What did you do on your non Royal Enfield motorcycle today?

[TWinOKC]

6 year transferable?!?

Mine (2011) came with a 2 year unlimited mileage factory warranty.
Option to add 4 years for more $

[olhogrider]

Mine (2011) came with a 2 year unlimited mileage factory warranty.
Option to add 4 years for more $

Yep, for a few bucks more.

[barenekd]

A tale written several years ago about another Thumper I owned.

The frame is silver-grey, and I think it’s a stock color. The frame is a ’69 Atlas. I haven’t seen Classic Bike lately. I’ll have to check it out. Do you belong to FSSNOC? I did an article on this bike a couple of years ago for them. All the trials and tribulations I had getting it to work. (I bought the thing from a friend and it was a real mess.) I’ve gotten it pretty well sorted out but it still needs a little work. It’s rideable  but has an oil leak that need to be fixed; the countershaft seal.  In fact, I will send you a copy of it. There have been a lot of hours put into that beast since this was written. I’ve done several 250 mile rides on it and it has survived well.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
by
BARE

   This Tale concerns a Nortless; aka "Morton" or "Lassie," (since it's such a beautiful dog.) that I recently acquired from a friend. It's a Norton featherbed frame with a Matchless G80 engine installed. I had ridden with the friend on a Norton Club ride a couple of years ago, he on the Nortless and I on a Triumph T100C.
   I fell in love with the Nortless and wanted to try it, but he wasn't letting anyone ride it. After the ride, the bike ended up in storage for a couple of years, then a few months ago my friend announced that he was going to sell it. I had to have it, so I pleaded with him to sell it to me instead of whomever he had in mind originally. He assured me that it ran good, didn't leak oil, started as well as any Limey thumper, and that it was great.
   I began to have some minor misgivings when I went to meet him to show him the way to my house. At every stop light the beast quit and he had to push start it! He's much younger than I! When we got to my place, he had to find something to lean it on, the sidestand having disappeared while it was in storage. As the non-leaking critter is depositing big puddles of oil in my driveway, I am finally going to get a chance to ride the thing. After trying to kick start the beast and it kicking back harder than I'm kicking it, we try pushing some more and after replacing a fouled plug, we finally get the thing going again. I get on and ride it down the street, the Grand Prix carb he has installed on this thing is so rich it's doing the eight-stroke, and not having any idle circuitry it was tough to keep running. The clutch is almost impossible to pull, but it is well balanced with the front brake lever which requires the same amount of effort and is attached to a Suzuki four leading shoe brake, that stops like maybe one shoe is making contact with an oily drum. The rear brake pedal has no return stop, so it requires at least four inches travel to begin any hint of retardation. The shift lever is mounted so low that to shift into first gear you actually have to push it forward instead of down. Thought you got me, huh? Everyone knows AMC gearboxes shift up for first, right? But this has the shifter on backwards for the rearsets, so first is down - or, in this case, forward. Anyway, as the Nortless shakes, rattles and rolls down the street, I'm beginning to see why the owner never let anyone ride it - this beast is dangerous! The seat is falling off - actually, it has already fallen off, he forgot the hardware to attach it. Oh, well, I've got it now, so let's make the best of the situation.
   First, let's, at least, get the critter to start. With the kickback, the advance mechanism must be stuck- yes, it is, Ok, fix that and check the timing - only ten degrees too far advanced! This is easy to get to, the points cover is behind the pipe, but the pipe is easy to remove since there is only one nut holding the whole exhaust assembly on. Got to figure out a better mount that won't screw the chrome or the powder coat job. Take that GP carb off and install an Amal concentric off a Shooting Star that was acquired from the bottom of the lake somewhere, and the carb along with the rest of the bike is just a glob of corrosion. OK, rebuild the carb and put it on. The Nortless actually starts quite nicely!! A couple of kicks and it's running! Hot- one kick! This is great!
   OK- let's adjust the chain - tighten up the axle. UH OH, the BSA wheel won't turn. disassemble the rear end, take the wheel apart, this thing has been put together wrong! The dust seals are where the bearings should be. Fix that.
   Well, if we're going to use some of the BSA parts (after all. it is a bitsa) we might as well change rear fenders, the one that's on there is too long and too narrow. The way it's mounted the whole thing is going to break off anyway. The fork covers are loose, so take the front end apart and tighten the screws- Oops- wrong screws, they are bottoming out in the holes before the covers get tight - new screws here. Work a bit on the front wheel brake adjustment, but the whole mechanism is still too stiff, gotta work on that sometime.
   The farther I get into this machine the more it reminds me of the model kits that you open up and the parts are all together making it look finished, but in reality nothing is together. The beast is a genuine rolling basket case. At least one advantage with it over a real basket case - most of the parts are there.
   Let's see what we can do about that stiff clutch. This should be easy, the dome on the primary case is cut off, exposing the clutch. I guess that gives it the racer look. Anyway, the springs are out in the open, so we can get this puppy apart real quick. Let's take a look at those plates. Wait a minute, these aren't even AMC plates! The innies go out, and the outies go in! except for two that are right. OK, are you supposed to put two metal plates together, or what? This strange assemblage of parts requires one extra plate - it's no wonder the clutch is so stiff. Let's find some proper plates. Better pull the primary case and see what the rest of the drive looks like. Well, not too bad except for the inch of mud in there. Find a new primary case.
   Pull the drain plug to change the oil in the trannie. I see why it didn't leak there. There was nothing in it to leak! Ok, fill the gearbox up with some new 90wt. Now, it leaks! This thing running out almost as fast as I put it in - I think I put the drain plug in, Yes I did. Oh, look at that. There are screws missing out of the cover and the ones that are still there are loose. Might as well take the cover off and see what the innards are like now. Not too bad, get it back together and seal it this time.
   Still need to find that side stand and seat hardware. I looked all over the country trying to find the side stand assembly, then found one at a local dealer. It's amazing where some of this stuff shows up.
   By the time I gathered all the parts, it was two months later, and I've missed some good rides. Not true, I didn't miss any rides, the GB performed marvelously, the Nortless missed the rides! We have one left on the coming weekend, so let's get the beast running again. Well, I kick and kick and kick some more, not even a pop! Try different plugs, not a pop. Put a battery into the circuit, still not a pop. The weekend has passed, the rides were taken on the always available GB, but still not a pop out of the Matchless. It's got fire, it's got gas, it's got compression - it oughta POP, fer chris' sakes! Wait a minute - does it have gas? Is this the same stuff I saw Charlie put in this thing two years ago? Well, it did work two months ago. I've got a gas can in the back of the truck. Let's try that. Two kicks, the damn thing started in TWO Kicks - a week late, though. There is a Norton Owner's Club meeting up, so I'll ride it up there.
   The day of the meeting I tried to share the same small piece of the universe with a blue Buick and got T-boned (I was riding my Suzuki VX800) and kinda got beat up, cracking a collar bone. It's also maybe gonna rain, so I decided the GB might be a better bet to take to the meeting since I was a lot more familiar with it. I was in no shape to be wrestling strange machinery. The Nortless lost out again.
   A BSA swap meet is coming up, maybe I can ride it to that. It was a delightful 65 mile ride to the swap meet, the bike performed flawlessly. The bike was the one of  the hits of the show. Riding home on the freeway, though, the delight ceased. Remember that one nut exhaust system? The nut left. The pipe left. 400 cars ran over it before I got to the side of the freeway. It was flat! (I'm not referring to the freeway, either)  To add insult to injury the throttle cable ferrule fell out. So I had to ride the next 50 miles with an open exhaust port blatting in my face, and controlling the throttle with the cable like reins to a hoss!
   While it's waiting for the new pipe, let's see about getting that tank attached so it doesn't bounce around and see if we can move the coil up under the tank instead of under the carb where gas pours quite liberally on it when the carb is tickled. This is interesting - the tank is supposed to be mounted by a leather strap that runs the length of the tank - a really neat looking setup. Only one thing wrong, the rear attachment is broken and nothing, except the fuel line, is holding the tank on! The rear attachment is held down by two springs attached to an aluminum plate that is held on by two nuts, one of which is gone. The tank is riding directly on the frame so I put some water hose around the frame tubes and reattach the springs. The tank doesn't rest on the rubber bumpers now, It's sitting directly the edge of the aluminum plate that the springs attach to. That ought to put a hole in the tank, post haste. Take the plate off and saw and sand about 3/16" off one side so the tank can clear it. In the meantime, let's mount that coil up top. Drill a couple of holes in the head steady and bolt it on. Oops, it hits the tank. Mount it on the bottom of the steady - that almost works. Get out the big hammer and pound a minor depression (i.e. a big dent) in the bottom of the tank to clear the coil. It fits now. And with the tank strap fixed, the tank doesn't bounce quite as much.
   The machine is getting to the point that  it will be a viable piece of transportation soon. It's interesting to compare it to my GB500. The Nortless vibrates a lot more, but the shaking is not particularly bothersome. The suspension and seat are much stiffer than the Honda, but the steering seems to have the same precision as the GB. I haven't had a chance to get into the canyons yet, but its time is coming. Overall, it just has a very crude and unrefined feel compared to the Honda. There is no comparison in power and engine performance. The GB probably has twice the horsepower of the Matchless, but the Nortless will still cruise at 70 mph with no problem. The Honda has done over 500 miles in a day. I doubt that I would want to ride the much stiffer Nortless that far. Considering that most of the English thumpers were designed in the '30s, the single has come a long way in the last 50 years or so! But rude, crude and socially unacceptable as the Nortless is - I love it!

A post script to that.
After those 250 mile rides, I was always wondering if I would make it home. The bike made it home every time, although I had to stop and fix it a couple of times, once a sunken float, and the other was some electrical glitch as I recall.
But, my body was killing me! That was one miserably uncomfortable bike! I'm not sure which one was worse, the Honda CBR929RR or this one.

[TCP]

Received the proper tickler conversion kit for the AMAL 930 which will go on my '69 Bonnie when she's finished.
Put the other one in last week, and when I went to put in the second kit, I noticed that there was no weephole in the extension shaft.  "Hmmmm" I said.  "How is the fuel going to get out with no weeper?"  I called the supplier (Raber's Parts Mart - a great source for vintage triumph parts) and explained the issue.  We found out that the newer kits eliminated the weep hole for the tickler.  I'm glad I put the one with the hole in first.  I'm somewhat of a traditionalist, except that I was tired of getting gas on my thumb every time I went to start the bike.  The conversion kit should eliminate that issue.

[bittercrick]

I put new tires on my T100 Bonnie. I went with Avon road riders they only took a 1/2 ounce of weight each to balance .I ran her up to 100mph. and shes smooth as can be. probably won't put many miles on them now though as the weather is starting to change (ugh).  bittercrick

[prof_stack]

I went for a 50 mile ride on the Guzzi in the coolest temperatures of the season so far, in the low 50's.  Full gear is mandatory for warmth and protection (of course).  The Breva is such a joy to ride, and it is nice to be able to quickly squirt up to 75mph with lots of room for more.  And it doesn't weigh much more than the C5. 

[Alan LaRue]

Oops, wrong thread. Sorry. Is there no delete option?

[barenekd]

I moved the GB-500 out into the open instead of sitting jammed back into a dark, dank corner of the garage turning into a barn find bike.
Now, I need to clean it up, the easy part, then I have to find all the parts that aren't on it somewhere out there!
Bare

[Sam Simons]

 Installed the 'leftover' fenders from my RE500 Scrambler build onto my present project,a replica Husqvarna 450cc military motorcycle.
 11/6/11- Wheels laced,painted,tires mounted.

[bob bezin]

took a 90 mile jaunt on the triumph.

[prof_stack]

After the C5 went sprag-clunking into the dealer I took the Guzzi for a 25 mile blast and rather enjoyed the comfortable and smooth riding twin.  If the weather holds on Sunday, I'll put some real miles on it.

[The Garbone]

Purschased plugs, manifold gaskets, an air filter, tool bag, tools.

Tommorow I buy the $100 lift and some Metzeler 880 tires.   Or I could pay Harley $600 to put on some  Dunlops.   Oh, and if I brought my HD into the dealership for the 10k workover it would cost me $850.  So that and the cost of the tires would get me almost 40% the value of the bike... I just love math..

[Arizoni]

$600 for tires and $850 for a 10,000 mile tuneup?

One of these days someone's going to make a simple motorcycle that a person can work on.
You know, change tires or tweek a fuel setting or change a spark plug.
Maybe something more advanced like adjusting a chain and lubing it?

A motorcycle that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and isn't all covered in plastic panels?

Oh, wait.  I heard about some old fashioned British style motorcycle that is still being made and I've heard it might be available.....

Probably just a rumor.

[bob bezin]

sounds too good to be true.

[prof_stack]

sounds too good to be true.

Heh, you might be right about that!