Thanks for the kind words, I'll pass them on to Mitzi.
I now know officially how lemmings feel when they leap off the cliff into the ocean....or how the poor WW1 volunteers must have felt when they found themselves in the trenches in France.
Just because I SAID I'd go on the bloody run was no reason to ignore a perfectly clear weather forecast which said
"RAIN ALL DAY, NO SUN"I set off from home in what seemed like low cloud, more mist than rain, so I'd put waterproof jacket on over my Dainese leather jacket but the trousers were in the side case. Got to Claude's place for 7.30 and Bob arrived just after me, in fact I'd seen him at the lights.
We arrived at St Priest Taurion for 8.30, had coffee, and set off on the "90km" run just as the rain started at 9am. In fact I did more like 200km in the rain.....
St Priest, before it really started to hurl it down.....notice fire extinguisher....what irony, as it turned out, fire would be the least of my worries.....
It was a totally pointless exercise, as it poured heavily all day till I left, in a deluge, after the meal at about 3pm having had more than enough. We passed by beautiful rural scenery, and saw nothing, as we avoided the deepest standing water and the odd wandering trout....
Poor Mitzi started to have ignition problems at some point and by the time we stopped half an hour before the meal, was missing badly and backfiring, and reluctant to run at low revs.
At the first 'casse-croute' or grub stop. Notice wine glass....
These guys are serious eaters....
Darmont (Morgan ripoff) tries to keep its ignition dry....
.
Bob balances on one foot in an attempt to forget about the Triumph's low oil pressure.....later, the chainguard fell off.
Limoges Honda workshop manager and motocross sidecar pilot Bruno poses in blazing sunshine...[/irony]
He had his restored 450 twin for the run.
The erratic running got worse later, but in the early stages lead to the only 'moment' of the day, as Claude, who foolishly was wearing leathers with no waterproofs and was chilled, suddenly took off like a greased whippet on the Rocket Gold Star and blasted past me.
I though...."Can't be having this...." and took off after him, but as this was on a bend, when the power suddenly came on the rear tyre (10 years old?) suddenly spun up and I went sideways a bit.
I decided heroics with an ancient Bridgestone apparently made of some unknown hardwood on a 275kg misfiring bike in the wet was too silly even for a lemming, so didn't bother.
By the time we got to the restaurant for the meal, I was seriously saturated....I'd put my waterproof pants on but the leathers inside were soaked, as were my winter gloves and even my boots.
During the meal (I'd paid for it so I thought I'd better actually eat it, even though a hot shower seemed like a much better idea) and before the desert, I extricated Mitzi and somehow managed to get her going again.
I headed for Limoges, every time I had to stop at lights she cut out, completely unable to tick over, so I had to hold her at 2 to 3000 rpm just to prevent stalling.
One sick puppy, in fact.
Then to make things easier, in Limoges, I lost the rear brake completely....pedal soft, no brake. I now had a very badly running bike with nothing but the pathetic front brake for retardation......on a greasy, soaking road with traffic lights all on red....
Mitzi did manage to struggle home, but twas a near thing.
I stuck her under the carport and dried myself off, then zoned out for a few hours.
By the time I woke up, the bike had more or less dried out, so I washed the crud off it, and had a look at the points. Then I tried to start her, on the kicker, and she started first kick and ran strongly!!!!
I can only think water had got to the coils or leads.
I can't see what's causing the brake problem though...on the centrestand, if I spin the wheel, the brake will stop it spinning, so the MC is working, but there's no 'pedal', it goes right to the bottom of the stroke with no 'bite'.
It's almost like a pad has shed its friction puck, but there's no metal to metal contact noise.
Any ideas what this could be?
Oh yeah, thanks to whoever it was who came up with the tip on starting with the kicker.....you need to press the starter button as you kick, as this diverts all the electric power momentarily to the coils....it really does work, I started first kick every time, even in the deluge! She had refused to start on the button alone at 7.30 at Claude's so I thought I'd try the kick.
Onlookers seemed a bit surprised!
_________________
"
The Moving Finger writes, and having writ, moves on,
nor all your Piety nor Wit
can lure it back to cancel half a line... so....probably best use Tipp-Ex in future?"
1976 GL1000 "Mitzi"
1976 GL1000 and Héchard sidecar "Mitzi 2"
1977 GL1000 'The Parts Bike' now in bits
1976 XT500 'C'
1976 TT500 'C'
1980 Paris-Dakar XT500 (replica)
1992 Grinnall Scorpion SC3 prototype
1993 'Big Valve' BMW R1100RS "Red Sonja"
Hal's Nalbum
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 3:00 pm 
Cheers.
