DNIEPER 650... A considerable amount of thought power was poured in Annabelle's Dneiper which was steadfastly refusing to run. Annabelle, Guy and Phil had tried various things to get the beast to come to life including replacing the bike’s carburettors but it refused to respond.  Instead it gave us tantalising signs of life without starting with the occasional pops and splutters.  It even fired for a few revolutions.  The bike has a manual advance and retard mechanism.  This means that the rider controls the amount in advance of top dead centre that the spark plug is fired at. To cut a long story short, the spark needs to occur further in advance of top dead centre at higher engine speeds than it does at low engine speeds. As engine design advanced the function of altering the ignition timing was taken over by automatic advance and retard units. These consist of a pair of weights which fly outwards against the tension of springs under the effects of centrifu...

Don spent time helping to perfect the filled surface of the fuel tank ready for painting.  Andy made a fantastic job of spray painting the bike’s frame in ‘Post Office Red.’  A tricky job with so many different surfaces to try and cover, but as you can see from the photo it’s looking really good.  It will be a shame to get it dirty one day.  Hopefully the next session would be time for the bike to be put back together.

We had a good turn out for our Saturday March 9th workshop session including 6 new members visiting the workshop for the first time.  During the session of a variety of work was done. DNIEPER 650... A considerable amount of thought power was poured in Annabelle's Dneiper which was steadfastly refusing to run. Annabelle, Guy and Phil had tried various things to get the beast to come to life including replacing the bike’s carburettors but it refused to respond.  Instead it gave us tantalising signs of life without starting with the occasional pops and splutters.  It even fired for a few revolutions.  The bike has a manual advance and retard mechanism.  This means that the rider controls the amount in advance of top dead centre that the spark plug is fired at. To cut a long story short, the spark needs to occur further in advance of top dead centre at higher engine speeds than it does at low engine speeds. As engine design advanced the function of altering the ig...

  The Piaggio Velofax... Graham and Jack did a little work on this little red Italian large wheeled moped.  The engine felt very insecure in the frame.  This was overcome when it was realised that the mount that the engine pivots on was not part of the frame and hadn’t been bolted up.  Missing components still frustrate the process of getting the bike running.  In this case the ignition lock and the workshop manual have disappeared but hopefully not forever.  Turning the engine over with or without a battery produced a few very strong sparks at the spark plug but they came, went, came again then disappeared.  Installing a 12 volt battery didn’t change the situation. Would the manual be located?  Would the ignition lock reappear? Would the spark ignite!!

Don's BMW K100RS gets a thorough going over. Don bought his BMWK100RS back into the workshop.  He had noticed an oil leak.  Don, Guy, Dave and I worked on the bike.  Don had already removed the lower portion of the fairing but the left hand side of the fairing also had to come off to gain access to the cylinder head which is on that side of the bike. Once the left side of the fairing was off. Don and Co removed the rocker cover.  This gave us the opportunity not only to renew the rubber rocker cover seal but also to do some service work.  With the spark plugs removed it was possible to turn the engine over so the valve clearances could be checked.  It is a 16 valve engine.  The majority of the valves were within tolerance, with just three valves running slightly loose.  As BMW have chosen to put the valve adjusting shims under the cam followers (AKA Cam buckets) it  would be more trouble than it was worth to remove both camshafts to...