Gynaecology

Thats what I've been practising trying to change a snapped throttle
cable on the Trophy. The alternative is fairing off, tank off, airbox
off, carbs off. Just to change a fucking cable. Shop quoted roughy 25
squids for cable, 50 squids pickup, and an hour or so labour, giving
125-150.

Bollicks to that, I thought, picked up the cable and started spannering.
What a fucking malarky to secure the cable outer to the carb body.
What the **** was wrong with a threaded body and a lock nut eh? Go on,
tell me! Fucking Triumph engineers.

Oh well, done now, and if I ever the chance, a second career.

 

Nice precis of my Harley experiences.

Indeed. Spannering and writing about ir.

 

I thought you might have had trouble with the twistgrip end. The carb
end is pips on the Nordie (no not you, the lad's favourite expression
for easy) simple threaded bits with lock nuts. Bit of a fiddle getting
the nipples in to the quadrant but pretty simple. The arrangement at the
twistgrip is another matter entirely. Really awkward keeping everything
in place as you put it back together. The book of lies is no help as it
only has an illustration for the Saturno which has a single conventional
pull up throttle slide carb.
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+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I'm not going into any detail about this. You'll have to wait until
it comes out proper-like; but 'trouble' doesn't even enter into it ;-)

 

<waits with baited breath>

 

Took the engines out of my X7s today. Put the running engine in the MOTted
chassis and stripped the top end of the seized engine. Phew, no bits of
piston made it to the crank

Total time to remove two engines, refit one and remove head/barrels and
pistons on another?, 3 hours. Half an hour of that was donking about
synchronising the carbs and oil pump.

Next, strip, clean and rebuild the carbs from the seized engine. Yup,
clogged main jet in the side of the holey piston. Bit of what looked like
snot. Probably stale petrol goo just before it turned into varnish.

Time taken?, an hour and a bit.

Sometimes, just sometimes I really like farting about with old bikes. Old
strokers hide few horrors that require automotive gynaecology.

 

You been eating cheese again?

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

I can tell when somebody's taking the piss, you know.
And it's 'bated', btw.

 

Indeed in the days of air-cooled MX engines it was fairly common to see
at least a top-end strip and rebuild between practice runs at twop day
hill climb meetings. Not unknown even with the modern liquid cooled
jobs. The advent of the new breed of liquid-cooled four stroke singles
: KTK, Husqvarna and Husaberg mainly has generally made that a thing of
the past. Either they never blow up or they do so in spectacular
terminal fashion.

I used to carry a spare cylinder, piston and ignition charging coil for
the Rotarini when I was road racing that.
Primitve, but effective it was. You could even swap the disc valve for
something more or less hairy quite quickly.

 

Not a smoker, but I read a lovely story about two lads who campaigned
a bike-engined lightweight car ("cyclecar") up Shelsley between the
wars. For ultimate bhp they would start the thing, warm it up in the
paddock and then just before they had to go for the start, drain the
oil out. Less drag, see.

Having it running for less than two minutes, even on full chat up the
hill appeared to do no appreciable damage to the JAP motor. A push
from the top, back down the hill and dead stick back to the paddock,
then they'd take the top end off. If they'd got the gearing /just
right/, there would be a little light piston crown polishing to be
done, to remove the marks where the valves had just kissed them.

Them were the days, eh?

 

The exhaust valve of my Husky kissed the piston going down the first
straight at Gurston the year I acquired it. Problem was it was of the
French kiss variety. The valve probed way too amorously and literally
lost its head.

Still are in some ways. I really love the speed hill climb atmosphere.
Mechanical improvisation to the point of lunacy and machine control
approaching genius from the riding gods. Mostly performed on not much
more than a shoestring budget so far as the bikes are concerned at
least.


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+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+