Well less progress on the ‘dead Laverdas’ than I’d hoped because I had to work on the Atlas to prepare it for next week’s ‘work run’ and also the trip to the LCF AG the coming weekend.
The cold weather has finally hit with temperatures at –5 degrees in the morning! I’m ‘muffed up’ and part of the preparation meant fiddling with these as I thought I’d broken a wire to the front brake light – turned out all was okay so not sure why the brake light wasn’t working (?) still all working now so best left alone…With the tank off I fitted a couple of new spark plugs – the old ones looked okay but as I had access and they only cost pennies (well £7.20 actually) I thought anything to help it start would be worth doing.
I also fitted a new SVR 14amp battery – didn’t seem to spin the motor over any quicker but it is new so I’m expecting the drop in cranking capability to be less than the loyal servant currently (sic) in use. While in the electrics I decided that I needed to give myself a winter warmer and plumbed in the harness for my Evo heated waistcoat. The waistcoat can run off its own battery pack but running it off the bike mains means two extra panels in the chest also work. The harness has a temperature control and my plan is to use it at maximum for the first 15 minutes and then to roll it back to low once underway. My logic is that this will put minimum strain on the battery…(last time I used it on the RGS I ended up at the side of the road at 1 am!
The downside of this installation is that I didn’t wire it into the mains feed so if I forget to switch it off it will drain the battery. I’m sure we all know where this will end but before then let’s see if the whole plot works tomorrow.
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 