Bend like the reed, don't break like the oak.

In other words - I give up. The hot rubber smell is still present, but I can't determine a cause. The bike is running absolutely fine, with no hint of clutch slip, and I can't think of any other cause.

So we'll shove it on the To Do list, along with the stripped sump threads, for the first engine rebuild. While we're making that list, the exhaust is smelling slightly oily, so a piston ring replacement followed by a Mototune break-in is on there as well. I'm quite taken with the idea of a hard initial run-in to seal piston rings, and am regretting running my bike in so gently.

All that said, it is running great - I'm really just looking for excuses to strip the engine.

While I await the joyous day, it's back to more fiddling with lights.



The speedo bulb developed an intermittent fault which steadily got worse until it gave up altogether. Obviously, my legal team leapt into action and served a writ of habeus judice under the Statutory European Human Consumer Rights Act, demanding a replacement of the entire bike, £50,000 in inconvenience and legal costs, and a hundred beelyon dollars in punitive damages.

While I wait for that to play out in Brussels, I popped the speedo unit out for a look. There are two nuts underneath that hold the unit together. With them removed, the top lifts out - itself a sealed unit - exposing the light bulb at the back. Some fiddling revealed that it was just a loose fit between the bulb and the holder, just a casualty of vibration. But since I had it off, I went all LED, all the way. The princely sum of £6 secured 6 x T10 501 round top LED bulbs, which are now fitted to the speedo, tacho, indicator, neutral and full beam lights.



They're a definite improvement in the centre console; the overall light output is probably similar to the 2W incandescents that they replace, but it's much more directional, which is ideal for these mounts. In the dial consoles, the advantage isn't so clear. The top of the dials are better illuminated, but the bottoms less so. Still, the important speeds are at the top, so I'm OK with that.

So I'd recommend replacing the incandescents with LEDs, but would suggest using larger wide-angle caps for the dial controls.

Next on the project list is fitting a choke cable. The choke is mounted directly on the carb, and it's fiddly reaching under there to flip it, especially in the dark, with thick gloves on - i.e. in winter, when you actually need it.

So I've bought a universal choke cable, sold for use on Minis.



I reckon it should be possible to finagle this onto the bike somehow to remote operate the existing lever, although it'll need shortening, and mounting brackets fabbed up. Mmm, fabbed. Let's all say it together; faaaaabbed.