Gravity Racers from Aberdeenshire - Team Weasel

Scottish Championship Entry

2012-02-17T10:23:00.003Z

So - we're registered for the SCA Championship, and already things are looking good. If things continue as they are now, it looks like we're dead certs for an undisputed win...

(nobody else has entered yet - shhhhhhh)

The Build Begins

2012-02-16T12:33:00.002Z

After much pondering and sketching, building of our new gravity sidecar started in earnest this week. In order to provide some motivation, I chopped the front off our old sidehack so it cannot possibly be used any more.

I stripped down the forks and made new dropouts which I fitted about an inch higher than the original ones to bring the headset down as low as possible. I also positioned the dropouts slightly to the right of where they would normally be to give more clearance for the brake disc. This is because the forks are not really "disc brake compatible" so are a little on the narrow side.

Next I made up and welded on the three chassis members that will support the headset. The two upper ones are splayed a litte wide at the moment so I'll have to bend them back in a bit before proceeding. After that, the next step is to set the head angle and then cut the excess off the chassis members so that they can be attached to the (currently non-existant) floor pan at the right place to give the required ground clearance.

Lessons Learned

2012-02-14T15:12:00.005Z

I'm trying to work out if my years of gravity racing have taught me anything. Certainly I know a bit more about the physics of it, or rather I have remembered a lot of what I learned at school, and I now know more about steering geometry and welding than I did 7 years ago, although nowhere near as much as I'd like to know.

However - with 3 months to go until the first race of the year (Border Bogies) - last weekend I decided to chop the front off our sidehack and build a brand new one from scratch. This suggests I really haven't learned anything at all.

So we now have our entries in for Border Bogies, Catterline Carties, Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme and the Belchford Downhill, plus our registration for the SCA Championship, and at the moment absolutley nothing that we can compete with. I predict a lot of shed time over the coming months.

Sideweasel at Belchford 2011

2011-09-13T12:54:00.001+01:00

The Right Tool for the Job

2011-09-13T12:40:00.005+01:00

Team Weasel represented the Scottish Cartie Association at the Cumbria heat of the Screwfix Go-Karting Rally earlier this month and came away with a surprising win and a place in the finals near Stirling next month.

We were competing against a very strong field including the current and previous SCA Champions (Alford and Rooket), Cairngorm Mountain, Centa Bavaria, Tickettyboo and Team Caiman to name but a few, but despite their high tech, streamlined designs, the SCA Bandit was untouchable all day in the tricky, cold, wet and windy conditions.

Team Caiman and Blue Cow also qualified for the finals, and will be taking on C12, Where's me Spanners and Black Dog and a few others in the finals. It promises to be an interesting day!

It's Not Over Until The Fat Lady Sings

2011-08-29T15:41:00.011+01:00

Team Weasel's trip to the second Dalby Forest Soapbox Derby started in traditional fashion, with me deciding to make some major modifications to the Sideweasel the week before the race, after having done nothing to it in the preceding 2 months. Will I ever learn? Apparently not...

The modifications this time were to fit disk brakes, using some spares I had lying around and some parts canibalised from the Flying Ferret. The work went pretty well and with only a few "oh b******s" moments and remarkably little swearing, but it still took longer than planned and I still ended up setting off about 2 hours behind schedule. It wasn't until just after midnight that I arrived at Dalby Forest, and only another hour before I'd managed to navigate the maze of tracks and locked gates to reach the camp site.

But I got there in the end, and had a sound night's sleep in my van. Team Weasel was still missing an important component however - a passenger. Fortunately, Paul Janson (Team Rooket) bravely volunteered and so Team Weasel were all set to take on the Belchford Barbarians - the only other sidehack outfit at the event.

Dalby is a two day event, with practice on the Saturday and timed runs on the Sunday. With a new passenger to break in and new brakes to get used to, I decided to take things quite steadily to start off with. We were well off the pace on our first run - deliberately, as I had been on the brakes several times to prove to myself and to Paul that we could stop if we needed too. We steadily increased our speed through the five practice runs and finished on 1:30 - the fastest sidecar time of the day. I knew we could go faster though, as we'd not done a full push at the start. I was also struggling to find the confidence to not brake just before the finish line, which is on a rather alarming bend - the only significant bend on the course. We also struggled thoughout practice with punctures to the sidecar wheel.

Overnight changes to the outfit were to swap the treaded front tyre for a slick Primo Comet and to tighten the spokes on the sidecar wheel to stop them working through the "rim tape" (i.e. several layers of duct tape). Our times on Sunday were faster than in practice and I'd managed to nail the last bend without braking, but we still couldn't quite catch Belchford Barbarians who were consistently 2 or 3 seconds faster than us on every run. Increasing the tyre pressures helped, but we were also struggling to deal with some problems with the new disk brakes. The rear one, which was attached to the freewheel threads using an adapter, had stopped working because the adapter threads had been stripped. The front disk, subject to fierce braking after the finish line to avoid hitting the speed bump too hard, was overheating and fading so much that it was almost completely ineffective, leading to some distinctly alarming moments turning in to the marshalling area. After two runs, the disk became severely dished and we changed it out for a spare. Fortunately this was enough to stop us quite effectively, although only if the brakes are "pumped" - i.e. dabbed on and off rather than applied continuously, since it seems that mountain bike disk brakes on a sidehack with two adults on board will stop working if applied heavily for more than a couple of seconds.

Fortunately, Belchford Barbarians were on hand in the pits throughout the day as we frantically tried to keep the Sideweasel running. Little tips and nuggets of advice were freely and sportingly given, from suggesting we switch back to the treaded tyre to give more grip on the damp track to the offer of some grease to put on the brake disk to reduce the drag when it was catching on the pads.

And so we came to the final run. Tyres were racked up to 100psi all round, but with 7 seconds to make up on the Barbarians it looked hopeless. All we could do was give a massive push at the start, then tuck in and hang on and see what happened. The final run was our best of the day - 1:24 - but still nowhere near enough to catch Belchford Barbarians if they were running to form. Unfortunately for them, their rear brake was dragging and their final time was 1:36 - well off the pace and enough for us to finish 5 seconds ahead of them on aggregate! Get in!

The Sideweasel at Catterline Carties 2011

2011-06-13T09:29:00.003+01:00

Catterline Cartie Challenge 2011 - Team Weasel, a photo by G Davidson on Flickr.

Revised Weasel Ready for Catterline

2011-06-09T10:19:00.007+01:00

It is always the same. A week before a race, and I decide to completely rebuild the racer. This weekend is the Catterline Cartie Challenge - still my favourite race of the year, mainly because it's about a mile from my house. We'll be running the Sideweasel and that venerable old lady who has competed at Catterline every year since the event first started in 2005 - The Greased Weasel.

The Sideweasel is, of course, ready to run and has had no changes since Castle Forbes. Unfortunately, winter has not been kind to the Greased Weasel. Her customised storage facility (i.e. a patch of long grass in the corner of the garden) had not protected her from the harsh Scottish weather, and she was very forlorn when I finally got around to getting her ready. Her body work was severly rotted, the steering hadn't been fixed since the her prang last year, and the brakes were hopelessly seized. Cue many hours of hammering, grinding, welding, sawing and swearing.

I finally got brakes and steering sorted, but only after canibalising parts from the now very retired Flying Ferret. The Weasel's bodywork was completed yesterday and a quick coat of brown paint slapped on. All that remains is to add the trademark facial features and put some more air in the tyres and she'll be good to run.

Actually, I think she's in better nick than ever, and if we can just keep her on the track she could do really well. It's nice to have some continuity too - she's now one of only two carties that have survived from that very first Cartie Challenge, where a rain lashed Catterline saw just 9 machines trundling down to the harbour. Mind you, there isn't much left of the original machine (shown right). I tried to identiy the remaining parts, and all I could find were the rear side panels, the floor planks and the brake pedal. Every other part has been added over the years. A gradual and incremental evolution from the machine which, believe it or not, won "Best Engineered" in 2005, to the current incarnation.

Perfect Start

2011-05-08T20:59:00.003+01:00

We got a perfect start to the season this weekend with maximum points at Castle Forbes. Although well off the pace, we were the only sidecar team to complete all the runs so we won on aggregate. The sidecar class wasn't well represented though, and we only had Bush Racing for competition. They were much faster than us on the one competitive run they managed to complete, but a collision with the bales at Coach House Bend on their second run brought their day to a premature end and gifted us the maximum 7 points.

We're off down to Border Bogies in two weeks, and hope to do well there. However, we have a bit of work to do between now and then as Castle Forbes was not without incident for us, and some rather lively cornering has left us with a buckled rear wheel which will need replacing. I'm also not convinced by the Primo Comets, as they don't seem to give as much grip as I would like, especially at the front.

I also discovered a slight problem with the driving position, which is so prone that it is difficult to raise my helmeted head enough to see forward. Either a slight adjustment of the handlebar height is required, or a new custom made helmet. The former is the more likely.

Other than that, I was really pleased. We worked together as a team really well, and even got quite used to drifting it around Chicken Corner.

Famous At Last!

2011-05-05T10:14:00.004+01:00

I was walking through the underpass at Stonehaven Railway Station the other day and got something of a surprise. There, firmly attached to the wall, was a picture of me competing at the Stonehaven Carties in 2006! I was in The Slammer, which I had borrowed for the day from the Cheats. Mercifully they showed me before I rolled it...

A Lick of Paint

2011-05-04T11:38:00.004+01:00

From Castle Forbes 2011

More pictures of the Sideweasel, now freshly resplendent in "Weasel Racing Blue", prior to the Castle Forbes Gravity Race 2011. The only change needed now is to change the number from 41 (left over from Belchford last year) to lucky number 7 - if it's good enough for Barry Sheene it's good enough for us!

Clip-ons and rear sets - Side Weasel goes Cafe Racer

2011-05-02T10:46:00.006+01:00

The first race of the season is at Castle Forbes next weekend, so as tradition dictates I waited until the very last moment before getting the angel grinder out and starting to make some changes.

I've gone for that Cafe Racer feel and fitted some home fabricated clip-ons. To stop things getting too twitchy now that the bars are a lot narrower, I also fitted a steering damper (ex-Hayabusa via eBay for less than £20 - nice).

Other than that, and perhaps a little more ballast and a lick of paint, the Sideweasel is pretty much unchanged since last year and, barring accidents, is unlikely to change much for the rest of the season.

Lean and Mean and Rusty...

2010-09-17T13:29:00.000+01:00

The sideweasel has sat, forlorn and neglected, in a corner of Weasel Towers since the Catterline cartie Challenge back in June. Weeds were growing up through her, and a delicate patina of iron oxide had taken hold. But, with one week to go until the Belchford Downhill Challenge I decided that the time was right to completely rebuild her. Overalls were donned, pencils were placed behind ears, and all mugs of tea were brewed. Angle grinders screamed, welders fizzed and crackled, and there was some swearing. However, after much sweat and some minor flesh wounds, the sideweasel emerged into the thin and brittle sunlight of an Aberdeenshire morning, looking squat, purposeful and (still) quite rusty.

She has been stretched and lowered, and the front wheel kicked out a bit to make the steering more lazy. Kneeler pegs and rear set foot pegs give a much lower and streamlined driving position and give room on the lengthened seat for the passenger to tuck in or hang off for the right handers. Some extra ballast under the chair makes the whole rig more stable, and the upgraded brakes and levers make stopping an entirely more manageable task. In all, I'm really rather pleased with the way things have turned out. With Brendan at my side as a small but very aerodymanic monkey, I'm hoping for great things at Belchford this Sunday.

Silverware for Team Weasel at Catterline

2010-06-17T12:56:00.007+01:00

Team Weasel picked up silverware at the 2010 Catterline Cartie Challenge with the fastest time of the day in the Gravity Sidecar class, but Stephen and Andrew had a big wipe out on the final run and wrecked our chances of the prize for the best aggregate time.

Kerrey was driving the Flying Ferret and had a tremendous time but was a little off the pace because The Cheats had "accidentally" failed to return our ballast weights after picking them up at Border Bogies.

Duncan struggled to get the best out of the Greased Weasel, and ended up with a big fat DNF for the final run after sticking it into the tyres at the Slammer, tearing the steering to bits in the process.

As ever, a massive thank you to everyone involved in making it such a great day!

See here for vids, and here for pictures.

Team Weasel on Parade

2010-05-30T22:27:00.001+01:00

The entire Team Weasel line up, immediately prior to scrutineering for the 2010 Catterline Cartie Challenge. L to R: Flying Ferret, School Mobile, Sideweasel and The Greased Weasel.

The venerable Greased Weasel is now 6 years old, and is one of the few carties that have taken part in Catterline Carties every year. It has recently been upgraded and will do well this year.

A Brilliant Day at Border Bogies

2010-05-29T23:14:00.003+01:00

As always seems to happen, it was all just a bit of a desperate rush in the end. Despite having made good progress on the gravity sidecar, things kind of stalled a bit and, had it not been for the help of the legendary Rollover Roy on Friday afternoon we might not have made it to Border Bogies 2010.

We eventually arrived on Friday evening and went for a short trial run on the hill in the gathering gloom, but bottled out before reaching the end of the course as it was all just a bit twitchy. I wasn't at all sure we'd run the sidehack in anger, but fortunately we'd brought the Ferret along too to run in the juniors, so that was going to be the fallback plan for the seniors too. However, a few hours and several beers later I decided we'd run the sidehack after all.

The day of the race was busy, and made busier by some last minute fettling of the brakes and changing the front tyre from the anonymous stock think to a nice new Primo Comet. After racking it up to the required pressure, I found that we then had to push the Ferret up to the junior start line by hand - a task which was made harder by the baking sun and the full leathers I was wearing. That did make me a little grumpy, but I cheered up when Brendan started to race as it quickly became clear that he was comfortably faster than the competition, and proceeded to set the fastest three times.

And so to the seniors, where Brendan and I were teaming up for our first ever competitive gravity sidecar run. Brendan was loaned a set of leathers by Charlie Jackson, and I must say I nearly burst with pride when he strode out in full raod warrior clobber - boots and all. He certainly looked that part.

Our first run was quite slow as we were still getting used to the handling, so I grabbed a few handfulls of brake on the way down. On the second run we were more confident and cleaned it from top to bottom without using the brakes once. The third run was similarly brake free, and our fastest of the day at 1:19. However, we were still a good 10 seconds off the pace and finished third in the class. I was really pleased with the way the sidecar handled though - very direct but stable and predictable. There was no hint of the dreaded "tank slapper", and even when "hands off" while being towed back up the hill there was no steering wobble.

So - clearly some work still to do to get into a more competitive state, but definately an encouraging start. It's also much more fun to drive than a cartie, as the rding is much more dynamic. We'll be racing it again in a couple of weeks at Catterline, and hopefully the short and twisty course will suit

Gravity Sidecar Build Begins

2010-05-09T18:33:00.003+01:00

With just two weeks to go until Border Bogies, I've finally got around to making a start on the G-Hack we're planning to run there. So far so good - it seems to be coming together quite nicely. Of course, not having to think about steering and brakes (already fitted to the donor bike) is a big help. The magnetic welding clamps I got for my birthday make life a lot easier too (thanks Pat!).

The sidecar part is held on by three bolts so it can be easily dismantled for transport. Also, it could convert to a plain old gravity bike if the mood takes me. There is still a little bit left to do, but I should have it finished later in the week. The rear wheels need enclosing and a grab rail and some handles for the monkey would probably be a good idea too. Other than that it's pretty much there.

More pictures here.

Gravity Sidehack Inspiration

2010-01-14T11:54:00.006Z

I've just been spending a few minutes googling for gravity sidecar and came across this really useful piece on building a BMX sidehack. Obviously it'll need a few modifications to make a gravity powered sidehack, but this is basically what I had in mind. I'll probably use stiffer tube, as I'm not sure that 25mm conduit will be up to the job, and I suspect that the sidecar wheel will need to be mounted in forks to avoid bending the spindle. It'll also be somewhat lower, but other than that I think it'll be about right. I like the way that it's built so the sidehack can be detached.

Gravity Sidecar in 2010

2010-01-13T21:26:00.006Z

The entry form for Border Bogies has just been put in the post, and of course we're signed up for Catterline as well. Add Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme too, and we've got the makings of a another busy year.

We'll also be signing up for the Scottish Cartie Assocation Championships when registration opens (which should be fairly soon).

I've finally managed to source a donor bike for our Gravity Sidecar, which will probably be Team Weasel's main competition vehicle for 2010. Assuming, of course, that I can find the time and money to build it... First task will be to strip it down to a gravity bike and then see how it goes from there. If I can get it ready to run in time, I suspect this might be our main competition vehicle for 2010, especially south of the border in Englandshire where it seems likely that the Flying Ferret will no longer be considered "safe" enough as it doesn't have enough roll bars and I have neither the time nor the will to spend modifying a perfectly reasonable machine.

Team Weasel'sTweet Cloud

2009-11-30T09:23:00.004Z

The Ferret's Final Flight?

2009-11-26T21:06:00.006Z

TDR Cadwell Park
Originally uploaded by The Bicycle Basketeer

Here's a rather fabby picture of me at the 2009 Cadwell Park Gravity Festival, seeing how close I can get to The Bicycle Basketeer.

Sadly, this may well be the last time the Ferret will be seen in Lincolnshire, now that it seems likely that pending rules changes will mean I'll need to fit even more f*****g roll bars to make it pass the safety requirements for what is, to be honest, the tamest track I've ever driven on. I really am getting just a little fed up of having to rebuild it every time I take it south of the border.

If I go down again it'll be to race my (as yet unbuilt and totally roll bar free) gravity sidecar.

Cadwell Gravity Festival 2009

2009-11-21T18:06:00.003Z

Team Weasel went to the Cadwell Park Gravity Festival last weekend with not one but two carties. We took the Flying Ferret, of course, but also borrowed the Scottish Cartie Association's newly acquired SCA Bandit. Both required some major modification to comply with Cadwell's insistence on roll bars and harnesses for all carties, and we only just got everything finished in time.

Unlike last year, we weren't the only team from Scotland taking part. Team Rooket and the Alford Bowling Club were also there, showing how we do things north of the border.

We ran both carties down the hill a few times in three way races, but the event format - an unusual combination of time trial and race intended, presumably, to give as many people a go as possible - meant that only the first machine across the line got a time. The Ferret and the Bandit both went reasonably well, but as both had been drawn in the fast groups we only managed to post one time. The Bandit managed one win in 58.8 seconds, and the Ferret came in a very close second once so must have been only a fraction slower than the winning time for that heat of 55.91 seconds. Last year, our best time was 68.87, so even without a result I know the Ferret is much quicker than it was and not very far off the 2008 winning time (54.32). Other than that I can't tell you how we did or where we came, since there were no individual times for any except the very fastest carties, and no aggregate times at all.

But results are only part of the reason for racing. If you know you're not in the running for silverware it's nice to know how you did compared to the rest of the teams and to be able to see if you've improved on the previous years, but even without that it's still a pleasure to be involved in such a well run event and to go head to head with competitors of the very highest quality.
Thanks and respect are due to Geoff and the rest of the Applehead crew as well as all the other helpers for a great weekend - top job!

My highlight of the weekend was getting a shot in Belchford Ahead's gravity sidecar, first as the monkey and then as the pilot. It felt great to drive and I'm planning to have one ready to run for 2010.

Want to see some pictures from Cadwell 2009? Follow this clickiness.

SCA Bandit, Cadwell Style

2009-11-13T17:49:00.003Z

Finally got the SCA Bandit fit to run at Cadwell, just half an hour before Roy stopped by to collect it. It's very similar to the configuration it ran in at Cairngorm, but with a new roll bar and harness fitted. I've also swapped the knobly tyres for lovely slick Primo Comets.

Just need to pack the van and we're ready to roll, first thing tomorrow morning.

See here for more pictures of the SCA Bandit.

Cadwell's Revenge - The Return of the Roll Bar

2009-11-09T12:57:00.002Z

The Flying Ferret is just about ready for Cadwell, with front brake, a roll bar, and revised steering linkage which means I can adjust the steering ratio without affecting the steering geometry. I've not tested the front brakes yet, but they are operated by a fiendishly clever single pull brake lever that has a system in it which automatically balances the pull to each cable and is also "fail operational" so that even if one brake becomes ineffective because of (e.g.) pad wear, the other will still function. The king pin is cambered to minimise any brake steer. The roll bar is held in place by four M12 bolts, so it can be removed for races where roll protection and harnesses are not required - i.e. everywhere except Cadwell. More pictures here.

I've got a little more to do on the SCA Bandit, which we'll also be running at Cadwell. I've remoed the old push bar and replaced it with a rather more substantial roll bar, and have a harness to fit later this week. I'm also going to fit some new tyres to it - most likely some Primo Comets borrowed from the old Greased Weasel.

Team Weasel's Cadwell Preparations

2009-10-31T16:53:00.005Z

The Flying Ferret is being reassembled after fitting a new (removable) roll bar and harness for Applehead Cadwell Park Gravity Festival, and also some brackets for front caliper brakes. I've also made a new (longer) steering column and will be changing the steering so that there is one track rod from the steering column to the near side steering arm and one track rod linking both steering arms. This means I'll be able to adjust the steering ratio without altering the tracking.

This is all going to make the Ferret a bit heavier, but recent experiments have convinced me that the Ferret needs to be heavier anyway and I should be well inside with the 175Kg all up weight limit provided I don't overdo it on the pies. I've got a few 5Kg weights that I can for "tuning" if necessary.

The roll bar for the SCA Bandit is currently being painted, although I've yet to acquire a harness for it. I feel an emergency eBay purchase coming on...

Flaws exposed at Belchford Downhill

2009-09-27T11:13:00.005+01:00

After last year's promising first attempt, Team Weasel's results at the 2009 Belchford Downhill Challenge were rather disappointing. Although we managed to complete all the competition runs with no mechanical failures, our times were slightly down on last year. This, combined with a dramatic increase in the overall standard of entries, meant we were well down the field. We finished 21st in the team competition, with 31st and 68th position for me and Adam respectively in the individual runs.

The Flying Ferret had been modified quite extensively at the start of the year, with new swing arms, smaller rear wheels and, with the removal of the roll cage, a return to the original "lean, mean, light and low" design that I had always intended. This had yielded a dramatic reduction in the weight of the cartie and at scrutineering we tipped the scales at just 32Kg. I had hoped this would give us the extra second or two that we needed to get us up in the running, but it seems it did quite the opposite. My first run was 65.15 seconds which, although not exactly setting the heather alight, was a reasonable start. Unfortunately, Adam's two runs were very slow. His first was too tentative and a big handful of brakes before the first chicane meant he never got up to a decent speed. His second run was much faster, but unfortunately he collected 20 seconds in penalties for clattering into the chicanes, so our chance of a good aggregate time was lost. I was back in the drving seat for the last run and was determined to get a good time. I got from top to bottom in 59.75 seconds, which would have been good enough for 12th if it hadn't been for the 5 second penalty I earned for collecting a barrel coming out of the top chicane.

The Ferret handled really nicely and was much less "tail happy" than last year, but the reduction in weight seems to have affected it adversely. On the lower sections of the course where there is considerably less gravity, I could feel the speed leaking away. It seems that the design needs a bit of a rethink, and perhaps some ballast would pay off.

But the time sheets at the end of the day are only part of the overall result, and a very small one at that. From the bacon and egg breakfast to the bangers and mash in the evening, we had a great day. It was really good to meet up with all the people that we'd been chatting with online before the event, and of course it's always good to catch up with the teams. With 38 teams taking part, there are certainly enough people to talk to, and Peter, Dick and the rest of the crew did a fantastic job of keeping things running smoothly. Keeping the teams under control is like trying to herd cats, so to have kept us all on schedule as they did is no mean feat, so hats off to the Belchford Downhill team for another first class event.

Flying Ferret in Belchford 09 Configuration

2009-09-10T15:12:00.000+01:00

Note the new foot rests and the lack of suspension at the back. I may put the shock back on again, depending on how she goes in the first couple of runs. I think slightly stiffer will suit Belchford better, and there is enough flex in the frame to keep the ride nice and smooth.

Ready for Belchford

2009-09-08T13:47:00.004+01:00

In stark contrast to last year's last minute rush, preparations for the 2009 Belchford Downhill Challenge are pretty much complete, although it never amounted to much more than a bit of tinkering anyway. All that I've done is;

Adjusted the back wheel alignment.
Make up some solid links to replace the suspension units on the swing arms to make it a bit stiffer.
Fitted foot pegs.
Made a new strut to support the steering column.
Touched up the paint a bit.
Um - that's it.

I might make a new swivel mount for the steering column using an 8mm rose joint I found the other day. Other than that she's pretty much ready to roll.

With 40 teams taking part this year, and a new chicane arrangement at the bottom of the course to add to the fun, this promises to be a really exciting day out - I can't wait!

Trophy Cabinet

2009-09-02T12:34:00.003+01:00

After last weekend's haul of silverware, Team Weasel's "trophy cabinet" is starting to look quite healthy. It currently contains;

Catterline Cartie Challenge 2005 Best Engineered (Greased Weasel)
SCARE 2007 Fastest Junior (Driving Maniac 1, on loan from Firstdrive Cars)
SCARE 2009 Fastest Team (Flying Ferret)
SCARE 2009 Fastest Run (Flying Ferret)

Maybesome more next weekend at the Belchford Downhill? It's not very likely, but anything is possible...

Hmmm - might need to look at that...

2009-09-01T18:54:00.005+01:00

I've just noticed a common feature between these two pictures (besides the devilishly handsome driver in the black leather).

The read off side wheel seems to be a bit wonky under cornering.

I should probably fix that.

Vids from Stonehaven Carties

2009-09-01T07:36:00.002+01:00

More pictures from SCARE

2009-09-01T00:03:00.001+01:00

The victorious Cartieliners and their cartie - The Schoolmobile - at SCARE 2009. For more pictures, including the cartie building workshop, see here.

Team Weasel cleans up at Stonehaven Carties

2009-08-31T12:39:00.003+01:00

Team Weasel had a great day at Stonehaven Carties yesterday, taking first prize in both senior competitions. We set a blistering time with the first run of the day which nobody got anywhere near beating,. Although our second and third runs were a few seconds slower we still had enough of a buffer to ensure we got the team prize for the best aggregate time as well.

The School Mobile - built by Catterline School with help from Team Weasel - picked up first prize in the juniors as well, so we had pretty much a clean sweep of the race prizes.

There were 30 entries in total - 8 in the seniors and 22 in the junior competition. The junior carties were nearly all built at a cartie building workshop held two weeks before, using wooden kits that the organisers had acquired.

The Next Project...

2009-08-13T20:38:00.003+01:00

I'm starting to think seriously about my next project - something I've been talking about for a while. I'd like to build a gravity sidecar, 'cos I think it'd be a laugh, and also probably quite quick. Something a bit like the Curtis Sidewinder (pictured right), only based on a BMX frame instead.

Of course there would need to be at least two of them as a race series with only one competitor would be a bit dull. Any takers?

Back to the Track

2009-08-11T15:21:00.006+01:00

After all the excitement of the Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme, where we didn't compete but instead loaned the Flying Ferret BBC Alba's Air An Rathad programme, it's now time to think about the next couple of races. At the end of the month is SCARE, just up the road in Stonehaven. Its short but still alarmingly steep grass track should give an entertaining afternoons racing, and the kids will all get a shot too so it'll be a nice family day out.

Next month is the Belchford Downhill, which is one of the biggest and best gravity races in the country and is certain to be extremely competitive. We did quite well there last year and hope to improve, and now the Ferret is much lighter and is running much smaller wheels on better bearings and with much higher tyre pressures, we should have a pretty good chance. I think we might experiment with replacing the rear suspension shocks with solid links to see if it improves the handling through the chicanes, but other than that it'll be pretty much the same as when it ran at Catterline.

However, we'll still need to work hard as there will be some very fast carties there. Peter Pope's Crockle was very impressive in qualifying at Cairngorm last month and will do well provided he can avoid bending it like he did in 2008, and of course TES and the MG Car Club will be very fast, as always. Whatever the result, however, I'm sure of one thing - we'll have a great time and will be smiling all day!

Podium Finish At Last

2009-06-21T16:50:00.002+01:00

The Flying Ferret finished third on aggregate at this year's Catterline Carties, missing second place by just 7 hundreths of a second. Although this is the best result we've ever had, it was also rather disappointing as we were in first place at the end of the second run. The course was very difficult and the placement of the cones on the corners meant that the fastest lines were denied to the larger carties, so the smaller ones had a distinct advantage.

The Greased Weasel suffered somewhat from poor preparation as I hadn't had time to free up the bearings after having left it out in the fresh sea air for the last twelve months, but at least it managed three incident free runs, which is a distinct improvement on previous years.

There is some onboard footage of the Ferret's first run here. Full results are here.

Passed Catterline Scrutineering

2009-06-10T09:24:00.001+01:00

Went to scrutineering for Catterline Cartie Challenge last week and just managed to scrape a pass for the Greased Weasel (left) and the Flying Ferret. Both had difficulty with the brakes test, as usual, but everything else is fine so we're good to go.

Greased Weasel will be appearing for the 5th time - one of the few remaining "original" carties that have taken part at Catterline every year since 2005. It's now starting to look a bit tatty, on account of being stored in the "big garage with the blue ceiling" (i.e. outdoors) for 5 years, but it should still go pretty well. I've got new tyres for it and, provided I avoid last years tyre valve related mishap, we should be able to run with all four tyres at maximum pressure.

Flying Ferret is almost unchanged from Border Bogies, although I've swapped the single pull brake lever out for independent levers so I can get more force onto them. Not that I'll be using them much anyway. I've also stripped and rebuilt all the wheel bearings and they are running much more freely.

With Liz's departure from Team Weasel to join the Knitting Club, there has been a bit of a re-organisation with the driving this year. Lewis will be driving the cartie I've been building with the Catterline Primary P6-7 class, and Duncan will be joining the team to pilot the Greased Weasel, leaving me to concentrate on hustling the Flying Ferret down the track as quickly as I can.

Only 4 more sleeps to go! I'm soooooo excited!

Vital Statistics

2009-05-20T08:37:00.001+01:00

Weight - 42Kg
Length - 204 cm
Width - 109 cm
Height - 63 cm
Wheelbase - 171cm
Track - 93cm

More pictures here.

Ready for Take Off

2009-05-14T20:35:00.001+01:00

The Flying Ferret is (almost) ready to go. I fitted the swing arms and the wheels this evening, and all that is left is the speedo and the brakes. It's now down to a positively anorexic 42 Kg, which is pretty light by anyone's standards. This time last year she was 64Kg, so that's a pretty major improvement.

The Rebuild Begins

2009-05-13T21:45:00.002+01:00

The painting is complete, so I've started to put it all back together. You can see the plain chassis with the revised swing arm mountings and without the roll cage mounts. I'm really chuffed with it, and the black steering assembly looks really good.

I'm really looking forward to getting the seat, swingarms, wheels and brakes refitted.

Follow Us on Twitter

2009-05-12T11:28:00.002+01:00

We're on Twitter now (http://twitter.com/flyingFerret), so you'll be able to follow our progress in minute detail as we prepare for and compete in Border Bogies, Catterline Carties, Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme, Belchford Downhill, etc. Looks like it'll be a busy year...

Add Lightness

2009-05-10T00:57:00.003+01:00

Colin Chapman new a thing or two about making things go very fast, and one of his saying was "to add speed, add lightness". Having taken this to heart, I have also taken an angel grinder to hand and taken off the roll cage mounting points. The ferret is very much lighter than it was before, although I'm not sure how much yet as it is in bits at the moment. I've stripped it down to give it a clean and touch up the paint job before putting it back together for Border Bogies. The plan is to get this work finished by next weekend, although regular readers of this blog will know that "by 5 minutes before setting off" is a more realistic estimate.

Hope to have some pictures of the lightweight and shiny Flying Ferret very soon.

Looking forward to Border Bogies

2009-03-20T12:24:00.005Z

We've got our entry in for the Border Bogie Challenge, which will be the first soapbox race of the year. Or season - maybe we have enough races going on that there is actually a season? Anyway - we're running the Flying Ferret in both the juniors and the seniors, and I am (as always) optimistic that we'll do well. I'll have the new swingarms fitted, so the back end will be much stiffer and lighter, and I've also got some lovely new tyres that should run very quickly.

Since they've adopted the draft National Rules, we won't be needing the roll cage. I might even take the roll cage mounting points off completely, as I never did like it anyway.

Cadwell Postponed

2009-02-06T16:09:00.005Z

I was out in the shed about an hour ago, watching the snow gently falling while cleaning and lubricating the Ferret's wheel bearings when I got the phone call. They've had to postpone the race because of the snow and ice on the track, which is not entirely surprising given the weather we've been having of late. Anyway - no harm done - and in fact it might help things slightly as it'll give me chance to fit my new swing arms. Hurrah!

So it looks as though the Ferret's first outing this year will be to Border Bogies in May.

Soapbox Testing at Cairngorm

2009-02-05T10:24:00.007Z

Last weekend we took the ferret and the Slammer up to Cairngorm to do some testing for Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme (and also to test out the recent modifications, prior to Cadwell Park this weekend), and I'm really chuffed with the way the Ferret ran. We weren't absolutely caning it because the road was still open to other traffic and we couldn't take the best lines, but it's obvious that the course is really fast. Speed picks up really quickly in the first section, and then you have to brake hard for the first hairpin. When you come out of the hairpin there is a section of about 1/3 mile which is almost level, if not slightly uphill in places. Speed drops off really quickly, and it was here that the new improved Ferret really showed its class by reeling in and passing the Slammer like it was parked (1:23 in the video below). There is another hairpin after the flats, and although the entry to it is very slow you get spat out at about 30mph as you head on to the fastest part of the course. There is over a mile of sweeping bends down to the finish, most of which can be taken flat out. There is one, however, which needs a bit of care - it's not particularly sharp, but you approach it at speed and it takes some nerve to resist the urge to grab the brakes before you turn in.

I was really pleased with the way the Ferret went - fast and stable and very free running. I think that, with a bit more practice and being able to use the whole road to get a better line, it should be possible to add another 10mph pretty much everywhere.

I'm really looking forward to Cadwell, as we're going to be much quicker than last year and I think we should have a reasonable finish position.

Here's the onboard camera footage from the Slammer and the GPS data from the Ferret, showing the gradient and the speed along the length of the course.

New Swingers

2009-01-20T22:56:00.004Z

Another day, another trip to eBay. I've been thinking of ways to make the whole back end of the Ferret a bit lighter and better for a while now. My home made swing arms are all well and good, but in order to make them strong enough, they've become rather heavy. I chanced across these rather lovely swing arms on eBay earlier today and just had to get a pair. They should tidy up the back end no end, and give it a bit more lateral stiffness as well. With fittings for vee and disk and only £9.99 each, it was a something of a no-brainer. Whether I'll have enough time to fit them before Cadwell, however, remains to be seen...

Soapbox Cart Steering Geometry

2009-01-10T22:04:00.002Z

Just been reading a great article on steering angles at SpeedPedal. SpeedPedal is and Australian web site about "human powered vehicles" (i.e. recumbents), but the issues they are dealing with are identical to those of a soapbox cartie.

It's a bit bit sketchy on Ackermann angle, but camber, toe and caster get a good covering, and it's definately worth a read if you're trying to get your head around how to get your front wheels pointing in the right direction.

Ferret is Ready to Roll

2009-01-05T11:37:00.002Z

Over a month to go until the Flying Ferret's first outing of the year, down at Cadwell Park, but already it is pretty much ready to go (unlike last time...). I've made a few modifications after Belchford, including slightly modified steering geometry and new brakes and rear wheels. I took off the V brakes and replaced them with BMX style brakes instead. This, of course, meant that the brakes didn't fit the 24" wheels any more, but I discovered that 20" wheels are exactly the right size if you use 26" MTB forks with BMX brakes, so I've temporarily gone with that solution for now.

The switch from 24" to 20" rear wheels lowered the ride height too much and the frame was grounding out, so the shocks had to go - replaced by slightly longer solid struts that restored the ground clearance.

In the long run, of course, the plan is to completely ditch the existing rear swing arms and replace them with lighter and stronger ones, and when I do that the rear suspension will probably return, but for the "hard tail" rear setup will be just fine. The pictures show the cheap knobbly tires I've been using just recently, but I plan to change them out for slicks in time for Cadwell (and also put the harness and roll cage back on - boo!).

Other notable changes are the new seat, which is much lighter than the old lawn mower seat I had been using, and the new single pull brake lever that operates both back brakes simultaneously. The brake lever has a cunning little contraption inside it which balances the pull between both brakes to counter any mis-adjustment between the calipers and also has a "fail operational" feature whereby the brakes will still operate even in the event of one caliper being abducted by aliens.

UK National Soapbox Rules - Let's Have a Heated Debate!

2008-10-17T23:30:00.008+01:00

"gravitygrump" has started a discussion about the current National Soapbox Rules on the UKGSA Forum. The rules have been around for a couple of years now but have never really caught on because - as I've been saying for some time - they're just too restrictive and put too big a barrier in the way of participation. The discussion is aimed at finding a consensus that can allow the rules to be relaxed next year, and I'm optimistic that we'll get a set of realistic and achievable construction rules that will increase the number of carties taking part in the National class and, with a bit of luck, even a meaningful National Championship competition.

I have, of course, stuck my oar in and contributed my thoughts. I'd love to see the whole roll bar and harness malarkey go as well.

The current rules can be found here.

The Weasel Goes Shopping

2008-09-19T15:59:00.005+01:00

A detailed post Belchford review of the Flying Ferret has revealed a few things that need to be fixed, changed and repaired before Cadwell Park in February, so I've been shopping on eBay.

Top of the list is a lighter seat. The current one came from a ride on lawn mower and weights a whopping 7.5 Kg, but I've found a lovely kart seat on ebay that is about 5 Kg lighter and should get us down to around 57 Kg. If I can keep my own weight down to below 90 Kg we should be able to just squeeze in to the National Class.

Second are some new back wheels. I love my big stylish cast aluminium back wheels, but unfortunately they got slightly bent at Belchford. They're not badly out of true and will do for spares/practice, but I thought it's probably about time I got some new ones if only to make it easier to deal with punctures etc. on race day. I'm planning to put Maxxis Hookworms on them and run them at maximum pressure for minimum rolling resistance. The rear suspension should stop the rock hard tyres from rattling my fillings out.

Finally, the Cadwell Park rules have been changed since last year and now state that;

"The vehicle will have braking on at least 2 wheels, which must be fitted on the same axle. The brakes must be capable of holding the vehicle on a dry horizontal road surface, when laden with driver and ballast, against a horizontal load of 50kg exerted On the front towing eye. If Brakes are independently operated we must incised [sic] on 4 wheel braking."

Now if I read this right (and I've emailed the organisers for clarification), it means that you can only have two wheel brakes if they are both operated by the same lever. Four wheel braking just isn't an option for me at the moment, so I've invested in one of these neat little dual pull levers which, with a bit of luck, will mean I can run at Cadwell and still easily convert back to the dual brake system required at Belchford.

It's all very exciting and I can't wait for all my new bits to arrive. They should arrive during the week so I'll fit them and maybe get to do a bit of testing next weekend.

Ferret Comes Good, Eventually...

2008-09-16T21:23:00.016+01:00

I don't know why it is that it always comes down to this. I've had three months to get The Flying Ferret ready for the Belchford Downhill Challenge, and yet I still ended up trying to finish it off on Saturday morning before setting off. The plan had been to finish off the last few bits and pieces during the week, then have an early night on Friday, a nice leisurely breakfast on Saturday and a relaxed drive down to Belchford during the day before a final trip to my parents in nearby Newark for the night. What actually happened, of course, was a late night of grinding, drilling and swearing on Friday, a lot more grinding, drilling and swearing on Saturday morning, and a mad dash down after setting off two hours late.

Anyway - long story short - made it down to Belchford and assembled the Ferret in Dick B's garage before heading over to mum and dad's for a fish supper, (complete with proper mushy peas) and to bed at midnight.

Saturday started at stupid o'clock, approximately 3 seconds after I'd got to sleep, or at least that's what it felt like. Egg and bacon for breakfast (thanks dad), then over to pick up my nephew and team mate Emo Weasel. We arrived at Belchford a little after 7.30, retrieved the Ferret from Dick's garage, signed in and then wandered around looking at the opposition and saying hello to people.

There was much discussion about the new course layout. After having visited Catterline earlier in the year, the organisers had decided to borrow some of the better ideas, including theme tunes, push starts and chicanes. The course had been made significantly more difficult with the addition of two chicanes at the top and one at the bottom. This was, of course, no great deal for Team Weasel, but was causing some degree of consternation among the more fearty teams. I did try to allay their fears by pointing out that they were being great big jessies, but that didn't seem to make them any happier.

There were 30 teams taking part - 6 in the National Rules class and the rest (Team Weasel included) in the somewhat less restrictive Belchford class. As with Cadwell, there was a huge range in the carties there, from the finely engineered and fully faired works of art to the rather more - um - pragmatically designed and built. There were a few familiar machines, including Team TES, The Wheelnuts, St Marys and Team Riley.

And so to the racing.

First run : Since we were number 29 there was plenty of time to observe how the other teams handled the chicanes, so I observed for a bit from the first corner. I soon came to the conclusion that my initial assessment was correct and the other teams were indeed great big jessies, as cartie after cartie gingerly picked their path through the chicanes. When it came to my turn to go I decided to just go for it and took the first chicane flat out. The second, however, was a bit tighter and I spun through 180 on the exit, effectively ruining any chance of a competitive time. The marshals eventually got me pointing the right way and I trundled off to the bottom of the hill leaving a small blue trail of cursing behind me. I was still furious with myself when I got to the bottom and stopped, and didn't notice the local TV camera crew until after I'd let loose an exceptionally audible expletive. "Good way to make sure you don't appear on telly, mate", remarked one of the other drivers. 104.74 seconds. Last.

Second run : The brakes had been binding a bit in the first run, so I backed them off a little for the second run. I scrubbed off a little speed before the chicanes and got round them cleanly, tucked in and set off to the finish line. A quick jink around the last chicane and a good competitive time - 60.33 seconds. 5th place.

Third run : Emo Weasel's turn. I gave him detailed course notes and breaking points, but to no avail. He spun off at the first chicane. The track rods had come loose somehow, although it's not clear if that happened before or after the crash - either way, run three ended at the first chicane. DNF. 6th ish.

Fourth run : Some desperate repair work - fix the steering, adjust the brakes and put the re-seat the rear wheels, which had been torn from their mounts by the side loads in the slide. Nearly missed our slot but got there just in time. The field was starting to thin out by now, with several carties falling victim to the chicanes. We were still going though, but only just. Another shot for Emo Weasel. A big push and he hurtled towards the first chicane - a bit of a slide but he got round it and disappeared from view. I assumed he had made it to the bottom, so was rather surprised when the time sheet was updated and a big DNF appeared. I set off down the course and found him sitting half way down the hill. Apparently the rear wheels had been pulled loose by the side loads again and the brakes bound on, bring the Ferret to a gentle and utterly useless stop. So - back to the top and more tweaks. Our two DNFs had cost us badly and we had lost some more places. To be honest, I'd stopped looking by then.

Fifth run : A third of the field now retired, but with two DNFs to our name we were well and truly out of the running for the team prize. It was all or nothing for the last run to salvage some honour, and as the only team member to have actually seen the finish line, it was up to me. So here we go. Strap in, helmet on, gloves on, thumbs up, brakes off, red light, green light go! First chicane, gentle on the brakes, keep it nice and smooth and clean through. Picking up speed, second chicane, gentle on the brakes, not too tight on the exit, use the whole road and - oops - some of the verge too - never mind. Still going. Gunbarrel straight to the finish - tuck in and let it run - third chicane coming up - gentle on the brakes but stay tucked in, quick jink left and right and then eyes on the clock.... 56...57...58.19 Yes! Get in! 58.19. 5th(*). Eat that, ya precision engineered, fully faired jessies!

So - a good result in the end, and an extremely surprising one given our relatively poor performance overall and the very high quality of the opposition. Lots of good thing though - the steering was really good and - when everything goes right - the Ferret can be very quick indeed. The back end is still not right though, and the brakes and rear wheel mounts need some attention. The other interesting fact is that we weighed in at 154Kg all up (with me on board). That is only 4 Kg over the limit for the National class, and our best time would have put us 2nd in the National class... I reckon I can make the Ferret 4Kg light by swapping the big metal seat out for a nice light fibreglass kart seat, and I have some good ideas on how to sort out the back end. The next race will probably be Cadwell Park in February, I have high hopes.

And finally - events like the Belchford Downhill don't happen by magic. A great deal of work goes into preparing and running something like that, and much thanks and respect are due to all the crew who worked hard to put on a such an outstanding day of soapbox racing. Also - big thanks to Paul at Firstdrive Cars for letting me come up to the garage and use ~~his~~ Maurice's MIG welder once more.

I've had a few more ideas Paul - I might need a shot of it again soon :-).

* - I had originally thought we'd come 4th, but it turns out that the National Class carties also compete for the same individual trophy so we were actually 5th, just 0.4 seconds behind the MG Car Club.

Ferret MkII?

2008-09-04T23:29:00.003+01:00

Does this count as a new version? Is it different enough from the first incarnation to be called a different machine? I don't know really. The main design features are still there - the big cast wheels at the back, the swing arm rear suspension and the low, wide skeleton chassis, but there are some significant changes too. It's much shorter for a start - so much so that it will easily fit in the back of a Citroen ZX when it is stripped down - and the wheelbase is reduced too. The wheels are all trued up (more or less) and there is no camber on them, and the king pins are set so the steering self centres nicely, so even if it doesn't look very different it cetainly feels like a different cartie.

So yeah - it is a different cartie.

Ladies and Gentlemen - The Flying Ferret Mk II.

Also - the exact measurements are a closely guarded secret (well - OK - I've not done them yet), but I can exclusively reveal that FFII is within the dimensions for the National Class. Unfortunately, however, there is little or no chance of her making the 150Kg maximum weight with me on board. Boo!

Not much to do before Belchford now - a couple of tweaks to the steering and some gentle tidying with the angle grinder, then it's strip, clean, paint, reassemble, fit brakes, speedo and number plates and we're done. Hurrah!

Four Wheels Good

2008-09-03T21:53:00.003+01:00

A day of frantic activity, but very productive. I finally managed to get up to FirstDrive to get a shot on their MIG welder and got the wheels back on, and all pointing in vaguely the right direction too. The overall length and wheelbase has been reduced somewhat, which should make it less likely oversteer (well - OK - might make it less likely to oversteer). The main improvement, though, is that it now fits in the back of my car if I take the wheels off, which will make moving it around a lot easier.

So - just need to tidy it up, paint it, re-fit the brakes. All before a week on Saturday.

Should have a few pics and the revised vital statistics in a day or so...

Preparing for Belchford...

2008-08-21T22:33:00.003+01:00

The Flying Ferret will be in action at the Belchford Downhill Challenge next month, so work is underway to bring it up to scratch. The Ferret last ran at Catterline and finished rather ignominiously when it went sidways into the bales and tore off the back near side wheel.

Progress since then has been slow and in entirely the wrong direction.

The original plan was to weld the back wheel on and - well - just leave it at that. But you know how these things go. First idea was to remove the other wheel too and weld them both on again slightly further forward to bring the rear wheels closer to the centre of gravity and so reduce the somewhat alarming tendency to oversteer at any opportunity. And then I thought - maybe I'll adjust the camber on the front wheels too so it's not quite so wonky looking.

And that's where it started to go a bit wrong.

My plan for "adjusting the camber" was simple - hit it with a big hammer until it's straight. Unfortunately, this back fired somewhat and I smashed the wheel clean off. Faced with a fairly maor re-build, I decided instead to just remove and redo the entire front end instead, so in the space of a week I've gone from a cartie with 3 wheels to a cartie with no wheels.

Hurrah!

Fortunately, I have a plan. And this one is much better than all the other plans. Oh yes. I'm hoping to be back on track in the next few days and back to the conventional "one wheel at each corner" configuration, and it'll be shorter, lighter and stronger into the bargain.

Probably.

TES Cadwell Results

2008-02-12T13:41:00.000Z

Full results from the TES Cadwell Park Gravity Festival are now in. We came 13th on individual times and 14th on aggregate. More importantly, I learned a ton of stuff about how to make carties go quicker, and I'm confidant that both the Flying Ferret and the Greased Weasel are going to be serious contenders at Catterline.

TES Cadwell Park Gravity Festival 08

2008-02-06T12:40:00.000Z

I've just about recovered from Cadwell - what a fantastic day! It all started a bit too early for my liking, with a wakeup call from my dad at 5.30 after having been up until 11.00 the previous night putting the Ferret together and ironing out a few snags. One bacon sarny later, my brother arrived and we loaded up the trailer and set off to Cadwell along with our respective sons. On the way we handed out the walkie talkies and decided our radio call signs - Chief Weasel, Sergeant Weasel, Big Daddy Weasel, Ginger Weasel, Emo Weasel and Little Weasel.

When we got out of the car we were met by a fierce and freezing wind that was to be a feature of the day. Despite being asked to arrive at 7.30, things proceeded at a leisurely pace and we didn't start racing until 10.00. Scrutineering was fairly relaxed and the Ferret passed without any problem. We checked the weight on their digital weighbridge and found that the all up weight was 163Kg with me on board - just 2kg under the limit. "Dry" weight was 64Kg, which was exactly what I'd measured it to be the previous night using bathroom scales. Hurrah for the bathroom scales!

I spent a while beforehand wandering around to look at the other carties and meet all the other lunatics. It was nice to find that most of them had already heard of the Catterline Cartie Challenge, and as soon as they clocked my kilt they knew who I was. Lots of people commented on the videos they'd seen on YouTube - "You lot are mental" seemed to be the general consensus.

We had a drivers briefing and a mandatory course walk at 9.00 and then, after what seemed like ages, we finally got around to racing. They ran two carts at a time, each running against the clock rather than each other. There were two finishing gates with break beam sensors and you had to drive through the right one to get your time. However, with two machines running simultaneously the urge to race head to head rather than going for your best time is just overwhelming. And it is just SUCH a buzz! It was absolutely fantastic to tuck in behind the other cartie and get a tow all the way down the hill before swinging out to take a wider line around the corner and drive past him on the exit.

The course was quite shallow at the start before a left hander into a long straight at about 1:10 that ended in a very sharp left hander before leveling out, with a quick chicane before the finish line. Top speed at the bottom of the straight was about 30mph. Unfortunately, the wind was too strong and in the wrong direction so on the first run every single cartie ground to a halt before reaching the steep part of the course and had to be helped on by the marshals. They eventually abandoned the first runs, calling it them "practice" runs instead, and moved the start line to just before the steep part. Even then the wind was too strong. At one point I released my brakes only to travel backwards up the hill! A gentle shove from one of the marshalls got me heading in the right direction.

There were some incredible machines there, from Honda's sleek black carbon fibre monocoque design that cost them thousands of pounds (left) to the standard "two bikes welded together" efforts. The aerodynamic carties did better in general, although that may be because they also tended to be the better made machines and didn't have wonky wheels and wobbly steering. Honda cleaned up and were a good 10 seconds faster than anyone else - all their runs were somewhere in the 50 second range, while nobody else managed to break the 1 minute barrier. Our fastest run (driven by Emo Weasel) was 1:08.

So where did we come? I don't know yet. Not first and not last. We "won" most of our "heats", and I was really happy with the way the Ferret handled - very smooth, stable and "planted", it never once got twitchy or felt like it was out of shape. While driving back on Monday I spent the whole time thinking of ways to make it go even faster, and it's going to be a serious contender at Catterline this year - you have been warned!

There are some quite rubbish pictures I took on my camera are shown here, along with some rather better ones by my brother. There is one of the fantastic Lola machine that didn't run and, in fact, I didn't even see (I only found out about it when looking through my bro's pictures). There are also some pics of the Flying Ferret being modofied up at Firstdrive Cars, and after the final build in dad's garage on Saturday night, and then some pics of various carties that caught my eye.

There are other pics and videos about. You can get a driver's eye view of the course on YouTube here and here. There were several TV crews there too. You can see Radio 1's effort here.

Next cartie race is pencilled in for Scammonden Dam on the M62 near Rochdale in mid April. It's about 700yds long and has an average gradient of around 1:10, although it is considerably steeper than that in places. I had a quick look at it when I drove past it before xmas, and it is just fantastic. I cannot wait to get a crack at it. You can get a rough idea of what its like just by looking at it on google maps. See here for the full glory.

A big vote of thanks is due to Apple Head Gravity Sports and the UKGSA for organising the TES Cadwell Park Gravity Festival, and to all the people who worked throughout the day to make it such a great event.

Ferret Grinding

2008-01-23T01:10:00.000Z

Here's me up a Firstdrive, removing some uneccessary bits from the Flying Ferret prior to rebuilding the steering assembly. Now that I've finally figured out how to get the pictures off my phone and onto the interweb, you can expect to see much more of this kind of thing. You lucky people.

Preparations for TES Cadwell Park Gravity Festival under way

2008-01-18T01:09:00.000Z

Preparations for TES Cadwell Park Gravity Festival are well under way, and I have to say I am practically beside myself with excitement. Firstdrive Cars have been utterly fantastic, as usual, giving me access to their welding kit so I can make all the necessary mods. I've fitted roll bars and a harness to The Flying Ferret, as well as making various other tweaks to get everything all ready to roll in time. Things are coming together really well, and I might even have time to slap a coat of paint on it.

I have to say, mind you, that I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole roll bar and harness thing. The rules state that "a substantial diagonally braced rollover bar must be fitted" and "a seatbelt must be fitted" (and presumably - although it doesn't actually state this - worn).

Now don't get me wrong here - rules is rules, and if that's what is required then that's what I'll do, but personally, I think this is overkill when you consider that at the most we'll be hitting somewhere around 30mph. As a biker, I'd much rather dispense with the roll cage and harness so that I can bail out if things go wrong. I'll be wearing my full road warrior kit - boots, helment, gloves and leathers - and I'm more than happy to put in faith in them. Let's be realistic here - this is Cadwell Park we're talking about - a pukka race track where they host World Superbike races. None of those boys have to fit roll cages, and they're going a wee bit faster than 30mph. Even at the Gravity Festival itself there will be gravity bikes and street luges all going faster than our wee cartie, and yet again they won't be needing "a substantial diagonally braced rollover bar".

There is a serious point hidden in this micro-rant. If we want to attract competitors to cartie racing, then we have to keep the entry hurdles low, and having rules that mandate unnecessary complication is going to do nothing but put barriers in the way of people who want to take part. That, in my opinion, is a bad thing. I'm all in favour of legislating for safety, but I believe it is possible to build a perfectly safe cartie without having to go to the extremes of fitting roll cages. What next, one wonders. Airbags? Neck braces? Antilock brakes?

Here's my suggestion; if the design of your cartie is such that you are restrained within it (because of, for instance, a fairing), then you MUST have a roll cage and be securely strapped in. But if your cartie is - like the Flying Ferret - entirely open, you must NOT have a roll cage and you must NOT be strapped in.

Anyway - with that in mind - I've made the Ferret's roll cage detachable so that when we run it at Catterline and Stonehaven we can just remove it. I'll post some pics of the new work just as soon as I figure out how to get them of my phone.

Flying Ferret 08

2007-10-10T12:27:00.001+01:00

Blog posts are like busses. You wait ages, and then three come along at once...

Anyway. Next year I'm hoping I'll not be so involved in running the Catterline Cartie Challenge and will get a chance to actually take part in a few events instead. As well as the three local events; Catterline, Stonehaven and Monymusk, I'm considering travelling down to that there Englandshire to show 'em how its done. There's a race at Cadwell Park on in February that looks very tempting, and a couple of others too.

However, it looks as though I might need to do a bit of work on the Ferret to get it up to scratch. The run at Stonehaven SCARE 07 went really well, but there are a couple of things that need attention. The swing arms are not stiff enough laterally and don't hold the rear wheels firmly enough so cornering tends to make them go a bit wonky, and there is no decent push bar so the start can be a bit sluggish. Also, the turning circle is a bit on the large side. On top of that, it looks like I'll need to fit a roll cage and harness before I can take part at Cadwell - looks like I have a bit of welding to do in the next couple of months.

Fortunately, I have a plan, which involves several large chunks of box section steel...

Success at SCARE

2007-10-10T11:30:00.001+01:00

Team Weasel entered two carties in SCARE 2007 at Stonehaven. The Flying Ferret ran in the seniors and we borrowed Maniac 1 from Firstdrive for the juniors. Brendan piloted Maniac 1 to victory in the juniors, and Ferret was placed second in the seniors, behind the defending champion Once a Fortnight.

More cartie action on YouTube

2007-10-10T11:26:00.000+01:00

Here is the latest highlights video from the 2007 Catterline Cartie Challenge, including (somewhere in amongst it all), footage of both of Team Weasel's entries - The Flying Ferret and The Greased Weasel.

The Flight of the Weasel

2006-10-03T16:04:00.000+01:00

One for all you Greased Weasel fans out there - better late than never - it's a clip of The Greased Weasel on the third run in the 2006 Catterline Cartie Challenge. Liz has clearly benefitted from the two previous runs and absolutely nails it through the slammer and the slalom cones. Fantastic! [4.5Mb MPG]

Another eBargain

2006-10-01T16:28:00.000+01:00

Isn't eBay great? Check out these wheels - brand new 24" mag alloy mountain bike wheels with roller bearings and fittings for standard 6 hole brake disks. £24.99 for the pair (I bought two pairs).

Next year's cartie is going to be truly awesome - all I need now is to find someone who can weld aluminium...

Shocking Developments!

2006-09-25T11:39:00.000+01:00

Another eBay raid has paid off. I've just acquired 5 rear shocks for a mini moto trails bike for 99p! Get in!

I'm designing next year's machine already, and I'm planning to run an all new Weasel. Yes - I know I said that before, but this time I mean it! I want something that I can run at Catterline, Stonehaven and Monymusk (and any other events that might be on), so I'm aiming for strong, light and good handling. That's where the shocks come in - I reckon that a strong machine will be too rigid and too heavy if it has no suspension.

I have two ideas that I'm mulling over at the moment. One is a Slammer-esque "two bikes" design, but with some severe chopping of the frames to give it full suspension. The other idea, and the one that kind of appeals to me the most at the moment, is a cartie that looks very "old school" at first glance, but on closer inspection is a rather more trick machine - full sus', disk brakes, ackermann steering, the lot. Maybe even a set of these wheels if I can afford it (or find a set going cheap).

Monymusk Mayhem

2006-09-25T11:20:00.000+01:00

Team Weasel, (aka HRH) rode again in the Monymusk Cairtie Race. We borrowed the Tequila Slammer from Maurice again because the Weasel is just too fragile to run on anything other than tarmac. Monymusk is quite different from both Catterline and Stonehaven, as the course is 3 and a quarter miles long and over some very rough ground. Only the first three quartes of a mile is significantly downhill, and thereafter the cartie needs to be pushed for most of the way. Two of my colleagues volunteered to push (Grant and Ross), so I reckoned we were in with a good chance. The downhill section went pretty well despite the steering wheel coming a bit loose, causing me to drift across the track and clout a bale while going about 30 mph. However, I managed to recover without any major mishap and hit a top speed of 33.2mph. The rest of the course didn't go so well, unfortunately. Grant got a stitch early on and quickly fell behind. Ross worked really hard to keep going, but was always going to struggle to get a good time while pushing single handed. We crossed the finish line in about 24 minutes, but the time is taken from when the last team member crosses the line, and Grant didn't finish for another 10 minutes or so.

We got "Best Design" prize, as a consolation (well done Maurice), and Grant got a sympathy prize - 5 litres of Mackies Ice-cream! Result!

We're Not Scared...

2006-09-25T11:10:00.000+01:00

Team Weasel entered the Stonehaven Carties Annual Race Event (SCARE 2006) with several borrowed machines (Slammer, Elijah and Maniac 1). We didn't take Greased Weasel herself because the course is quite rough, and I don't think the old girl is quite rugged enough to cope. Lewis and I drove the truly awesome Tequila Slammer, and although we didn't really figure too well in the imings we did get the prize for the best crash - both Lewis and I rolled it on the bottom corner. Everyone had a good time though, which is the main thing really.

Another flat spot...

2006-06-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

Look very carefully at this picture. Notice the blurred spokes of the front wheels and the stock still pin sharp clarity of the rear wheels. Yup - Liz lays some more rubber in the braking area and shreds the tires even more...

More Weasel Pictures

2006-06-20T15:23:00.000+01:00

Another picture of the Weasel in full flight; this one of Liz rounding "The Slammer". Notice how poised and planted the Weasel is? No wheels lifting, no understeer and no squirrelyness.

Team Weasel on the move

2006-06-13T22:06:00.000+01:00

Allison and Jeanette giving Liz a good start in her final and fastest run of the day.

Weasel whips Elijah

2006-06-13T12:10:00.000+01:00

WE BEAT ELIJAH!!!

Last year's champion cartie, Elijah, was pushed into 6th place in the Constructors event. Three fantastic clear runs by Liz the Skid, powered by Jeanette and Allison in the "engine room", gave an aggregate time just 3 hundredths of a second better than the Chariots of Fire crew, who lost a lot of time on their first run whe Byron lost it at The Slammer.

You see? I told you the Weasel was a quality cartie this year!

Help ma kilt that's quick!

2006-06-07T11:18:00.000+01:00

The Lemming Pushers' secret weapon is "The Stick"; Team Weasel, however, has "The Skid". Fortified by two glasses of wine, Liz "The Skid" took the Weasel down the brae on a series of increasingly quicker runs, culminating in a 28 second run that left the on looking Chariots of Fire team momentarily speechless (which is a rare enough thing in itself).

Liz put the Weasel though its paces, giving the steering and brakes a severe workout, but at no time did she ever get it out of shape and the Weasel was poised and elegant all the way down. You should see the size of the flat spots she's put on the back tyres - right through the tread in two places! I think everyone took my assertion that the Weasel is a contender this year to be mere bluster and spin, but maybe now they realise they're in for a fight!

Other gossip: There were four other machines out being tested last night. The Lemming is very solid and handles well, but is paying the price for being so heavy and is a good 10 seconds off the pace. Lesley looks quite good, but driver Rob (now wearing a helmet and ice hockey armour after his last little accident) is still a bit cautious. Elijah is as fast as ever and doesn't seem to be slowed much by the fourth wheel, although that could be because it doesn't actually touch the ground most of the time - I think the pit marshal might be paying quite a bit of attention to that little ruse. Poopy's Whizzer is as quick as you would imagine for a cartie that is so very light. However, the steering is quite sensitive. Unfortunately, Andy thought the finish line was the second white line by the pier so he hit the rough on the braking area going nearly flat out and rolled, bending a front axle in the process. He has now learned why most people pull up early during testing, saving themselves and their machines for the big day.

Brakes fixed. Ears trimmed. All ready to roll...

2006-06-05T11:33:00.000+01:00

I got the brakes sorted this weekend - there wasn't much needed doing except replacing the nuts holding on the calibers with locking nuts and making sure the pads were lined up on the wheel rims. A quick test on the drive showed an impressive 65Kg braking force, which should be more than enough to satisfy the scrutineers at the retest this weekend. I also gave the Weasel's ears a gentle caress with my belt sander so they aren't quite so pointy.

All that remains now is the practice session tomorrow with the rest of the team and then a bit of a touch up on the paint job, which is a pretty good position to be in with only 6 days to go.

Slight problem...

2006-05-30T10:03:00.000+01:00

GWII was presented at scrutineering on Sunday and managed a "conditional pass". Two things need attention - the brakes and the ears.

Apparently the scrutineers think the weasely ears are too pointy and they need to be rounded off - the cheek! That will ruin the aggressive styling, and fundamentally change the machine in the process - everyone knows that weasels have pointy ears. If it has round ears it's a bloody gerbil! Instead of rounding them off I'm going to replace them with something a little less substantial like thin card or plastic.

The other problem was the brakes - one wheel locked solid but the brakes didn't grip fully on the other side (that might explain why it veers a little when you stand on the brakes...). Anyway - it'll be pretty straightforward to fix as it's just a misalignment of one of the blocks causing the problem. I'll adjust it and it'll be fine. Even with one brake not quite working it still managed to hold 40Kg, which is only 10Kg short of the target.

Other than that, the only things that need doing are to touch up the paint job and replace some of the nuts that have shaken loose with nylock nuts.

After the scrutineering there was the inevitable "practice session". The weasel performed faultlessly and surprised a few I think. The "pseudo three wheelers" that have put an extra wheel on the back axle to get around the new "at least four wheels" rule are finding that they aren't as clever as they thought they were as the configuration is not as stable as they might like. Douglas managed to roll Elijah, although fortunately it was at low speed and he was unhurt.

The Weasel is a Contender

2006-05-22T11:02:00.000+01:00

Any cartie test that you walk away from is a good cartie test, and by that criteria the preliminary tests of this year's improved Greased Weasel were an unqualified success. We did three gentle runs down the brae with no incidents whatsoever. The brakes worked brilliantly and the steering was sharp and accurate. The new open seating arrangement gives the driver more freedom to lean into the corners, allowing a more dynamic driving style to really push the cartie to its limits. There will be further testing during the week where we'll be working up to competition speed, but I'm not expecting to have to do any serious work on the machine other than fine tuning and tidying up the paint work.

Scrutineering will be this coming Sunday (28th May), so we're well on track for being ready in time, and I just can't wait to see the reaction we get from the other competitors.

Last year's weasel was comedy relief. This year's weasel is a serious contender.

New members for Team Weasel

2006-05-15T12:34:00.000+01:00

Team Weasel is proud and delighted to announce the full line up for the Catterline Cartie Challenge. Number one driver Liz will be joined in the pit lane by Allison and Jeanette to make the first ever all female team.

Meanwhile, construction of the MkII Weasel is going well, and the first test run is scheduled for later this week, so if you see a brown streak on the brae you know what it is...

As an aside - I was up at Firstdrive Cars again last Saturday doing a couple of small welds for the Weasel's brakes, and I saw Maurice working on The Slammer. You'll remember it had a few problems last year with its large wheels and high centre of gravity, and suffered from a quite spectacular high side right in front of the PA tent (that section of the course has now been renamed "The Slammer" in its honour). To try and avoid that this year, The Slammer now sports heavy duty 20" BMX wheels and has been drastically lowered, although the steering is still very twitchy. It is very quick, however, and now that three wheelers are no longer part of the competition it will certainly be setting a good pace if if Maurice can find a driver with enough bottle.

Sussed it...

2006-05-04T13:35:00.000+01:00

I've just had a "eureka" moment.

I managed to acquire an old full-sus mountain bike frame complete with front forks a couple of weeks ago from Ruftrak Bikes in Stonehaven, and ever since then I've been trying to work out how best to incorporate it into the Greased Weasel. The solution came to me just a few seconds ago while sitting here at my desk pretending to work - the rear wheels will trail out the back of the cartie on a single swing arm, with one a fork attached to each side, providing proper damped suspension at the back!

It's kind of difficult to explain, but it's all very clear and simple in my head. I'll need to go back up to visit Firstdrive Cars for a spot more welding, but it shouldn't take too much work and I reckon it'll all be done by the start of next week. I'll try and get a picture of it to post here next week, although my camera is snafu so I'll have to find one to borrow.

Whether it's enough to get me the "Best Engineered" prize again remains to be seen, although somehow I doubt it. Cool though it will be (and probably the only cartie with suspension), I've seen some of the opposition and they'll be hard to beat.

Pete Babbs has built a fantastic looking machine that incorporates proper rack and pinion steering (borrowed from and old ride on mower). It has a welded box section chassis with sheet aluminum bodywork pop riveted on to it, and has a classic trials car look to it, complete with a mesh grill at the front and a leather belt over the bonnet. It also has a Brittax bucket seat, four point harness and a roll cage!

David Clayton's cartie is also very good, and reportedly has very effective steering and brakes. It certainly looks the part, and is very topical too as it has a body made from a wheelie bin!

The Return of the Weasel

2006-05-02T10:23:00.000+01:00

The clocks have gone forward and the evenings have started to lengthen. The weather is improving and the sound of angle grinders fills the air. It's Cartie Time again!

Finally - after a long winter of planning and scheming - I've started to assemble Team Weasel's entry in the 2006 Catterline Cartie Challenge. Although I originally planned a brand new machine, and then flirted with the idea of using the cartie I bought on eBay, I've finally succumbed to my innate sentimentality and decided to rebuild the original Weasel.

Last year's Weasel was too wide to negotiate the course, and suffered from rather ineffective brakes and steering. All in all this is probably not a good combination. To address these problems but keep the classic Greased Weasel look I've decided to keep the "fuselage" but completely replace the running gear. The eBay cartie has played a part in the new design, as I was inspired by its elegant simplicity to build a proper steering rack instead of the more traditional pivoting fixed axle system. Having sourced some nice mild steel box section from a pair of old beds we had lying around, I made a trip up to Firstdrive Cars on Saturday to get a shot of Paul's MIG welding kit (thanks Paul) to fabricate the front and rear sub frames. The steering rack is now almost complete, and is looking very good. In fact, everything is coming together really well, and I think there is perhaps another day's work needed to get the Greased Weasel back on the road again. Look out for the first test runs some time next weekend...

The eWeasel has landed!

2006-04-11T16:04:00.000+01:00

I just spoke to the courier - the eWeasel has been delivered! Hurrah!! I can hardly wait to get home and check it out.

Rosie has told me that it needs a change of colour scheme. Apparently it is going to be yellow. With flowers on it.

Two steps forward and one step back

2006-03-22T11:01:00.000Z

OK - slight change of plan. The eBay Cartie didn't arrive yesterday after all, as the load it was "piggybacked" with wasn't ready for collection. Having started off near Hereford and then being transported to Grantham by my brother, it is now down in Southampton waiting for the main load to be ready. The plan now is for it to be delivered in the first half of April, which still gives plenty of time for it to be ready in time for the Cartie Challenge. Since I'm getting a really good deal from Southampton Couriers I'm not really that bothered, and anyway it gives me chance to get Greased Weasel MkII built. If everything goes to plan (MkII built and tested, MkI repaired and improved and the eWeasel delivered), I should have three machines to choose from, which will mean I can select the best and have two spare in case any other teams need a cartie in a hurry.

eBay Cartie is on the way to Catterline

2006-03-18T22:31:00.000Z

Delivery has been arranged. The eBay cartie will arrive on Tuesday morning, so it looks as though it'll be available for the Cartie Challenge. I've still not decided what to do with it - obviously it has to make some sort of appearance but whether or not I can summon up the brass neck to actually enter it into the competition remains to be seen. I'm already starting to get a bit of grief about the "conspicuously home made" requirement (it is home made - ust not at my home...), but it would be a shame if people didn't get a chance to admire it.

In any case, I'll take it out for a few practice runs in the early summer evenings to see how she handles, although I need to find a set of wheels to go on the back first...

eBay Raid Pays Off

2006-03-01T18:48:00.000Z

Check out what I just bought on eBay...

According to the seller, it is build from welded aly box section with sheet aly sides and a plywood base, and much of the construction was done by a former Porsche employee. The rear wheels are missing (they had to go back on the donor bike), but the mountings are there for cable operated disk brakes. It is very lightweight and really does sound like it's the business.

And all for the princely sum of... £37.99.

Isn't eBay fantastic?

I'm not sure how I'll get it up here yet, but for the time being my brother has agreed to pick it up and store it for me. I don't know if I'll even run it at Catterline 'cos I'm not sure I can take the inevitable huge amount of stick I'd get if I did, but I just couldn't let it pass at that price.

She turns Japanese?

2006-02-22T13:15:00.000Z

Theme tunes. Gotta have one to provide the sounds track as the Weasel hurtles down the brae, but I must admit I'm in two minds about this. For want of anything obvious, I'm thinking I'll probably just pick one of my favourite tunes, but which one?

The top contenders so far are "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult or "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors, for no other reason than I like them and they are absolute belters.

If there are enough places I'll run two carts, which would solve the dilemma, but it's beginning to look as though that might not be an option as I got another enquiry today from some bloke down near Arbroath who read about the Cartie Challenge in the Sunday Post and wants to take part. That brings the available slots down to three.

The Sunday Post article had another surprising result yesterday evening when I was phoned by a very kind lady in Dundee who has 3 pairs of pram wheels that she wants to see go to a good cause. Isn't that nice? Proper pram wheels are like hens' teeth these days - reeeeesult!

Another idea that won't work...

2006-01-31T13:48:00.000Z

Everyone has an idea that won't work, but I seem rather more than would be considered normal. That might be because most of my ideas are rubbish, but I prefer to think that it's simply because I have more ideas than most people...

So anyway - I had another idea last night, and although I can't quite work out why yet I'm pretty sure this one won't work either. It started as an idea that I could give the Greased Weasel variable ride height so it could be raised on rough surfaces and lowered on better (i.e. faster) tracks to reduce the tendency to roll. Then I thought - "Hmmm - if the ride height adjustment mechanism were mounted on springs, I'd have suspension too". So that's what's occupying my thoughts right now - suspension. Is it a good idea? Will it work? Will it make any difference? I have no idea, but I reckon I'll give it a try, and it doesn't matter if it turns out to be a lemon, because failure is part of the process, right?

Greased Weasel comeback planned...

2006-01-29T16:08:00.000Z

The Greased Weasel's retirement didn't last long. I've come to the conclusion that she can be made race-worthy again with very little work, despite the fact that she only has one wheel at present. The plan is to stretch, narrow and perhaps lower the ride a bit, and to improve the brakes and the steering. If there are enough spare places after the closing date (28th Feb), she'll run in the 2006 Cartie Challenge after all.

This doesn't affect the plans for the new Greased Weasel, of course. My "mental model" of the MkII is almost complete, and construction will start when the evenings start to get a bit lighter.

Liz stays with the Weasel

2006-01-20T14:45:00.000Z

Liz, who drove the Weasel so well last year despite the awful conditions, has agreed to drive again this year, but only under the condition that I fix a couple of minor problems - i.e. the steering and the brakes. Apparently she is quite keen for this year's cartie to have some!

Since Greased Weasel II is going to be a completely new design, I think we can probably incorporate these requirements reasonably quite easily.

Meanwhile, I've heard a rumour that there are some changes in the lineup of the other teams, with Phillip McK leaving Chariot of Fire to drive for Team Noonsta.

A New Weasel

2006-01-20T00:18:00.000Z

The Greased Weasel is dead - long live the Greased Weasel.

Last year's Greased Weasel, ground breaking though it was, is unlikely to run in its current form in the 2006 Catterline Cartie Challenge. We may bring it along for a guest appearance, but it is suffering rather at the moment and only has one wheel. (The kids wanted their bikes back - tchoh!).

Designs for this year's machine are already at an advanced stage, and I can reveal one or two details even now despite the fact that nothing exists beyond a few rough sketches. The running gear will be from two mountain bikes I acquired a few months ago, and the chassis will be constructed from some mild steel box section that used to be part of two metal framed beds until I gave them a gentle caress with my brand new Bosch angle grinder. I have some (top secret) ideas to produce light and accurate steering and a plan to have V brakes fitted to all four wheels - handling and braking is not going to be a problem this year!

The basic design approach is to produce a minimalist, lightweight and open frame that will allow the driver a great deal of movement. The objective is to allow a very dynamic driving style and increase control and balance. Think "hanging off the inside on the corners". A vaguely weasel shaped fairing will be fitted to this to give the award winning looks that everyone has come to expect of a Team Weasel produced cartie, and the finished article is going to be simply unbeatable.

Honestly - I don't know why anyone else is even bothering to enter!