I never did make The Three Amigos Christmas Charity run on Dec 11th. As the bike rebuild took way way longer than intended. Minor nigles and problems kept cropping up and stress levels rose daily.
Along with a couple of mates we had had a couple of those cheap caravan holidays advertised in the dailies. These ultra cheap holidays were a great success and we booked a four night holiday in Heysham for May 2020, the intent was to use this a s a base to explore the Lake District.
Covid struck and the holiday was cancelled but rebooked for 2021. Covid struck again so the holiday was cancelled. However we were offered discounts on a rebook or another holiday. Taking the generous discounts from the previous cancellations we booked a seven night stay in a brand new caravan on the shores of Lake Windermere smack bang in the middle of the Lake District for May 2022. Of course it was more expensive than the cheapy four night stay but with the discounts it only ended up costing us £160 each. Which was a real bargin as the caravan was extra wide and brand new, it even had a dish washer which was put to good use.
So there I am at home ten days to go to the holiday and still rebuilding the bike. Still with unsolved problems one of which was a strange oil leak which sprayed a fine mist of oil when the engine was running. Not a major oil slick but a constant fine mist. Also a very strange electrical problem that came and went that stopped the bike from starting.
So with just a fortnight to go work on the Royal has come to a full stop. After spending hours and hours I can not get a strong spark to fire the darn thing up. A pox on modern electrics on motorbikes. If it were and old fashioned set up I would have found the fault and fixed it by now. All the components checked out ok , switches all seem to work and the coil tested fine. Replaced the HT lead and cap and plug still no joy. I spent hours on YouTube learning how to use a multi-meter. I inherited one over ten years ago but did not know how to use it. So I suppose some good has come out of this fiasco.
Also after 40 years of repairing and bleeding brakes on all sorts of vehicles I can not get the front brake to work. I had to replace the front wheel cylinder and changed the black rubber hose with a shiny stainless steel one.I feel totally inadequate and useless over this failure.
All the bike shops around are fully booked for weeks ahead. Seems that a load of old fuddy duddy born again bikers are having their pride and joys spruced up for the coming biking season. Bunch of no hopers if you ask me, why on earth do they not do their own maintenance the lazy sods.
Good news is I tracked down a Royal and he is coming to see me this lunchtime.
Not a real royal just a royal expert. He was working with his dad in a classic bike restoration business that has just closed due to his dad retiring and has set himself up on his own. Only lives down the road and comes out to your bike and if possible fixes it in situ, if not it is trailered to his workshop. Luckily for me he has extensive knowledge of Royals old and new.
So I may have a working Royal soon. About time those lazy layabouts did some work instead of attending Jubilee celebrations and garden parties.
The Royal expert turned out to be a dud. He did fix the brakes, showed me a way to bleed them I was unfamiliar with. He did find my rookie mistake with the carb. As to the electric fault he had no clue.
I found the solution myself. Turns out it was the rollover switch that some dickwad had left hanging loose after making a minor modification last year. It had been sort of wedged in so the bike ran ok. The accident had shaken it loose hence the electrical fault which was most puzzling as there was a weak spark and then there was not then a spark and then not and so on. Once firmly mounted the bike was a ok. First time I have come across a rollover switch as all my previous bikes were pretty old and did not have one.
With no time to waste and still having an oil leak I decided to book the bike in for a MOT at Lamos which is 26 miles away from home. I had to book the bike in as MOT slots were almost fully booked but I managed to get a cancellation booking but it was for the next day, no time to sort the oil leak. I figured that I could ride and stop and fill up with oil as many times as it took to get to the MOT and back home again. Spare half gallon of oil in a bag along with rubber gloves and several cloth rags I set of to the MOT. I arrived with the rear of the bike covered in oil and had only one stop for a oil fill up. The MOT guys face was a picture when he saw the bike and he commented "won't be getting any rust on her anytime soon mate" Luckily the bike passed the MOT but he did give me an advisory about leaking oil. I had to do two oil fill ups on the way home.
Now with eleven days to the start of me holiday I had the bike insured and MOT'd and taxed, only that darn oil leak to fix. The accident had dented the exhaust manifold which is attached to the cylinder head and may have caused a slight shift in the head gasket, or so I thought. So I decided to loosen and re-tighten the head blots. Not a hard job but fiddly and very time consuming. That did not fix the problem. At my wits end with only nine days to go now I thought where is that leak ? With the engine running I felt with my hand to try and locate the leak. I could feel the fine spray not coming from the side but from below. How is that I thought , it should be blowing from the side if there is a leak in the gasket or a crack in the head. No it is definite blowing upwards from the casings, how ? looking down I saw a very small bubble appear for a split second from a threaded hole in the top of the casing. Covered this with my finger and the leak stopped blowing.
I could have kicked myself, my oil leak was self inflicted. One of the first jobs I did on the rebuild moths ago was to take of the electric starter which had been held down by two bolts. Obviously once removed they left two small threaded holes which caused the oil leak. I never thought to put blanking bolts in the holes when I removed the starter as I though they were dead ends but instead they were drilled all the way through the casing thus allowing for the leak. Two small bolts with washers and a touch of gasket goo later and the leak was fixed.
Finally I had a running machine and the holiday looked to be going ahead. I only had time for one quick run out to have a last check on the bike. After recovering from a pretty nasty accident , a year long lay of, and less than 90 miles of riding on a self rebuild I was all set for my holiday. In addition I have some new elastic for my goggles and a new peak for the helmet so am good to go go go .
Just a couple of pictures at the start of me
1113.6 mile week long round trip to the Lake District.
Me Royal almost loaded up.
Me mates big bike, he lives across the road from me.
Not very exciting I know, well it was for me. I still have to sort through the pictures I took and load them up to Imgur. There are some neat shots of the Lake District and stuff. I'll post an album link for anyone that is interested later on. That is if I can remember how to get an album link at Imgur.
Those injuries looked very painful, so I can understand how difficult it must have been to get proper rest, etc. 
