strangeangel

The postie brought the centrestand spring for the CT. I've been working today, but I figured that would be a nice little job for a late afternoon. Not quite. The little C-shaped piece of metal you hook the spring onto got put on the wrong way round, the stand went up with a reassuring snap and when I deployed it again the metal bit got caught and massively overextended the spring. KNACKERS. Having spent £4 on that spring, I did what I should have done in the first place and actually fucking looked for one. I found three likely candidates, and fitted one - with everything the right way round - result! Except that the stand was now rubbing against the chain. Not good, but a quick glance up under the frame revealed a lug which might once have housed a rubber bump stop. This is where all those Quality Street tins full of Stuff in your garage come into their own. I found a rubber suspension bush (?) in here: and hacked it in half with a Stanley knife. A quick rummage amongst this lot: : and we have this: All bolted into place, and job done: The stand pops up sharply now, and comes to rest a safe distance from the drive chain. I get there in the end!

ISTR that back in the day you had to pay to get rid of scrap cars, and that scrap itself didn't have any value (as it doesn't from time to time these days). Certainly, djimbob's Dad cut up and buried the remains of an engine donor Thames 400E at the end of his garden when we were kids.

And what, pray tell, are the qualities that mark something out as automotive gem? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIXAM-MEGA-VAN-500L-SPARES-OR-REPAIRS/353037502161

I like a bit of minimal camper action, but this looks like a step too far to me: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Camping-Trailer-Teardrop-Trailer-Micro-Caravan-Trailer-Tent-Camper/264479852263

What an outfit! Bravo Sir.

One of the (many) nice things about Towersey Folk Festival was the shuttle bus that took you to Thame to buy beer and Pot Noodles. It cost a pound to go on the bus, which was none other than a Routemaster piloted by Radio 2's Ken Bruce! Now the festival is in Thame rather than Towersey itself I imagine that the bus is no longer to be seen

Ha ha nice one. I was going to do a Twitter video of my rebuilding the beige BX's carb the other day, but I thought "Naah, who, apart from me, will give a toss about this?" I sometimes forget where I am 🤣

I didn't want to have too many things on the go at the same time, so now that the CT90 is all but done (waiting for parts) I thought I'd have a proper look; today has been the first time I've turned a spanner on it. Registration isn't straightforward unfortunately. It lies at the opposite end of the spectrum from the CT90, where Honda released all their production figures, you join a club and they look at said records and produce a dating certificate accordingly. Send the DVLA their bits of paper and a few quid and you're good to go. Unfortunately, none of the Soviet factories ever released any production records, so getting something like the Tula with no docs registered is a bit of a problem. According to the chap at the Cossack OC who deals with this sort of thing, they can't simply issue a dating certificate because they don't know... nobody does! So you have to put together a portfolio of evidence, e.g. photos of a similar machine which has been proven to be a certain year, letter/email from TMZ (or whatever they're called these days), pics of museum exhibits, road tests (I doubt there are any of those in English) etc. etc. The club have put me in touch with a chap whose bike has been registered as a 1962, so that may help, but - from looking at the trim revisions etc. my 200M could be from three different model years...

The six volt bikes were pretty tough, but that selenium rectifier combined with the bike's dependance on the battery for sparks were a real Achilles heel.

A bit of penetrating fluid and white spray grease restored the operation of the ignition switch to the point where it felt quite smooth and you could feel the two distinct positions of the key. Speaking of which, it is fortunate that I had a substitute Russian ignition key on hand: More soon!

Moar today... I checked the wiring diagram and good news! The spare wires either relate to indicators, which this hasn't got, or a horn, which is housed in a different place on this bike from a 'normal' C90. I think someone has re-wired this at some point with a regular 6V C90 loom. Last job for now is to stick the battery in, which is made harder by the fact that the little hinged holder is the wrong one, so bodgery comes to the fore. Not pretty, but that live terminal isn't coming into contact with the bracket, which is the main thing. In tracing the 'mystery' wires earlier, I had cause to remove the headlight: Best stick a bulb on the shopping list then eh? And that's pretty much all I can do for the Trail 90 until the parts I've ordered for it rock up. So let's have a look at the Tula! I reckoned it would be a fine thing for morale if I tried to start the overweight Soviet scooter, but even that takes longer than it takes to say ' lob a gallon of unleaded in and give it a go'. The first port of call is the ignition switch. This device is seized solid, and I have no key for it, apart from that it's all good. There's a few items for the shopping list already! Wiring's not all that bad actually. I might re-make the ends where they screw in with a bit of solder but that's about it.

Chaps, especially the 2-stroke specialists... I need some advice. I think lockdown may provide me with enough time to start work on the Tula, and I think it'd be useful to know if the engine is capable of running before I get too far into it. However, it's obviously been stood for since the dinosaurs roamed the earth and, as such, the crank seals are almost certainly bolloxed. Would it be a terrible idea to stick some fuel in and try and start it? Obviously I wouldn't plan on running it for very long.

Work continued today... the selenium rectifier fitted to these bikes is woefully shit and makes an already marginal charging system into something that either boils your battery and blows bulbs etc. or fails to charge your battery at all. The latter isn't a massive problem with 12V Cubs, as the leccy for the sparks comes straight from the generator. I've ridden then for as long as a year with a shagged battery, and the only real consequence is that your indicators might not flash at tick over. On a 6V bike like this CT, however, the health of the battery is of paramount importance, as Honda wired it up so that it runs the ignition from the battery. No charge/fucked battery = Game Over. If all this were not enough, when they fail and start to cook they emit potentially lethal fumes. So, really, it's got to go. An easy fix is to whack in a solid state rectifier in its place. This is easily done, cheap (about £10) and increases the efficiency and reliability of your charging system massively. I forgot to take a picture of mine before I hacked it up, but this is what they look like: The new one didn't come with a heat sink or anything, and I don't know how hot it will get in use, but most that I've seen have fins on, so I cannibalised the old one to give it some: The new one handily came with a hole through the middle. so it wasn't difficult to do. Now it just wants an earth wire making up, and mounting on the bike: Battery leads made up and everything plugged in. The two new wires that will eventually be attached to the ignition switch are stuck out through the other side panel. There are a couple of wires that aren't attached at one end... next job will be to figure out what they are and put them back again. Also I need to find where the ballast resistor is supposed to live, and then refit that. it's getting there!

Lots of chat about the new Honda CT... FWIW I think it's aimed at beards rather than ride-to-work types and priced accordingly. They've done a decent job of making it look like the original 110 though, I think. Coincidentally I was working on my Trail 90 yesterday; I've been spurred on by the fact that it's now UK road legal and - like most other people it seems - I have time on my hands. Have a gratuitous picture: It's a 1967 K0 model, the first one with the transfer box. The earlier bike, the CT200, had an second, massive rear sprocket and to get low range you had to splice in an extra bit of chain. Handy!

So the Trail 90 is insured, taxed (£0) and MOT exempt, and finally registered for the roads in the UK - what's stopping me riding it? The fact that it's an Unfinished Project. Lockdown = time to change all that. Today I did all the jobs I could with what I had at hand, and made a list of other stuff I need to buy before that first ride can take place. Changed the oil for some top notch recycled dinosaur I found at the back of the garage: New air filter, as the old one was well crusty and there happened to be a new one in the box of Useful Cub stuff. Fitted the trials style exhaust properly, with a new gasket and everything: Also sorted out a few ropey wiring connectors, and fitted a (slightly modified) spring to work the rear brake light. The list of stuff I need to buy went like this: Reg plate - £44.95! Fuck that. I have ordered a 2mm ali plate in the correct dimensions for £4, which I will spray satin black and then stick on the £1.70 white lettering. Ignition switch. Thankfully it's not the early 5 wire type that some loons on US eBay insist on charging £300-400 (!) for. No, it's the 2 wire one for which a £7 Chinese job will suffice. One of the heat shields on the exhaust is flapping about because the fireproof wadding stuff that holds it in place is missing. Ordered some stove rope for £2 and going to improvise something from that. Main stand spring - £4 delivered Other stuff I need to do includes finding the instructions for replacing the wanky selenium rectifier with a modern solid state job that I bought years ago, and promptly forgot about. That, and remembering where exactly the ballast resistor is supposed to live on these bikes! I reckon once that's done we're ready to hit the road... finally. It's only been about 12 years since I bought this 🤣