At the moment, it is sitting in a warehouse in Montreal waiting to be rolled onto a ship to come to England [thank you for the contact, Sgt Bilco]. The bike has all of 6700 miles on it, and was owned by late father from new. About half of those miles were put on by me back in 1990 when I was last hanging around my home town. Since then, it has spent its time in unheated Canadian garages [temps ranging from minus 30 to plus 30C].
It is not in bad shape [I hope]. The friend who was babysitting it summarises the condition as:
- it will need a new battery
- It will need two new tires (or tyres if you prefer). Originals look fine, but I wouldn't trust 40 year old rubber.
- it needs mufflers as the originals had rusted though.
- the clutch needs adjusting. I tried to adjust using the shop manual, but I seemed to make it worse.
- I replaced the oil and filter, but you may want to redo as oil is a couple of years old now.
- After trying to adjust clutch, I noticed oil leaking from the bottom of the motor when running. (not sure if that will go away once clutch adjusted, or maybe more serious like a blown seal).
- I rebuilt the carbs, but never had it professionally tuned, as I never took it out at full speed (see clutch issue above). They will most likely need attention.
- I put new brake pads on front and drained/refilled hydraulic oil. I never touched the back as wear adjuster was showing adequate brakes left.
- I removed chain, cleaned it of all gunk, reinstalled and heavily lubed it. No signs of wear, lots of miles left on it.
- Other than the leak around the clutch, the engine seems strong, it turns over nicely, so no anticipated issues with that.
I am keen to get it back to nice and shiny and new looking. I live in Oxford, but the bike is coming into Southampton, so I can get it taken anywhere near either city.
It is not in bad shape [I hope]. The friend who was babysitting it summarises the condition as:
- it will need a new battery
- It will need two new tires (or tyres if you prefer). Originals look fine, but I wouldn't trust 40 year old rubber.
- it needs mufflers as the originals had rusted though.
- the clutch needs adjusting. I tried to adjust using the shop manual, but I seemed to make it worse.
- I replaced the oil and filter, but you may want to redo as oil is a couple of years old now.
- After trying to adjust clutch, I noticed oil leaking from the bottom of the motor when running. (not sure if that will go away once clutch adjusted, or maybe more serious like a blown seal).
- I rebuilt the carbs, but never had it professionally tuned, as I never took it out at full speed (see clutch issue above). They will most likely need attention.
- I put new brake pads on front and drained/refilled hydraulic oil. I never touched the back as wear adjuster was showing adequate brakes left.
- I removed chain, cleaned it of all gunk, reinstalled and heavily lubed it. No signs of wear, lots of miles left on it.
- Other than the leak around the clutch, the engine seems strong, it turns over nicely, so no anticipated issues with that.
I am keen to get it back to nice and shiny and new looking. I live in Oxford, but the bike is coming into Southampton, so I can get it taken anywhere near either city.