Let´s start cleaning things up.....

It´s time to get the hands a bit dirty... Why not just start with parts that are already loose from the bike. The carburetors, for instance. I took them off after the photosession in the garage and they ended up in the box with loose parts again. The engine is safely stashed away in a wooden box for the journey to Malmoe the coming weeks.

As you can see they need a good cleaning. I´m having good hope they will clean up alright, since two of the three carb slides move freely.

The original rubber lids are still in place.
 I´m going to try and find new ones, though. They are a bit cracked. Other than that the carbs look OK.

I´d better be careful removing this grime and dust. These carb slides are extremely fragile. They scratch and warp very easily and if that happens they are shot. Getting new ones will most probably be a nightmare.

The rubber lids removed. Actually looks quite alright.

Someone used wire even to hold the choke cable to the choke plunger housing. This guy didn´t take any prisoners safety wise. There are lots and lots of wire on the bike, just like this. I´m going to try and remember/take pictures of those places and rewire for safety.

Here´s another example. The caps on the carburetors are safety wired. Matching holes can be found on the cooling fins of the cylinder heads. Those wires make sure the caps
don´t come undone while riding.
 I´ve never had that happeing on my street bikes, but these racers were driven quite differently, I guess...

Before I start taking the things apart, I need to make sure everything goes back to the same carb and in the same position (sort of...). It´s no good mixing up throttle slides and carb bodies, better keep them together. One of the previous owners marked each carb with its number III, II and I. Makes it easier to get them back in the correct place.

Center carb and the marking.

And finally the left, number one.

Let´s start with the number III carb. It has a free moving slide and makes an easy start.... Unscrewing the cap is no big deal and removing the slide, spring and needle is also easy.

The throttle slide and spring out of the carb body. Needs a gentle cleaning in white spirit or pure gasoline. No abrasive compounds! The surface is very fragile!

The next step is to remove the float bowl. 4 screws and a sticking gasket... Gently tap on the housing with a mallet to get it off. If you´re lycky, the gasket can be used again... Looks OK inside! Not too much dirt or grime here. Nice!!

The inside of the bowl tells a whole lot. Nothing really upsetting here either. Just the odd drop of two stroke oil. Still liquid. Super nice!

One dismantled and cleand carb. Two waiting. You can see the gasket didn´t make it. Well, I´m not surprised. They often stick to one of the surfaces and become almost impossible to remove intact. No biggie, they are availabe...

Here´s some interesting stuff! Take a look at that float and particularly the float valve... That valve is very different from the street ones. This is superb in quality and is attached to the float with a small spring you can see in the back. Check out the float valve housing... Look at those extra holes supplying lots and lots of fuel to the valve. This beast doesn´t consume gas, IT DESTROYS IT!
I read somewhere in "Esso`s" diary that he used 32 liters of gas on a race with 30 laps. That´s a lot! If the track is 5 km long it means approx 2 liters of gas per 10 kms.
Holy Moly....

The carb body, carefully cleaned in white spirit. You can actually feel how lightweight these are compared to the street carbs. Much larger in size and still considerably lighter.
I´m having trouble trying not to shake while handling them. It would be a true catastrophe dropping one...

You can see I also removed the needle jet from the housing. The jet needle and the needle jet need to be thouroughly cleaned as well. They both do look good, but I´m thinking I´ll get me an ultrasonic cleaner and go through all three carbs with their respective parts in it.

Ok, time to start putting it back together again.... Just a moment to look at the parts. They are truly beautiful sitting there on the bench.

So, one cleaned, two to go. And then there´s the cables...

I couldn´t spare you this view from the airfilter side of the cleaned carb. Imagine that throttle wide open and the amount of  air/fuel it can suck....

All in all a really nice couple of hours in the garage with some real quality time.... I´m so lucky to have my own garage in the basement so I can drop everything and get back later within a couple of minutes. Superb way to end a hectic day when the rest of the family is sleeping. Fettling with an old bike is truly relaxing!

Here we are... The H1R and its bigger cousin, the H2 750 1972. My garage isn´t that big (sorry to say...) but it is mine and it is homy!

The engine in its crate, ready to go to Ebbe in Malmoe, hopefully within a couple of weeks. Until then I´m going to clean the other two carbs and  maybe start looking on other parts to clean up. I guess I´m going to have to get rid of the dust and dirt... But I sort of like it the way it looks there on the lift. Maybe another day.







Please don´t hesitate to cantact me if you have any qustions what so ever regarding this project or maybe one of your own. I am a true enthusiast when it comes to motorcycles in general and triples in particular...

Thanks for reading!

"MC-fighter nr !"

Now it is time to start telling the story about S-O Gunnarsson, or "Esso" as he became known to the world. Even though we lived on the same small island outside Stockholm for 10 years (I moved here 1993 and "Esso" sadly passed away in 2003...) we never met in person. Back then I was starting up my vintage motorcycle hobby restoring my first bike and "Esso" was living a quiet life with his wife, Irene. After his racing career ended due to an accident in 1974 he took great interest in photography and took lots of wonderful pictures during that time.

As you can understand I didn´t know him personally, but I feel like I´m getting to know him more and more after reading articles about him and his racing diary that Irene so kindly have let me read.

He was obviously a very thourough guy in his racing. Documenting all races with data concerning the weather, courses, bikes and himself. He was also a very good mechanic! Lots of work during the races were performed on track in the pit lane. He mentions changing pistons, honing cylinders, replacing crankshafts etc, etc. At least in the early days this was done by himself...

There was a great article in a Swedish magazine in 1974 covering some of his racing career. I scanned it and I thought I´d just let you read it:

On the cover is a picture with his Three-clover helmet and the headline: "Esso" Gunnarsson, blue and yellow MC-fighter number 1, Speaks from the heart!

He sure did have some issues with the Swedish racing organization, SVEMO, regarding helmet rules...

We can also see that the bike in the picture is his newer H1R-A. Look at the lower profile of the bottom fairing indicating the straight exhaust system.

On the first page of the article "Esso" describes his accident during the French grand Prix on Clermont Ferrand, 1974.

 He was saved by a doctor (out on his free day) standing by the side of the track. This doctor stopped the officials from touching him after the crash and led the rescue and ambulance transport to hospital.

The picture shows "Essos" favorite racer of all times, the Norton Manx... He raced one of those as well. Partly in parallell with the H1R:s!

The story continues...
At the hospital, when "Esso" regained consciousness, the doctor asked why he was racing with such an outdated,old, helmet? "Esso" explained the Swedish rules concerning the use of the newer, much safer, covering, helmets the other drivers were using. They weren´t allowed in Sweden!
His opinion couldn´t be printed due to foul language..... He had tried to argue for the use of modern helmets, even offering SVEMO to crash on purpose to show how useless the old type of "pot" helmets were compared to the new ones.

"Esso" is also the only Swedish man who won both a motorcycle and car championship the same year! This happened 1969 in Falkenberg when he first came in third during the Motorcycle race on his beloved Norton, and then won the car race in his Porsche. Quite an accomplishment!

Next the article tells the story of how he started racing bikes in 1955. He aimed to reach 20 full seasons racing, but that didn´t happen due to the accident...

He won 8 SM-titles (Swedish championships), One of those in a car.... During the 20 years he raced. That makes him one of the greatest if not, THE greatest Swedish racer of all times!

Next is the story about the "Three-clover-helmet".

"Esso" started out with the Clover "Ace" symbol on the sides of his helmet. Another driver, Sven "Furtan" Andersson also used the clover ace symbol but up front on his helmet. There was some debating who was first with that symbol. "Esso" claimed to be first! He had used it before racing during his biker years up to 1950, the year before "Furtan" put his Clover Ace on his helmet when racing his AJS 7R. When "Furtan" stopped racing a few years later he told "Esso":
- "Now, Sven, you can move your ace up front, to the front of your helmet"
And there it stayed.... Becoming a very well known symbol for S-O.

The story about his international breakthrough is next.

Snetterton 1963, Rain pouring down and "Esso" was there thinking he wouldn´t even finish the race due to the conditions being so lousy. His Norton was the first bike to start and all of a sudden he was in the lead and managed to keep it to the end. The bike stopped after the finish line due to fuel starvation (he hadn´t even filled the tank up before the race because he
couldn´t imagine the race being run to the end at all...) A Swedish amateur had beaten all the British stars in their own back yard! And that opened all the doors to continuing racing all over Europe.

On the next page is talk about his opinion on the "One-brand-development"  in racing and also the thoughts of a "formula 1"for motorcycles. He explains how much he loved his old Norton Manx and what a wonderful bike it was racing. Great handling and a very safe bike. He also dind´t like the sound of the twostrokes!! who would have thought that since he actually won a great number of races on his twostrokes...
His favourite course was "The Isle of Man TT". A great racetrack that really requires the drivers to concentrate to the fullest. One of the parts in roadracing is using sound judgement and controlling your speed and braking in every instance in order to actually stay on the track. Modern racetracks with large safety areas around the course makes it too easy for the drivers to take too large risks. IOM is very punishing in that respect....

The last page tells about his future plans to become a photographer. He bougth a nice Nikon camera and set out to document Swedish racing and also IOM TT etc. His own racing ended there, in 1974, with two vertebrae broken in his neck....

The bike in the picture is is beloved Norton manx. "The best racer in the world" according to Sven.

He holds one of the 9 helmets he crashed during his career in the last picture. You can also see the support collar he had to wear for some time.

The last line in the article summarizes his  spirit:
"Just do it!" is his prescription for the general gloom in todays society.

Modern words from long ago.....

This article seemed a good starting point and as a general description of  the man behind the stories and all the victories he actually won during his racing years. My next post will tell more about his racing, his diary and his bikes.

Bare with me, soon I´ll start working on the bike!

 

Tracing another H1R.

As I mentioned in the last post, 2 H1R:s were sold by Flöter in 1972. One was bought by "Esso" Gunnarsson and the other one by Sture Wass. I now know for sure they were both H1R-A:s.

"Esso´s" bike had VIN# KAF9011X, Engine# KAE9012X.
Sture Wass´s bike has VIN# KAF9011X, Engine# KAE9011X

As you can se these numbers are all very close to each other, so are the numbers for the bikes sold in 1970. Since I know where the two earlier bikes are today (mine, "Esso´s", and Per-Åke Dahl´s) I figured I should try and find the third (Wass´s bike). When it comes to "Esso´s" H1R-A investigations are ongoing...

Yesterday I set out to find one of the missing H1R:s! (As it turned out it wasn´t that missing....)

Thanks to the internet, the search didn´t take long. On a discussion forum back in 2007 I found a little note that someone had bought the bike from Sture Wass in 1975 and still owned it! I couldn´t contact the person directly, but I gambled via the forums message function and sent him a mail. Believe it or not... I got an answer yesterday evening from the owner! Anders Jonsson lives about 400 kms from Stockholm and is currently restoring the bike.

There you go! Another friend in the vintage motorcycle business.

Here´s a picture of his bike:

Anders Jonsson´s H1R-A!

You can see the straight exhaust pipes and the three CDI-boxes up front. This engine is also approx 6 HP stronger than the old H1R.... We´ll stay in touch and exchange experiences during our respective restorations. Or rather, I´ll ask the questions being a beginner.... Thank you, Anders for the picture!

The next post will be about the person, S-O Gunnarsson, or "Esso" as he was known as.

Stay tuned!

Starting out with engine work.

Last week I had a plan to visit Ebbe Parnestål, Eptune, former EBOS owner in Malmoe with my engine. Unfortunately he has his prime time in the workshop this time of year so that didn´t happen. Well, I´m in no hurry....

But the thought of leaving the engine there and getting the rebuild started inspired me to have a look at it myself. Taking it out of the frame was straight-forward and wasn´t a big problem. Just a few minutes later it sat on the bench in all its glory....

It sort of needed a bit of cleaning before opening. Most of the dirt was just hay and grime from the barn, nothing serious like grease or oil mixed with dirt etc.



















I decided to start cleaning it using compressed air and simply "blow" the dirt off. But first a glimpse into the exhaust ports to have a look at the potential catastrophy....

OK, the right hand cylinder.... Hmm, doesn´t that look strange? No burned surface on the piston at all...?? Can it be?

Moving on to the center cylinder. This looks more normal. Slightly brownish colour but still shiny rings and smooth piston surface.

And finally the left one. Piston being close to TDC, I cannot see the top of it, but the surface looks good, very good. Now, get on with the cleaning!

As you can see, no broken fins or other damage to the heads. Good news! Rags in all the ports, spark plugs in the heads and out the garage door it went!

A good "blow job" cleaned the engine enough to check for the most critical thing when dismantling a triple engine... Are the cylinders stuck on the studs?
If they are, you´re in for a major problem! I´ve had to trash an H2-cylinder a while back because it was so seriously stuck on the studs. Rust makes the studs swell and they pinch the cylinders firmly in place. Yes, you can try penetrating oil, diesel and what not, and still they are stuck!

I´m using a penetreating oil (5-56 or WD40) on the head bolts and carufully open them. Actually came out freely. No big deal at all! Once the bolts are gone you can feel for movement of the cylinders on the studs....

Heureka!! All three of them does move, none were stuck. Holy J**ZUS, that felt GOOD!

Well, back to the pistons. I didn´t remove the cylinders from the cases, just had a peek down the barrels to check the pistons. This is the right hand one. Brand NEW! Never run after being installed in the engine. This is so good news! If I´m lucky the last thing Björn did was rebuilding the crank and pistons before storing the bike... Piston is first OD, +0,5mm. Note also the different shape of the head gasket on the race engines. Circular and comes in different thicknesses to be used during different conditions. News to me....

The other two pistons are used, but doesn´t look to be in bad shape at all. Cylinders are smooth with traces of honing still visible. I hope we´ll find the barrels and pistons fully usable when Ebbe finally gets his hands on the engine. Let´s hope the same goes for the crank...! I´m optimistic since there is a spare crank with the bike and that one has a shot conrod. let´s hope the one in the engine is good!









So, for now, the bike rests on the lift without it´s heart, the engine.... I´ll get back to the motor when either Ebbe has time for it, or I can´t wait any longer, and start taking it apart myself.

Current status of the project.

 Yesterday I also learned that there were actually four of these bikes imported to Sweden!

 A couple of weeks ago I talked to a former employee of Flöter´s and he couldn´t remember if there were two or more imported. I later talked to Hartmut Flöter himself and he was sure only two were sold here in Sweden. I´ve been a bit suspicious about this since my bike was sold again by Flöter in February 1972 to Björn (who´s widow I bought it from....) and "Esso" continued racing on a Kawasaki. I figured he must have bought another H1R somewhere else and brought back to Sweden.... That´s NOT the case.

The former emloyee called me yesterday and told me he hadn´t been able to let go of the thought of these racers! He had actually been working with Flöter all the time to 1985 (with an 11 year interruption for other work during 1974-85), when Flöter sold the business to Monark motor. He stayed on... And also stayed on when Kawasaki took control of it´s own brand in Sweden during the early nineties. He retired 10 years ago and is now 75 years of age. Anyway, he made a visit to his old colleagues at kawasaki and found the records from Flöter´s time also!

There were two H1R:s sold 1970. These are presented in my earlier post. One was driven by Per-åke Dahl and the other by "Esso". These records also confirm that the engine I have is the correct one for my frame! Engine number KAE90069 and Frame KAF90070.

1972 they sold two more! These were (with 99% security, H1R-A:s). The records says one was bought by "Esso" and the other one by another famous driver, Sture Wass.

This makes very big sense when you look at all the pictures out there on the internet. It is obvious that "Esso" used at least two H1R:s during his career, most probably even three....

The main differences between H1R and H1R-A are the design of the exhaust system and the ignition system... The H1R has a conventional breaker-point ignition system and the H1R-A has a digital system similar to the system on the street bikes, MACH III. The H1R has a "cross-over" design of the pipes and the H1R-A doesn´t... This makes the belly pan look very different on the two models. The H1R-A has a "lower" design of the belly pan and that can be clearly visible on some pictures.

Here you can see the straight design of the exhaust sytem on the H1R-A and also the three CDI-boxes up front. Please note they are NOT the same on my bike. My bike was fitted with a Kröber system by "Esso", hence the homebuilt bracket on mine.


















I´ll get back with more material concerning the race history with the respective bikes as I get it organized.

So far, I´m a very happy man regarding the condition of the bike. I know I´ll have to fix a lot of stuff, but the cylinders moving off the studs was a big concern...

/Per