classic motorcycle forum

Hi Jake,
Yes, I remember the Fulmar. It was a pretty little British lightweight at a time when generally they were very ordinary particularly when compared to the Japanese bikes on the market at the same time.

Nowadays, with a few modern upgrades to the electrics and unleaded petrol a bike like the Fulmar can be a very sweet little jigger. I have seen photos of one fitted with a full width Honda drum brake on the front which both improved the braking no end and made it look even better.

As you can guess, the various mods I mention cure most of the nasties that British lightweights suffered from. Pity the factory didn't do it when they were new. Personally, at the time you speak of I'd seen the light and bought a Suzuki M15. It was a real eye opener.
Cheers,

Congratulate your friend on a marvellous idea.

The logical thing to do would be to get another bike fitted with the same 200cc Villiers engine. That simplifies the spares and tools situation.
Several makes of bike fitted the same Villiers 200cc engine and the engine didn't change much from year to year so you don't necessarily have to have exactly the same make and model of bike as your friend.
Having bikes with a similar performance also makes riding in company much easier as you are in harmony so to speak. When there is a wide disparity in performance it can be frustrating for both parties.
I spent a glorious month tackling Alpine passes on a 250 two summers ago. It is a very popular biker activity in September after the main holiday period has passed. Just about every summit has its horde of riders enjoying a break and looking at each others bikes. Pity there were so few British riders, they don't know what they are missing.
Cheers,

 

This type of dynamo fitted with a set of points on the end was a fairly common fitment in the 1930's. It enabled manufacturers to convert an engine designed for magneto ignition to coil ignition simply and cheaply. Several makers used it. Royal Enfield and New Imperial immediately spring to mind as I sit here. Components are still fairly easily found.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the idea, the major problem from a modern day usage point of view is the low output of the dynamo. It was barely adequate for battery charging and lights when new. It goes nowhere near meeting modern expectations for lights, stoplight, indicators,etc. Its no great problem, you just have to be aware of it and be alert for signs the dynamo output isn't keeping up with battery usage. Nor should you expect bright white lights, an interesting shade of yellow is more like it.

The only other problem I experienced with a Royal Enfield fitted with this system was poor oil sealing between the engine and dynamo so that the dynamo had a tendency to get drowned with oil and stop charging. As I was a very green and very broke teenage apprentice at the time I suspect I was the major source of the the problem as I didn't have a clue what to do about it so merely wiped the excess oil off and kept on riding until it happened again. I never did anything to actually cure it.
Lucas did a convenient booklet covering how to look after this sort of stuff, "Instructions for Lucas Electric Lighting & Ignition Equipment for Motorcycles". It covers your Raleigh & Sturmey Archer engine very nicely and as Justin says above, the VMCC Library will have a copy.
 Cheers,

I don't know what parts you're after or where you live but an easy to place to start looking is on eBay Italia. There is always a steady stream of Zigolo stuff coming up and nowadays its no great drama buying stuff from another country using PayPal.

Even if you don't buy much it will show you what parts are easy to get and what is a little trickier.

Zigolos don't seem to be that collectable in Italy at the moment. The smaller Moto Guzzi Cardellino seems to be more fashionable so get in quick before the Italians realise they are ignoring a real fun little bike.
Cheers,

Strange isn't it. I very carefully remove all those obsolete nipples from my vintage bikes and replace them with the modern type so I can actually get grease in to where it's needed. With modern ball ended nipples you can really pump the grease in whereas with the old sort all you do is get grease smeared around the outside and nothing where it matters. My bikes now ride much more smoothly with properly greased front forks.

I understand your concern though, you want the original appearance for when it matters. I keep the old nipples and replace them when I display a bike so it looks okay but the new ones go back in the first time it gets greased again. It's a bit of a nonsense but the improvement in riding comfort makes it worthwhile.

Having grease nipples shake out through vibration is a bit of a new one though. The common thread size for these nipples is 1/4" BSF so I'd suggest possibly renewing any worn nipple threads on the bike by helicoiling them. Very easy to do at home.
Cheers,   
 

Hi Chris,
If you look for Barry Hartnells ad (The Vintage MotorCycle Swap Shop in Wangaratta) in the latest copy of "Just Bikes" you'll see he has a huge amount of Jawa/Cz stuff for sale.
Other wise give Andrew O'Sullivan down in Churchill a ring.
Cheers, Bob

None of you have mentioned the obvious. You can start at a high price and let yourself be beaten down to what you want but its very difficult to start low and push the price up when you have a potential buyer.
And of course if you are very, very lucky (I never am) someone might just pay the high asking price without haggling.
All the price means is that the owner is willing to sell. The rest is up for negotiation.
Cheers, Bob

I've just returned from a month long holiday riding the Alpine passes in Italy and France.
It was fantastic and I was impressed at how many bike riders I saw but I was surprised at how few British riders were there. Out of the literally thousands of riders we shared the passes with we saw maybe a dozen bikes with British plates.
Am I missing something here?
Cheers,