Honda-SOHC

Nice bike, open vistas, a great combination Ian!
You've made a great job of the 550, looks very nice and original spec..

When you assembled the crankcase halves is it possible that an excess of Hondabond could have entered somewhere to lead to this problem? Could the crank seals be somehow causing the extra binding if they have distorted?

I'm assuming you have not fitted the block yet.

I think you will have to split the cases again to investigate further.

Hi Dave,
The Churchill Barriers (4 in total) were built during WW2 after a German Sub got through the blockship barrier to enter Scapa Flow and sank the Royal Oak with the loss of many hundreds of lives.  Churchill brought about the building of 4 barriers linking Islands to the south of the Orkney Mainland to prevent such a thing being repeated.  Much of the work was carried out by Italian POWs, who also built the World famous Italian Chapel.  Eventually roads were constructed on the barriers so you can now travel from Holm to Burwick which previously had to be done by boat.  I'm sure Johnny will chime in with more info - don't think he (or Churchill) helped build them though!

Ian

Class act Johnny, well done that man.
The sound of it reminds me of an Alan Millyard video where you can hear the gentle ticking of a clock in the background, very calming and no rush to do anything. Your engine sounds similar, maybe have it running in the background when working on your bikes (with the garage door open if course!).

Nice work Johnny, they sound so calm running, like a little mechanical heartbeat.

Testament too, to how well the design and materials originally made them so durable.