Aye Michael,
No, the bike has been morphed over the years and some bits have worked and others not. The wear and tear of using it as my day to day hack from 1976 - 79 on a students earnings meant that oil was SAE 40 changed every 1,000 miles and if anything broke or fell off "Cheapest, needs must!". The electrics were cr*p, and the Bike magazine 12v conversion was cr*p as well (another tale of woe!), but a Ford Escort points cam ground down to fit, with fixed timing on fully advanced and an MZ coil were pressed into service to maintain mobility. Eventually, a full rewire, VW Beetle relays and minimal Italian 'tin' switches, with an encapsulated rectifier and 12v+ zener diode meant that lights were available for most of the time after mounting everything on rubber conveyor belting or old inner tube!
The roundabout 'Off' reduced much of the right side of the bike to scrap, including the tank, so odds and sods were used in the rebuild, but not with a "Statement" in mind. It had to work and be reasonably comfortable for 300 miles with my 6' 2" frame and 13 stone aboard!
By early 2000's the bore was getting slack with a recorded 60,000 miles (Smiths speedo!) and 2 sets of Velo Venom piston rings fitted onto the original piston with machined ring lands to suit taking up the slack; 450 rings were not easy to find or cheap at the time!
Spares aren't cheap now either, but at least there are some quality new spares being made, rather than some of the 'sweat shop' stuff that was about. Even today, beware from whom you buy parts and don't buy second-hand wearing parts, its a false economy. The cost of a piston + rings + rebuilt crank with new big end and pin fitted, no change from £800 and that was nearly 5 years ago!
Also, the purchase of Sally the SRX 600 as a 'stop gap' to get rid of the "itch", whilst I rebuilt the Duke hasn't helped progress; I had to rebuild Sally after she ran her oversize piston and when the sun comes out, well you and everybody else on this forum knows, you just have to get a single out on the road!
I'll put other stuff onto the 'Projects' thread of the forum once I get my act together.
Slainte, Bill
