Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Well, that went surprisingly well, considering. The remaining LonesomeDuo ambled down the M1 without breaking down in any way, which I always consider a Win, but I suppose Chris treats as normal.
I reckon there were 80-90 bikes there, mostly Kwaks, but also mostly newish and plastic. I’d expected to be able to spot the Ace by the cloud of 2-stroke hanging over it, but there weren’t many triples at all, a bit sad really. We were the only Z750’s, there were 2 W650’s and not one Z400. They sold loads of Z400’s so strange not to see one. Obviously there were a few Z1’s, one of them a totally original shiny job, worth many many thousands.
I was well pleased that they were mostly being completely ignored, despite having pride of place at the front. Our bikes weren’t ignored at all. OK, Chris’s wasn’t ignored, people had taste. There was a steady stream of ‘customers’ rolling up to marvel at it, some of whom had predictably never seen one before.
I love this pic. Note the wide open spaces by the Z1’s, with Chris’s getting its usual attention far in the background.The whole thing was a good friendly do, folk just chatting and drinking tea. Good tea too. I even got a rip-off T-shirt and some stickers like a proper tourist. I hope we can organise a better attended visit to one of these days, bringing our bikes to a wider audience who can only really remember the XS650. Cheers Chris 🙂
Quick update – me & ChrisLWG are still going, but not expecting anyone else to. We’ll post some pics 🙂
Looking totally brilliant. Just when we thought every possible motorcycle style niche had been filled, you manage to come up with the touring café racer. Superb!
Hey Trudie, welcome, nice to have a southerner around! Be assured that random ignition hassles are the very hallmark of Lonesomedom. There’s a couple of different types, some have ballast resistors, some don’t but what none of them have is either quality or reliabilty. It should be dead simple – you get one set of breakers driving one coil wrapped around 2 HT coils. Because of the way the engines laid out you end up with a spark every revolution, one of which is wasted coz of the 4-stroke cycle.
What this all means is that if it’s only one side, it can’t be the points or the condenser, which are of course the easy bit. It could be the spark plug, but that would be way too easy. No, it’s either the carb or the ignition. Carbs are simple, but the ignition coil is a real PITA to even get at, let alone replace.
Virtually all my bikes have had this at some point, often at some particular temperature, either cold or hot. Mostly a ‘new’ coil has fixed it, but these aren’t thick on the ground these days, although the old 4’s used the same system, so their coils can often be persuaded to do the job. Other times the trouble just inexplicably goes away.
So what you have there is a ‘feature’ not a ‘fault’. Enjoy 🙂
Here’s another I dug off a backup disc from 1974 when men were men and British Iron was seriously cheap, although also ..er.. iron.
When I rode my pushbike 5 miles to the jobcentre against an east wind in driving rain, I thought to myself ‘I don’t need this #OOPS#’. These days I don’t look for opportunities to be a masochist.
Been out on mine for um.. 73 miles now. Just like old times, humming along in the traffic without a care in the world, then a cylinder cuts out. Hold the throttle against the stop to stay with the traffic and at the very least convenient moment the wandering cylinder will chime back in, catapulting you toward the car in front. Happy days, I’ve missed them 🙂
Keep it. Ride it to the Ace. Plus I don’t think I could afford it 🙁 Could we have shares, like a racehorse?
