New fork seals

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

Mario's steed passed its MOT last week but there was an advisory on one of the fork seals.

It's in to have it replaced at Cadishead Motorcyles

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.

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.