What have you done with your bike/s today?

[Black Sheep]

Investigating a spot of oil misting at the rocker box I decided to go ahead and fit some piston rings while I was at it. Perhaps a spot of paint might be in order too.

[olev]

Gday BlackSheep,
6 fins, thick flange ????
Must be a story here.
cheers

[RDfella]

Hi Olev - yes, did read that book, but am not following it for tuning purposes. I had noticed the balancing comments were basically worthless. Was more out of interest to compare with what we did in the early 60's, when I had an 8E that absolutely flew - until the flywheel slipped on the crank. Would be leading by half a lap (karts) but never finished a race with the motor still running. What it needed was a key for flywheel / crank as in the 9E's, but beyond my skills / machinery at the time. Sold the motor and bought a 9E Super Sport. That had about 1/2 the power so I gave up.
 I did some modest tuning to this 8E ('53 DOT Scrambler) a few years ago (porting, stuffing crankcases & filling in the crank webs) but didn't trouble with balancing. This re-balancing is an attempt to cure vibration from half revs up as a result of filling in the webs. I'm not looking for huge gains (believe they're getting around 30bhp nowadays) as the bike is only ridden for fun so not looking at ignition or carb. Just waiting on the crankcase to be welded (hairline crack) before re-assembling.

[Black Sheep]

And here's the best of the rocket box gaskets.
Ah, the barrels. Many years ago I went to my local back street bike emporium Willie Pitblado's in Dunfermline, after a pair of pistons for the Star Twin. What he had, cheaper than a pair of Hepolites, was a box with a BSA service exchange set of barrels and pistons. Being a Scot and careful with my pennies, I opted for the service exchange set. It was only when I got them home that I discovered that I now needed new longer base studs. It was considerably later that I discovered the true significance of what I had bought. How did they end up in Willie's shop?   

[Greybeard]

It was considerably later that I discovered the true significance of what I had bought. How did they end up in Willie's shop?   

Please will you explain that comment 

[Black Sheep]

I didnae ken that small fin thick flange barrels were the Daytona ones and as common as rocking horse guano. And why did the factory release these very rare barrels as a factory exchange? Someone making an error or helping out a mate? We will never know.

[olev]

BlackSheep,
It's a crying shame your machine isn't original anymore.
I've got a spare set of a7 barrels. We could swap if you pay postage both ways and throw in a bottle of Macduff..
Being a bit of a softie always happy to help out.
cheers

[Black Sheep]

 A great offer Olev but MacDuff doesn't travel well. Otherwise...

[Butch (cb)]

Rode up to Scotland from my Essex base for a long weekend with a few pals. Scotch Corner on the Thursday night, Dunkeld on the Friday, Fort Arthur for Saturday, Ayr on Sunday. Then home on the Monday. Two punctures between 4 of us. One in the back of a Tiger 800 and one in the front of my T3. Meant I got Sunday in the van going down to Ayr. Plenty of weather and had to use more E10 fuel than I or the bike care for.

[Greybeard]

Rode up to Scotland from my Essex base for a long weekend...

Wow!

[Black Sheep]

Rode from Scotland down to England for a friend's funeral yesterday. Cracking day, blue skies, F15s buzzing over Shap Summit. Had to stop at Tebay services farm shop on the way back to stock up. And all on an Enfield 350 Bullet. (Wife wouldn't lend me her A10 since I blew up her Douglas and the A7 is part way through getting new piston rings).

[Greybeard]

As the day was dry I decided to take Emily for a spin. I haven't touched her since the South Wales BSAOC weekend. Good girl that she is she started first kick and looking into the oil tank she was pumping bubbles after about 30 seconds. I rode to my nearest Esso garage to fill up with their E5 juice. I then rode 20 miles to Draycott water reservoir where I visited the cafe for my lunch. After my refreshments I had a pleasant ride home. Lush!

My wife and I have been inseparable 😳 since Covid started. I really enjoyed being 'off the lead' for a while today.

[Biker Chris]

Yeah, took the A7ST for a ride to a friend's wedding about 30 miles away yesterday and was a head turner - even among the classic cars there.

But on the way home (in the dark) she started running on 1 cylinder then died and would only run with the throttle over half open. I pushed her to a petrol station and pulled the plugs - the left was oil fouled and the right carbon fouled. Cleaned them up to try to 'get me home' with no improvement.

I call for recovery but after waiting 4 hours and still being the best part of 25 miles away from home I stashed the bike in a mate's garden (he's away, but a good chap so won't mind, and owns a trailer) and got a taxi home at 02:00 costing £40 for the ride!

On the upside, the headlight was fairly good before she died!

Now to let my mate know before he thinks he's got a free bike...

... any ideas on a potential cause? Of course I can't investigate until I get it home!

So, I got the bike back and started going through it... Discovered that the choke cable has come undone from the splitter under the tank (splits the choke cable pull for both carbs on the A7ST), reconnected it and everything seemed to work... explains the soot of one plug as she was fully choked, but not the oil on the other. But at least she runs now!

[orabanda]

My friend John brought his PE400X up from Bunbury for tuning, and I dusted off my PE400T, and we made beautiful two stroke noises and smells as we hurtled around our back paddock.

John will be riding his A65 at Orabandon 2021; the PE would be too "bogan" amongst the bikes from Small Heath.

[scotty]

Bogan

Now there’s a word to conjure with.

Had to look it up 😁

Nice PE’s !