The downs and ups of motorcycling.

[Jantar]

On Tuesday, the weather was just too good not to ride. So I fired up the RE5, it started first time, and away I went. The bike's performance seemed a bit flat, particularly at low to medium revs, and although it hummed along nicely at 5000 rpm, that was almost full throttle.

Once home again I decided to check the carb settings, but oh dear, they were way out. No matter how much I tried to follow the adjustment procedure I just couldn't get them anywhere near where they should be.
However I fortunately have a spare carby which I have rebuilt with a kit from Rotary Recycle USA. This looked like the time to do the change. So on wednesday, it was off with the old carb, on with the new. This time everything adjusted perfectly. All the setting and angles worked out just right. With everything tightened up I pressed the starter button and it fired up nicely, but would only run with a bit of throttle kept on.
Stupid me,I hadn't wound in the idle adjuster. With that set, the bike settled down to a nice 1100 rpm idle speed.

Once the engine was up to temperature, I headed up the road. The bike pulled strongly from low revs and only had a slight hint of a flat spot at 3700 rpm. But about two ks from home, the bike coughed once then died. I was unable to restart it. Fortunately at about that time my wife arrived in our truck, so I got her to tow me back home.

Naturally, when anything like this occurs I check the last thing I did to the bike. All fuel hoses, vacuum tubes, cable adjusters, carb mounting nuts etc were tight, so I removed the spark plug to see if fuel mixture was coming out of the plug hole. What I found was NO Spark.
OK, time to check the ignition system.

The CDI was humming away ok, so I started at the points. They were opening and closing ok, minimal resistance across the points when closed, but no apparent continuity when open. Next I checked the coil.
The manual says 1 ohm primary and 1.5k secondary resitance. I found 1.3 okms on the primary side and 12.3K on the secondary. Suspecting this could be the problem I pulled the coil off my parts bike, however when I checked this coil I found exactly the same readings. Maybe the manual is incorrect?

Next I decided to see if there was voltage across the points when they were open and with the ignition on. There was!!! Whats more, on turning the ignition off I saw a spark at the plug. I then tried turning the engine over, and sure enough I had spark at the plug. I then replecd the plug into the engine, turned everything on, pressed the starter, and the bike fired up OK.

I hate intermittant faults like this, and on a 30yr old bike, it could be almost anywhere. Today, another perfect motorcycling day, and again the RE5 fired up nicely, It cruised just beautifully with no hint of anything wrong.

Some days life is just perfect.

[Waylander]

Wow.. Amazing how stuff like that happens. Atleast you could look at it to figure it out on your own. Just imagine what it would have been like to take it to a shop only to have it work and then get charged up for them to look at it. (did the banana cause i havnt used that one yet)

[ajturbo]

you bastared... re5..... hahahah

good to see thatt you USE it!!!!
keep it going!!!!! PLEASE

andy

[Dodgyiti]

In the past I have had older bikes and still have old cars.
To me it is a sign of my mechanical compentency when these things run like clocks. A breakdown is an insult to my knowlege [ or lack of ]
So yeah, intermittant problems give me the hump
Good on you for running the RE dude !
Don't see them or the Nortons, other than at shows these days.

[Sniper]

Nicely done mate. Its good to see that someone still riding the good old bikes and keeping them going.

I know Im too young to understand much about them, but Im very willing to learn from someone

[Riff Raff]

Some days life is just perfect.

Yep when everything goes well on an old bike, you couldn't ask for anything more!!!

[avgas]

funny i have the same problematic times with my bikes sometimes - usually i get off, curse and swear, jump on and she fires up no worries.

[MSTRS:Me]

In the past I have had older bikes and still have old cars.
To me it is a sign of my mechanical compentency when these things run like clocks. A breakdown is an insult to my knowlege [ or lack of ]
So yeah, intermittant problems give me the hump
Good on you for running the RE dude !
Don't see them or the Nortons, other than at shows these days.

Norton Owners Club were having a rally at Mahia this W/e. Saw dozens of them yesterday on the road south from Gizzy. Beautiful old bikes - still wouldn't want one tho

[merv]

How do you get on with parts for the RE5, like rotor seals and important stuff like that? Has it been a generally reliable engine and how many kms have you been on it? What about gas consumption - as that seemed to be the killer of the rotary revolution of the 70's due to the oil shock?

[Jantar]

How do you get on with parts for the RE5, like rotor seals and important stuff like that? Has it been a generally reliable engine and how many kms have you been on it? What about gas consumption - as that seemed to be the killer of the rotary revolution of the 70's due to the oil shock?

I have an almost complete spare bike which I keep solely for parts. Some NOS (New, old stock) parts are available from the USA, and some parts (like brake lines) have to be made.

The RE5 is generally reliable, although it is hard on some items like chains, brake pads etc. I have had 4 RE5s, only one of which has suffered any form of engine failure. That's why its now a parts bike. One I sold when it was only 9 months old, and one was vandalised in Turangi 20 years ago.

Gas consumption. Lets just say it loves the stuff...