Seeing as tomorrow is the monthly Whidbey get-together, and it’s going to be a nice day, I went and got the MGB out of storage and stuck the Miata in for a day or so. The fuel pump on the MGB is sticky, so it took awhile to get it going. I’ll put a new pump on later this year. (Famous last words!)

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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I rebuilt the carb on the F250 a couple of weeks ago, and on Tuesday, that little bit of maintenance came back to bite me in the behind as the truck spluttered to a halt halfway up the hill a mile from home. I was able to coast all the way back into the carport, so Goldie was at least halfway decent about the whole thing.

This led me to replace the fuel pump (misdiagnosis on my part, but, hey, new fuel pump) and the coil–which was arcing everywhere, as it turns out. The distributor cap oddly enough had one completely corroded wire terminal–I mean, there was nothing left. So it’s had kind of a mini-tune-up and will be running on at least one more cylinder than it was recently.

But the problem appears to have been the new float needle valve seat coming loose, which would lead to constant flooding, I would guess. I put the carb back together and on the truck tonight, and it appears to be running well again. C’est la vie.

Visited Mark at Britsport today, and got a chance to see my E-Type again. Not much has changed (we’re waiting to paint it until I have a shop to reassemble the car), but by coincidence, a later car painted the same color that mine was (and will be again) was parked next to it, and I grabbed a snap.

This can’t be good–most bikes don’t use studded front tires. The Triumph is now seven years old and on its original tires, though they have accumulated only 2600 miles. I suppose this will get me to replace them. (I’m not quite sure what I’ve collected, here…I thought it was a bolt, but on further study, I don’t think it is.)

I discovered this on the ferry, headed out to Kirkland for the Carillon Point car show today, so I had 50 miles of riding to contemplate my unwanted companion.

I put the GT on the car trailer and drove it to Alternative Blasters (in Marysville) to have the cruddy paint job removed. I left the glass in, as it makes life easier for blaster, but will remove it when the car is back. Then it’s on to rust repair (lower front fenders) and new paint in the original grey (which you can see a glimpse of where the tail lights were).

The Ford put in yeoman service (yet again) hauling around my other machines.

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”!