So this weekend was the Spirit of the Sixties weekend and I was expecting to go on the back of Dad's A7 BSA as I didn't think the V5 for the C110 would arrive in time. However, the V5 pitched up on Wednesday morning. Some quick phone calls later the insurance was arranged and an MOT booked for Saturday morning.
The bike passed with flying colours on Saturday so, theoretically, it was possible to go to the Spirit of the Sixties on it on the Sunday. We were both looking forward to the run, it's probably the best classic run of the year, but Dad and I eventually decided to prioritise getting some shakedown tests done on the C110 from home.
The main observation from the first ride out was that the C110 is slow! It wasn't really possible to gauge it's performance on the flat as the weather was so windy (pretty much constant 25mph westerly with up to 40mph gusts). I think it'll be able to hold 40mph on the flat though, based on how it ran today. What the weather, and the local hills, did show up was the penalty you pay for having so little torque. The slightest headwind or uphill meant dropping to 3rd (max of 35mph) or 2nd (max of slightly over 25mph). Quick gearchanges were a must in order to maintain momentum.
We had a quick stop at Sharpness docks, to make sure that nothing important had vibrated off, which gave an opportunity to take a snap of the C110 with Dad's BSA. Dad's had his BSA since 1962 so had it when he entered the National Rally on 'his' C110. Therefore it seemed appropriate to take a picture of the two bikes together. There's quite a difference in size!
The need to conserve momentum on the C110 brought back memories of riding my old Yamaha FS1E as a 16 year old. Cornering becomes an exercise in wide sweeping lines and avoiding touching the brakes. A lot of fun on the lanes, until you have to knock it back a gear for the next slight up hill! I was surprised by how well the C110 handled, very quick steering but pretty accurate and stable, and the limited suspension worked smoothly too. The brakes are pretty useless though. It does have new shoes fitted so hopefully they'll improve over the week as I use the bike for commuting to work.
The first ride out showed up a slightly slipping clutch and, more importantly, a sticking carb float. The latter resulted in fuel pouring over the top of the engine, a slightly risky situation. Stripping the carb down showed that the cause of the sticking float was that the new float chamber gasket I had made was slightly too large. It was just catching the edge of the float preventing it returning and closing off the fuel supply. A bit of time with a Stanley knife soon sorted it out and all was fine on the second ride out. It wouldn't have been feasible to fix that if we'd been on the Spirit of the Sixties, which vindicated our decision.
When I took on this endeavour my main concern was getting the bike running reliably enough to complete the 524 miles on the rally. After today's limited mileage my two concerns are whether I can maintain a high enough average speed (more on this in a later post) and if my back will take it. I hadn't realised what a hunched up riding position the size of the bike demanded. I broke my back a few years ago and it can be a bit uncomfortable at times. After doing a mere 40 miles today I was in a fair bit of discomfort. I'm hoping that commuting on it each day will allow me to adapt to the riding position. Otherwise I'll be needing a lot of painkillers come the rally itself!
All-in-all it was a fairly successful weekend and I'm now well set up for starting to rack up some miles on it.
There are still a few things that need to be sorted:
1) A better way of fitting the seat (it fell off at one point!)
2) Perhaps some improvements to the electrics, a more modern rectifier and maybe the addition of a regulator
3) A method of holding the route map during the National Rally
4) A method of illuminating the route map during the dark hours of the National Rally
5) Sourcing a steering lock
6) A decent throttle grip
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