tinworm-wheels: What next?! Bike breakdown - problem a mystery

Monday, 9 June 2008

What next?! Bike breakdown - problem a mystery

After three hours glorious riding yesterday, I broke down on the A12 between Ipswich and Colchester - three times. Each time the bike started to lose power in top gear......and changing down progressively achieved nothing but a temporary reprieve....the bike died. Starting was hard....though leaving it for a while meant that it eventually started, except the last of three break-downs, though by then I think my battery was drained (electric start). Each time I got going I was able to cover only about a mile.

I didn't have a toolkit with me, though even if I had I would not have got further than checking plugs which I have checked and found fine today. I gave up and called the RAC who were diabolically slow and eventually a recovery truck arrived two and a half hours later, even though they'd only had to come from ten minutes away.

Today I checked the plugs, which looked fine, charged the battery, which meant the the bike did start, but it won't start without choke (even on a warm day like today's) and died when the choke was put in. It would not tick over without my hand on the throttle.

Damn, what do I try next? Tried all the simple things.

Air intake blocked, perhaps? Any suggestions?

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Tinworm's Other Wheels

Here are some links to some of my other vehicles. My Lamb Chop (Lambretta Chopper), a re-modelled LI frame with 150cc SX engine rebored to 175cc, with stage two tuning and custom seat made from a laminated office chair by yours truly. The pic is the sweetheart photo I keep in my wallet. I prefer to think that I wouldn't do something like this to a scooter but I suppose the fact that I enjoy someone else's handywork makes me a bit of a hyporite. It won best scooter at the Bristol Bike Show 1999, before I rode it to the Isle of Wight for the annual rally. I got a heat seizure on the way back but got the clutch in quicky enough to save the engine.

Here is a slideshow of a bike I have put on a back-burner until the 101 is finished. The restored engine is in my livingroom but the rest of it is stored in the airing cupboard, etc. It is a Francis Barnett Fulmar, 1962. I won it in a pub bet when I was 16. Later, I gave up all worldly belongings to join an ascetic religious order, returning the bike to its previous owner. Years later (now apostate), I found him again and did a deal to get it back.

This is my Ford Prefect, which is on the road and starts every time. Last winter a mate came round and we sat in it with the heater on because it is warmer than my house! Since taking these pictures, I have had the number changed. For some reason when the original number was sold DVLA gave it the wrong period plate, an A reg. They corrected the error for free. It now has authentic black and silver plates.

I restored my Cyclemaster in 1994 and found a 1954 Tax disc under a 1980s one. The bike is a 1940s one and when petrol was rationed and motorbikes, let alone cars, were prohibitively expensive, autocyles (early dedicated mopeds) and cyclemotors (engines for bicycles) were the popular solution here. You just replaced the bicycle wheel with one of these with a 32cc engine in it (made in the early 1950s) and could run for a couple of hundred miles or more on a gallon. I loved riding mine until I dropped it downstairs. I am in the process of replacing the buckled front forks and sorting out the coaster hub which is locked-on. I am hoping to ride it in a forthcoming NACC rally. (the close-up pic is of someone else's engine. Mine has a cover-plate over the carb)