This gallery contains 4 photos.
A sunny day in Deal… turned into a sunny wet day in Deal… followed by a wet day in the garage… but a dry, if sticky, session in the boot. What a mixed day it was!
A mixed day…
Gallery
No trouble at t’mill.
I’ve had a couple of lovely afternoons this weekend showing visitors around the wonderful Drapers Windmill in Margate. The people I work with there and the people that I showed around were all wonderful. New visitors are always amazed at the mill, far more than one would expect! The mill’s last open day this year will be next Sunday, 28th September.
My LE’s first ride out.
Today I rode my 1950 LE Velocette on its first proper trip out. It was a 20 mile round trip to Sandwich Waterside Café, and, although not problem free, it was a success! As a safety net I had packed my collapsible trailer into the Polo, so Jane followed me there and back.
So, what happened? Well, the battery auto-disconnected on the way there, but, as I hadn’t sussed that possibility, I just thought it had gone flat, so I put it into emergency ignition mode and that kept it running. But the fact it wouldn’t tick over made stopping at junctions and traffic lights problematic, leading to interesting juggling of the controls. A steep learning curve ensued!
The brakes are quite pathetic, the front being very poor, the back only just adequate. That takes a very special way of driving and will need addressing.
At the café I found and fixed the battery disconnection, then set a tick-over level that felt about right. A cup of coffee and a piece of cake later and we were on our way again.
On the way back things went a lot better until a loss of power and misfiring led to a stop at the Viking ship. A quick spark plug check showed it was running very rich and sooting them up. A change to a fresh set of plugs and off we went again, still occasionally misfiring, but despite my concerns, it flew up Madeira Walk beautifully! That was a pleasant surprise and put a big smile on my face – the worst was over! A short cruise home and my LE was tucked into the garage and wished sweet long journey dreams. My six year job was done at long last. I like to think my dad saw it all happen and approved. 😊
Don’t jump in…
When your horn stops working do check that the wires are screwed up tight first. Saves a lot of time. So I’m glad that I did that! 😊
Leave well alone!
Giving my LE brakes a checkover I thought, as I had 10 minutes spare, that maybe I’d paint the drum brakes as they were still in primer. Make it look tidier.
But now I wish I hadn’t, and maybe waited for when I do a respoke, or something. What a mess. Lesson learned. It may pass muster as I’m riding past, but it certainly doesn’t warrant a close look. Bad job.
A visit to see Sammy Miller
We went to Sammy Millers Motorcycle Museum in the New Forest while doing our touring holiday of the SW last month. as always a great array of interesting motorcycles, plus even had a chat with the great man himself! Made my day that did. Meeting a hero is always good 😊
The MX-5 has gone…
It was getting so little use that, despite the emotional tie, it had to go. So it did, but to an enthusiast, so that’s ok!
Storage, need storage!
I’ve been sorting out the garage as its getting a little untidy (cough), so I’ve gone for the ‘more drawers the better’ approach. I’ll need to develop an app to find things, or maybe a voice activated LED for each drawer. But first I’ll try colour coding (which isn’t really a good idea for me, but got to start somewhere).
Getting a bit tacky!
I need to repair the bodywork on my LE Velocette as it came with a couple of cracks. These cracks could get bigger if not fixed, so I decided to fix them by tack welding them shut using a MIG welder. Now I just have to learn how to do it!
It’s nice to seem so attractive!
Hello and welcome to my little WordPress site! It’s so nice to have you here. I must say that all my efforts appear to be not in vain as my site seems very attractive, especially to some Americans – they spend so much time and effort trying to break into it. Amazing. Unfortunately for them, and obviously unlike them, I’m not a dullard, so they can’t break through even the very simple initial defences that this site has in place. In fact, their attempts are both simultaneously very simple and very wasted. But, dear would-be hacker, please do keep up the attacks as it amuses me that people (or maybe you’re some robots, it doesn’t matter) have the time to waste on these activities, and the more time that you’re wasting trying to attack my inoffensive little site the less time you have to get into the sites that really matter. Keep it up 🙂 – I’ll miss you when you’re gone, but not a lot.
Your friendly host, Ian.
