Francis Birtles Pioneer Trip

That's a flash looking work shop

Paul

What is the issue with the maggie? Usually condensor fails, easy fix followed by coil, no an easy fix.

Just shut off dead while running. I suspect it is condensor.

I have put a coil on a maggie before but pretty well buggered it by cutting every internal wire to isolate the points for external use. Worked great but ugly mechanics.

I will look when I have time.

Lang

Not too much to report today. We left Istanbul at 0730 and luckily were going in the opposite direction to the seething traffic going the other way.
We decided to go along the Black Sea for a few days and headed for Zonguldak. The drive was very pretty much of it in very rugged "jungle clad" hills and one pass was 4,000ft. We dropped down on to the coast and discovered Zonguldak had beautiful rugged shoreline with very steep streets but it was pretty grubby and unexciting. A quick bite to eat and we headed another 45km back inland through the mountains to a very nice little chalet type motel off the beaten track.
Interestingly we are really struggling to find basic cheap hotels for under AUD100 per night. Fuel is cheaper than Europe but accommodation certainly is not. Another full tank run check resulted in an improved 7 km/litre or 14l/100 kilometres - what idiot came up with that measurement.
Only incident of the day was been stopped by the police. Photo of the reason for this below.
Second photo is the Bean with the front wheels in Asia while the back wheels are still in Europe.
 

 
 

Lang any condensor within reason n size will work. Or if an electronics store turns up at the next stop a film capacitor of any physical size but specs of 0.22Uf x 640v will work best. Ive done a lit of these on all engines even on ignition coil engines not just magneto.

Thanks Cobba

On our next break I will definitley give it a try.

Lang

    Well today is the 2024 equivilent of sitting through Aunty Gladys' 1964 slide show of her bus tour of Europe.
We sat down together with nobody in the restaurant but it was all set up for some sort of conference. Gradually suited men and power-dressing woment started to arrive and milled around out the front where the Bean was situated. Bev went out and discovered nobody spoke English but we got the message across with our trip story written in Turkish (we have one written for every country.)
Eventually an interpreter arrived and I watched through the window as Bev was surrounded for photo opportunities. At last a chauffeur-driven black limo arrived and the occupant was brought over to the dog and pony show at the car. She was introduced to this obviously important person and found out it was a Government conference or awards night. We never did find out if it was the Turkish President or the local Mayor.
I went out this morning in Gokcebey after a nice night in our little chalet hotel and the Bean started up on 3 cylinders. It was pouring rain so I decided to wait for it to stop and went into town so Bev could have her boots resoled and I could get a haircut. It started to let off after lunch so I changed plugs and decided to rotate the tyres.
We carry 2 full spares and 3 tubes but I suspect we will reach Australia without a single puncture. The work will be in maximizing the tyre treads to make sure we at least get as far as Darwin where replacements can be positioned.
Upshot was it was too late to get rolling so we are setting off in the morning for our Black Sea run all along the coast.
Photos are of the shoemaker who completely stitched formerly glued soles on Bev's expensive hiking boots total cost $2.50.
Best haircut I have had in my life. It took half an hour because I took the short option without the face and scalp massage, after-cut shampoo and chiropractic neck twisting. The cigarette lighter on full flame shoved into my ears certainly got rid of the internal hairs but he deftly put the flames out just nipping a change of underwear in the bud.

Lang, I did not see any photos.

Yesterday was cold and windy as we left Gokcebey and headed South East through magnificent gorges filled with dense green vegetation. We eventually joined the main West to East highway, a beautifully smooth 3 or 4 lane each way motorway with very light traffic. The trucks sit on 75-80km/h not much different to us.
There must be restrictive regulations as all the trucks are single drive with triple axle trailers. Every vehicle is a late model Mercedes, Volvo, DAF etc but very underpowered (the Bean actually passes them on hills). Seems a waste of good road to an Australian used to tandem drive axles and B-Double trailers carrying double the weight maintaining 100km/h up hill and down dale with 500/600hp.
Turkish drivers are quite polite and drive conservatively. Even in the swarming mess of Istanbul traffic hardly a horn was heard.
Having an altimeter is good because we saw almost the entire 350km heading towards Marzifon was at around 4,500ft in big wide valleys with few hills. They are growing rice among many other crops but I do not know how it survives at such altitude with sub-zero winters and high 20 summers.
Once again it was raining on and off. We have not had a single full sunny day since arriving in England a month ago. Still feeling fit and the car running well we decided to do a double day and finished up with around 600km knocked over by the time we arrived in Samsun on the Black Sea again.
What a great city starting as a Greek trading port 700BC and run by the Romans and their franchised Kings for a thousand years from Julius Caesar's time. We will have a day off here as we are somewhat running a time table to fit in with arrangements of supporting old car people (particularly FIVA associated clubs). Several clubs are sending people very long distances to greet us at borders so co-ordination is essential.
Finally we failed to introduce our third passenger, Bertie Bear. Bertie is the world's most travelled bear. He was personally outfitted in a genuine World War One flying suit by Robert Gieve of Saville Row London and presented to us by Prince Michael of Kent on our departure in the Vickers Vimy in 1994. He flew once again with me in the Avro Avian from England to Australia. Since then he has crossed the Gobi Desert, driven through Siberia and Alaska, just the bear outline of his extensive travels.
Photo of Bertie and me having a quiet hubble-bubble smoke in Gokcebey.

   

Love Bertie. It is amazing how many people travel with friends like your Bertie. Dee has insisted that her Jub Jub, whose real name is Conrad, a marine iguana had travelled everywhere we have. Wr meet up with others who also reveal they too have a plus 1.