ON GETTING HOME

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 57, 8 March 1930, Page 27

ON GETTING HOME

MOTOR-CYCLIST'S RESOURCE

The following story is told in the "Motor Cycle":— .-

"I am thankful to say that'l have, so far as I remember, never B&ejn ill-the ignominious position of having,to return'from a journey minus my blke^ and I believe that, by the exercise of a little ingenuity, many riders would., be saved the annoyance, not to-,mention expense, of having to do so; la this connection I think.l can truthfully say, -without patting myself on the back, that my resourcefulness with a certain side-valve three-fifty requires a little beating. . -. . ■ "On the day of a long-distance trial for which I was particularly keen to enter, the compression .decided to ,leave this bus without giving notice, and, on dismantling the enginq, it was found that a piston ring had broken, and also that one of the lands had broken off. A tour of"iffeVlocal dealers failed to produce the. appropriate piston, but by turning dovrn;from 74 to 72 mm; a;highcompression rpijrtpn ffrbm machine I was able'■•lib'be. at" the.midnight start just in time. : ":: '....:

"My troubles, however, .were not at a,n end, for when I was about sixty miles from home the bus started to give a little demonstration of cause and effect. The cause, unless it was too high a compression ratio, I do not'tow to this day, but the effect manifested itself in the form of a small hole about the size of a farthing in the crown of' the piston. The non-stop section had definitely ended so far as I was concerned. . " -

".I think my guardian angel must have been out and about that night, be-, cause the hole was good enough to 'ap.-' pear at the end of a long clinib out of a Tillage, back to which I was able to coast. ' '.

But fay the time I got back to th^ village the guardian angel ■ must have gone home, because there was no place that looked the slightest bit like the places whereat ono usually buys pistons. In the circumstances, the only thing was to wait for a train home. ■ ...

'' Then, while looking in the local ironmonger's shop, my eyes fell on a card of kettle-menders. 'Why,' I asked mysolf,- 'should not the same principle be applied to broken pistons?'

"An hour or so later I might have been seen wending my way slowly homewards, with two washers, one each side of the crown of the piston, securely bolted together." •.-•: