Honda-SOHC

From the DVLA website

SORN isn’t needed if:
•you no longer have the vehicle and Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) have been informed
•your insurance company writes the vehicle off
•you take the vehicle abroad permanently
•you apply for a refund of vehicle tax and don’t keep the vehicle
•your vehicle was last taxed before 31 January 1998
•you are keeping the vehicle off the road and untaxed for less than 14 days


I'm surprised DVLA are saying it needs sorn if its uninsured.
If the vehicle wasn't taxed before 98 then no need to SORN.

I originally posted this on the yamaha website, but I thought I'd share here also.
Its not bike specific and it may help someone.

A few weeks ago I was riding home in the dark when a car pulled alongside and the driver shouted various obscenities about me riding without lights on,.....what he meant was my tail-light was not working....the headlight, brake light, indicators was all working fine!

Nonetheless, I was unaware!

I'm sure it was on when I left but it wasn't on now!
Without a spare bulb or screwdriver to remove the lens, I nursed it home using the brake light to show cars where i was, and rode home taking my hand off the brake when there was nothing behind me. The journey took a little longer but there wasn't that many cars about at 11pm.

Afterwards, I set about solving the problem. In the first instance, I've now got a bicycle light connected to the back rack. so if the rear light goes off again i've got a 'get me home' solution.

The other aspect was how do you know when your lights are not working?
Seeing the light bulb working when you pull away is fine but if it fails how do you know?

I tried changing the angle of a mirror, but its fiddly and its difficult to see the actual back of the bike, equally head over your shoulder........well you can't keep doing it every minute!

I wanted something at the front to tell me if the bulb was working!
Heres how i did it.....

By chance I saw the red light glowing on the back of my DVD player at home!
It was the optical output! I then found the short optical cable that went with it and went down the shed!
sure enough held against the lens the other end glowed red, not brightly but it worked.

With the principle working, I purchased a 2m Fibre optic toslink cable for a couple of quid off ebay and fitted it to the bike.



There is no need to do anything to the cable, no metal parts to rust and it works underwater!

To improve the performance it works better aimed at the bulb. So I drilled the reflector and fixed it in postion.


I could have drilled the lens and plugged it in too, but inside looked better


A quick bit of threading from back to front I ended up at the dashboard with little to spare.
a cable tie later and its very discrete.



I also found leaving the clear rubber protective cap on spreads the light better.


Its very discrete and gives you that reassurance that the bulbs are working at the back, all visible from the riding position and even better, uses NO electricity!

The bonus is it glows even brighter when the brake is applied, checking the state of both filaments.

One solution for two bulbs......anagram of one is NEO...........I've called it a NEO-light.



.

Thanks for the response guys but I posted the question back in january.

I increased the mixture screws back then and solved the problem.

However, shortly afterwards I took the bike off the road, stripped the engine, replaced all the seals, primary chain, transmission bearings, gearbox parts, forks and a shed load of aother parts!!! and its due its MOT tomorrow at 9am.
The rebuilt motor is nice and quiet but until i get it on the road I won't know if the flat spot has returned.......all being well it's still fixed.

This one is available on ebay, you might be able to transfer your 1 and 3 pipe on it.
might be worth a go, even as a temporary measure.
reasonable price so far.........

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-400-4-Motorbike-exhaust?item=251151105324&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26otn%3D8%26po%3DLCA%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D2187730128374504290

Incidently, 120c is bloody hot! 20 degrees higher than boiling water!

Engines get hot, yes but when it rains, if the engine was well over 100c then rain would boil as it hits the cylinder head and engine, steam would be generated continually.....but it doesn't.

A stationary engine will get hotter yes but the engine is air cooled,...engine paint rated at 120c is fine for an engine but NOT exhausts.

120°C is nowhere near enough for an engine paint.

120 degrees sounds like IT shouldn't be ok, but manufacturers do a lot of research and if it wasn't any good for engines they wouldn't sell it.

Ok
How about embossed letters on steves background.....


Something like this.......




obviously this is just work in progress, letters need to be outlined etc colours changed perhaps, all that sort of thing, but don't want to spend hours do something which nobody wants, so this is just a prototype, I will need steve to send me a larger version of the background anyway...

as before comments welcome.............

Ps the H shown as valves is stylised
I did try having the valves pointing towards the C instead of away, but it didn't look right,
 i.e the overall column of letters doesn't look correct if brought visually narrower at the base.

comments good or bad most welcome....

the background doesn't have to be an oval, I can concentrate on a circle if you prefer, I'll do some more varients if the design is acceptable, no problem.

As regards to the O as a cam shape with little lobes I did try it in an earlier sketch and it didn't look right at all, plus it made the design too busy.
I settled on the Honda font because the letter O was oval like a cam which did look better.
In fact the letter O came first followed by finding a font! it just so happens the Honda font contained the oval shaped letter O. so I killed two birds with one stone.