Fairbridge was only another 15 k’s down the road so after lunch we headed off, and all having arrived safely, unpacked and settled into the two adjacent cottages, which were our base for the weekend. Then we all relaxed had a few beers and caught up with each other.
 
Steve Leech the WA, LCOA state rep. who had organized this and the previous jamboree, had pre-prepared the evening meals for the weekend and we were all treated to an amazing curry, dahl, nahn bread and rice meal for dinner, which had many commenting on the quality of the food. Then it was more beers, music, Dom and Trev started dancing together, and for some, Fireballs Whisky.

The forecast for the weekend was not looking good, with strong winds and storms forecast, and my workmates thought I was mad but they ride Harleys and Ducatis, not Lambrettas, and yes we are possibly mad.
 
I was only five minutes from home on my way to the meet up on my Indian rat “Lot 28” when the carb fell off, but was soon on the road again holding said carb on with my left ankle.
 
At the meet up quick repairs were sorted on my scoot while we waited for the southern contingent to turn up. When they eventually arrived, Bugsy was struggling with his throttle which, kept on sticking on, and a perished carb rubber, then we were off out Great Eastern Hwy, and a quick refuel at the York turn off.

​…and Bugsy’s scoot was in the trailer, and Bugsy in the ute, with what was an easy fix, but he couldn’t be coaxed out.

​Then it was off to York and the Castle Hotel for lunch and a couple of swiftys, with the Coffin Cheaters MC, who luckily for them, didn’t start anything, and a quick photo op. with a local photographer.

Then a short 35k blast to Beverley. Both York and Beverley are just east of the Darling Range at the start of the wheat belt, where there is, … wheat and not much else, well some nice riding roads, and I kept on getting distracted by some very nice Art Deco facades on some of the buildings as we cruised through country towns.
 
Manyoo Jim had a soft seize when he flicked onto reserve, and Rich, who was riding one of Simon's scoots, fired the back end of his end can plus wadding into the scooter behind him like the main gun on a battleship, but otherwise we all got to the Beverley hotel in one piece and the weather was mostly fine.

Then we settled in, got our rooms, and started drinking, making the odd repair and having a good laugh. Steve and Burt organised a couple of games of football cards which had jammy prick, Trevor Ireland win both rounds, but the real winner was the WA branch of LCOA, as we raised enough money to complete our WA Lammy Jammy scoot, which to date had been built with donated bits and expertise from mostly Steve Leech and Dean Hilditch.
 
Steve and Burt had had some great coffee mugs printed up for the event, and dinner was a treat, before a drunken quiz where everyone was the winner, or the loser, who knows.

The following morning we were up early, some nursing sore heads, and with the weather closing in, I said my goodbyes early. I topped up on fuel in Beverley and flogged it homewards, on my own, on the quickest route I could find, which as it turned out had no petrol stations, and I was on reserve before I found fuel at the back of Kelmscot, just before the ride back down the hill into town. Back on the road and it tipped down, I could just see the white line to my left marking the edge of the road, but by the time, I hit Albany Hwy, it was clearing albeit with flooded roads, and then I was home. I think the rest of the lads copped it worse than me, but everyone had a ball. Special thanks go out to Steve Leech and Burt Brennan for organizing the weekend and Johnny Beavin and Steve Weightman for providing back up.

​Cheers Max

That's All Folks!

The offset cones and other bits have arrived from Mr Diffey. Time to get these last few jobs done! I use a scissor jack to support the engine while I remove the old engine bolt and cones. I find as long as you leave the rear suspension connected the jack makes this a one person job. The only real trick is to use a drift or long screwdriver to roughly line the engine mounts up with the cones as you jack the engine back up.

Now it's time to replace the old leaky fuel tap with a new rear exit one. No danger of the line coming in to contact with the flywheel cowling now and with the offset cones the tap clears the engine mount as well.

The last job for the day is to retard the ignition timing. The BGM flywheel has timing marks on the side so you don't even have to put a mark on your casing for your desired ignition timing. Just use the flywheel marks against you TDC mark - nice. I'm going for 17 initially. Might advance it to 19 later depending on how things go temperature wise.

Well that's it. Got to put the headset on, set the idle jetting and start running it in, but in terms of the GP engine build I've finished. Hopefully I can get out and ride with some other Swarmers soon if the ACT allows 10 people to get together. Otherwise, it's essential visits to wherever, while I plug-chop, run-in, etc, etc.

It's Alive!

Those who have fitted a JL or Taffspeed exhaust will know that the muffler is attached to a bracket that is mounted using bolts and spacers into 2 or 3 of the chain casing threads. This was the cause of my head scratching mentioned last time. In order to fit the muffler I'll need to remove the studs from these holes. Which means draining the oil, removing the exhaust and side-casing, blah, blah, etc. Surely not! I always thought this was a bit of a Heath Robinson arrangement anyway. I have a better way (maybe). Inspired by the central bolt from the engine cowling I instead visit the local fasteners and get some M6 coupling nuts (long M6 nuts). These are used in place of the standard side-casing ones. They are shorter than the original spacers, but adding some old wheel nuts as spacers will give the same length. I can now bolt the bracket on to the coupling nuts, rather than all the way in to the chain-casing threads. I can't see why this isn't a better idea than the original design, but if it doesn't work I can go back to that when I remove the side-casing to check everything after 1000k.

So now the Taffy muffler is mounted 😃

Before starting I check the fuel tap isn't blocked and measure the fuel flow. The tap is dirty and the filter is damaged. Cleaned up it'll do for now but, after pissing about trying to get the fuel line to run at a nice angle that won't rub on the flywheel cowl, I've decided to add a rear exit one to the next spares order...for now a cable tie is used to keep the fuel line away from the flywheel while checking the timing. Fuel flow is good. 500ml a minute is required according to Sticky. I have 400ml in 40 seconds...

Well that's it. Outside and it starts second kick 🤩. It's not that quiet. As in the neighbours head inside...Okay, quickly check the timing before calling it a day. Timing is about 22 degrees, so needs retarding. Tomorrow! There's also a slow petrol leak from the fuel tap. Tomorrow (after draining the tank). The idle mixture also needs adjusting but I can't get to the screw. Something to leave until the offset cones are fitted which should hopefully make the screw accessible...By the way, club toolkits all have the internal battery powered timing gun shown above. They work perfectly for checking Lambretta ignition timing with minimum fuss.