W/E 27th December 2020

So just when I thought I wasn’t going to fit the engine before 2021 I managed to find an hour or so and enlist Mrs A to help.

I planned to put the engine on its side and then wrap the frame around it to save any damage to the powder coated frame. However I hadn’t reckoned on the weight of the frame with the forks and rear end assembled so decided to go the conventional route i.e. hoist the engine in from the primary side. It wasn’t too difficult with the hoist taking most of the weight and the old inner tube preventing damage to the powder coat. It was a bit tricky to get the engine fully back in the frame but a block of wood and a big hammer soon had it in position 🙂

I can report back that the wheel repair didn’t go well…Feedback from Motoliner was that the wheel ‘exploded’ when it was put under pressure in their jig. Apparently the ‘ding’ was in line with a spoke and that made it weaker.

Anyhow’s revisited the original rear wheel and having not looked at it for 15 years decided that it’s probably serviceable. I did though get hold of another wheel which I was assured was 98% good. The trouble was that the 2% turned out to be yet another flattened rim (damn either Laverda riders keep riding over bricks or these wheels are pretty soft)! Covid is preventing this second wheel going to Motoliner (and also preventing my busted wheel with spacer tube returning) so we’ll have to just put the bike on a stand and work round the issue of it having no wheels…

The poor neglected Atlas #3 lurks in the background with the tank from Atlas #2 in the foreground. There’s too much to do in the garage, too many projects to pick from…and to make matters worse Mrs A got me a book on BSA A50/65’s and I have one of those lurking just out of shot…

So 2020 was a year that I couldn’t ride in but could’ve made a load of progress on all those bikes…but didn’t. So let’s not beat ourselves up here best to just chalk another year of failure up and move on to 2021. What could possibly go wrong next year?

Nick 🙂