Old Scratcher said:
I see NorComCycles are no longer advertising the Alton kit on their website. I'd be interested to hear why they've dropped it, after such a glowing recommendation here.
I have Lyell's "Alton Demonstrator" bike now. It is a 1974 850 which was brought into AUS from the USA about 4 years ago. When he sold it to me he said that he was getting out of the Alton business because of their lack of consistency in supply. Not quite as bad as Mr.Singh, but he led me to believe that he was uncomfortable waiting months for parts to be delivered to his antipodean customers.
My experience with the bike has not been trouble free. The Alton kit was an early one that had been installed by the PO, whether in the USA or AUS is unclear. Lyell re-installed it after rebuilding the engine, and it worked fine for the first few months. Then the "double gear" failed. This device has a gear at one end of a 2 inch shaft and a very small sprocket at the other, and transfers the drive from the starter motor to the chain which drives the sprag clutch attached to the crank end. To provide some flexibility or cushioning beween crank and starter motor, the double gear has resin filler between the gear that engages the starter and the shaft that transfers the motion to the sprocket. This is the weak point in the design.
I was told by Lyell that he had installed an upgraded 'mark3' version of the gear when he built up the system. Beverley at Alton was very sympathetic [via email] and assured me that they would supply a newer version of the gear [ 'mark8'? ] as a warranty item without cost, other than postage. This turned out to be about A$60. There was some delay due to my own stupidiity, but the new gear was installed by Charlie Osterfield in early April.
All worked well until last Saturday, when the gear failed again; I haven't opened up the primary yet but the graunch is the same, and the starter doesn't move the crank. Kick starting is still fine. I'm waiting to hear back from Beverley.
I'm not sure how to go with this. Junking the whole system would mean a new inner primary and charging system, as the Alton stator/sprag clutch includes an uprated charging system which is incompatible with the original inner case. I could then switch to a belt very simply. Fixing the starter and hoping it works is the easiest option but I'm not sure how I'll cope with the uncertainty of waiting for it to fail again.
I realise these are very first world problems but it is a PITA. Maybe my wife was right and I should have bought a shiny new BMW R9t. :?