Not much progress this week. First off the Atlas was off the road for Monday and Tuesday (two VFR days) while I waited for a seat location spacer to be made up – I lost one somewhere in the garage…Disaster then struck on Tuesday night when I pushed the bike over whilst tightening the sidepanel locating plate – over it went onto the paddock stand which put two nice scrapes in the tank!!! Lucky the tank is plastic otherwise there’d have been a mighty dent but a bit of red paint and you’d hardly notice.
When the Atlas fired up it ran okay except at low revs where it popped and banged. I’m guessing it is too weak with the 52 (as opposed to 58) pilot jets. I looked up how to adjust the mixture and found this interesting link http://www.s262612653.websitehome.co.uk/DVAndrews/dellorto.htm. The problem I’ve found is that because the DHLA is a car carburettor the adjusting screws are all on the top of the carb’…so it’s a ‘tank off’ job to adjust…I might just decide to put the original 58 pilot jets back in as it may prove easier to take the carb off (just four bolts) than to try and adjust out the popping! I suspect that the carb had some dirt in it which meant it started on one so the 52’s may not be solution to that problem anyways.
On the plus side the Atlas runs well when on the move – I looked down a couple of times and saw my cruising speed had gone up to 7,000 rpm which for a triple owner sounds awful but for the short stroke Atlas motor seems fine.
Aside from the Atlas on Sunday I rode the VFR up to Matt Hale just outside Stratford Upon Avon and picked up an aftermarket oil cooler which I will fit on the RGS. The RGS is currently running the oil cooler off the Jota. The new oil cooler is deeper than the standard unit and to my eye looks better.
Still time is slipping past with almost 20% of the year gone and still only one Laverda on the road. The weather is getting warmer and the nights drawing out so maybe the pace is about to pick up – let’s hope so!
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 