Aye Steve and welcome Simon,
You'll notice we can ramble on a bit here and go off at tangents!
Steve, went out on the run and after ~10 miles the Duke coughed at a set of traffic lights and even though hot wouldn't run on the throttle and required the choke to start?
Thought that it might be vapourisation as we were up at 23°+ today, but the problem persisted. So, nothing for it, Kat went for a run, whilst I awaited rescue!
I decided to investigate further and opened the slide whilst gawping down the inlet. Lo and behold the needle sat in the main jet!
So, off with the carb top and pull the slide out and found that the needle circlip had chewed the needle groove and also worn so that it wouldn't grip the needle. Amal MKII 2932, with less than 2,500 miles under the belt!
Fitted spare carb needle and circlip after recovery home and put 35 miles on the old bird tonight, nae bother.
Shingles is not bad, taking anti-viral drug and now in my second week. For me, the internal pain behind my right shoulder blade is worse than any itching etc behind the blisters that are on the front. Ride the bike and it goes away!
Keep taking your #1 medicine!
Down to 5°C at night, with cold heavy dew and harr in the mornings, burnt off by 11:00am and heavy dew back down by 20:00hrs.
Simon, thank you for your contribution, it is the solvent and hygroscopic affects that I too think are the problem, not the running qualities of the fuel that some tweaks to carb adjustment cannot sort out. After all, post WWII, apparently one of the fuels sold and was a mixture of alcohol and petrol and it was sold as a 'performance' petrol. I have seen at my local independent garage a forecourt list with manufacturers recommendations of the date from which machines are E10 compliant. Machines prior to the date are advised to use E5. For the 4 main Japanese manufacturers, the cut off date is ~1990.
A definitive list is available from the DVLA website at this link:
Check-Vehicle-E10-PetrolReputable carb rebuild kits will maybe at a premium soon and the kits from NRP carbs have proved reliable:
NRP_carb_sparesOur Far Eastern "trading partners" may try flogging all sorts of rubbish, like their fuel filters. Viton, rather than nitrile et al, appears to be reliable in resisting E10.
I hope this helps.
Good health, Bill