Out in the sun

Looking good, Dan.  We will have to take the ES2s out sometime or maybe a tiddlers run, you on the Jubilee, me on the Puch.

It's looking really good Dan and love the Roadholders!   How's it running?    What a shame the Jubilee wasn't marketed with decent set of forks and front brake - how does it handle?  

I took my Navigator out for the first long run of the year down to our boat near Dartmouth in company with my son on the Royal Enfield Bullet.   They were both very happy cruising at 55 to 60 for the 140 miles there and back.   A good opportunity to check out all the deep maintenance and new parts of recent months - photo attached. 

Navi really pampered this year with a full service, replacement timing side cover with cleaned and serviced oil pressure release valve, new seals, filter and oil changes, electronic ignition retimed accurately using a strobe, new exhaust pipes from an excellent ebay source, and Feked silencers and clamps (fitted perfectly and the kick start actually misses the right hand silencer!), new NOC shop rear shocks and rear wheel refurbished and rebuilt beautifully by Steve Somerfield with new stainless rim and spokes from Central Wheels.

I hadn't met Steve before but highly recommended (his details are on the NOC Services list), as are the Feked and ebay parts - if people want the exhaust pipe source let me know and I will dig it out.   She's now running really well so once work allows, the cafes are open and restrictions eased a run out would be great fun!  

Cheers Nick    

Well folks, my Navi won´t see the sun too soon. Cylinder and new piston are at the engine shop for measuering and honing (again) and I will have to take the engine apart and clean out the sludge trap and oil holes. Hope this cures my engine troubles.

Have many carefree miles!

Uli

Hi Uli, good luck with the re-build, just a thought based on getting to know my Navigator over three years.  If I was running a freshly rebuilt Lightweight engine in I would be gentle with the revs through the gears and avoid running it for any length of time over 45 to 50 mph and avoid letting it labour at low revs or get over hot until I had done 500 miles.   I would then change the oil and clean the filters.  I would then gradually increase my use of the performance / revs until I had completed 1000 miles.  I hope that isn't stating the obvious but with 60's engines running in is really important to avoid seizures or excessive wear!   Nick   

Hi Dan, almost anything is better than a Jubilee front brake but you are right, the Navigator front end must transform the bike!   As for tappets did you replace the cam followers when you rebuilt the engine?   Everything I have read and heard over many years says that much of the Lightweight 'tappet' noise comes from worn cam followers.  But I've never heard a report back from someone who has replaced them to say how much of a difference it made so I am rather loath to invest in replacing mine when my Navigator isn't that noisy and is running well!   Frankly I've always found really careful tappet adjustment makes a huge difference although I don't think a Lightweight engine will ever be 'mechanically quiet'.    I would welcome any feedback on cam followers.   As for the ES2 Scrambler - that looks fantastic!    What frame have you used - is it a Rickman?   Nick

Whoa! Had a BSA Shooting Star 441 for 10 years used to go down to CCM for bits, asked them in 1977 what a CCM engine would cost £680!

My Mum & Dad said I could only have a 350 cc bike when I passed my test, so I pushed it and bought a 441. Unfortunately didn't know about 350 cc Gold Stars as a spotty teenager!

Both bikes look good!

John

That sounds a fantastic combination Dan, and I can confirm that Bullet chain case and seal is an absolute peach - I've never had the slightest hint of a leak and it's an attractive casting that polishes up well to!    A stroke of genius to use it.    As for the BSA 44 I've always had a strange hankering for one of their very last 500cc singles, the street scrambler B50SS which they rather controversially called the Goldstar......it uses the engine that CCM developed into their fantastic competition engine in the late 70s and 80s.   Sadly they are difficult to find in half decent condition and very expensive when they do come up.....I can dream!   Nick

Dan,

The Jubilee looks great.

Did you ever post a topic on this forum about fitting Roadholders to your Jubilee or did it come with them?

am thinking of fitting Roadholders to my Jubilee if I can find some and it would be good to know what is required to do this.

Regards,

Dennis

The 441 was developed by BSA when they increased the stroke of the B40 from 79 x  70 mm to  B44 79 x 90 mm, the bike was developed for Jeff Smith and I think he won the World title on one in 1965/1966.

All these bikes are based round the Earlier C15/ Tiger Cub type unit engines! I had a race with a B50 Gold Star SS in the mid 70s and  the 441 was a faster machine, though on paper it rated as less torque and bhp! Mine was a 1970 model and I think his was 71/72 with of course the oil in the frame.

The competition machine was the B44 Victor MX and another Victor was sold in the States in the Street Scrambler mode. Alan Clews bought all the B44 B50 stuff from BSA after the collapse, he was based in Shiffnall Street Bolton at that time. Bike magazine did an article " The Man who bought 10,000 Clutch plates" in the mid 1970s. The engine on mine was rated 30 bhp and the B50 32 bhp. Most 441s went to America. You will struggle to get competition machines now as like everything they are sought after. CCM's are fetching big money. But as I pointed out they were big money in their day!

Even though we had joined the EU, European tarifs made exporting them to the EU problematic. I remember Clew's saying British firms were being driven out of businesss Through urban regeneration he was moved out to Breightmet Bolton at some later point. Again many CCM's went to the States.

Spanish and Italian off-roaders were subsidised at that time.

John

Thanks Dan, yes a Navigator is the answer but I am a short rider and had to adapt the Jubilee to ride comfortably using lowered rear shocks and a thin racing seat. I would not want to do that to a Navigator!

Dennis

Hi Dan have you ridden it?

John