G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Information relating to the Matchless G11 or AJS Model 30 600cc twin
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Stompbox
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Joined: Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:58 am
Location: Oldham, Lancashire, England

G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by Stompbox »

After my first post a few months ago, I have to tell you that I've spent a fair bit of time in my garage putting the Matchless all back together, setting it up, and cleaning it.

I have just taken it out for the very first time for a quick turn "around the block".

Apart from having left the speedo disconnected, and my fumbling with the gears (over-thinking up is down etc.) all is OK. Furthermore I would say IT HASN'T HALF GOT SOME GRUNT WHEN YOU OPEN THE THROTTLE - Cor!

Going to change the engine oil again, and then attempt some serious wheel rim cleaning to get them more presentable.. The silencer was really red rusty and horrible, but I took it off the bike and spent about half a day on it with coarse and fine wire wool, a scraper, and then some metal polish. It's by no means in great condition, but it is physically sound, and is mostly shiny chrome now, and is "inkeeping" with the rest of the bike.

So can I ask you guys about the advance retard control - I know you retard it somewhat when starting from cold, but do you normally ride with the engine fully advanced?

I was going to attach a picture, but I seem to remember that you have to put them on another site & load its details on this one.....?
MikeM.
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by MikeM. »

Hi Geoff, Yes you do ride with the ignition fully advanced, normally retard the ignition about one third to start but you will soon learn.
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Rob Harknett
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by Rob Harknett »

Let the bike warm up a bit, after a short distance fully advance the lever. Do that too quick, when you slow down or stop at lights, the engine will spit back and stall. As above, you'll get to know the bike and its habits.
g5wqian
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by g5wqian »

hi geoff ;
i have a 56 ajs model 30 , same bike pretty much .

i run the advance at full when riding normally unless it conks out at the lights and i need to kick it over .

it is possible to use the retard a bit when going uphill if it "pinks" at all but in general drop a gear and back off the throttle if you hear the pinking sound on steep hills .

on starting retard the ignition every time you have to kick it over even when its hot or it may kick back hard on you .
the advance/retard lever on mine is full advanced when the lever is closed fully and retarded when its pulled back a little , for starting i give it about a 1/4" gap between the closed position and lever part open , ie you see the cable slot for a 1/4" when i have it set to start .

the air valve [ choke] is fully open when the lever is pulled all way round towards the tank and is closed when the lever is back against the stop , ie when running normally you will have the cable under tension all the time , ie for starting you will move lever to the front where it closes itself against the lever stop .
once engine is running you can open the air valve bit by bit to fully open for normal riding .
.


when starting i turn the idle [large] screw on the carb round clockwise 3/4 of a turn so it idles fast without conking out when its cold , and then i decrease it bit by bit as engine warms up over a few minutes and until i get it warm and have a stable low rev idle .

i do note that if the idle is too low and you put the bike on the side stand, it may start to cough and conk out , but if idle revs are a bit higher it will run ok if leant over on the stand [ obviously the float chamber is the issue here ] .
i dont usually fire the bike up and ride off straight away , i let it warm at least a couple of minutes if not more .

on starting from cold i allways remove the oil tank cap and check that oil is running out the return pipe just inside the tank filler neck .

i dont run the oil tank filled to top , because when the oil gets hot it will expand in tank and level will rise a fair bit and then you get oil over the rear wheel tyre etc due to it coming out the overflow pipe in the back of the tank .
it seems better to have the oil tank filled 2/3 to 3/4 when cold and then when you are riding and engine gets hot along with the oil, it will usually not go above the upper fill level mark ..


i use straight 30 grade oil all year round in engine , i also put tins on the ground under the centre stand area when its in the garage because it does drip a bit over time in that area .

i dont really have an issue with wet sumping as i run the bike every week or two at least , but i do need to run it up for a couple of minutes before checking oil level so that anything in the sump is pumped out into the oil tank so that the level is able to be correctly checked .

one time before id started the engine from cold , i topped the oil tank up to the upper level marking and then when i rode it out and came back i had oil all over the rear wheel/tyre area and thats when i found out for myself about the amount of oil expansion when hot and also about allowing time for it to circulate and settle in the tank when engine is first started from cold before topping the tank up with oil .

im currently using MITAS H-02 tyres , 3.50x19 front and 4.00x19 rear although the front is hardly worn after 1700miles i think the rear wont last much over 3000 miles at the rate its wearing down , however i do use the throttle and the power when riding the bike and as you say there is plenty of grunt from it for a 60 year old bike . ..
the tyres are perhaps fairly soft compound and grip well but it did have me thinking what i ought to do with regards to rear tyre , although maybe £40 a time is cheap even if it means replacing more regularly .

one other important thing i might mention , which it took me some time to work out why i got bruises on my right inner knee area that i couldnt identify where they came from , and then found out it was the oil tank filler caps fault when i kicked the bike over on the kickstart and my leg would allways come down and the oil tank cap catch me almost everytime .

i i guess if you have longer legs it might not occur, but i can say it took a fair time to work out how i got the bruises and it wasnt immediately obvious .

i dont have a folding kickstart as its a burman box on mine , so whether the angle of the kickstart is the reason for my coming into contact with the filler cap i dont know .

cant see an easy solution to get the oil filler cap farther under the bikes frame and out the way of the inside of my knee .

all the best
ian
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Expat
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by Expat »

Hi Ian,

Some really useful advice there and made me chuckle coz I felt exactly the same re bruising to the inside right knee. :)

Was baffled as you say until the little light came on when the penny dropped. :P

Steve
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These are my principles, if you don’t like them, I have others. (Groucho Marx)
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BultacoBen
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by BultacoBen »

Well let's see some pictures then!
http://www.ben-eddings.com
1966 Matchless G2 CSR scrambler
1986 Suzuki DR600 long-range explorer
1971 BSA B50T street tracker
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Eamonn
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Re: G11CSR - Finally Out On The Road

Post by Eamonn »

Stompbox wrote:I was going to attach a picture, but I seem to remember that you have to put them on another site & load its details on this one.....?
As a member you can upload pictures onto the Forum area - it's only non-members who have to use an alternative system.
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