Forum

[Skip]

Hello All, I've just come back from my third, and so far longest trip out on the bike. The trip was a mixture of town and country roads as well as an 8 mile blat up a duel carriage way. Now I know there is more than a knack to starting these bikes, and as my recent purchase as an Amal fitted -(of which I know nothing, apart from the 'tickler' thing), but my bike really does seem rather reluctant to start, even when heavily primed.................. I popped the plug and did a spark test, there seems to be one there, just not very big or bright (the bike is a Woodsman Electra X), so I for now, reasonably, ruling out there is a problem with the ignition timing side of things. I'm not sure of the age of the current plug, the bike is an 08 model with 4800+ miles on the clock. I noted that the recommend plug is an NGK B9ES and was wondering if anybody had tried alternatives? Either a Champion N2C or even an Iridium equivalent??....................... With regards to starting I don't have a kick start facility at the moment due to gearbox linkage mods, but hope to secure something as a replacement fairly soon, I don't like having to rely solely on the electric start, esp at the moment as the bike seems so reluctant to start?? Having said that, manky fuel which I only topped up may be playing its part as well. There's an amateur radio rally on at Bristol tomorrow and I could be tempted to take the bike there for a good long run out. Anybody got any thoughts on the above subject??

[STU]

Hi Skip, I have an Electra XS. After many years of experimentation I have found than an iridium plug and super unleaded (or whatever It's called) gives the best starting, performance and economy combination.
The carb on mine is a 32mm dell'orto, probably same size as your Anal.
Anyways, that's my best advice, good luck. Let us know how it goes!

[STU]

I meant AMAL - honest!!!
Filled up with Shell V-Power unleaded, works great with iridium plug.
Started and ran great.

[Skip]

Thanks Stu, I spent a little time trawling the message boards before posting this message and noted a rather interesting thread regarding fuel from last year. I've made my mind up to give the more pricey stuff a go - I normally fill up at Tesco's as its the cheapest around here, I can appreciate the fact that its probably fairly crumby fuel as well, however like oil it has to meet minimum standards for it to be sold in the UK, which is why I run my bike(s) on re-refined oil I get from Lidls or Aldi - it has to meet the same specifications as stuff costing 4 times as much. Okay, so I change my oil and filters at twice the recommended manufacturers intervals, which in the case of my old Honda is every 2000 miles, but I've never ever had a single problem in 50,000 miles and oil filters are cheap compared to main bearings etc................. 'The Might One Too' (TMOT) is the first bike I've ever owned that is pre unit construction, requiring engine, clutch and gearbox oil, so for now I'm going to follow my nose so to speak and err on the side of caution regarding oil changes etc. BTW has anybody fitted an external oil cooler to one of our bikes????

[simon]

I always thought an oil cooler would be a good idea especially as with an iron motor there is always the threat of overheating. Motorways are particularly hard on iron motors as they don't handle sustained riding at high speed very well. It is for this reason I swapped mine to an aluminium barrel. The question with an oil cooler is where would you insert it? The oil line to the rockers would be the easiest but the flow wouldn't be sufficient to make a big enough difference to the temperature and anywhere else is rather problematical.

[Alan R]

Hi guys-------- I also changed to an irridium, and now use SUPER after a session of "water-in-the-fuel" from the E5 petrol late last year.. So far,so good. ( That's with our hosts 8.5 : 1 forged piston in as well....)

[Beezabryan]

Oil cooler? What is actually needed is an oil heater as the oil never gets anywhere near a decent operating temperature..... Cue Leon from the hotter other side of the world ............... buying cheap oil and changing at half recommended intervals doubles the price of the oil = False economy?

[Dennis C]

Simon all the oil supplied to the engine returns via the rocker feed,

[grunda 12]

hi skip,i run my helectra on bog standard unleaded it runs and starts as it should i run a b9es now i have had a plug that gave a poor spark after i adjusted the gap so bought a new 1 no probs so i must have caused a problem during gap setting ,i also run a anal carb oops sory i meant amal!!i looked for a n2 champion but couldn,t find 1 at newark a.j n3 was the coolest i could find ,i must say i,ve not tried the iridian or whatever but i,m in the league of tightwads and won,t pay that price for a plug that does the same job as the bog standard thats a spark right?happy days paul.