Bulbs again

A few days later, we have a package from Paul Goff:

All now fitted.

Happy Anniversary!

Well, its four years to the day since Amelia came to stay.

Here she is on the day she arrived:

And here's a recent picture:

Tool Bench

Another day, another bench... This time, for some power tools - a bandsaw and a pillar drill, and maybe a bench grinder. Oh, and a big ol' vice... and... and...

4" x 2" battens (roof joists, out of a skip) secured with 6 off 8 mm frame fixes...

Top added - two pieces of thick beech-edged MDF (salvaged from my dad's garage), screwed to the battens. Legs also added, 3" x 2" pine, salvaged from an old door. Nothing actually paid for yet!

For future reference, the new tool bench is 1500 mm x 500 mm.

The ladies waited outside.

Badges again

Today the new badges are dry, so we can put them on. Here they are against the old ones:

And now one on the machine:

Lovely!

Looks great doesn't it. Thanks for giving us a lovely bike Mr. Page!

New Badges

Amelia's original badges and the chrome flashes which live behind them have looked very tired since she arrived nearly four years ago, and I was lucky enough to find a better condition set, genuine Ariel parts still with the patina of age, but less of it... Here they are:

The paint is all missing, so we will need to do a little job on that. First clean them up with some Farecla G10 rubbing compound, then mask them up:

Now, trim the masking back:

Paint with some etch primer:

and some top coat:

remove the mask while the paint is still wet:

And leave it to dry.

Dusky Jaunt

Well, a little jaunt around North Norfolk yesterday evening left me thinking about my lights, as the nights are drawing ever inward.

The Lucas C35SD dynamo, in standard condition and running 6V into a modern V-Reg regulator rectifier charges the batteries at anything over idling. However, put the main beam on and you have to get to about 40 mph to get it to balance, and this is only running a 35W/35W BPF headlamp as it would have been in 1951, with a 5/21W stop tail - all old-fashioned tungsten bulbs.

In addition to this it has the 3W BA9 pilot light and the 2.4W BA9 light in the speedo.

I think some upgrades are in order. Here's my list:

• 35W/35W QH BPF headlamp - B635BPFQH is the one I have in mind, from Paul Goff
• LED tail lamp - I'll use the LD6RST 
• LED pilot lamp - Paul's LDBA9DWneg is the one here, drawing 1.5W, or LDT10DWH6V depending on which is brighter
• LED speedo lamp - again LDBA9DWneg is the one

as a minimum. And then maybe, because this is getting expensive, I will add:

• LED indicators
• LED indicator relay

I'm toying with the idea of replacing the cheapo repro Lucas 529 rear light, which I fitted as it is much larger and more visible than the original Lucas 480, with a better one from Paul Goff.

I have to make sure that the bike is (if I recall correctly) wired negative earth (which it is - I went and looked at the battery) - the regulator certainly is - because LEDs are polarity sensitive. I'll maybe look into the bright daytime running lights Paul sells as well, since I have two positions for pilot lights.

I also discovered, by the way, that you can ground the side stand on cornering!

The Square Four in Racing

I can't quite believe that I have never come across Kees' site before, but I'm looking forward to reading about the various racing Square Fours that have been built. Here's the link:

http://keesknegt.doodlekit.com/home/index

Black bin bags

I just fitted a tyre to my MZ TS250, without tyre irons, using only a bin bag like this:

I did use my feet, since a modern 350-16 tyre is a lot stiffer than the tyre he is fitting but it is brilliant. I’m never going back to the old way.

Norfolk Coast Bimble

A nice little run (after filling up with Super unleaded for the first time) to Overstrand this morning in milky sunlight found this rather splendid Commando special at a local garage:

I've been looking for a local MOT station to get the MZ TS250/1 on the road for the winter, and this is just the spot, with a very friendly and knowledgeable tester who owned also the Commando - which to me is recommendation in itself. All I have to do now is fit the tyres to the MZ and we'll be ready for it to become the hack!

Amelia seems very happy, in her element on these single carriageway, twisty relatively quiet open roads; but pulling away from the garage, noisily to show off to an interested pedestrian left me limping along beside the pavement wishing I'd turned the fuel tap on...

Returning to a more mundane setting (Homebase Cromer) shows her domestic side as well, running errands. A small oil leak has appeared which coats the frame rails, oil filter and sump. the chain oiler is open but the chain is dry; I have closed it now. We'll have to do a bit of investigation.

At least the rocker shafts are no longer leaking!