The chill did not dissuade me from getting the BSA out of its den and taking it to the first-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the “Whidbey Island European Sports Car Club,” which isn’t really a club at all, just an open gathering of like-minded folks at Gerry’s Kitchen in Freeland, Washington. We had a pretty good turnout of interesting machines, such as…
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Thoroughly enjoyed a ride today with my friends in the Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiasts club–it was our annual “Isle of Vashon” outing. For me, this means four ferry rides, which is good, and a trek down 99 through the strip-mall wasteland that stretches from Mukilteo to West Seattle, which is (thankfully) forgettable.
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I cannot tell you how big a difference replacing the spark plug leads has made to this machine…it is a first-kick starter now no matter how warm or cold the engine is. This is an unbelievable improvement and makes the old girl a pleasure to take out. She’s shown here next to the ball field at the beach just down the road.

Here’s a short video I shot aboard the BSA…bouncy, terrible audio, I should have switched out of auto-focus…but it’s literally the first time I’ve fooled with any sort of on-vehicle camera. I was trying to keep my leg out of the way (with mixed success) and so my riding isn’t going to win me any awards, either.

I got the newly cleaned-up magneto bolted back on and timed, and the bike fired even though one of the plug leads wasn’t connected. Wisdom point for today: Check if both spark plug leads are connected when you wonder “why is this reluctant to rev?”

I haven’t been able to do much riding yet, though,as it won’t idle. It won’t idle, because, as it turns out, the throttle stop (idle) screw has fallen out of the carb. Bonus wisdom point for today: Check that the throttle stop screw hasn’t fallen out when you wonder “why won’t this idle?”

My friend John has offered to lend me a spare stop screw until my Burlen Fuel Systems order gets here from England; I’ll pick the spare up tomorrow when I’m on the mainland. So, perhaps, finally, I’ll get some riding in on Tuesday to see how well the “hot start problem” has been neutralized by the mag work. Fingers crossed for “completely”!

Here is the BSA in a friend’s borrowed shop, with the timing side cover off and the magneto removed in preparation for another rebuild of the balky electrical device, this time hopefully for good. I would ride this bike a lot more than I do, but the poor starting from hot makes it a chore, not a pleasure. I’m dropping the mag in the mail tomorrow; hopefully by this time next week Bill will be able to tell me what is wrong and how much it will be to fix it.

I need to reseal the front forks, too, a job which is not much fun. Not going to worry much about it at the moment. The bike also needs a detail in the most desperate way, and that I will take care of!

This is a bit later than mine, but makes me want to go get the magneto sorted out!

My old–and, now that I look at it, fairly brief–website about the restoration of my BSA has been updated, though all that has been changed is the layout. Still, it’s an improvement as the old one was difficult to navigate and used an annoying frameset.

After a few years of being stored in damp sheds due to our moving around, I’m afraid my BSA will probably never be this nice again, unless I re-restore it. This photo was taken shortly after I finished the restoration.

The Vintage Motorcycle Enthusiasts had their almost annual Whidbey Island ride today, and I took the BSA. It was very enjoyable, with beautiful weather and a great selection of people and bikes. The BSA performed well but I am increasingly frustrated over how hard this bike is to start when it’s hot. It makes it not much fun at all to ride, knowing that if you stop for a break or lunch there is a chance you’ll be kicking forever trying to get it going again. I’m going to try and tackle the carb first, and see if that helps. The mag was expensively and professionally rebuilt, but hard starting hot is notoriously a symptom of a bad magneto.