NEW PRODUCT
12 VOLT DUAL POLARITY LED HEADLIGHT BULB
WITH BRITISH PRE-FOCUS BASE
Much brighter than the 6/12 volt type commonly available
Part No BULB414LED
$49.95 Canadian
NEW PRODUCT
12 VOLT DUAL POLARITY LED HEADLIGHT BULB
WITH BRITISH PRE-FOCUS BASE
Much brighter than the 6/12 volt type commonly available
Part No BULB414LED
$49.95 Canadian
Despite several articles in the periodicals I seriously believe this is a subject left for the professionals and should not be attempted by amateurs. We are representatives for the Central Wheel Company in England and sell literally hundreds of rims and thousands of spokes every year. Almost every day we get retail customers calling who claim that the rims or spokes they have bought from us are incorrect, many in frustration demanding that we pay the return shipping on the defective parts. Our standard answer used to be to tell the customer to return the rim, spokes and hub to us. If it was defective we’d correct the parts a pay for the build, if correct the customer paid. Unfortunately our friend and good wheel builder, Jock Graham, passed away recently so we no longer offer this service. Over 90% of the parts returned had nothing wrong with them.
I am not a wheel builder but when necessary have always been able to lace them up OK for my own bikes. Here’s the tip I give to customers having difficulty, including several claimed to be experienced builders, and from the feedback it seems to work.
Forget about the dozens of pictures you took of your original wheel.
Lay your hub on a flat table and place the rim around it chocking it up on books or whatever to get it in the approximately correct position (I hope you measured the offset before you took it apart).
Take 4 spokes and thread nipples onto them.
Push the spokes into the rim holes with your thumbs and by seeing where the spoke heads “default” to you will be able to move the rim around, turning it over if necessary, to get the position right.
Now you have identified which drillings go where, get your inner spokes loosely installed, followed by the outers.
Final truing is for sure best left to the professional, the importance being to tension all the spokes evenly. This is best done by feel and experience. Central Wheel tell me that in 100 years in business they have never had a spoke torque wrench on the premises.
We only carry as regular stock top quality taps and dies in HSS (high speed steel). These are more expensive than regular quality but are designed for the professional. We recently had someone make some special 3/8 grade 5 BSF bolts for us and they were able to produce over 100 using one of our dies.
We have for years carried CEI (26tpi), BA and BSF taps (taper and bottoming) and dies as individual items and in boxes sets. We also carry BSP taps for gas tank threads.
In response to demand we have now introduced the following boxes sets (again all HSS).
BSA Set 0 -5 BA (20 pieces) Part No 99-22 $175.55 Canadian.
UNF Set 1/4 – 1/2″ (17 pieces) Part No 99-863 $255.00 Canadian.
Customer with late coil ignition model Matchless G15CS – very similar to N15CS, Atlas & P11 – even early Commando – wanted to know if I could give him a measurement so he could stick a rod into his plug hole to set his timing. Here’s my reply…
A customer asked if there is a difference between UK and North American fuses. Here’s my reply:
Absolutely! British fuses are rated by blow rate and North American by flow rate.
I hear the forums are buzzing with “expert” advice on Commando gear oil. The rumour is that GL5spec 80/90 or 90wt extreme pressure gear oil will damage the bushes in Norton gear boxes. We have been selling BelRay 80/90 GL5 for years to Norton owners and are not aware of any problem so I referred the matter to the most experienced Norton mechanic I know of in the UK.Here’s his reply:“It’s a load of rubbish. I have stripped and rebuilt many hundreds of Sturmey
Archer dolls head, upright, laydown, AMC and both types of lightweight twin
gearboxes and always use 90 or 80/90 oil without ANY problems.”
Norton Roadholder forks are fitted to Domi’s, Singles, Commando’s and also to several 1964 onwards AJS & Matchless models.
This is a very good design and when in good condition give excellent performance. One of the biggest complaints is that they lose damping performance, as evidenced by the “clunk” at full extension.
There are several internal devices on the market to improve the performance of these forks however the damping problem is usually caused by wear in the alloy damper caps (Part No 06-1347). The damper rod passes through this cap and the rod to cap clearance should be .002″ approx. These caps do wear and clearance of .020 – .030″ is common, providing very little restriction to the flow of oil, which controls the dampening.
I have discussed several times the unsuitability of modern oils in classic cars and bikes with their big flat tappets and larger running clearances etc. The problem is mainly due to the lack of zinc in the oil, which for our purposes needs to be at least 1200ppm.
We have now started carrying this engine treatment additive from Hipertech (Part No H100350 for a 350ml bottle). Adding just 35ml to each liter (that’s about 100ml for the average oil change) will bring the zinc level in your regular oil up to at least 1500ppm.
The product’s primary benefit is to reduce friction thereby reducing wear and ensuring long and reliable engine life. It also helps by protecting against viscosity and thermal breakdown, enhances rust protection (important in vehicles which go for long periods without starting) , improving power and compression and lowering oil consumption.
We have dealt with Brituro, who make mufflers for us, for close to 30 years and there is a rumour going around the internet discussion groups that they have closed down. Joe Dallow assures me that this is not the case. They delivered an order of BSA/Triumph “Ray Guns” and other mufflers to us a couple of weeks ago.
On a recent visit to Anthony Curzon, renowned P11 expert, in the UK he generously invited me to ride a couple of his very rare and unusual bikes.
The first is the experimental unified unit construction 650 Norton which never went into production. Housed in a regular AMC duple frame, the bike just feels right – shifts smoothly, few vibes and handles precisely. Unusual motor has camshaft behind the cylinders and the head looks rather like that of an A10. At first glance it reminded me of an overgrown Electra.
The second bike is a 650 G12 motor installed in the “Pluto” oil bearing frame. AMC developed this frame in the 1950’s, a decade before BSA’s Victor MX. The bike went well but I didn’t find the riding position as comfortable as that on the unified twin.
Big “thank you” to Anthony for giving me the opportunity to ride these bikes.