A decent run at last.

Saturday I had arranged to meet a guy I know from the Vespa Club of Melbourne, he has a property in a small town of Birregurra, which is about 20 odd kms away on the Geelong side of Colac. With a full tank I set out quite a bit earlier than I needed too as I was taking the back way to avoid the highway, it's a bit longer but is a brilliant ride, rolling lush grazing country, dairy cows and sheep, rustic farmhouses and tree lined roads with little traffic, just superb. The weather was a bit overcast and cool, perfect really. The SPV went well, did not miss a beat, pulled OK up some of the bigger hills and cruised along the flats, I had to dodge a racing echidna that bolted out across the road only to stop to marvel in the noisy green machine as I rumbled past. I pulled in to Birre at the arranged meeting point and waited. Leaning against the seat waiting in another world in my head, a guy walked up to the door on the building next to me and he says with a smirk.
Your not part of one of those outlaw bikie gangs are you?
I put on my snarly face and looked him in the eye. Yes
Well I better get out of here then.
That would be the best idea.
We had a chuckle and he disappeared inside.

My friend arrived, we had a coffee and a chat and I headed home, on the way I was passed by a ute with three young blokes in it, I could see them all laughing and giving me the thumbs up, waving beer bottles about, I waved and they disappeared into the distance, just out of town they were pulled up on the side of the road, looked like they were getting fresh stubbies out of the esky in the back and taking a leak, I got the same reception as I zoomed past. I eventually pulled into the driveway at home and propped outside the workshop, cracked a beer and sat down, it was a good way to end the afternoon, ended up being about an 85km trip all up, with speeds up to 100 indicated at times and a cruising speed of about 75-80 real speed for the bulk.

Fuel consumption 2

OK it took me a little longer to use the tank of 98 premium than I thought, the riding conditions were pretty much the same as the last tank and the results aren't really that surprising.
I rode 119.1 kms and used approx. 4.5 litres, there was still an inch or so in the bottom of the tank but I didn't want to push it up the hill home because my box of beer would have gotten warm.....
26.46km p/l slightly better than the 95 octane but not enough to warrant the price difference. I will keep a record of future tanks just out of interest and to see how the consumption goes as the DR kit gets more kms on it.
Speedo reads 5532km- 1112 on the new kit.
I'm looking at giving the old girl an overhaul at 6000kms, change the gear oil, a really good clean, a nut check, the usual stuff, I have just the slightest amount of oil collecting at the lowest point of the case, almost certainly the drain plug, thing is it is still clear and clean, surely the gear oil has gone that grey murky colour after this long in the gearbox? anyway the level is still good and it doesn't leave drips on the floor, just keep an eye on it.
The thing I hope to sort as well is the horn, it has been disconnected since I did the wiring almost a year ago now, I hooked it up back then and it honked constantly when I kicked it over and then it stopped, I taped the wires up and left it since I had had enough wasting riding time sitting in my shed looking at the bloody thing, now she's all good I will revisit it, that and I'm kind of missing getting my hands dirty.
Sun's starting to shine a bit more these days, see ya later winter, don't rush back.

Fuel consumption

My odometer reads 5400, the new cylinder barrel and piston has 40 kms to go before it has racked up 1000kms and since there is nothing playing up I thought I'd just ride it, enjoy it and perhaps see how she's going on the fuel consumption. I'll do this over the next few tanks of fuel and see what I come up with.
First fill up yesterday yielded 121.6 kms from 4.75litres of standard 95 unleaded fuel...25.6km per litre, this is about what some people I talk to say they get depending on the type of riding they do, mine is a mixed bag, a few minutes at idle start and end, a mix of 80-90kmph indicated and around town, stop and start, down hill to work, up hill home, the rest is mostly flat.
I filled up with premium to see what difference, if any, it makes on the above figures, I only did this as I had a 5ltr container of the stuff at home anyway.
Other than that, she's back to a three kick start even on the frosty mornings, and running well... Happy Days.

The smell of it.

It had been a long week of not being able to ride and I thought I'd wheel it outside and kick it over for no other reason than to get a whiff of the good stuff. Here's a short clip of the engine ticking over.

You can see a character graze I got when I slipped on the moss in the shed and it fell against an rusty old rotary hoe.....I took it out for a quick ride and in true Victorian style it rained and it cut my fun short anyway...she's running well, I put a B7HS plug in and gave the mix screw an 1/8th turn out and the hesitation I had was gone. I can say that it's just hungry for throttle, if it's not flat out it's begging for it.  Once it's warmed and I'm out riding the idle is a little faster than when I start it up, but after about 20 seconds it settles down, not sure why?
900kms on the new DR kit, 5305kms on the clock.

The freedom

A good few days of dry weather has given me a chance to ride in to work each day, despite the frosty mornings and misty fog the old girl has been firing up on the third kick, run for a few cycles and stop, one kick and 10 seconds and stop, one kick and 30 seconds and stop, then I give her some throttle to get the revs up and then she'll sit there and idle away, I dont blame her for being a little cranky in the morning when its only 5 degrees C.
I go the long way of course and it gives me some chance to open her up a bit as well as the usual morning traffic, She loves the cold weather too, I get her up to 75 on the speedo before I even get to fourth gear, I haven't pushed past 90kmph just yet but there is plenty more there, I still want a couple of hundred more kms on the cylinder before I get too excited, a clear weekend coming so theres a chance to get some decent miles on the clock. She doesn't like the slow cruising of regular traffic, much happier getting some decent throttle. I couldn't be happier to be back on the road and reliable again.

Success

So I decided to take a couple of days off and enjoy what was supposed to be a couple of days of clear winter skies in what has been about a month or so of miserable rain and wind, I ordered a new set of points and a new condensor along with a couple of idle jets to try out to see if I could get to the bottom of this starting and idling issue. When I got to the shed with new parts in hand the promised weather had not arrived, so I set about changing these bits over. Flywheel off and I took the top off the wiring junction box so I could take the stator plate off and low and behold this is what I found, in the top picture you can see that the screw securing the black earth wires had vibrated itself off completely and was sitting in the back of the box, also the screw holding the green "hot" wires was as loose as it could be before it too fell out, that explains a lot....My wiring doesn't look that flash in that picture but I've done it myself and I know its solid and functional.
I decided to change out the points and condensor anyway and perhaps keep the old ones as emergency spares. In the second photo you can see the expert wiring connection from the condersor unit to the points, nice work Planet Vespa.
The third photo is the new and old points units, you can see that the bottom one has a slightly bent stem where the fixed point half is located next to the wooden cam thingy, this meant that it could only open a little way which was why I found it hard to clean the points in the first place.
With the new units in place soldered and screwed, I put the flywheel and everything else back on and gave it a kick. Third go she sprang to life and I let her warm up for a minute or so, still having to crack the throttle to keep it running, once it was warm it idled, a bit rough but I wanted to take it for a run before I adjusted the idle. I rode into town and down the same hill I had to bump start it a week ago and she began to burp, fart, backfire so I turned around so I could get back to the top of the hill under her own steam, it wasn't pretty and she gave up the ghost at the top of the hill. Now I'm no soldering guru, in fact I had no confidence in my soldering on the ctop of the condensor at all, since it came off twice before it stuck, in my wisdom I put some electrical tape over my solder with the thought that if it did come loose I could limp home, I'm not even sure what it actually does other than " condense" the spark before it heads out to the coil and then the plug, anyway some reading to do there.
It turns out that the moving part of the points was catching on the tape so through the hole in the flywheel I cut and pulled the tape off and bang she started first kick and ran well, phew and the solder was holding tight, double phew.
I adjusted the idle and off I went, she was like a new bike, the sun came out and I enjoyed a lovely 80km ride. On day two she started second kick but because of the cold took a few goes to stay running, no throttle involved, she idled and warmed up by itself. I refueled and had another trouble free 45km ride, I had to adjust the idle again but that was all.
I just have one thing I need to do and that is to figure out how to gap the points, the gap is bigger than it should be and the only information on setting the gap I can find is for a different points set up, shouldn't be a problem, theres a ton of info out there. I'm pretty happy to have her running well again, now I'm not touching a thing.

Now I get the point

It was a cold but sunny day, the first rain free days in weeks, So I chanced a ride to see how the minor adjusting went, quick answer is, a mixed result.
It burst into life on the fourth kick only to die and not start again, I went through the usual things and eventually got it running, I rode to the end of the drive and onto the road, up the hill, She went well, felt better, so I decided it would be ok to head into town and knock out a few kms. I avoided any traffic lights that involved stopping for a while as I still had to have the throttle slightly cracked to keep it going, after about 30kms I decided to head home, I got to the bottom of theis big hill and she just died, I gave it a couple of kicks to no avail and thought pushing it home from here is really going to suck, about 2kms all up hill, I decided to give it one last try and pushed it halfway up the hill in front of me and turned around and bump started it, it clicked along burping for about 50 metres before it finally started, I headed straight home, but it ran so well I decided to go back into town for a bit longer, such a waste of a nice day, foolish decision? maybe, but it paid off and I did another 20 kms and rode home with no further problems.
Once home I just let it sit over lunch and went to put it away, I tried to kick it to see if it would start, second kick, wow and then it died not to be started, I got her back into the workshop and began pulling the cowls off to have a look, a scooter aficionado, Kelvin, Kickstart Scooters in Brisbane suggested I check the points, the only thing I haven't checked in all this and his advice has gotten me out of trouble a few times over the course of all this, I had trouble seeing them gap in the dimly lit workshop  so I pulled off the flywheel.....Bingo the points were pitted slightly and a teeny piece had dislodged and stuck to the opposite point, meaning they weren't disengaging properly when the flywheel came around, I was surprised it worked at all, So I proceeded to clean them up with some fine wet and dry until they looked ok, I will replace them when I get a chance, but they will still do the job in the mean time, now to wait until the next sunny day to see.....