Lights - not so fixed

Well the W/NG had a nice little trip along the coast to Cromer with its new double dipper LED headlamp, supposedly adjusted for focus and in the W/NGs shiny new reflector. Here it is, waiting to go home again:

The trip home was a lot less fun than the trip out, mainly because it started to rain, but also because the horrible BPF 'contact holder' decided to let go of the dip beam contact - fortunately main beam was still good, and whipping off the reflector by the roadside - no tools required, we have a nifty spring clip:

Secondly, despite the new reflector and 'supposedly' adjusted focus, the beam was really no better. In fact, the halo around the trees close to me was a lot worse - the bulb performs better in the old 700 reflector fitted to the SQ4, suggesting that the Indian reflector fitted to the W/NG is poorly designed or perhaps that I made matters worse by moving the BPF flange on the LED.

Here's the main beam with the LED:

Anyhow, the old 35/35W halogen is back in the W/NG and looks like this. Dip beam:

And main beam, showing better focus than the LED:

I'll check it out on the road later.

One more thing - I noticed that the speedo bulb was a bit dim. Pulling it out, it had '12V' faintly marked on the case... No wonder it was dim on the W/NG's 6V system!

Lights fixed...

After a trip out on the SQ4 recently, I realised that some improvements to the lighting would be helpful. The SQ4 has a LED headlamp from CDRC - one of their 'double dipper' lamps in an old BPF reflector. Dip is very good, and high beam goes a long way but doesn't illuminate much when it gets there...

Looking at this lamp against a tungsten BPF bulb I have realised the it needs a little focus adjustment (its quite old - later ones are apparently adjustable) and axially it does not align properly.

I've de-soldered and moved the mounting ring to fix both the alignment & focus problem, but to sort the reflector out I have put it in the W/NG, which has a relatively new reflector.

We'll need a night time test run to see how we get on, and where we go with the SQ4. In the meantime, the W/NG also has a new dip switch:

Only problem is, the dipswitch is too close to the ignition lever on full advance...

A few little updates

So, a two weeks is a long time with no blog posts, but I have been out and about and done some of the little jobs. As you will have seen, I've updated the regulator and all is working fine now. Unfortunately a 20 mile road test a few days ago revealed that all was not well with the old Italian dip switch that came with the bike, in that it appears to have several extra positions, most of which give no light at all. More on that later.

Still, the bike is going well. I have several old, original grease nipples courtesy of that nice Mr. John Mitchell of the AOMCC, and these have allowed the girders to be greased properly:

The girders are now bobbing up and down with every little ripple in the road. Secondly I've cut a screwdriver slot in the brake torque arm anchor to help me tighten it up:

This modification was inspired by the W/NG that lives at the Norfolk Motorcycle Museum, in North Walsham:

I've also had a look at the primary chain, which I found was tight at certain positions. I've backed that off a little and added some SAE 50 to the chaincase - everything sounds happier in that direction now.