Newby(ish)

[John Wakefield]

Thanks Tony

[Phil Hyde]

Hi Tony

you asked about the Greeves blue RAL colour. Generally RAL 5001 is a good match.

phil

[tonyed27]

Thanks Phil but is is the silver RAL code I am after as the RES is silver frame and red tank/seat
I notice in a couple of the database entries mention of 'heavy weight' fairing. The one supplied with my RES is certainly 'substantial' in construction, much heavier than I remember on my RDS, so I assume this is probably an original Greeves supply two piece item.
I only have the RDS parts book, does the RES have the later Griffon clutch, the bike does have the later primary cases?

[shelly]

I think some members have used Ford silver fox which is a close match, make sure you prep it well so it doesn't peel off like some early Ford cars

[Stockcar]

wow, some adventures there.......... good luck with your project

[Stan Nicholson]

Tony, I replied to your PM this morning (Canada time) but not sure if it went as I got an error message when I shut down.
Stan

[tonyed27]

In the paperwork I got with the RES is a photocopy of an article in the Motor Cycle dated 20th August 1964 titled 'Heart of the Matter' - 'Bert Greeves reveals the story behind the 246cc engine of the Silverstone mark 2 racing two stroke'.
In it it states:
While the Challenger cylinder is bored to a shade under 66mm, that for the Silverstone is a shade over. Allowing for different tolerances, the average difference is up to at thou and a half (0.0015"). Since all barrels are the same length. the lower compression ratio (9.15 and 9.35 to 1) is achieved by fitting a 1/32" thick steel gasket in the cylinder head joint. WARNING - removal of the gasket is a sure way to burn a hole through the piston crown.
It does then address the set up of the squish using different thickness paper base gaskets.

Now this is 1964 and the RBS model. My 1966 RDS model did NOT have such a gasket and I never had any piston problems when I raced it both on short circuits and indeed in the Manx GP in 1973.
Probably this article is well known as there are NO back issues of the 1964 August 20th copy of Motor Cycle on ebay, plenty either side of that issue though.

Should anyone have need for a new GP carb #3 slide for a 1.5inch GP (Manx, Gold Star etc 41mm dia) I have a new one available, bought in error, probably like the Silverstone (only joking - at present)

[Stan Nicholson]

Hi Tony, that 1964 Motor Cycle article was the one I quoted from about the compression ratio and cylinder height set-up in your Project thread. As regards the extra piston clearance for the road racers, Derek Pickard recommends 3 1/2 thou “being reasonable” but I have always gone with 4 thou. That doesn’t seem to present any problems.

In my copy of the RDS parts book it still does show a compression plate, GXXXX (I cannot read the actual number as mine is a photocopy I got from Frank Conley). My RDS came without it when I bought the bike from the UK in late 1981 but I found I needed one here to prevent it seizing. Maybe a temperature thing in Ontario?

Although the porting changed, or rather the port pattern seemed to stay the same but the whole map moved down the cylinder between the RDS and RES, I don’t think the cylinder liner length changed from RBS to RES, so if the compression plate was listed in the RDS parts book I would have thought it would be in the RES version.

I am currently running an RES cylinder on my bike but have the RDS and RCS cylinders, both needing a re-sleeve. The RDS is supposed to be the version that puts out the best power and I can sort of see why that may be the case. With port pattern moving down the bore by 1.75mm on the RES, this results in the piston masking the bottom of both the exhaust and transfer ports at BDC!

Stan