‘The carbs were back-to-front!’
No wonder this café racer was slow…
At first sight this home-brewed café racer was a pretty tidy proposition. Using a
1986 BMW R100RT tourer as the donor bike, its barn door fairing and Krauser panniers had been replaced by clipons, a single seat and straight-through pipe. Trick Motogadget electronics meant it had a keyless ignition system and LED lighting under the tank, while the float bowls and carb tops had a tasteful olive drab ceramic coating. The last touch was a pair of bellmouths clamped to the Bing carbs and it was ready to go – only it wouldn’t!
Paul Knight, boss of A55 Motorcycles in Penmaenmawr, north Wales, told us: “The owner couldn’t get it running properly. It was popping and banging and wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding.
“I initially assumed the carbs were gunged-up, and they were a bit of a mess. So, I stripped them down, cleaned all the parts in an ultrasonic bath, rebuilt them and popped them back onto each cylinder.” Paul fired it up and it ran sweetly, but when he offered up the bellmouths to the carbs, try as he might, he couldn’t get them to fit.
“An ultrasonic bath is an effective way of cleaning up components, but it isn’t going to make a carb shrink like a woollen jumper on a hot wash. I was scratching my head, then it dawned on me. He had fitted the carbs the wrong way round! “It was only running because it must have been dragging some fuel up through the pilot circuit. But no harm was done, and they needed servicing anyway, which cost him £170.”
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