Riding!

10 years, 1 month and 12 days since my last Norton dropped a valve back in Canada, I rode my newly acquired 71 Roadster today! I wasn't planning on it as it's been raining quite a bit here in South Oz but the sun came and the roads dried up so I couldn't resist. She rode well and I came back in after about 20 minutes to check her over and tighten a few things. Went back out for a bit more and loved every moment of it. Still have to get a strobe to fine tune the timing though so I don't want to ride it any more until then. My neighbour gave me an old light but it's only got 2 wires and I'm not sure how to use it. I thought they always had 3, 2 for power and one to clamp on a sparkplug wire. Ah well, if I can't figure it out I'll pick one up this week. Of to the Norton club meeting tomorrow night as well, it will be great to give them the good news.

Cowboy Don said:

My neighbour gave me an old light but it's only got 2 wires and I'm not sure how to use it. I thought they always had 3, 2 for power and one to clamp on a sparkplug wire.

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The old "neon" type strobes had two wires and you simply connected the strobe between the plug cap and the plug.

Ya, it looks like the plugs on these wires could fit over a sparkplug, but there's no way for the cap to back on. And then there's still no power, as it's not battery operated. He thinks one end used to go on the distributor, of a car of course. Ah well, it's supposed to rain tomorrow anyway, so I won't be riding (I can afford that luxury now).

Cowboy Don said:

Ya, it looks like the plugs on these wires could fit over a sparkplug, but there's no way for the cap to back on. And then there's still no power, as it's not battery operated. He thinks one end used to go on the distributor, of a car of course. Ah well, it's supposed to rain tomorrow anyway, so I won't be riding (I can afford that luxury now).

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If it is a neon type strobe then one strobe wire connects to the plug, and the other wire usually connects into the cap-or perhaps to the end of the HT wire (or perhaps it will plug into the coil HT outlet) and it requires no battery power as it uses power from the plug wire.

If it is an old neon lamp then you will be lucky if it still works?

And they are not very bright, so you would need to use it in a darkened area.

Sweet! I'll give that a go. As always LAB, an invaluable member of the forum.

Good stuff Cowboy,
You do realise it's Winter here.?

AussieCombat said:

You do realise it's Winter here.?

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How many feet of snow have you got?

ya, this ain't like no winter I've ever seen. As long as I don't need a shovel to get the bike out of the garage, it's a good day.

Snow ?? not sure what you mean. What does it look like.
he he he.
Do you guys get away with out Choke slides OK over there, it must be difficult sometimes.

Cowboy Don said:

10 years, 1 month and 12 days since my last Norton dropped a valve back in Canada, I rode my newly acquired 71 Roadster today! I wasn't planning on it as it's been raining quite a bit here in South Oz but the sun came and the roads dried up so I couldn't resist. She rode well and I came back in after about 20 minutes to check her over and tighten a few things. Went back out for a bit more and loved every moment of it. Still have to get a strobe to fine tune the timing though so I don't want to ride it any more until then. My neighbour gave me an old light but it's only got 2 wires and I'm not sure how to use it. I thought they always had 3, 2 for power and one to clamp on a sparkplug wire. Ah well, if I can't figure it out I'll pick one up this week. Of to the Norton club meeting tomorrow night as well, it will be great to give them the good news.

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glad it was a good ride cowboy don hopefully i will catch you at the norton club meeting in sunny [ welll it kinda was today] adelaide tomorrow as i hope to make it and join up as a new member
cheers
macca

Strange though, my new Norton, which is from Canada, doesn't have a choke. I only just noticed that Friday night.
Best winter hack I ever had was my 77 100cc Vespa, slide through the corner and just step off, holding on to the bars until you straighten up again.

macca47 said:

glad it was a good ride cowboy don hopefully i will catch you at the norton club meeting in sunny [ welll it kinda was today] adelaide tomorrow as i hope to make it and join up as a new member
cheers
macca

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Macca, it would be great to get out there tomorrow night! I'll be the one with the Canadian accent, eh.

Take care with the two wired strobe, they often have trouble keeping up with revs and flash after the spark, you could end up over advanced.

Cash

Best not trust any strobe light till the crank and time scale have been degree'd in as reported over 10' off is possible. Best not to trust time light over just static timing to get running then diddle for easiest start w/o back fire kick back, then put on a light to see and mark where it lands and how much each contact breaker is off optimal or to make sure electronic it not over advancing before ya find out by ping and knock. Its can also be misleading to power light form bike battery unless good hot newish battery and good charging system, or voltage drop may skew the light out put.

Any where else but in Great White North, chokes are just excess baggage as tickle is more than enough. i"ve started mine w/o choke in upper teen's hard freeze with thick frost on seat, after lots of gas drips and half dozen partial fires until warmed in jugs enough to mostly run really rough till settled down to take careful throttle to move. The choke lever is a very cute item to retain on bars though.

'Gday macca47, might see you there.
Weather going to be a bit ordinary for a few days.
AC.

By the sounds of what everyone's saying, I'm not even gonna bother with this 'neon' timing light. I'll just pick up a proper one this week. I think the timing is pretty close anyway, after a 1/2 ride yesterday, she only popped a couple times.

Re: Riding! & timing

Ok, so I bought a half decent inductive timing light/gun today and I reckon it's a dud. Couldn't get it to light up, used the battery from my pickup ('ute' for the Aussies), even tried following instructions and earthed it to the engine once as well. Hooked up the old style light my neighbour gave me, unplugged the sparkplug wire from the single coil and ran it from that to the plug, bike fired up and so did the light. Taking the new one back tomorrow for sure.
Anyway, taking heed of the warnings that this old light may not be the most accurate, I'm not planning on using it to time. but thought I'd test it and I can't even see the marks on the flywheel. I have to admit, I've never used a timing light before but there really wasn't anything there. There are marks on the Lucas flywheel that I can clearly see when the engine's off. Should I mark them with some paint or something? White background and then scribe the marks with black?

After the good ride on Sunday, the bike is popping quite a bit now, had some flames come out the exhaust too.
Still raining here so I'm not as frustrated as I probably should be.