Another pop at the carb
With the carburettor, the usual problems apply – it’s a big alloy engine and takes a while to warm up, it’s noisy and you really need to travel fast and far to see what’s happening. A run round the block won’t do. Leaving the float height as is, I decided to try standard slide and needle positions. It ran so rich I barely got back home, so leaving the richer slide I put the needle back to weakest position. This time it was better, but there was a big flat spot around mid-throttle. I was able to reduce this by richening the pilot, but it became very rich low down and hard to start with a very sooty plug (see picture, right). So I went back to the weaker slide, raised the needle one notch, brushed the plug and went to bed.
I lay there thinking; for the last decade or so I’ve seriously questioned keeping the Goldie. It was my dream bike as a young man but do I need a café racer now? The riding position feels alien and having got used to pre-war stuff the bike feels too big and heavy to be fun. But today, somehow it didn’t feel so heavy, the riding position felt more familiar and despite all the problems, I was actually really enjoying my test rides.
I woke feeling positive and set off to try the latest settings. This time, after warming up and tweaking the pilot, it went as well as it ever has and started first kick every time. The bigger sprocket has largely sorted the gearing issues and although the forks still crash, well, you can’t have everything...
I was 30 when I built the Goldie, I knew less about carburation than I do now – but crucially I had much more time. The Isle of Man is one of the few places I can think of where I will have both the time and the space to sort it out; if I take it to the Island this year, with a pocketful of jets, maybe I’ll finally get it sorted. Maybe this bronco will never eat out of my hand – but after all this time, at least one of us is willing to keep trying.
‘I WOKE FEELING POSITIVE
AND SET OFF TO TRY THE
LATEST SETTINGS’