Gravity Racing begins in Alford

by admin on Jan.13, 2010, under Home Page

Gravity racing has existed in various forms in Alford for years. Soapbox Carties have long been popular but these creations have now progressed into serious racing machines capable of speeds in excess of 70mph. Over a couple of seasons the basic design gets changed as attempts are made to find more speed.

Runfree at Catterline scrutineering

Rushed job trying to get the cart ready but passed subject to fitting a seat, steering wheel and welding on the rear suspension mounts. In fact we did not compete at Catterline in 2009 because changes to the suspension units, hangers and nose frame for Cairngorm 2009 ran away with our available time.
For Cadwell Park 2009 we added a fibreglass nose cone but again were late with our prep work and failed to spend the time setting up the suspension and tracking correctly because we went playing with the boys on a nearby hill!

Cadwell Park 2009

I made a real efford to be ready for Border bogies 2010 and did my best to get the set up right. However the further changes to the bodywork was an unknown quantity and the result at Denholm was a somewhat disapointing forth place.

Nearly ready for Denholm 2010

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News on Carties

by admin on Jun.14, 2010, under Home Page

The well known cartie Night Train has been on the market since winning Cairngorm Extreme in 2009.

The cartie has now been purchased and re-homed in Scotland.

Graham handing over ownership to the new owner Alex in the red and white Tee shirt.

I like Alex’s nonchalant posture.

Transport for the trip was provided by Rich in his modified ‘train catcher’. Apparently the trip up from Manchester went well except Rich was a bit frustrated by weekend drivers plodding along looking at the scenery.

The best cruising speed for the blue train catcher being a steady 65mph.

I can just imagine some of the comments,

” Holy sh** what’s that? ”

Looks a bit like a school boy error to me because it doesn’t look like the wheels have been fixed to stop rotation and the bearings would have been well worn in bye the time he got to Edinburgh!

When I received this picture I clicked on the arrow several times looking to move on to the next picture, then realised it was a sign on the fence! Dumbo!! The thing is that it does actualy work.

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Team Problems

by admin on Jun.01, 2010, under Scottish Gravity Teams

Getting into the gravity racing scene is relatively cheap and easy. A cartie, side-hack or gravity bike can be built in the back garden for next to nothing if scrap materials are used. Provided you follow the build criteria you will end up with a vehicle that will be able to enter competitions. You think up a team name, apply to enter an event, pay the entry fee, pass scrutineering and you are ready to race. How competitive your vehicle is will depend on the design and materials used, more than the amount of money spent on the build.

Having mates join you in the project is great and probably one of the largest teams I can think of as mates getting together on a build is the Devil’s Rejects Soapbox Team. pimpmybike

However in the case of an established team considering helping others to get involved in the gravity scene as members, especially where the others are under the age of 16years the present raft of legislation makes things very difficult to even consider. Common sense and taking precautions is not enough to indemnify those deemed to be responsible for the team if somebody gets hurt, or an inspector decides you don’t hold the correct paper work for what you are doing. A lot more work is required digging into the various legislation before a decision can be made if it is possible to actually have a membership as such that includes juniors.
Even where parents wish their offspring to participate the legislation if quite clear; The group must comply with all requirements of the legislation, or risk prosecution where the minimum fine for breaches of health and safety is something like £10,000 Sterling.
There must be a proper workshop subject to annual inspection. The electrical installation and tools used must be 110v and be certified to comply/inspected twice per year. Those who give instruction must be certificated and able to display they are competent to instruct in those tasks in regard to health and safety as well as skill. When under 16s are present there must be two adults present at all times, one of which must be registered as a responsible adult under the Child Protection Legislation.
No child under 16 is permitted to use mechanical cutting equipment which presumably includes grinders as well as power saws.
Working under supervision means the supervisor must be standing over the person working not just present in the workshop.
Because of all this I am afraid Alford Gravity Racing Team will probably be made up of adult members only.

Denholm Pictures

by admin on May.28, 2010, under Home Page

First place to Team Centra Bavaria in No.15 driven by Andy Ash and well supported by Michelle Beckwith

After the racing picture so don't fret about the glasses!

Second place went to Team Crockle’s Firefly driven with his usual skill and daring by Peter Pope.

Unfortunately Mary, Peter’s usual support was not with him this trip. To make up for this Peter was presented with a book on building up self confidence which he much appreciated.

A new team took third place in their first build gravity racer and did it look the part. A beautifully built and finished cartie that merited the highest praise and admiring looks. I am afraid I don’t have the team members names at this point but will edit the post when I have found out.

I believe the team were the Border Tuning Scene. Sorry I don’t have the names of the team members so they must have been very quiet lads.

Credit for the following two action pictures to “Rob Gray” <newspix@digitalpic.net> who retains all copy rights.

The three young lads who know how to build a competative cartie that can nearly fly.

Team Alford’s cartie Runfree No 16 came in 4th and so it’s back to the drawing board to figure out how to cut back on the 4 seconds/mile deficit. The suggestions recieved at Denholm ranged from outright cheeky banter about speed limiters and well thought out views.

1. Change drivers, (He’s off the Christmas card list!

2. Too much aerofoil and ground effect. ( He drives three feet in the air and reads funny books! )

3. Change brakes to hydraulic. (He must have more money than me. )

4. Move brakes from back brakes only to front brakes only. ( He builds trikes!)

Another new build PIST “N” BROKE RACING and how smart she looks. During testing she got up to 65mph.

“Rob Gray” <newspix@digitalpic.net>

“Rob Gray” <newspix@digitalpic.net> retains all rights.

Runfree got a bit close to a ladies bum!

A fantastic weekend in every respect and if at all possible team Alford will be back at Denholm for the 2011 Border Bogie Challenge.

Michelle – Andy - Graham - Kyle - Peter

Brenden – Stephen – Maurice – Graham

Looks like we don’t want a trike getting too near!

Richard’s support Carolyn and Brick. Carolyn thought the trike and Denholm was a one off event’.

Brick thought the shaddow had a magic smell.

Simon Kirby having just presented the prestigious Thomas Crapper award for innovative build and design to an old fart.

After the prise giving the evening in the Cross Keys was only interrupted by a short spell of bull riding on the village green which was hilarious.

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Border Bogies

by admin on May.18, 2010, under Home Page

I have been getting the cartie ready for a trip down to Denholm for the Border Bogie Challenge.

Building the body was one thing but getting the top coat of glass resin to cure correctly with

temperatures fluctuating either side of freezing made for a lot of problems. Ended up painting

the shell with aluminium hamerite paint.

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Alford Gravity Racing

by admin on Jan.18, 2010, under Alford Gravity Racing

About Alford Gravity Racing :-

The gravity racing idea grew out of an off the cuff remark by a friend who suggested the two of us could enter Catterline Cartie challenge just for a laugh. We had no idea what was involved but decided to start our build and the first problem to overcome was where to find a suitable place to work. Alford Bowling Club came to the rescue and the committee kindly agreed to allow our use of their available facilities. Our first and not unsuccessful year of competition in 2009 saw us racing under the banner of our local bowling club as Team Alford B.C . Cairngorm Extreme was our first event as we had missed out on Catterline because the cart was not ready in time. We passed (conditional) scrutineering at Catterline subject to fitting a seat, steering wheel and floor and had plenty of time to do the work but for some reason

we decided to do a bit of tweaking on the suspension and hanger units!

This resulted in various changes to not only the chassis where the hangers mounted but also involved a complete redesign of the front suspension. This work led on to raising the chassis height at the front to accommodate the drivers right leg and allow activation of the foot brake. Happy with the result the cart’s name was changed from the original Terminated Velocity to Runfree. The changes to the chassis are fairly obvious.

When we arrived at Cairngorm the cartie was untested and my first drive of Runfree was on the way down to the start line. I took some comfort in the fact that we had tested the brakes on a friends driveway. This test seemed to show the disc brakes were more efficient than the grip of the tyres but then when the wheels locked up even on fairly light braking the cart had a tendency to skid to the right. I held onto the belief that at least Runfree was fairly predictable and any skids were correctable. However we had never been at any speed and I just had to hope that she would handle something like a car, the objective having been set that completing the event in one undamaged piece would be a great success! One further modification on the day was to make a temporary nose cone with duct tape to cut the wind and stop the water going up my trouser legs!