AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Finally I have managed to get to Burnham Beeches, local nature spot. Its only about 15 miles away, 10 of it on the M40 so its a good little test ride. So far I had bee turned back 3 times, once when I realised the front forks were rattling loose, once when the heavens opened and I was not in wet weather gear and the last time because it started misfiring badly. Investigation showed that one carb was full of fine particle rust below the main jet, a real sludge of it. So an inline filter complements the new and undamaged carb filter and I tried for the 4th time. Brilliant 70mph no misfiring. I carried on and even managed to restart after stopping for coffee and again when I bought some petrol. I am beginning to enjoy this bike and its reminding me of the performance of my T140V bought in 1977. Got caught in in the closure of an M4 section and ended up blasting down the outside of the queuing traffic as they had conveniently left the cones nice and wide. Big smile when I got home.

well done Clive , just normal fettling when you get a new bike

True Peter, in fact given that the bike had not run for more than 30 years I have actually not done that much to it.

clive wrote:..........given that the bike had not run for more than 30 years I have actually not done that much to it.

Now there's a surprise.

G15's seem to have become quite commonplace considering they were (all ?) exported.
I know of four regularly ridden G15's in our Sussex section and all owners really enthuse over them, except for Thrifty Peter - he has had to keep replacing the petrol in his.

haha

I doubt they were all exported Neville. I turned down purchasing one from a bloke in Tooting in 1980. I thought it was a bodge job, after all it was a Norton engine in a Matchless frame.

I find these discussions intriguing, bit like when Rob Harknett gets going on the prewar bikes. Out of interest I read the 2014 thread where guru John Donne expounds on these models. It's mind boggling the way they played with half a dozen letters and numbers to produce what seems to be a very varied set of models aimed at very different uses. Put another letter in: different animal. Take a letter out: Totally different animal. I get the impression that the P11 was the cream. It doesn't surprise me as models combining scrambles frames, sometimes one size down, with powerful engines are always good. Think G80CS, Triumph Adventurer, Goldie. Even the Mountain Cub seems a far better bike than other cubs.
Stan

Ah well should not have said at club night "I went to Burnham Beeches and for the first time I got the bike back in the garage without any further work needed". The next day I decided to take it for a longer run. It started once after a lot of kicking then died, no spark apparent. Shouldn't have opened my mouth as it annoyed the motorcycle gods. Will look tomorrow but my money is on the condenser failing as this is not the first time no spark has been a problem. I feel a condensectomy and my spare Brightspark "easycap" may be the way forward. It saved my G11CS (which I personally consider is the cream but then Stan I have never owned a P11) and the spare "easycap" has sat taped in the headlight for the last 8 years so its probably safe to use it. Motorcycle gods just stop listening!

Sorry Clive, I was only talking about the hybrids. Actually just revealing my bias toward comp type bikes, as I don't know about any of the twins, only had Triumphs and I only liked the engines of those. I did have an uncle who loved AMC twins. He was a mechanic at Hilliers in Oxted for umpteen years so knew bikes. Mind you the first one of his I remember was a twin port Ariel with one port blocked by a large piece of wood !
He used to ride an outfit every year up to the Scottish Islands, until he succumbed to a Morris Traveller in the 60's. So that's my full knowledge of twins.
Stan