Cycle Blue(s)

For the fun, a quick video trying the bike now that it has a chain and some tires. The brakes were not connected, so I was trying not to fall while holding my phone and filming!

Two Tires to Go

Now that the engine has been running well while doing a good break-in, I am trying to finish the bike. I took some time last night to clean the chain which was extremely crusty. A night in a bath of WD40 and a good brushing today with some compressed air finished to get it ready.

Of course you have to take the frame apart to install the chain - nothing has to be simple :)

Finally to finish the day, I remove the worn out and cracked tires

and installed some brand new old stock Michelin ribbed tires with a pair of matching 1970 Michelin tubes

Looks better now, those even still have the factory silica cover:

Exhausted!

The exhaust needed to be cleaned, I heated it and got most of the dust out with compressed air. I then burned the paint with a torch sandblasted the exhaust with sand this time, glass beads would have not done anything to it.

I will paint it with black high temperature paint tonight

I discovered the S of the Solex logo stamped in the silencer part, always neat:

Tired already!

Now that the engine is running nicely, I will replace the tires for new ones and put the engine on the frame, link all the cables and the wire harness - a couple of hours of work there to make sure all is correct.
I also realized yesterday that I did not take care of cleaning the chain and re-oiling it and the exhaust which will need some TLC to burn out all the gunk in it, sanded and repainted.. we're getting there Sir!

Pictures of the complete beast coming up!

Pet-Pet-Pet second edition!

Well, it starts! 

It's a little awkward to take a video as i need both hands

Here is another one

Pet-Pet-Pet-Pet

It took a while, but the engine started tonight. I was puzzled because the last few days, everything seemed fine, but the damn thing would not start.

I checked everything several times over, and over and over again, but nothing, not even the smallest noise. The spark plug was producing a nice blue spark, and the tic-tic it should when turning the fly wheel. The gas would go through the lines and the pump in the cylinder. The compression was good. I just had a funny feeling.

After taking the engine apart a few times to inspect everything, I finally found that the stator plate was ever slightly bent (most likely a good fall from the previous owner or a bad move when they tried to fix the engine). I had seen it when refurbishing the engine but did not think anything of it when cleaning and putting it back together.

It appears this made a small but enough of a hard point in the engine when turning over and would prevent the engine from firing completely. I had an other stator plate, so I took everything apart (again) and back together (again). No more hard point!

Tomorrow I will post a video of the engine running or being broken in rather. Then will be the time to try the engine on (a) the frame to ensure the clutch is working properly

Now a good night of sleep!