Beating the RBRR Blues

I can see this is going to be a biannual pattern - "watching" the RBRR message diary and wising I was there. The build up on the Club Triumph forum is agonising, although it's nice not to have to deal with the stress. Driving around Britain in 48 hours in an old car seems like a good old-fashioned thing to do. It pulls out some survival instincts even from the most unlikely people. You spend half of the time with all your senses strained listening and looking for bits falling off your car.

So, what could I do to replace the RBRR this year? Plan A was to go to my local pub's German beer festival. It starts at midday and goes on into the wee hours. A friend from Hobart was all set to fly up and join in. But he missed his flight. So to kill a few hours I thought I'd have a bit of a check over BOB and do a few little things I haven't got around to



1) Why is it the car takes a bit longer to start than it should? I've always meant to check the starter motor wiring out... and I did today. Bloody good thing I did too!


Three wires had badly cracked insulation - difficult to spot tucked away underneath the manifold. I patched them up and now the car starts immediately. I wish I'd checked that out 3 years ago.

2) Carb needles. I'd been recommended some different profile needles. Here's the chart I knocked up via James Carruther's SU Needle Compare-o-rama.

I was running on the BFG needles (the orange line on the chart) and finding things a bit lumpy. So I ordered some BFZ (the green line)... whacked them in this afternoon.

Instant improvement - smoother idle, better driving at low rpm and more refined acceleration. It used to "wharrrrrp" from 3k rpm up, but now it just pulls straight through to 6k with very little fuss. I must say it's a lot less hassle changing SU needles than the late 1.5 inch Strombergs I had on the GT6. Didn't even need to adjust the idle.



It's not easy for me to really try the car out where we live - it's a long way to the nearest fast road... so tomorrow's Sunday trip to the hills will be extra fun. I get to try out the needles on the fast road and the bushes on the dirt roads. Let's hope the rest of the day at the beer festival doesn't give me too much of a hangover!