Doh!
Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 11:09 am
Did a major blooper yesterday 
I was working on my carbs with the bike on the hydraulic stand. I'd left it overnight in my workshop so I had a massive Almax chain and padlock through the back wheel. Got the carbs back together and so let the stand down and fired up the engine (which ran OK - I was relieved to see
) but then I noticed that the green neutral light wasn't lit up. This threw me a bit and I was trying to think whether the bulb had blown or maybe the gears were in a false neutral. Engine is still idling nicely when I reached down to have a play with the gear lever and it nicked into first causing the back wheel to spin. Of course the chain and lock spun round until they smashed into the chain guard with a mighty crunch and stalled the engine. 
Chain and lock were well and truly stuck between the guard, swing arm and rear tyre. I finally got it all out and only then saw what a mess the chain guard was in. Totally bent and crushed in. All I could think of was recently reading that H2c chain guards are now very rare with no NOS parts available anywhere.
I have managed to carefully bend it back into more or less the right shape with hammers and wooden tools and a blanket on the worktop to spare the finish and amazingly the paint hasn't cracked so it's far better than I ever expected to get it. But it isn't the same as it was! Luckily most of the worst surfaces are on the inside and a bit on the top and you can't really see them unless you really look.
What a plonker!
(Turned out the neutral light fault was because I'd pulled that wire out of the top of the gearbox as I was fitting the centre carb)
I was working on my carbs with the bike on the hydraulic stand. I'd left it overnight in my workshop so I had a massive Almax chain and padlock through the back wheel. Got the carbs back together and so let the stand down and fired up the engine (which ran OK - I was relieved to see
) but then I noticed that the green neutral light wasn't lit up. This threw me a bit and I was trying to think whether the bulb had blown or maybe the gears were in a false neutral. Engine is still idling nicely when I reached down to have a play with the gear lever and it nicked into first causing the back wheel to spin. Of course the chain and lock spun round until they smashed into the chain guard with a mighty crunch and stalled the engine. Chain and lock were well and truly stuck between the guard, swing arm and rear tyre. I finally got it all out and only then saw what a mess the chain guard was in. Totally bent and crushed in. All I could think of was recently reading that H2c chain guards are now very rare with no NOS parts available anywhere.
I have managed to carefully bend it back into more or less the right shape with hammers and wooden tools and a blanket on the worktop to spare the finish and amazingly the paint hasn't cracked so it's far better than I ever expected to get it. But it isn't the same as it was! Luckily most of the worst surfaces are on the inside and a bit on the top and you can't really see them unless you really look.
What a plonker!
(Turned out the neutral light fault was because I'd pulled that wire out of the top of the gearbox as I was fitting the centre carb)
