Saturday, 10th June, 2023.

        If you've been following the saga of "Bess", you will remember that at the end of "Part 2". Bess was running happily and I was looking forward to another run down to The Strathmore Arms in order to complete the running-in of the new bores and pistons. That was completed a couple of weeks ago but it didn't go entirely as planned.
        I've always been plagued with headlight problems. The high frequency vibration of the parallel twin engine plays havoc with the fragile bulb filaments and they don't last long. I though I'd found a cure for the problem when a couple of years ago I bought a very expensive LED headlight bulb. That has, until now, proved very effective and hasn't yet failed. However... On the way down to the Strath, I leaned forward and put my hand in front of the headlight to check, as I usually do, that the light was still working. It was, but it was flickering like mad, and I thought, distracting to anyone coming the other way, so I turned the headlight off and continued the journey with just the pilot light on. I had the same problem on the way back. My immediate thought was that the Podtronics rectifier / regulator had failed, although I had replaced the original Podtronics unit with a new one when I rebuilt the bike back in 2014/15. However... (another 'however')... Once I'd got the bike into the workshop and up un the bench I found something else that could be causing the problem. The headlamp reflector unit has a built in shield in front of the bulb, supported on two thin steel legs. One of those legs had failed and broken away from the shield itself. This was allowing the shield to vibrate up and down in front of the bulb. It would, I imagine, produce the flickering effect that I was seeing. As you can see from the photograph, it's quite a substantial chunk of steel (it was circular... I had to bend it a bit to get it out through the bulb aperture in the reflector.) For the moment, I've put the LED bulb back in and with a fully charged battery, there is no sign of any flickering, but I've not tried it yet with the engine running. The bike is on the workbench with the silencers removed (more about that in a minute), and I don't think my neighbours would appreciate me running the bike on "open pipes". I don't yet know whether the removal of that shield will have a detrimental effect on the headlight beam pattern. To be honest, with the LED bulb, it wasn't that good anyway.
        Ok... on to the second problem. There was a distinct "clanking" from the rear end when I got home. The nearside silencer was no longer attached to the triangular plate that supports it. The two bolts securing the silencer had pulled through the flimsy slotted box section on the silencer body, allowing it to waggle about on the end of the exhaust pipe. When I checked the offside silencer, one of the bolts had pulled through on that as well. The other bolt mounting had also started to crack. I will need to manufacture some sort of secure mounting... or buy two new silencers!!

Thursday, 15th June, 2023.

        Silencer problem now fixed. I cut a couple of pieces from a 10mm thick piece of mild steel and machined them to be a reasonably tight fit in what remained of the box section on the silencers. They were drilled and tapped 1/4" UNF on 1.3/4" centres to suit the triangular mounting plate.

Friday, 16th June, 2023.

        Right... back to the flickering headlight problem. With the silencers(?) back in place I thought it OK to run the bike in the workshop without annoying the neighbours too much. I'd connected my digital voltmeter across the battery and it was showing 11.9v so I started the engine and switched on the LED headlamp. The light was flickering, as were the digital instruments, and the voltmeter was swinging anywhere between 8 and 13 volts. That was not what I wanted to see. The broken heat shield in the headlight probably wasn't helping, but it wasn't the cause of the problem. I figured it had to be either the battery, the alternator, or the rectifier/regulator unit. The easiest to check was the battery so I started there. I took the battery off and checked it on the bench. It looked OK, not leaking or anything, so I checked the off load voltage again... Still 11.9v. I needed to put it under load so I connected a 60w halogen headlamp bulb across it. The volts immediately dropped to 7.8v and stabilised there. An hour later, the bulb was still glowing and the battery had dropped to 7.1 volts. That indicated to me pretty clearly that two of the six cells in the battery had failed. The battery was 8 years old so I guess I can't complain too much. I had a fully charged 12v car battery under the bench so I connected that to the bike, put the voltmeter across it and started the engine. No headlight flickering this time and the volts rose steadily to just over 14v as I increased the engine revs. That's exactly what should happen. I've ordered a new battery from Tayna Batteries, so I'll see if that was indeed the problem when the battery arrives.

Monday, 19th June, 2023.

        The new GEL battery arrived this morning... Thank you Tayna Batteries. It was fully charged and showing 13.1 volts so I dropped it into the bike and connected it up. Ignition on and fired her up. Digital volt meter showing 14.5v at anything over 2000 rpm. That's perfect and exactly what I'd hoped to see. Headlight on... no change to indicated voltage and more importantly, no flickering. It looks like the problem has been solved. Hooray...

Thursday, 10th August, 2023.

        In the two months between the last blog entry and this one, Daisy has made the run down to the Strathmore Arms and back twice. Both times, pretty much faultlessly. After the first run, I noticed that two of the four plastic screws that secure the number plate were missing. They were new when installed after the chicken mesh episode, and to be honest, they could have come out at any time since. They've been replaced again and I'll keep an eye on them. I'm not sure if Loctite works on plastic screws but I'll give it a try.
        Yesterday was the second run. The only minor issue was when I stopped at Eye Green Services for a coffee and some petrol. The folding kick-start lever wouldn't unfold. The sprung loaded detent ball seemed to have jammed. I persuaded it back with a small screw driver. It just needs a little grease. I'll sort that today.
        I checked the odometer readings this morning. Since I finished the initial rebuild in June 2015, the bike has only covered a total of 4739 miles and 909 of those have been covered since I rebuilt the engine and converted it to 740cc last year. I have to say that I'm pleased and impressed with how she runs. She's pretty much fully "run-in" now and a couple of times I let her have her head. Whilst overtaking a lorry, she hit 95mph with ease and was still accelerating strongly when I eased the twist grip back. Next time I have room in the workshop, Daisy will be back in to have the SAE40 oil drained out and fresh 20w50 put back in along with a new filter. Happy days...

Friday, 25th August, 2023.        NOTE... Speedometer reading 4739.

        The workshop was finally empty so Daisy was rolled in to do the oil change. She's covered 909 miles since the engine rebuild so I figured that she was just about "run in". I drained out the straight SAE40 Duckhams oil that was recommended by Morgo for running in and took the oil filter off. That was replace with a new one, suitably filled with fresh 20w50. The frame oil tank was replenished with another 4 pints of 20w50. For good measure and because the bike was up on the work bench, making it easy, I changed the gearbox oil as well. It's only 1 pint of EP80w90. The engine started easily and the oil pressure gauge was showing 60 p.s.i. after a few seconds. So.. all good, until the next problem!!

Monday, 8th January, 2024.

        I was in the pub yesterday evening and mentioned to friend Tiger, that I might go down to the Strathmore on Wednesday. He thought that was a good idea and with enthusiasm fuelled by more than one pint of Tydd Stream beer, we decided that I would ride my Bonneville and he would come on his Harley. This morning, with the outside temperature in the low single figures, it didn't seem such a good idea, as these low temperatures were forecast for the whole week ahead. At least the forecast was for dry weather for the next few days. Anyway, I pulled Daisy out of the garage this morning and gave her a quick "once-over" to make sure nothing had fallen off since I rode her last. Nothing had, all was secure and everything worked as it should, so off we went for a ride. An hour and a bit later with 50 miles on the clock, I was back home. Daisy had performed admirably but I was very cold. If the temperature is the same on Wednesday, I'll be going to the Strathmore in the car!!

Link to Index and Home Page.
Link to Triumph T120R - Part 1.
Link to Triumph Tiger 90 page.
Link to AJS M18S page.
Link to Matchless G3/LS page.
Link to Matchless G80CS page.
Link to Honda VFR750 page.
Link to Norton 650SS page.

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