Miss Sabotage – Page 2 – Royal Enfied Blog

She’s Got a Look and a Name

We’ve spent some time debating what to do with the Royal Enfield. Today I think we finally achieved the vision.

After staring at her for a while, we finally started disassembling. But not before I named her….Mimosa. Yeah, girly as it is, it’s based off the paint scheme. I LOVE blood oranges and mimosas….combine the two and you get my favorite Sunday beverage. I was drinking a blood orange mimosa when this thought initially crossed my mind. It stuck. Her name is Mimosa for sure.

Changing bars, headlight, back fender, getting rid of speedo, changing seat to pan seat, possibly extending swingarm, black frame, keeping similar colors, custom side bag.

I’m a little squishy…going to try to adjust that.

This was the first set of bars we put on. Then we went with the slight curve. Also getting rid of the speedometer. Who needs that thing anyway?

MIMOSA! The inside of a blood orange matches the tank.

That Special Touch

Spent another day trying to get a spark. Ended up having a bad coil wire, points needed to be cleaned more and also set. Got the spark. Hooked everything back up and went at it again. This is a kick start bike – it takes a special touch, or “song and dance,” to get her to go. Ryan took a stab at it, no go. Then British Billy (the Brit bike expert) got on it with SUCCESS!

My Support, a Special Thanks

Of course I can’t do this work alone. THANK YOU.

I’m surrounded by a bunch of people with valuable knowledge and years of experience at the Fear City garage. My guy Ryan, aka Agent MAYhEM, is my #1 support.

He’s recently collaborated with Mitch “The Butcher,” and English Billy to create Rolling Idols. Together they build full custom street rods, choppers and bobbers influenced by the streets of Chicago. Billy has the knowledge and experience with British bikes, plus has built some sick rides. Mitch is helping with the look and custom fabrication. (( rollingidols.com ))

I also have “Royal Mike,” the Royal Enfield expert. He owned a dealership, has a plethora of Enfields from every generation, plus the tools and pieces to go with them in what can could be an Enfield museum, right in the garage.

Getting Ready to Start’er Up

Today’s goal: to start the bike

We put the carburetor back on, cleaned and checked the gap on the spark plugs, cleaned any electric connection. The other day I took off all rocker box covers and we checked the tolerance on the cylinder – great condition.

Proceeded to create a make-shift catheter with a Mt. Dew bottle to hold fuel. Filled with fuel and strapped it to the bike.

THEN we decided to check to see if we can get a spark. No go. Turned into a project for another day.

Step 1 to Starting the Bike: The Carb

WORKING WITH THE CARBURETOR

We need to see if the bike will actually start. So we’re checking it piece by piece, starting with the carburetor, or carburetter. A few days ago my #1 guide and support, Ryan, took it apart and had it cleaned, today we put it back together. (Now it’s the only shiny part of the bike)

I have an Amal 389 series monobloc carburetor. This is an important piece to understand, so I spent some time reading and learning about this specific carb, getting an idea of how it works, how to tune it….and just what it is. The goal of the carb is to mix the right amount of gas with air so that the engine runs properly. The throttle controls the volume of mixture and therefore the power. If there is not enough fuel mixed with air, the mixture is weak (causes poor acceleration, erratic slow running, overheating) . Too much fuel mixed with the air can make the engine run rich (bogs down, black smoke, carb leaks and wastes gas).

HELPFUL HINTS

For right now we just needed to get everything in approximate positions (main jet, pilot jet, etc)….we can fine tune later. All the diagrams and tips I found online will for sure be useful.