Chrome trims on, new petrol tap soaking

As usual, click on any hand-drawn and crayon-coloured image to zoom in.

Mark (Luigi) has fitted his chrome trims to the tank - bit of a pig getting them bolted down. You'd think it'd just be a case of dropping them on and screwing them in but the holes didn't line up and there's still a gap at the bolts.

His petrol tap has been showing a drop of petrol and feels very loose to slide in and out so he popped in to see Brian at the local shop for a new cork. The cork was £7.20 but to be fair it did come with a free tap connected to it that he didn't ask for. Here it is soaking in some vegetable oil to make it easier to fit and allegedly to make it impervious to petrol trying to leak through.

Petrol tank stripped and relined

As usual, click on any hand-drawn and crayon-coloured image to zoom in.

Mark has had his petrol tank stripped and relined by Tim Miller in Altrincham.

Difficult to start?

As usual, click on any hand-drawn and crayon-coloured image to zoom in.

Mark used Bradex on his old cars when he was a student and they wouldn't start.

Came across this photo yesterday - looks like they use much the same stuff in Oz.

Polishing time

As usual, click on any hand-drawn and crayon-coloured image to zoom in.

Luigi's bike is embarrassingly shiny compared to mine. I can't complain, seeing as I put next to no effort into cleaning mine, but I used a bit of bog roll and polish today on the primary chain case.

Luigi's bike

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark (Luigi), crazy eBayer that he is, has managed to procure some chrome trims for his 1959 BSA C15 from seller brad27110. Great communication and even better packaging - his wife is a star!

The tank is away at the moment with Tim Miller in Altrincham being relined but as soon as it's back we'll fit the trims up.

In the meantime, I Mario, have had a go at repairing his speedo. One of the "wings" inside the casing had come loose from its weld point so I've bodged it up (technical term) with a resistor leg. What are Dads for?!

Unlike his other, newer speedo there is no brass adjustment screw so it looks like we will have to calibrate this one by bending the "wings" until the needle reads accurately.

Bike sorted

Yesterday Mark suggested putting the original, shorter spring cups back in to increase the pressure on the clutch plates. I wasn't too keen because the experts I'd spoken to in the past seem to think that the shorter cups were the cause of the clutch lever being so heavy - see the earlier post on this matter.

However, Roger Taylor from RTS Racing called me back yesterday and said he had seen C15's with both longer and shorter cups in. I said that I had read on various forums that people claim that "all British bikes' clutches slipped when they were new or rebored" but to be honest, nobody would ever have bought a bike if they slipped like mine was yesterday 'cos you can't get the damn thing to start - and without bragging, I'm good at kickstarting difficult bikes.

Roger also pointed out that the same clutch is used in the B40 which is much more powerful than my bike, so Mark came round today to put the old cups back in. I say "give me a hand", but from my stool I watched him:

1. drain the oil from the primary chaincase;
2. remove the footpeg, remembering that it is a left-hand thread!
3. remove the primary cover;

At that point, he kicked the bike over and we could see that while the chain was turning, the clutch wasn't. As Roger said, there's a good chance that with the longer cups in the clutch was maybe only gripping on the first plate.

I then watched him:

1. remove the four screws, springs, longer cups and pressure plate;
2. put the shorter cups in;
3. replace springs, screws and pressure plate;
4. adjust the screws so that the pressure plate was spinning evenly;
5. kickstart it over first time without the clutch slipping - huzzah!

Interestingly, the clutch lever is still lovely and light...

All that was left was for him to put it all back together and put my tools away while I put the kettle on.

Clutch slipping when trying to kickstart

My recently rebored C15 with new clutch plates is still being a complete pain to start from cold.

You get it to the point of compression on the kickstart, take it just past, then go for it and on one kick out of eight it will turn over but the rest of the time the kickstart lever goes straight to the bottom without any sensation of it turning the engine over.

Mark came round today and offered to help push start it. He ran up the road once and nearly got it going so I offered to take over the handlebars duty so that he could concentrate on pushing.

"That's it Mark, head down, keep pushing, we're nearly there!", I shouted encouragingly.

"Blimey, Dad, this bike is a pig to push and sounds like the engine is turning over too!", he replied between gasps.

"Er, yes, son - it'll help - keep pushing!"

"Aargh, my lungs, my legs, come on - start you pig!", he shouted, on the verge of losing his rag.

And then it fired up! Went round the block on it a couple of times to warm it up and then tried kickstarting it a few times. It had improved to maybe one kick in four that was gripping, so I'm not sure if it that the engine had warmed up, reducing resistance which was allowing the clutch to grip or whether it was because the engine was lubricated by running it in gear. I'll take the primary chain-case off tomorrow and tighten up the clutch springs a turn to see if that helps.

I only told him after we'd put the bike away and had a brew that I'd been sitting side-saddle on the bike while he was pushing it. It'll do him good.

Mario's cup arrived today!

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark spotted this mug on ebay the other night and 'Er Indoors has treated me to one. Cheers!

More Surflex clutch plates!

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

After Mark reviewing his new clutch so highly, I decided to replace my plates too.

The gear changes seem better, and although it was only a short ride from Mark's house back to mine, the gear changes didn't seem to be stiff when the engine was hot.


We'll see how it performs Thursday night when we do our ride-out to The Antrobus Arms for the BSA Club meetup.

We also drilled the rear light housing and fitted the rear indicators. We just need to get some bullet connectors to finish up the wiring and add the flasher unit.

New clutch plates in Mark's bike

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

Mark's clutch lever has been always been a bit heavy and noisy even after oiling it so he went to BSA Lightning Spares and splashed out this morning on four Surflex clutch plates, four new springs and four new clutch cups.

The photo on the right shows the old plates which didn't look too bad. The new Surflex ones are brown rather than black.

The cups that were already in were about 4mm too short - looked like they were out of a Bantam, maybe. All very reminiscent of the problem I had on my C15, documented here.

The slots in the blurred photo on the left looked like a set of gums with no teeth in from where the tangs on the plates had worn them away so we filed those smooth to allow the plates to separate freely and reduce drag.

It's all back together and not only is the clutch lever significantly lighter but the gearbox no longer clunks when changing down into either first or second gear.

Indicator kit

As usual, click any image to zoom in.


I've been feeling guilty about all the work I've been getting Mark to do on my bike. What, with him lecturing in Mathematics at degree level, taking me shopping, cutting my grass, maintaining my car, picking up my pension and looking after his family he probably has enough on his plate.



Therefore I've decided to fit the indicator kit I bought six months ago and have been leaving out on the kitchen table half-hidden under a tea towel every time he comes round for a brew.



What a pain it's been - worse than that time I dropped a dumbbell on Mark's foot, I reckon.  Didn't have a drill big enough, had to file to size, broke several small files, getting the stems to look symmetrical took absolutely ages.  Rear pair should be easier. (Famous last words, ha)