What have you done with your bike/s today?

[olev]

Musky,
About your Victa.
Sounds like the exhaust port is clogged with carbon.
Back when the bears were bad we used to stick those motors on go carts.
cheers

[RichardL]

Jul 6,25
A10 running well. Went for a short ride, maybe 10-12 miles from home. After living here 32-33 years, stumbled on a place I'd never been. Now, this won't seem old in British terms, but this was a farm orginally from the late 1800's that was on a huge piece of land and set up as a combination park, museum and horse-event venue. Several 100-year-old plus horsedrawn wagons and buggies were on display. The stables and dairy buildings were just as they were when it was a working farm. Maybe not that exciting, unless you find it completely by accident, as I did. I don't think anyone here, besides myself, is nearby enough to stop by and enjoy it. Wish you were. https://www.dupageforest.org/places-to-go/centers/st-james-farm

Richard L

[Worty]

Beautiful place Richard.

On my rides recently, I just take any old road that I don't think I've been down before.  I see a sign for some tiny village, and go toward it to investigate.  There are some real gems tucked away, like the farm in your post.  I do get some odd looks from some of the residents as I potter through - I'd imagine a motorcycle is something of a rarity that far off the 'beaten track'.

[Greybeard]

Beautiful place Richard.

On my rides recently, I just take any old road that I don't think I've been down before.  I see a sign for some tiny village, and go toward it to investigate.  There are some real gems tucked away, like the farm in your post.  I do get some odd looks from some of the residents as I potter through - I'd imagine a motorcycle is something of a rarity that far off the 'beaten track'.

I love doing exactly that on the bike or in the car with wifey. Just pottering along.

[muskrat]

G'day Olev.
Found the problem. The diaphragm unit on the head (decomp) is buggered. Removed it and screwed an old spark plug in the hole, blocked the tube into the inlet port and she revved her head off. Now the ignition cut out won't work. Turn fuel off and wait.
Cheers 

[BagONails]

Enjoyed a nice run out with the Beezer Geezer's of Adelaide yesterday, taking advantage of a crisp blue sun shiny day in the middle of winter which was nice. Got to within 1km of home when suddenly I had no gears, well I had one, 3rd gear but no gear change lever!  I made it home (down hill all the way luckily) and swapped helmets going back out on the push bike to search for the missing lever. Sure enough there it was lying 200m before the point where I missed it, very lucky, still the right shape and everything.

Any ideas on how to prevent lever loss in the future? I gather this is quite a common occurrence.  The japanese solved this by making the bolt cut across the shaft like a cotter so even loose the lever wouldn't just drop off

[orabanda]

Hi BagONails,
This happens too often; remember changing down to second gear entering a roundabout, then waving the right foot in fresh air at the exit, trying to find the missing gear lever. And there were two other A10's which "malted" the gear lever.

These days I drill the end of the shaft, and tap it 1/4" BSC (naturally!).
Machine a keeper plate, and secure with a SS domed and polished bolt (1/2" length of thread) from Acme Stainless.
See attached pics, including a drawing. As drawn, the keeper has a 0.080 " step on the inner face, but not always necessary; sometimes you only require a flat keeper.

In order to break through the case hardening on the end of the shaft, use a 5.5mm masonry drill (with tungsten carbide tip insert), but grind the faces so they have the rake, and 118 degree included angle of a standard twist drill. A "Drill Doctor" tool with a diamond wheel will handle this, no problems.

I drill the gear lever spindle in the lathe, but you could do it "in situ" I also machine an o-ring groove on the shaft (and the kick starter shaft), then drill a breather hole in the rear of the intermediate gearbox section, and fit a Yamaha 90 degree breather adaptor. No more mist from the gear selector and kick starter shafts!

Happy trails,
Richard

[orabanda]

Been doing shed extensions; gained another 105 sq metres.

Some engines, gearboxes and clutches ready to go into the frames (which unfortunately, AREN'T at the same stage).

I also use solar charging systems, which work very well.

Richard

[groily]

I've seen a lot of levers with strategically placed cable ties BoN. Medium discreet.
I also like the AMC 'box approach where there's an axial setscrew that attaches the pointer for the gear indicator. The lever can't slip off the spline.
Have drilled and tapped other shafts 1/4 Cycle to do the same - like the Burman here (no integral indicator, that's done by the little rotating drum). Got quite sick of having to fish that lever out of ditches and puddles  . . .

(Not as shiny as Orabandas though!)

[Worty]

Been doing shed extensions; gained another 105 sq metres.

Some engines, gearboxes and clutches ready to go into the frames (which unfortunately, AREN'T at the same stage).

I also use solar charging systems, which work very well.

Richard

Your shed's bigger than our cul-de-sac - sheds Aussie style!

[a101960]

Blue loctite on the splines before assembly. It's worked so far

[Worty]

Mine's never fallen off??

[a101960]

Mine's never fallen off??

Tempting fate?

[Worty]

Mine's never fallen off??

Tempting fate?

Many other things have fallen off or broken.  Lost the entire battery strap set up somewhere, also a complete engine bolt and a few nuts before loctiting them on.  Part of the front mudguard bracket broke and fell off.  Almost lost the bar-end mirror when it came very loose (had to hold onto it).  Fixed with the mini adjustable I take with me everywhere.

Finished the GF fettling today.  I HAVE NOT fixed the primary cover leak (maybe a tiny crack around the drain bolt boss).  I HAVE NOT fixed the leaky gearbox drain screw.  The sump plate is not fixable with mere gaskets, and would require GOO to stop the leak.  However, it has slowed.  The l/h fork leg STILL wants to bleed oil.  HOWEVER, the plumbing for the valve shut off doesn't leak, and the cut out works correctly.  Oil is returning to the tank in regular spurts.

I did prime the rocker feed pipe with oil, and squirted a bit of oil into the rocker cover via the banjo bolt holes for good measure.

I have soldered the ball nipple onto the clutch cable, and all works fine.  I held the cable in a vice with two bits of soft wood either side to avoid cable damage.  I then gently bashed the end of the cable to splay it, cleaned everything with brake cleaner, jammed the splayed cable down into the nipple, fluxed it up and dipped it into my solder.  It's not perfect first try, but it does work fine.  I couldn't get a pin down the centre (Musky), but even with the splayed out ends I couldn't pull the splayed cable through the nipple.  Now it's got solder, I doubt it'll fail unless the cable breaks.

Despite extensive research into solder pots, temperatures, solder wire, methods, etc, I didn't find out until afterwards that you don't use rosin cored solder in a solder pot.  This is probably why my pot burst into flames.

I have a lot of fun and cursing at my house.

[muskrat]

G'day BoN.
I lost my lever about 100 miles from home. A mate had a 14mm ring/open end spanner that was a nice tap fit on the shaft. Up changes were OK but had to reach down with my hand for down changes. I now just use some lock wire through the slot in the lever and wrap it around the speedo fitting.
Cheers