It was in 1994 that Peter Fordemann contacted me to tell me that he had a friend who was involved in a special project..Could I help ?

This was in the March of that year so they arrived and we were duly introduced. I had booked them into a guest house near to where I was working in Bramley, near Basingstoke. They arrived in the evening having travelled over from Germany.

We met up at the Motorcycle Shop early in the morning after they had had a good sleep. Peters friend then explained the concept behind the idea to group of us and we listened and watched as he made his presentation. He then suggested he try out the idea on my car. We went out in my car round a series of country roads, finding every pothole and bump which he and I noted. We returned to the shop forecourt.

For an hour he crawled under the car and then went head first into the engine compartment of my Skoda. He then said "take it round the test road now" so we retraced our steps and bounced over the same rough road surface. "There, is that not better ?"

It transpired that Peters friend had stuck small aluminium strips, each of which appeared to be etched with a multi-coloured circuit board, onto parts of my car where he thought most vibrations occurred.

For instance, he had measured two thirds up a suspension spring and stuck the strip there. Similarly eack part of the car involved in responding to bumps on the road was treated and by the time he had finished we could see lots of little strips when one looked under the car. When we drove the test road there "seemed to be" less bouncing and I wasn't sure whether I was subject to auto-suggestion or not. I wrote down my findings while they began to treat an older Honda motorcycle asking the mechanic to take it out first then sticking the strips on the forks, frame and rear suspension.

CAR SUSPENSION AND A MOTORCYCLE FRAME

The mechanic was convinced the strips made a big difference ! The other people who were there had their bikes treated, paying a nominal fee to have them done. One lad stated that his bike shook its head before it was treated but didn't after he had the strips stuck on.

That afternoon and evening I telephoned a number of engineers who worked in the suspension departments of Kawasaki and other manufacturers. They stated that they had not heard of this but one said he knew that one could get a similar effect by drilling a small hole in the place where this guy was sticking his strips. This would deaden the vibrations slightly. However he did not think a tiny strip of aluminium could have any effect whatsoever.

Then I had arranged to meet up with a famous motorcycle tuner at the Silverstone workshop complex. so we drove up and spent half a day sticking strips onto an engine which was run up before and after treatment. The dyno gave mixed results so nothing was conclusive.

I had to make a decision.....Did I give them the Huntly thumbs up or the thumbs down. I mulled it all over and had a chat with my father who had raced bikes and been an engineer. He analysed the idea very deeply and said to me that it had to be proved much more conclusively than it was at this stage and not to lend my name to it on a whim.

And so I did not give the seal of approval to this project. Was this aBIG mistake or not ??

They appeared at that years TT and did their-strip sticking on anyone who would pay a fee (See ad below taken from the Winter 1995 TTSC Magazine).