Get on you bastard!
New boots for the Atlas this weekend. The bike shop sold ’em but couldn’t fit ’em ’til Wednesday and the tyre shop wanted £30 for the job!!! I remembered back in the day I used to fit tyres on my A65 and there was my father-in-law taking in the sun so it was out with the levers, rim guards and tyre soap. Two hours later fitted albeit with a ‘pinched’ tube laying unloved.
I had a couple of spare wheels in the shed so rather than fit the tyres to the current rims I decided to just do the job once by putting the tyres onto the spare wheels. This had the advantage of overcoming the rattling wheel bearings in the front wheel – so two problems overcome in one hit.
Fitting the tyres wasn’t so bad, the front is quite a light tyre so was easy but the rear 130/80-17 a bit of a tussle hence the pinched tube. As we got into it we got better and re-discovered that when you put a tyre on you ease it over the rim with the lipped end of the lever – that would’ve saved a pinched tyre. I never used rim guards on the BSA but they proved really useful and meant the anodised rims didn’t get scratched. All in all I was pleased to have done this and will do it in the future and perhaps if needs must at the side of the road…
Blu-tac bodge…
The damned leaking alternator case persists – the rubber bung round the alternator wires has gotten brittle. Hylomar hasn’t done the job so now I’ve introduced a ‘blu-tac’ solution! Fingers crossed hey.
Andy Strapz
The work on the Atlas is all focused on having the bike ready for the Scottish National on the 13th September. To this end I got a set of Andy Strapz panniers. The pannier frames take hard cases but I preferred the idea of soft luggage – who knows one day I might ride off road. Andy Strapz are made out of canvass with no zips (roll top) and with handy pockets fore and aft to put a water or oil bottle. They are also reputably tough so hopefully this is the last set of bags I’ll buy…Supplied (along with Rok Straps by Zen Overland who provided excellent service.
The pannier frames put the panniers a bit low and rearward and I was considering getting them welded to change their configuration. However the advantage of this set up is that the pillion has plenty of room for their legs so I’m guessing I will leave well alone – for now.
Nick 🙂
Bent screwdrivers, big hammers and old Laverdas 