First Outing of the Year

 

First Outing of the Year.

 

I had checked over the Buell the previous day. It had been any distance for weeks. I was also rusty from encarceration and knew I had lost the edge on dicing with traffic and filtering. This was an outing to Jack’s Fish and Chips in Bagshott meet up with fellow members of  our local LE owners club and then on to John’s home a few miles away to enjoy the takeaway and listen to hear his presentation on Riding in Thailand. Those who know Jack’s on a Wednesday lunch they do pensioner rates and is always busy with motorcycle clubs so a good choice to meet up and what bikes are of interest today. John was there on his Valiant and Antony in his car a Fiat 500. 

There was a good collection of bikes including a little Ducati desmo single, a Harley 45, a Norton Dominator, a Gold Star and riding in a new Brough. It sounded new, the exhaust was modern it needed a retro exhaust note to go with it looks. After about an hour we collected our take away and went back to John’s place in convoy.

John did a very good presentation covering his travels and experiences on his two trips that were several years apart. The changes were quite dramatic from dirt roads to perfect tarmac and the increase in commercialisation and tourism. His first trip was done on a Honda 250cc trail bike which was more than capable of coping with the conditions. The second trip was on a Honda 500 with some luggage capacity as he was travelling on his own.

A very pleasant couple of hours were spent before it was time we went home as Antony and I went for the M3 to compete with the traffic and I was able to have a go at doing some filtering on the approach to a roundabout. It didn’t take long to get home but I could have without the couple of squally showers on the motorway. Really great to do be doing something normal again.

Just an update with the van as I have now fitted the driveshafts and wheels and got rid of the old chassis. I had my angle grinder die and had to buy a new one before I could complete the sectioning. A passing scrap merchant saw the bits and kindly took it away saving me a trip to the trip.

 Inspired by my trip out I wheeled my LE out of the garage checked fuel, oil and water, turned on the petrol tap and the choke before priming the engine with three  kicks the ignition on and it fired up second kick. This has now prompted me to charge up my Valiant battery and get that one running.

Le Petite Van Gris Part 7

 

Le Petite Van Gris Part 7

 

All I seem to be doing is bits of maintenance whether it’s batteries on the bikes or cars and greasing kingpins because there are few places to go spontaneously and by the time I’ve made a  decision the weather has changed and it’s raining again. I have completed fitting the rubber bib that protects the ignition module from the weather on the van engine. Now that is in place I have fitted the fan and front shield. The next job on the engine is to replace the spigot bush on the other end of the crankshaft behind the clutch. I’ll do that after I’ve done a stand up job for a bit.

 I had a problem with a close coupled toilet leaking dripping quietly at the back of the toilet water running along the grouting until it disappeared down a crack in a tile. Never enough to wet a tile but when I investigated there as just a little dampness running down the back of the toilet base. Easy to fix, so I thought. I removed the cistern and replaced the seal. I put it all back together and it still leaked. There are two nylon retaining bolts that fix it to the base. I’ll just add a little more pressured to the seal. I did and suddenly there was an explosion and water everywhere. The cistern had cracked and what water was in it ended on the floor. I am now replacing a not so perfectly good  toilet suite. I am also replacing the cracked floor tiles  and generally making the bathroom tidy again. I’m still searching for a stand up job so working on the van I decided to move the body on to the new chassis. 

A two part job in that I jacked up the new chassis to the same height as the old one so that I could slide one over to the other. Cunning plan and finally achieved it but it required jacking up the van back by six inches to clear the sides below the floor level and suspension cross members. The cab only needed to be high enough for it to slide on planks to get it across. It took all day slowly, slowly checking it was safe to do the next few inches. When the van back was in place I removed the blocks of wood that had been used at spacers to let the body sit on the chassis. 

What a fit, it sat fairly and squarely on the chassis. I had no room to fit extra wooden batons as an interface for the glassfibre on metal as planned. I would only be able to use the compressible  foam strip instead. The cab was less of a problem and in comparison was done quite quickly. The cab was bolted down with just a few bolts and the van back was reunited with the cab using 50mm M6 bolts. It is fitting well. I have fitted the 6 outriggers to support the floor where there is no chassis at the rear. I have yet to work out if I need support just in front of the rear suspension cross member but the floor does seems strong enough as it is. My last job we to disassemble the old chassis by taking the suspension off to store it for a later project and the old chassis sits on the ground under the van out of the way.

While the wheels were off I tried the spare fitting moulding. 125 x 15 sized wheel and tyre fit perfectly but my choice of tyre will be 135 x 15 so there is a bit of a fix needed to secure the wheel in place through the centre hole. Other bits  needing attention was to refit the rear door along with the cab doors and put in the aluminium fuel pipe that links up the fuel tank to the original 2CV pipe. When I chose the pipe size it was recommended 7mm but 2CV is 6mm so an adaptor was used. It is only from the tank to the chassis that is 7mm with some proper pipe clips to make it smart. Currently in my thoughts are how and where do I fit the fuel line, brake pipes and the harness for the electrics.