Well the rally season is back on as the Atlas passed its roadworthiness test (MOT).
I am still wrestling with the starting as not using the choke made startinig a bit hit and miss. I therefore had a go with the choke and it immediately burst into life and the engine didn’t labour. I tried fitting a choke cable but didn’t have the small banjo bolt to hold the cable. Tried bodging this but in the end came up with a solution involving a long piece of copper wire which exits under the tank infront of the petrol tap on the right hand side and acts as a ‘push-pull’ lever. Sorted!
There was a little bit of hassle at the testing station because the damned indicators played up – easy fix with a screwdriver and twist of the bulb – and the headlamp was too high. The headlamp was pulled down with some lockwire for the duration of the test and once passed the wire handed back to the tester and it was off up the road! No mention was made of the worn front brake disc bobbins.
Spent some time riding the bike around to see if I can get it to break before I meander off to Switzerland for the LCS rally. I’m leaving the bike outside at night to see if the battery holds up once the temperature has dropped. I will use the bike Mon-Weds next week for work as part of this ‘road-hardening’ process.
I also got the rally regs’ for the Scottish National. I have decided to do the ‘Highlander Challenge’ which will take in stunning scenery so long as the weather is okay.
To further prepare I ordered up a set of sprag rollers and springs from Slater along with some additional locking washers for the final drive sprocket (you might remember I am packing this out with locking washers due to wear on the mainshaft). I haven’t heard back from Nametab Engineering but maybe I will have some harder shim washers made out of an old sprocket to install.
I’ve started to prepare the ground for major work on the three triples. Decided the first thing was to give the garage a bit of a tidy up. Discovered quite a bit of stuff that I’d forgotten I had and space if being cleared. I had to move the 100 around so took the opportunity to check the oil to find out how much had been consumed during the 600 + mile National Rally – the answer is about 500 ml. Not bad and there is no evidence of it coming out via the breather. However it is drinking a fair amount so perhaps longer term a rebore and piston have to be on the ‘to do’ list…
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 