Thar she blows!!!!

Left her standing on the weekend of the 13th since it was b’day weekend away. Had an incredible one 🙂

Got back to her Friday the 20th. S Uncle had been emery-ing the tank away. Spent 30 hours on one side by then (?!).

He had cleaned the carb and kept it aside.

So, we spent the first two hours pulling off the tank and all the side panelling and then figuring out the wiring and electricals.

Well he figured it out anyway.

I just stood there, cut pieces of paper, marked wires with strange numbers and listened to stuff that was mumbo jumbo to me.

Some of it did start to make sense after a while though.

After hmmmm-ing and ho-ing over the wires for a while he pulled two off the ignition switch and tied them together. Then we put in a spark plug, held it to the engine fins and kicked. A weak little spark came to life. So weak actually that I didn’t see it. I simply took his word for it.

So, with bated breath (mostly mine), we put the carb back in. It took a while that, since it refused to stay put.

Then poured petrol into the carb.

I took a deep breath (since it’d been bated for so long) …

Put my foot on the lever.

Pump, pump, KICK!

Nothing…

Deep breath..

Pump..

Pumppp….

KICK!!

Putt.. Putt. Puttt….

Deeper breath..

Pummmppp…

Pummpppppppppp……

KICKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!

ROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

She came to life with a deafening roar and then happily idled away. Just as if she’d never been put to sleep.

Rip van Winkle came to life after nearly twenty years.

Called Dad to listen to her over the phone..

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Clearing away the cobwebs

31st July

Unloaded her, admired her, cursed the lorry driving for harming her and then tentatively approached her privates.

Took a deep breath, crossed fingers and toes and pushed down on her lever.

I expected it to be locked solid – frozen with twenty years worth of muck and corrosion. Twenty years of Madras weather and neglect..

Miracle of miracles.

The lever not only moved but moved smoothly. I could even hear the chugging of the piston moving freely.

Got down on my hands and knees (about another four inches) and thanked my stars.

Then took a spanner to her and pulled off the luggage rack and crash bar before bedding her for the night.

August 7th

Woke up late-ish on Saturday morning. and had planned on working on my Roadking with my uncle. So headed over to his place and spent the day changing the piston on it (opened it up for the first time since getting it as I had found the bike seizing at speeds of 85 – 90 km/h). The piston turned out to be some local thing and the expansion at high speeds was causing the seizing. Pulled it out and it was badly scarred so replaced it with a now one which I bought from Vijaydeep on JC Road. It isn’t an original Mahle but is supposed to be decent quality. That done, I’m now running it in for another 500 kms.

The scarred old piston

The new one with original Goetze rings

But, spent most of the first couple of hours admiring the beauty of the Standard.

First things first, I was STUMPED to see the tyres weren’t flat. My uncle had simply tried his luck and filled air in the tryes. By the end of the day, the front tyre was still holding with no loss of pressure. The rear tyre was slowly deflating over a period of hours but I was amazed. After twenty YEARS these things should’ve had big gaping holes in them. They shouldn’t have even been able to inflate with air let alone hold it in. With a change in tubes, the tyres might even be good for a little bit (or a little more than that ).

As you can see from the pictures, my uncle has already stripped the bike. He took a buffing machine and simply pulled it along one of the pipes and voila! Wonder of wonders, a layer of dirt and rust came off exposing the orginial chrome underneath! I was gobsmacked!

You can see the difference between the two sides of the bike (only the right side had had the initial layer ‘peeled’ off).

Moving forward, we’re going to emery it down until not a single speck of rust remains. Doing that with the tank right now.

The trouble with most platers is that they simply plate over rust which means that the oxidisation process continues under the chrome resulting in the chrome flaking off really fast. Back in the day, the cleaned, rust-free surface was first plated with copper and then with chrome. This would ensure that rust could never set in and the chrome would last for yonks. My Uncle’s Matchless was plated like that in Chennai in 1973 and the chrome today, nearly 40 years later, is still perfectly intact. Sadly, this is a dead art.

Apart from this, I just love the way she looks right now, in her present avatar.

Stripped down she looks like some kind of hellish Goddess from a freaky dystopian novel.

I could imagine one of the cannibal family from Judge Dredd on her. Or even one of the biker gang from The Book of Eli.

In fact, if I weren’t so obsessed with bringing her back to originality,  her lines make her a prime candidate for a stripped-down, bare-bones mod.

Made some headway since, but, for now, just take a gander.

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