Norton News 201A - Flipbook - Page 31
temperatures in the nineties, but it really looked good painted
to match the silver tank with red and black pinstripes. I was
wearing my black leather Hein Greike riding suit. Again, not
the best choice considering the weather but, what the hell, I'd
rather look cool than be cool, or at least, so I thought at the
the start of the trip. The fallacy of that choice would become
evident shortly.
The year before, I’d ridden that bike to the Little Rally
on the Prairie in Illinois and on the way home it started acting
up. Wouldn't idle, hard to start when hot; just not good at all.
I thought maybe it was bad gas. But I had ridden it several
times in cooler weather and it was 昀椀ne. And it was 昀椀ne when
I cranked it up that July morning and started out on this
Odyssey. That was not to last. As soon as the temperature
got to about 90 the bike started acting up and I pulled off and
worked on it. The only thing I could work on was the carb. I
didn't have another ignition and the plugs looked 昀椀ne.
So I pulled the carb off and took it apart, blew through
all the jets, etc. All the stuff you do when you don't know
anything else to do. Luckily, it had a single Mikuni so it was
easy to pull off. After about forty-昀椀ve minutes I put it all back
together and 昀椀red her up. It sounded 昀椀ne so off we sped.
That lasted about thirty minutes before it started the
same thing over. This was repeated about every 昀椀fty miles for
the whole distance to South Dakota, usually when it was 95
degrees in the shade and there weren’t no shade. And I was
wearing black leather. I never picked up that the problem was
heat related and not fuel related.
I had forgotten the First Rule of Brit Bike Troubleshooting.
“MOST CARBURETOR PROBLEMS ON BRITISH
BIKES ARE ELECTRICAL.”
Long story less long, when I was working on the bike
at the rally Mark Jensen, the rally organizer, asked me what
the problem was. When I told him what the bike was doing he
said, "It's a bad pickup plate in the Boyer."
He reached behind him and picked a new Boyer off
the table full of door prizes behind him and said, "Put this
Number 201
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