doesn’tfitthe framelug? That is aserious
question.Anyactual engineers whoknow
the actual answer arewelcometo expand
my education. BSA and indeedTriumph
didn’t change the dimensions of the frame
lug in the 13years itwasinproduction, so
whydon’t standsfit? Isuspectthatthe idea
–assuming thereactuallywasanideaofany
kind –may have been the sound notion that
it’s easyto remove metalbut less easyto
replaceit, so ProudOwner can operate afile
tofixit. Or amIbeing tookind?
Backto the vicewith the stand,and out
with the bastardfile.Atl east...Ibelievethat’s
whatthey’re called.Icertainly called it that
whenIdiscovered thatitwas insufficiently
heroic to remove metalfromthe stand.Which
says hopefu lthing sabout the strength of
the thing,Itold myself,soisc ertainlyaGood
Thing.But thefile! Iborroweditf rommy
dad whenIwas stillat school andfettling an
ancientAJS –so1971 or so.And al ready it’s
worn out.Modernjunk...
Anyway,Iboughtafreshfile.And ground
awayat the stand until itwouldfitthe lu g,
snugly and with almost no slopat all.Ohthe
joy,so forth. Removedthe stand,slipped on
the nicenew spring–weused to call these
mattress springs,Ithink,althoughIcould be
wrong–and used the stand asalever to pull
the spring tightand then used the springto
pull the stand onto itslug.Thisiss imple genius
in action.Outwith the new bolt and...you
guessed,did younot? Of course it doesn’tfit
through the holes in the stand,although it’s a
perfectfittot he hole in the lug.
Remove stand.Returntothe vice.Make
the holes bigger.Refitstand.Itw orks .Hurrah.
Remove the noble BSA from the bench and
parkitonits nicenew stand.Which only needs
alittle repainting afterits various encounters
with the vice,files and drills.
ThereasonIwantedthe benchclear wasso
thatIcould serviceand MoTprepthe Bullet. As
partofThe GreatClearingOutwhich hasbeen
happeningover the lastcouple ofyears we’d
decidedto let some undoubtedlyfortunate
hero cont inue theBullet’s long and inactive
life. Andtheysell moreeasil yifr unning and
boastingafresh and shinynew MoTcertificate.
Strange, that.
TheBullet has been in the familyfleet for
averylong time,adecade,since2004, since
the Better Thirdrode it all thewayaround
mainland UK back in the magazine’s very early
days.Itm ay notbefast(it’s not) ,itm ay not be
good looking (well...) but it’s very comfortable
and 100%reliable.Ith as also always been a100% starter–although it hasakickstartI’ve
always used the button.Farless undignified
and effortful than thatsweatyleaping about
nonsense. Anditl ast ranlast year,when Ifitted
anew batteryand survived Ordeal By MoT.
Batterynicely charged,turnkey.Noi diot lights
...which i snot unusual,ast hey’venever been
entirelyconsis tent.Push button. Nothing.
At all. Take modernbike forarideinstead.
ReturntoShedand tr yagain, hoping thatthe
humorous Shed godswould havefixedit.
Batteryat100%, turnkey,press...Nothing.
Not evenaclick and nothing showing on
the ammeter.Thankyou, RE,forfitting an
ammeter.The entire electricals aredead.Sigh.
Outwith the meter and the pointy probes.
Praise the Bullet’s old-fashionedconstruction,
which makesfollowing wires easy enough,
so Ican checkconnec tors all thewaytot he
ignition switch. This is useful,because the
under-seatand under-tank areas have all
suffered from profession al levels of neglect
and all the oncecolourful wires arenow dull
dirty darkgrey. Reach the switch.Powerin,
nothing outdespitethe mostconvincing key
twisti ng.Swearing doesn’t wo rk,eithe r.Afteronlyashort(!) search, the magic meter
revealedthatthe 2004 ignition switchwasdefunct.
Powerin, nopoweroutNewswitchfrom Hitchcocksfixedthe problem in
seconds.Minutes.Actuallyacouple ofweeks,such is
the paceoflife in The ShedThe greatthing about the old Bullet is thatit’stotallyreliable.Except when it’s ...not
110 IAUGUST 2019 More old bikes online: Real-Classic.co.uk