Sold it, how soon am I going to regret that ?
Straightaway?
It’s still in the garage, so I can get optical pleasure from it !
Went for a ride with Karen and my son on Saturday around the Essex Suffolk border, we wanted to follow a couple of routes in a book I got for Christmas. Not bad but the best road was one we found by chance from Mount Bures to Finchingfield, fantastic! We covered about 150 miles in the afternoon and got home just as the light was fading. One of the recommended routes was Dunmow to Haverhill via Finchingfield, the other was from Steeple Bumpstead to Manningtree (or thereabouts) I will post the name as soon as I can find the book, but it has national coverage.
Converted the SP to Historic status yesterday. Done a bit of riding with both Guzzis, but mainly distracted by trying to sort the little Ducati’s carburation. Spent a bit of time up a blind alley, which turned out to be a faulty brand-new condenser. Fitted the 50 year old one which was fine and we are making better progress now.
Pushed the Camel out from the bike port and put a cover over it parked up down the side of the house. Rolled the Black Pearl out of the garage and into the space in the bike port. Moved the SP out of the bike port and into the garage. SP started on the station run this morning - main fuse lasted all the way there.
Nothing.
Did buy two tins of chain lube though. How quaint.
The book is “Bikers’ Britain” by Simon Weir with a forward by Charley Boreman (sic) published by the AA IBSN 978-0-7495-7396-6
The first rout above was on the B1057 not bad but the best ride for me was the B1053 from Mount Bures through Pebmarsh, Lt Maplestead, the Headinghams and Wethersfield to Finchingfield.
The other route from Steeple Bumpstead was ok but we split up at Lavernham but my son carried on and thought the A2242 to Hadleigh then the B1070 to Manningtree was just as good.
I’m looking forward to trying out some other routes later in the year.
Very sorry CB can you remind me again what is The Camel? My forgetful bwain can’t keep track of your motor fleet 
It is a Morini dirt bike 500 single
Morini v twin with a recalcitrant clutch ?
Yes it is a V twin, top marks Driptray! 
Yes the Camel needs a little love before I list it. The SP370 I’m replacing it with seems to be about working OK, had a first off road foray (intentional) with it the other day. It’s not half the bike that the Camel is really though to be honest.
This weekend coming I’m lined up to sort out the fuel lines and ign components on Blue, after which I might choose to stick some Road Fund License on her. As an '81 I only have another couple of years to go on this nonsense, all being well.
I’ve also bought a Big Horn II tent that we’re hoping will sleep four of us at the forthcoming Bum in the Mud rally. Could be a bit tight - I will be attempting a first erection also at the weekend so as to check measurements. The tent is already inevitably known as The Hard On.
Fitted a sat nav and clock / voltmeter unit on the Cali. The charging light has never worked on it (Saprisa alternator and after market regulator) and I did miss not having a clock after riding the SP.
The sat nav was a cheap second hand Garmin one for about a tenner.
Camel = Morini dirt bike, yep that works
Ta chasps
Well that tent should just about accommodate four adult males, as long as they’ve been drinking. Proof, pudding wise, will be at the end of the month.
Replaced the fuel lines on Blue - I’m moving away from the old cross over type to using double input banjos on the carbs. Means I can still feed both carbs from each tap and it takes up a little less space under there. Looked at the new coils for Blue and realised just how different they are to the old ones sitting in place between the frame members under the tank and thought - screw that. See question posted in the appropriate section. Didn’t bother buying any VED.
Pulled the plugs on the Pearl and compression checked her. All OK. See separate post in appropriate section.
Checked through my begging letters from DVLA and found Hardley was now out of tax. Kept on the road all winter but unused - so that was good value then. So SORNed that one. Had one for Brown ('76 H1 Kawa) which is to start from May 1. That’s free so got done straight away. Didn’t even fire this one up last year, but I suppose is still better value.
Ran the Beezer round the block, all seems OK. This is a first run in a couple of months - started easy enough and no issues with wet sumping and the work I did reseating the rocker box seems to be all OK. Showed her some lover with a wipe over with an oily rag.
Popped the seat and tank off the Camel and pulled out the Tom Tom lead for the hot shoe. Installed that on the SP. Tried cleaning the detritus from the off roading foray of the other week. Sticks like the proverbial 54!t to a blanket. I will need to buy some product. Headed out Sunday afternoon in the rain with my pal on point leading us down more (all legal) muddy tracks. Which were indeed muddy, and so quite sporting. Excellent fun - really beginning to like this bike. So now it’s covered in goo again anyway.
Took the Cali out for a run on Sunday down to Audley End airfield for the annual general meeting of the Battle of Britain class locomotive society - 92 Squadron.
The BBC weather app told lies, it said it would be warm and dry. It lied, it was a cold and wet ride there and back down the A14 and M11.
One good thing, the sat Nav worked perfectly behind the cali screen and the voltage held good at just over 14V at all times.
I have also been in touch with Keith about getting a dating certificate to finally register the little Stornello. it’s about time I got it out on the road.
Well, managed to bag a silver on the south west peninsula road rally organised by Somerset advanced bikers yesterday. It was a fantastically organised event with at least 250 entries. I didn’t see any other Guzzis although I did recognise two of our Wilts members; Hector Vaas, and Keith my former IAM observer.
I was going for Gold as it didn’t look that hard on paper, but my lack of experience told. I think you need to take it seriously and do a bit of planning to get a gold. The weather was great, albeit chilly all day, and quite windy on the A30 around Okehampton. I spent a lot of time on Devon lanes, and did a total of about 300 miles in the end. Lots of nice roads, and new places visited.
Definitely recommended.
The Norge behaved itself apart from one brief warm start issue at Dunster Beach which was resolved quite quickly. Whatever the problem is it is only happening very occasionally.
Collected my LM2 from Baldrick a couple of days ago. It’s been off the road for a while whilst I treated it to a ‘refresh’ getting it back as close as possible to original spec, so I wanted him to make sure it was all working as it should.
Here’s the fella
VERY nice.
Roy Green from the Forest of Dean