After about two months of trecking across Hyderabad to visit the mechanics workshop in the old city, I have at long last collected my bike today! It should have actually been ready at the end of last week, but there were still a few small issues to get sorted and so I left it for …
If you’ve been reading the previous posts of this blog you will hopefully have noticed that I am very keen to keep my Matchless as original as possible during it’s so-called ‘restoration’. However, there are a few concessions that I have made to modern technology which I think are important to make the bike usable on a daily basis. …
So with the rewiring now complete, it was time to get a new 6 volt battery for the bike. The only problem was that the shop that the mechanic had bought such batteries from in the past had now stopped stocking 6 volt models. A search of lots of battery shops across the revealed the same story in each …
The chain guard and clutch cover were still to be fitted when the engine was started for me for the first time last week, so naturally the engineer in me was enthralled by all the gears and chains whizzing round. So much so that I thought I best record a quick video clip to show …
Nothing in India happens quickly, and that includes servicing and repair of old Matchless motorbikes! So I wasn’t too surprised today when I visited the mechanic’s shop again and found that nothing had really moved on much since Saturday. The auto-electrician had certainly done his part of the re-wiring, but there were lots of bare wires still protruding from various …
So with the engine now running the wheels fitted, it was now time to take the bike to the local auto-electricians. The old electrics were in a fairly bad state so I decided to have the bike completely rewired to (hopefully!) ensure reliability later on. The dynamo and ignition systems had already been serviced whilst the engine was being …
Big progress made today – the engine has been started at last after it’s full strip-down and rebuild! There’s still lots of work to finish off though, but at least the frame is now rolling (i.e. the wheels on!) and we know that the engine runs, which is a big relief! It sounded a bit …
As I mentioned in my earlier post here, the initial strip down of the bike revealed that both the front and rear mudguards had partially rusted through around their respective mounting points. Whilst they were still fairly secure for the time-being, they would obvisouly require some repair and renovation work at some point to prevent them falling apart completely. …
Real progress made today! With the front wheel fitted, the frame is now half way towards being “rolling” again. A new tyre has been fitted – a Dunlop model if you’re interested. The front brake drum has also been stripped down, cleaned, inspected (they reckon there’s about a years worth of brake lining left) and then refitted. The …
One of the things I liked about my G3Ls when I first saw it was the original paint job, or rather, what was left of the original paint job. Being an ex-army bike, the colour it was supposed to be was khaki-green. However, the last six decades had taken it’s toll on the finish and there was …