W/E 13th July 2020

Can you spot the cheeky A65?

So Atlas #3 is ready to be fired up once the oil is in. Despite its rather desperate appearance everything that needs to be connected up is. As you can see the bike now sports a Mk 3 exhaust system (albeit one with a flat in the primary pipe from an accident many moons ago). I put this on because I know I will need to do more work on the alternator case (paint and replacing the wiring sheathing) so for now it’s easier to go the Mk 3 route. I dug out a replacement Mk 1 link pipe but wonder if I will go back to this as having an exhaust passing under the carb’ seems a bit dangerous.

Atlas #1 is not too far behind and recently got its new foam air filters. The offside one is slightly compromised by the air intake bracket but I’ll live with that rather than chopping up an original part!

Rubber original on the left

Don’t worry these were cleaned before fitting…

Fitting the alloy inlet manifolds as opposed to the original rubber items helps fitment of the foam filters because you don’t then need the bracket to support the carb’ to the frame. It’s a shame that these manifolds are no longer available as the rubber originals are all now 30+ years old and showing their age with cracks.

The foam filters pass just inside the frame but I might experiment with some radiator hose to see if I can move them back an inch as I suspect rain may get in via the frame touching the foam. Thing is to get the bike running and then work out these details.

In addition to the foam filters I also replaced the diaphram spring. I’ve lost one of these which is why I got another. I was surprised to see how much the used spring has compressed with use.

I also fitted the long pilot jets which are no longer available. I’ve run these before and found no discernible benefit though on sports cars they are supposed to handle fuel surge under hard cornering.

Atlas #1 is therefore well on the way to being ready to start. So why no announcement that either bike is finally running? Well there’s no hurry and I kinda felt in a bad mood as I twirled the spanners. There’s a little amount of fiddling to do that requires a clear head – many times I’ve got so close only to bugger things up by rushing. So watch this space for next week’s big announcement…

Nick 🙂