W/E 27th August 2017

 

Been off-line for my summer hols but managed to put 500 miles or so on the ‘new’ clutch. The  combination of the best used plates and new springs has transformed the clutch but not completely sorted it. I’ve ordered a new set of plates from Slater – I think they  are the same as fitted to the SF750…we’ll see.

The clutch does occasionally slip still but more often than not it’s okay. I’ve ridden for so long with a dodgy clutch that I have to get to used to being able to push the bike along using the revs rather than building speed up gradually. It’s surprising what you get used to over time. Now I can make more of those ‘marginal’ overtakes and sit more comfortably at higher cruising speeds.

The other clutch related fix has been to replace the clutch lever with one I had in the used parts bin. The levers are quality items with a bush on the pivot pin – of course over time this bush wears which means the lever rattles and doesn’t allow you to adjust the clutch play so it completely disengages – a pain in London rush hour traffic. The old item is useful as a roadside repair and I may check to see if it is possible to just get a replacement bush to return the lever to ‘as new’ condition.

You know Autumn is here when the battery struggles first thing in the morning. My first bump start meant a trip to the Harley dealer to replace the battery. The H-D battery for a Sportster pushes out 21 amphere and a massive minimum 225 CCA (out of the box mine read 404 CCA).

I was cheered to find that the battery is only 18 months old so should be replaced under warranty. I soon had the smile wiped off my face when faced with an obstructive dealer who seems intent on wriggling out of his obligation. The battery gave a reading of 175 CCA on the drop test which despite being 50 CCA under the manufacturers minimum the dealer claims is ‘good’. He now wants to check the bike before considering a free replacement – it’ll be interesting to see his face when the Atlas rocks up to have its charging circuit checked. I have praised H-D customer service in the past but it seems to have gone downhill.

Nick 🙂

W/E 7th August 2017

A couple of weeks and a 1,000 miles gone by just commuting to work and not too much else to report.

The evenings are unfortunately beginning to close in but went over to the new ILOC meeting on the 26th July and met up with Alan Cudlipp, Alex, Rob and Cris. Just the two Laverda’s (Atlas and Alan’s RGS). Rob was on a tastfully restored XS1100 (and his description of the work he’s done on his Laverda racer certainly provide food for thought as to what you can do yourself) and Alex a KTM while he waits to pick up a newly acquired Jota.

Decided to tackle the Atlas slipping clutch which I thought was suffering because I’d used 20/50 oil formulated for classic cars. Putting in the Silkolene helped but didn’t cure matters so as I was changing the oil I took off the primary case. Cleaned it all up with paraffin and also took time to do a bit of measuring – despite things looking okay the plates are below the 2.5 wear limit. I also found three of the six new clutch springs were below the required 46mm unstressed length. So had a rummage in the scrap bin and assembled the ‘thickest’ clutch I had and found another set of new springs (all at 46mm+). I am yet to road test this as I have access to the daughter’s Ducati but I’m thinking a new set of plates is in order – I believe they are the same as fitted to an SF so not difficult to source here in the UK.

In the Trips section you’ll find my report on the National Rally – round 2 of the 3 round series which is completed by the annual trip to Scotland. Got my application off so now have a month to get everything up together…

Nick 🙂