Ride To Alice’s

September 27, 2021

Last Saturday morning my son Eric came over and we loaded his 750, 1970 Triumph and the Rickman into the back of his truck and drove down to a parking lot at the intersection of Hwy 35 and 92. We met Al, Bob, Gabriel, his son and Nancy and we unloaded the bikes. Bob and Al had ridden their bikes over from the East Bay. We took off for Alice’s on Skyline Blvd. after Al started my bike for me and I immediately realized I had an issue with shifting. The bike is fine, but I’m the problem with my muscle issues and my CMT (Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease). I wear leg braces because of loss of muscles in my lower legs and I have fairly severe foot-toe drop without them. Lifting my foot to upshift was not possible for me. So I did a second gear start and took off. I tried many times to get to 3rd gear, including stopping a couple of times to change the angle of the gear shifter to no avail. Keeping the bike under 5,000 RPM and pulling in the clutch lever on the downhills, we made it to Alice’s and had lunch while discussing what work-a-rounds we could come up with to get me in a higher gear. Bob thought of a string or wire from the shift lever to under the gas tank so Al took off his red bandana and we tied it around the shift lever and attached to an oil line higher up. Bob and Al each took a turn taking the bike for a test ride and then we took off for the return trip. It was an uphill start so I needed low gear to start and I would have to let go of the throttle to shift, but it worked well and I got into 2nd gear. Then 3rd for a curvy ride to the top of Kings Mountain. At the top I pulled the bandana into 4th and from then on, back to the truck, I was able to shift from 4th to 3rd and back to 4th with little problem other than being slow shifts. Downshifting is easy for me, the upshifting will need some help. The bike always had people looking at it at Alice’s and people loved to hear it running (me too). It is a rocket!

Bob, Al, and I have been texting each other since Saturday evening for possible “fixes” to enable me to shift. The easiest one involves TIG welding a small loop on the end of the shift lever for a longer and better placed cable for me to pull up on when shifting. We have thought about welding a heel lever onto the back side of the shifter lever for a heel-toe lever as well. I’m willing to get another shift lever to try this, but am not sure this will work since rocking my heel downwards means lifting my toe upwards and this is not easy for me. It’s hard for me to even get my leg and foot onto the foot peg from a standing start, but possible. It’s worth a try. I now lift my whole leg slightly for a downshift and that’s why this even works. I thought of a bicycle mountain bike thumb shifter on the handle bar, but I don’t think my thumb would be strong enough to pull the lever upwards for the 1-1/8” it needs to travel for an upshift. An electric servo of some sort would be fantastic if a way to mount it could be worked out. Then some sort of rocker thumb switch next to the throttle would be in order. I might have to change the alternator to a 12 volt unit to do this and I would get bright lights in the process! This would get me a regulator too and keep me from burning out my stop light bulb every time I use the brakes over 3,500 RPM. As a huge bonus, I would use a SPARX or Emgo brand rotor and stator and not have ANY Lucas parts on the bike. Maybe I could even get a very small 12 volt gel battery although I don’t know where to put it or if it would be necessary for an electric servo. Al said he found a 6 volt servo on eBay and he wants to know how much force is needed for an upshift as this unit is limited. I am looking for someone who has a fish scale so I can answer him. Whatever system we use, it also has to have a way to get me into neutral when I’m stopped and want to idle, or start the bike.

The other issue is starting this bike. Depending on which source of information I have on the build of this 800 cc engine, it’s either 10.5 or 11 to 1 compression and the timing is locked a 40 degree advance. A stock Triumph is in the neighborhood or 9 to 1, has a centrifugal advance mechanism, and I can start Eric’s Triumph, which I easily did this morning on the 1st kick!. The Rickman is like kicking over a Buick with a foot starter! Both Al and Bob are able to get it going but with my CMT, I do not have the leg and muscle strength. Kick it half heartedly and you will limp around for a day or two from the kick-back. Bob is 6’6” tall and Al can put some effort into it. So later today I am going to pull the head and have a flat spot milled in the fins so it can be drilled and taped for a 10 mm compression release on each cylinder. This release will have to be reset with each kick as it self closes with the compression, but it should allow me to start the bike, I hope. This is a common modification on big bore or high compression Harley’s and it can be seen on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrpsGw5uok