The weather has turned but we had a perfect lunchtime ride on Friday, down the budding lanes, cutting through to the main road and back via the pub at Ardington. We whooped as the Black Bullet hit 55mph on the A417. I took it really easy on the back roads but, even so, Jane said the vibrations gave her pins and needles (“more of an all over vibrate” - TBB 5.12). It’s not really a touring machine, not for two people, not when the only springs aside from the forks (which are stiff anyway) are in the driver’s seat.
But it was fun, and she’s such a looker the old boys couldn’t help but stop to admire her on the way into the pub. Jane, that is.
The smell of petrol from the shed has been mentioned next door and I’ve had a look to see if there’s anything I can do about it. The leakage is also buggering up my range trial, so it needs sorting out. It’s mainly coming from the reserve tap, the one I bought from Hitchcocks when I first got the bike to cure the leak it came with. I cleaned it off with a rag to try and see if the leak originated from the tap itself or the joint to the tank. It seemed to be the plunger (click photo), which, if you remember, came out in my hand the one time I used it [TBB 5.7].
Pulling it out again to inspect it only made matters worse and soon I was calling for a bucket, or something, anything, squatting in a spreading pool of petrol like a good Dutchman with my thumb over the hole. When the tank had finally drained, into an old bleach bottle, you could see that the cork seal had sustained some damage, either from grit in the tank or the stop screw that is supposed to prevent the plunger from coming out in the first place. I guess I was supposed to set the stop when I installed the tap, or else it has vibrated loose like everything else.
It seems like a duff design to me at this point, with the bike now immobile until I come up with a solution. I could put a blanking bolt in the reserve side and keep just one tap, or replace the seal on the plunger. I don’t like the idea of running out unexpectedly and having to tip the bike over to spill the reserve into the other side of the tank, particularly on a fast road, but there is a single tap with reserve lever solution available – for forty bucks. Replacement cork seals are available for a few pence but I can’t figure out how to disassemble the plunger to slide a new cork on.
I'm going to have to talk to Hitchcocks. This tap isn't all that and I'm not going to buy the forty quid one without telling them about it. It's not that I want to complain, it's just a fact and I ought to give them the opportunity to respond. No need for anyone to feel threatened, or defensive, just a straight communication about something of which they should be aware. It's a bit of cast brass and it was 25 quid, you know what I mean?
