W/E 6th October

Well determined not to go another week without any work down in the shed. A gentle reintroduction which manly involved cleaning and tidying up.  It was a bit like clearing up your flat after a party and as I worked through it you remembered more and more about the preceding night…

The Atlas is getting one last throw of the dice before I again walk away from it until I get pull the engine right down and check it all out. Keith Nairn’s assessment was that ‘there’s a good bike in there trying to get out’ and I think he’s right. The Atlas is a nice bike to ride but the starting is tiresome in the extreme as is some of the poor quality materials used – I got a bit more torque on the oil feed banjo so fingers crossed it’ll be oil tight when (if) it starts. Thing is a triple wouldn’t have this kind of problem as it is simply better thought out and made. Times were hard for the Laverda co-op in 1989 though…

This is the first time I have really been round the Atlas since the Scottish Rally. I put some Araldite on the busted rear indicator and wait to see if this fixes or whether a replacement has to be found. The indicators were fitted to early Hinkley Triumph’s so shouldn’t be too difficult to locate.

I also found that the heavy wire from the positive side of the battery to the starter solenoid was dangerously close to the exhaust system so cable tied this to the frame to prevent any melting from going on.

The bummer was that the air vent on the top of the petrol cap had broken off – lucky it was held by a thread so I took it off and put it in the cupboard. Should be able to fix this with some more Araldite at a later date…

I had another look at the inlets that I took off. They are in a bad way. The one that I ‘repaired’ with Quiksteel is cracking up and despite my efforts still has a hole that you can see daylight through. No wonder it was running rough.

I have agreed to send these off to France to see if replacements can be made but I have my doubts as to whether these inlets are good enough to use as a pattern. The other thing I noticed is that the inlets are infact a composite the cylinder head side is a rubber covered metal and I suspect the carb’ side is similar. The only 100% rubber part is the bit that joins these two metal ‘connectors’ together.

I did try and start the bike but the battery was too flat. It’s on charge now and I’ll have another go during the week. The whole poor starting and struggling battery is too familiar…

Next weekend we begin a new chapter with the start of the re-commissioning process for either the RGS or RGA – probably the RGA.

Nick 🙂