Quick update, for anyone who may be interested!
The rear brake pedal had been hand made by the previous owner, and while a piece of art to look at, was next to useless as a control. Far too short and flexible, even for my dainty little feet! Being on the "wrong" side as well meant it wasn't intuitive, so when I did find it, it needed to have a decent area for me to stand on. Looking at various options, someone suggested that a Sammy Miller Products pedal should be ideal, and for £35.00 not too expensive. The footrests were horrible narrow things, exactly the same as standard on a 1200 GS Hexhead! Ebay turned up a set of alloy pegs, both wider and lower than the originals, which was perfect, and again only £35.00!
This is the best position for working on the clutch....
The friction material on the old clutch plates was in poor order, and the pressure plate was a thin bendy affair, with only three springs holding everthing together. My problem was mainly when kickstarting the bike, as with old fashioned engines, you turn the engine over via the clutch. If it slips, you struggle to start it. Apparently this is a common "Cub" issue, and plenty of aftermarket goodies are available to help. Mainly by lightening your wallet.
The old .
And the new.
Four (thinner) friction plates instead of three, relined clutch basket, new springs and an alloy pressure plate. The centre bearing is now 16 rollers, instead of 16 balls, which is apparently much better. The biggest single improvement though, is through changing my kickstart technique. I am used to kicking big two stroke singles over, so was giving the poor little Cub too much wellie! A steady push through works better.
I've also stripped down the forks, cleaned out the sludge that was in there, and replaced it with 15w fork oil. Now the forks work a whole lot better, but finding cut down MX springs in there was a bit of a shock! I'm sure I can make these better still with a bit of experimentation.
In between this twiddling, I have now completed 3 trials on it, and am really enjoying it. The last trial was on Sunday, at one of our favourite venues. Tim was free, so he got to see the bike in the metal for the first time. The club had set some new sections on the other side of the farmer's land, so we had three field margins, a green lane, and a tarmac driveway to blast along in top gear! Immense fun! Tim's BSA has the edge on top speed, but it doesn't wheelie quite as well, does it Tim?
One of the problems of using these old classic bikes "in anger" as it were, is that they don't crash quite as well as the modern bikes. And inevitably, at some point, you and the bike will part company. If not, you are either very skilled, or in the wrong class!
Section 9 of Sunday's trial was my nemesis. A climb up a rocky stream bed, then turn out to the right, before turning back to cross through the stream and up the left hand bank. The bank didn't look too bad, but when I hit it on the first lap the back wheel spun out from underneath me, and I ended up underneath the bike, facing the opposite direction, with my fingers trapped between the clutch lever and the ground. That'll be a five then.
On the second lap, I went at it a little too cautiously, and the bike only slipped down the bank, still facing the same direction. When I picked it up though, I'd put a fist sized dent in the tank.
In all the crashes, get off's and drops I've ever had (and believe me, that's a lot!), none has made me feel sick. Until this one.
I didn't manage that section on the next two laps either, finishing with a total of four fails. Small comfort came from the results, where seven other riders in my class had the same.
The section had been cleaned though, so it wasn't impossible. Just not by me.
Today I took the tank into work, and we tried blowing the dent out to no avail. There is an excellent bodyshop near the office, so I took it round to them to see what they could do.
And this is the result. Not perfect, but at least I feel better now!
Mark