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[Riggers]

Hi Alan - just to add my two-pennyworth. Mine's a 500 Classic 2001, with our host's breather conversion kit which I fitted myself. I got rid of the catch tank and just let the duck bill rest above the chain. It works well. I also have an aftermarket side stand fitted and have noticed that if left ticking over on the side stand my bike starts to smoke badly. On the main stand there isn't a problem, and I don't have an oil-burning problem in general - just a top up at around 500 - 1000 miles.

[PeteF]

If you let the bike tickover on the side stand the valve guides will tend to flood and be more likely to smoke.
This will be worse the further over the bike is.

If you ever have the valves out it's worth fitting Mr H's oil seals to the valve stems.

[another Allan]

Hello Norm,
The scavenge seems ok, insofar as there is plenty of oil going to the rockers. The bike has an 'interesting' history.
I've only had it a few weeks - an Ebay buy(!) The original owner in 2003 ran it for a couple of hundred km's before having a John Hutchings 625 engine fitted (apologies to our hosts for using the othe H word!) The engine swop was carried-out by Hayward's. He then hardly used the bike and sold it in 07 to the guy I bought it off. He fitted a Goldie, Hitchcock's c/r gears, a rev counter, UK brake shoes and then.....hardly used it! It has now done only 900-odd km.
So, it's basically an as-new bike with lots of desirable bits (and bills for everything done, and original purchase price totalling over £6k!) I'm expecting that it will need some shaking-down and teething problems sorting-out - par for the course given all the mods. My first cahnce for a ride was yesterday, because I had to fettle the front brake, give it a full service, sort-out a dragging clutch caused by the 3 stronger springs being unequally spaced, tighten all the engine and frame bolts etc, etc. I'm confident that it will be a cracking bike when sorted, and a real bargain at the price I paid!

[another Allan]

Thanks Barry Q. I'll order the duckbill from Hitchcock's.

[another Allan]

Thanks Midge. I take your point about letting the engine settle-down. I will avoid delving inside until all the external bits (breather, etc.) have been addressed. Re: oil level - the thin wire dipstick on the Hitchcock breather makes it almost impossible to tell the oil level with new oil in the tank. Is it just me and my failing eyesight, or is there another easy way (other than waiting for the oil to turn black through use, and be more visible?)

[another Allan]

Hi Riggers. Thanks for the confiramtion about the duckbill and getting rid of the catch tank. It's good to get a concensus.

[another Allan]

Hi Pete F. I must admit I didn't look to see if it has valve oil seals fitted when I torqued the head down. I'll check when I re-torque after I've done some miles.

[Alan R]

Hi guys--- can I just ask a question off the back of this ?? Valve guide seals ---- how the "Heck" do you get them to fit ?? Over the winter I had the head apart and tried to get these little green rascals to go on the guides but NO WAY would they even begin to start. They seemed completely the wrong size. Now I've fitted guide seals to many heads over the years but these ones (supplied from Mr.H ) just didn't seem right to me. I phoned the boys (and the young lady from Norway?) at Chadwick End who gave me some tips but to no avail. Head now running without them---seems ok. Has there been any size problems with these at all ??

[Beezabryan]

Allan R. I had the same problem, to get the little buggers to fit entailed "adjusting" the valve guide diameter to suit.

[Alan R]

Hi BEEZABRYAN ----- ah, that's good news in one sense then.It's not just me loosing the plot again. I couldn't do anything like filing the guides because they were already fitted---silly me thinking that these seals would fit straight from the box. Tut-Tut !! At over £10 for the pair our hosts ought to be made aware of this and the sizes altered accordingly. Trouble with us Brits.---we don't like to complain, do we ??