Get your motor running

I may not be able to ride out on the highway yet, but getting my motor running is a major milestone and somewhat of a relief. I've jumped the backlog of blog posts about cabling, wiring and plumbing in the brakes to report that the beast is alive.

I expected a whole heap of electrical or fuel/air niggles to resolve, but there were no such problems. Instead there was a mechanical problem that was entirely my fault. When I first tried to start it the resistance on the kick pedal felt wrong, and further inspection revealed that the flywheel was actually contacting something behind. I removed the flywheel and uncovered two potentially disastrous problems. Firstly, I used a spring washer on the stator bolts, and the top one that holds the cable support was slightly too prominent and had come into contact with the rear of the flywheel. Needless to say I replaced the washer with a wavy one. Secondly, and rather embarrassingly, there was a wavy washer lodged between two magnets on the flywheel:



I've no ideas where it came from, and I'm finding it hard to believe the washer was there when I fitted the flywheel as I would have checked it. Perhaps it was sitting loose in the mag housing or around the stator and got picked up after I fitted it?

Anyway, here's the video taken by my wife on a mobile phone in the late evening so it's a bit dull. It isn't the first start, as she'd have been standing there for over an hour; It's the second. I'm also pleased to report the noise didn't wake the baby.