Cursed!!

Last weekend, at the Fraserburgh show, someone commented on the amazing reliability of Cubbie. Well that was the end of that then! Since then, Cubbie seems to be suffering from an electrical hiccup (if I'm truthful, the hiccup first developed on the way to the show), as detailed below...

I got about half way to Fraserburgh, was just picking up speed after a corner, and noticed a bit of a misfire. Thinking it was probably some dirt in the petrol (which has been sitting in the tank all winter) I stopped to investigate. The first thing I noticed was that the horn and lights didn't work, and the ammeter didn't do anything when the ignition was switched on - well that ruled dirty fuel out, and after that I was stumped. The only thing that had changed was that I had fitted a new speedo and hooked the cable up to it a few weeks ago. I wondered if I had knocked a wire whilst fighting to bend the un-bendy bit of the speedo cable into the right position. Whether wiggling the ignition switch wires had any effect I don't know, but the lights worked and after carefully putting the nacelle top back on and re-fitting the headlight, Cubbie fired up and ran smoothly all the way to the show, and I thought nothing more of the problem...

...Until club night, a couple of days later. I used the bike in the morning, it was fine, went to fire it up in the evening and it was dead. Got it going eventually - seems if I just sit and wait patiently (er, I mean, methodically go through all the things it could be and try to decide what to do...) it will fix itself. If only! Despite the torrential rain, Cubbie behaved perfectly after that, and started first kick after the meeting. T'was only when I stopped to de-mist my glasses about half way home, that it decided to die again, but after about ten mins of shivering in the cold rain (me, not it), it booted up and ran cleanly until we got to within 1 mile of Cubbie Towers when I had to stop and sort my specs again. This time there was no starting it after ten mins, so I nipped home and got the trailer. It would happen that there then commenced the heaviest and most prolonged shower of stair rod style rain, accompanied by thunder and a few sparks of lightning, resulting in a very wet and cold GBC and Mrs BC, who assisted with the loading.

Humbug.

Still, UN and the Cub guys are on the case, and in no time at all, I shall know which wires to poke and prod.