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Taffycat

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Wow @Abarbarian, I am so sorry to hear about your accident. :eek: Those injuries looked very painful, so I can understand how difficult it must have been to get proper rest, etc.

Very glad to hear that you are on the mend, albeit slowly. Sad about your poor bike too. That crash scene looked very scary, thank goodness you are still with us!

Wishing you a good and steady recovery. Take care and all the best to you. :cheers:
 

Ian

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Oh my gosh, those are quite some bruises :eek: . Really glad to hear you're doing OK under the circumstances @Abarbarian, that looks like it could have been a lot worse.

I'm glad to hear it hasn't deterred you!
 

Quadophile

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:cheers::cheers::cheers:What I am happy about is to see you alive and kicking!!!!!!!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

I feel bad though that you had to go through that painful experience. Wish you a speedy recovery! :)
 

Abarbarian

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Well a lot has changed since I last posted. I did not realise how the time has flown by so quickly. I'll post a catch up later on.

Meanwhile I came across this article,

Dug Dug: A film inspired by India's motorcycle god

The film is inspired by a roadside temple in Jodhpur, were the deity is an old Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle
A new film, which is based on a bizarre story of a temple dedicated to a motorcycle deity, is creating a buzz in the international festival circuit, writes Faizal Khan.

Modestly titled, Dug Dug, echoing the thumping sound of a Royal Enfield motorcycle first made in the English town of Redditch, Worcestershire, more than a century ago, the film has a fairy tale plot.

The BBC had an article about the Dug Dug God in 2014,

India: Devotees pray for motorcycle 'blessings'


People are visiting a roadside shrine in north-western India to pray to a motorbike called Bullet Raja, which is believed to protect drivers, it seems.
Devotees come to the Royal Enfield Bullet motorcycle in the Rajasthan village of Bandayi to pray for a safe journey, News18 Rajasthan reports. "I have come to this place many times," one worshipper says. "Whenever I cross this temple I get down to take blessing from Om Banna to have a safe journey ahead."

I knew there was a reason I bought a Bullet. All hail the glorious thumper
:worthy:


Just for anyone not familiar with Royal Enfields here is a time line and some information.

British-bred Royal Enfield speeding ahead in Asia

At the moment I am re-building the bullet. I keep coming across small annoying gremlins that are slowing progress. Progress is being made and the end is in sight. Had hoped to take part in The Three Amigos Christmas Charity run on Dec 11th but doubt I will have a working and legal machine by then. If not I should be able to take a run out on Christmas day, weather permitting.

Last time before Covid the Christmas run attracted over three hundred bikes,with thirteen father christmas's and fifteen elves. Raised over five thousand pounds and a room full of toys for local kids charities. Which ain't half bad for a small sparsely populated corner of Wales.

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Abarbarian

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I never did make The Three Amigos Christmas Charity run on Dec 11th. As the bike rebuild took way way longer than intended. Minor nigles and problems kept cropping up and stress levels rose daily.

Along with a couple of mates we had had a couple of those cheap caravan holidays advertised in the dailies. These ultra cheap holidays were a great success and we booked a four night holiday in Heysham for May 2020, the intent was to use this a s a base to explore the Lake District.
Covid struck and the holiday was cancelled but rebooked for 2021. Covid struck again so the holiday was cancelled. However we were offered discounts on a rebook or another holiday. Taking the generous discounts from the previous cancellations we booked a seven night stay in a brand new caravan on the shores of Lake Windermere smack bang in the middle of the Lake District for May 2022. Of course it was more expensive than the cheapy four night stay but with the discounts it only ended up costing us £160 each. Which was a real bargin as the caravan was extra wide and brand new, it even had a dish washer which was put to good use.
So there I am at home ten days to go to the holiday and still rebuilding the bike. Still with unsolved problems one of which was a strange oil leak which sprayed a fine mist of oil when the engine was running. Not a major oil slick but a constant fine mist. Also a very strange electrical problem that came and went that stopped the bike from starting.

So with just a fortnight to go work on the Royal has come to a full stop. After spending hours and hours I can not get a strong spark to fire the darn thing up. A pox on modern electrics on motorbikes. If it were and old fashioned set up I would have found the fault and fixed it by now. All the components checked out ok , switches all seem to work and the coil tested fine. Replaced the HT lead and cap and plug still no joy. I spent hours on YouTube learning how to use a multi-meter. I inherited one over ten years ago but did not know how to use it. So I suppose some good has come out of this fiasco.
Also after 40 years of repairing and bleeding brakes on all sorts of vehicles I can not get the front brake to work. I had to replace the front wheel cylinder and changed the black rubber hose with a shiny stainless steel one.I feel totally inadequate and useless over this failure.
All the bike shops around are fully booked for weeks ahead. Seems that a load of old fuddy duddy born again bikers are having their pride and joys spruced up for the coming biking season. Bunch of no hopers if you ask me, why on earth do they not do their own maintenance the lazy sods.
Good news is I tracked down a Royal and he is coming to see me this lunchtime.
Not a real royal just a royal expert. He was working with his dad in a classic bike restoration business that has just closed due to his dad retiring and has set himself up on his own. Only lives down the road and comes out to your bike and if possible fixes it in situ, if not it is trailered to his workshop. Luckily for me he has extensive knowledge of Royals old and new.
So I may have a working Royal soon. About time those lazy layabouts did some work instead of attending Jubilee celebrations and garden parties.
The Royal expert turned out to be a dud. He did fix the brakes, showed me a way to bleed them I was unfamiliar with. He did find my rookie mistake with the carb. As to the electric fault he had no clue.
I found the solution myself. Turns out it was the rollover switch that some dickwad had left hanging loose after making a minor modification last year. It had been sort of wedged in so the bike ran ok. The accident had shaken it loose hence the electrical fault which was most puzzling as there was a weak spark and then there was not then a spark and then not and so on. Once firmly mounted the bike was a ok. First time I have come across a rollover switch as all my previous bikes were pretty old and did not have one.

With no time to waste and still having an oil leak I decided to book the bike in for a MOT at Lamos which is 26 miles away from home. I had to book the bike in as MOT slots were almost fully booked but I managed to get a cancellation booking but it was for the next day, no time to sort the oil leak. I figured that I could ride and stop and fill up with oil as many times as it took to get to the MOT and back home again. Spare half gallon of oil in a bag along with rubber gloves and several cloth rags I set of to the MOT. I arrived with the rear of the bike covered in oil and had only one stop for a oil fill up. The MOT guys face was a picture when he saw the bike and he commented "won't be getting any rust on her anytime soon mate" Luckily the bike passed the MOT but he did give me an advisory about leaking oil. I had to do two oil fill ups on the way home.

Now with eleven days to the start of me holiday I had the bike insured and MOT'd and taxed, only that darn oil leak to fix. The accident had dented the exhaust manifold which is attached to the cylinder head and may have caused a slight shift in the head gasket, or so I thought. So I decided to loosen and re-tighten the head blots. Not a hard job but fiddly and very time consuming. That did not fix the problem. At my wits end with only nine days to go now I thought where is that leak ? With the engine running I felt with my hand to try and locate the leak. I could feel the fine spray not coming from the side but from below. How is that I thought , it should be blowing from the side if there is a leak in the gasket or a crack in the head. No it is definite blowing upwards from the casings, how ? looking down I saw a very small bubble appear for a split second from a threaded hole in the top of the casing. Covered this with my finger and the leak stopped blowing.
I could have kicked myself, my oil leak was self inflicted. One of the first jobs I did on the rebuild moths ago was to take of the electric starter which had been held down by two bolts. Obviously once removed they left two small threaded holes which caused the oil leak. I never thought to put blanking bolts in the holes when I removed the starter as I though they were dead ends but instead they were drilled all the way through the casing thus allowing for the leak. Two small bolts with washers and a touch of gasket goo later and the leak was fixed.
Finally I had a running machine and the holiday looked to be going ahead. I only had time for one quick run out to have a last check on the bike. After recovering from a pretty nasty accident , a year long lay of, and less than 90 miles of riding on a self rebuild I was all set for my holiday. In addition I have some new elastic for my goggles and a new peak for the helmet so am good to go go go .

Just a couple of pictures at the start of me 1113.6 mile week long round trip to the Lake District.

Me Royal almost loaded up.


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Me mates big bike, he lives across the road from me.

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Not very exciting I know, well it was for me. I still have to sort through the pictures I took and load them up to Imgur. There are some neat shots of the Lake District and stuff. I'll post an album link for anyone that is interested later on. That is if I can remember how to get an album link at Imgur. :cool:
 

Abarbarian

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We had a halfway stop over on the way to The Lakes as I thought a 300 mile trip was just a tad too far for me. Especially as I had only had two 40 mile trial runs since the rebuild along with a year long lay of.

Setting was an old large country house in extensive grounds taken over and run by the Youth Hostelling Association. We were in one of the grass roofed cabins with our own bathroom and shower. Fairly basic but comfortable and pretty cheap too.

Here is a link to the album with more pictures to be added as and when.

Lakes holiday album

Enjoy :D
 

Abarbarian

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RE Lakes2022 Day 2

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After the ferry crossing we had to reroute several times due to road closures. The main roads were in fairly good condition but the minor roads were in pretty bad condition. I guess the councils had no money left after cleaning up after all the flooding and storms over the last few years. Also there were trees down everywhere you looked, no shortage of wood for fuel at least.

Here are a couple of links with better pictures than mine and some interesting local knowledge.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/thirlmere

https://www.keswick.org/explore/not-to-miss/castlerigg-stone-circle

https://www.visitlakedistrict.com/e...he-lake-district/towns-and-villages/ullswater

https://www.visitcumbria.com/amb/kirkstone-pass/

https://www.staveleyvillage.co.uk/

Enjoy.
More pictures to follow if you have the stamina to look at them.
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Taffycat

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Thank you for sharing these pics (plus album) it looks like you stayed at some lovely areas. The grass roofed cabins looked very cute and in such gorgeous surroundings.

I also enjoyed reading your account of repairing and readying the Royal for this long trip. It was becoming quite a cliff-hanger to see whether you'd be able to solve the oil leak in time. But, good on yer @Abarbarian! You did it! Nice bit of detective work there. :)

Wishing you lots more enjoyable biking adventures! :D
 

floppybootstomp

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I also enjoyed the pics and bike repair saga, well done on sorting out the motor cycle, it's a nice machine :thumb:
 

Ian

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Loving the pics @Abarbarian - got anymore?

How old is the bike? Looks beautiful! Really good to see you back on the bike :)
 

Abarbarian

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Loving the pics @Abarbarian - got anymore?

How old is the bike? Looks beautiful! Really good to see you back on the bike :)

Beautiful if you like expensive rusty three year old crap exhausts and manifolds.Hitchcocks have a lot to answer for for selling such sub standard parts for such a high price. The original Indian spares are pretty awful quality too.Mind you touch wood the engine is bearing up very well.

The Royal is a 2015 model, they are all made in India now. Luckily I got one of the last ones with four gears, so less gear changes for me and I can still just about remember which gear I am in. It has a unit construction engine whereas the older bikes had a split gearbox and engine.
I ditched the electronic fuel injection stuff and fitted a carburettor which gives just a tad more responsive feel to the running engine. Also cheaper to repair and look after as there is no need for costly air filters and so on. Ditched the electric start as it stopped working and I could not be bothered to fault find. The bike kicks over second or third kick every time and is easy to do.
In this era of soaring fuel rises its 85+ to the gallon keeps a smile on my face. As does roaming around all the back roads around here. Very comfy to ride as not only does it have adjustable shocks on the rear the seat is sprung too.Reminds me that I have to get around to raising the seat about an inch to make it truly comfortable.

:cool:
 

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