee arrived having had to bump start his R100RS and after some investigating it was found to have a faulty starter relay. Electric schematics browsed showed that with a bit of solder it could be remedied enough to allow Fred's return to Yorkshire. A trip to Maplins and Halfords brought no success on a replacement relay but did have a positive outcome in replacing the rubbish solder that Chippy had in his garage. Fred rode off into the sunset at the end of the day. Torsten Gandvik brought along some "Black Museum" items to display showing all sorts off sheared off teeth and broken splines. Cliff Battley brought along an R80RT monoshock which he discovered had a problem with the clutch. After stripping it down, the general consensus, was that there was a piece missing and it was refitted to be taken away and compared to another clutch on a similar bike that somebody had.

Everybody stopped for lunch at 1 o'clock and came inside to a superb buffet supplied by the catering dept, Trish Bond & Lesley Carpenter. They also supplied brews and cake, baked by Trish, throughout the day which were widely agreed to be extremely tasty. 

It proved to be a very informative day and lots of knowledge was gained and given out by the time that everyone departed at 4:30pm. At the time of writing this Richard had already received a few e-mails from attendees stating that they had enjoyed the day. We think that this should continue throughout the year and also throughout the club with different sections offering to host the event as there is enough knowledge and experience out there to offer to everyone. I'm sure there are a lot more cake experts as well. We look forward to the next one. Keep a look out at the Airhead Section news on the Forum.