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.

Another speedo restoration

As usual, click any image to zoom in.


We tried hooking up Mark's "new" speedo to his bike last weekend. Although the odometer worked, the needle moved not a jot.


This was somewhat disappointing given that in carrickbay's description on ebay it was claimed that the "needle moves when you spin with Allen key".


Mark was spitting sparks so I took the speedo home and dismantled it. Turns out the description was somewhat less than accurate as the needle mechanism was seized.

I eventually managed to free it up with some WD40 and today we tried it in the bike. It read 25mph when doing 30mph so it didn't take more than 3 or 4 turns of the brass adjusting screw to get it reading correctly again.

Maybe we should go into business - there's a fortune to be made judging by how much some people are charging for what we've done here more than once!

Smith Speedo dissection

As usual, click any image to zoom in. 

Ignoramus on the BritBike forum pointed me in the direction of a detailed web page that outlines how to disassemble and service a Smith speedo.


Much appreciated!

Speedo calibrated!

Mark has been pressuring me to get the speedo sorted out before he rides it again, and quite right too. In fact, he is always right - he makes me sick.

I reassembled the speedo today after first drilling an access hole in the rear of the speedo casing and then temporarily sat the speedo in the headlamp. I connected the speedo cable and set off to duel with the local radar device.  After the third time of adjusting the magnet plate distancing screw I approached the radar device and it displayed in large green numbers 30 mph.

Went back for a rerun to prove it wasn't a fluke and again it displayed 30 mph. I went back and rode the bike at 31 mph according to the speedometer and as I approached the radar detector  31 mph flashed up on the device. Really chuffed! Rode back home and secured the speedometer in the headlamp. I managed to tap the metal that Smiths had originally "punched" to stop the screw from turning, and secured the screw in place. This was achieved through the new drill hole.

As a final test I rode the bike to the opposite end of town and rode the bike through the other radar speed detector and lo and behold riding the bike at  31 mph the detector confirmed that the speedo is now accurate.

I tested it at 31 instead of 30 mph because the margin for error is less than the thick line of 30mph on my speedometer would show, if that makes sense.

Next on the list is: 

1.  Clean air filter

2.  Make a transparent cover to view internals of the Float Chamber.

Apart from glass, which I assume would be difficult to drill, I need something that is not attacked by petrol that would be easy to buy locally.

Speedo's

As usual, click any image to zoom in. 

No, not my budgie smugglers but the speedometer.


The speedo reads several MPH too fast. The upside is I won't get caught speeding but the downside is the odometer is advancing too quickly.


I've managed to get the speedometer bezel off and I have removed the internal mechanism.


I have repainted the red pointer. The brass adjusting screw was locked in place by the metal surrounding it having been "punched" to prevent movement. I have gleaned that by adjusting the screw the metal plate next to the rotating magnet moves either nearer or away from the magnet. If the plate is nearer to the magnet the speed shows faster than actual and the opposite applies.



I will drill a hole in the rear of the case to allow adjustment of the screw without having to remove the mechanism every time it needs tweaking.


I'll use the speed radar near my house to calibrate the speedo, as well as getting someone in a car to double-check the accuracy.

Speedo cable info

As usual, click any image to zoom in.



I found a page on the Classic Motorcycles website that gives details about speedometer and tacho cable lengths.

Well worth a viewing if you need to replace your cable.

New speedo cable

As usual, click any image to zoom in.

The speedo needle wobbled, and there was an unpleasant crunch from the back wheel every so often while riding the bike. Turns out that one of the notches on the back wheel hub was cracked.

Mark came over last weekend and helped me cut out two new notches to sit a new speedo gearbox onto. We did this very carefully by hand with a metal file - making sure no filings went down into the bearings.

Tedious but looks good. You can see the original and damaged cutouts at approximately 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock in this photo, and the new ones at top and bottom of the shot.


When we came to fit a new speedo cable it would not connect to the speedo - turns out that there are two types of speedo (chronometric and magnetic) and that we had the wrong type. We're impatiently waiting for the new one to turn up!