Ooh , Fiftyish & foggy ! Idea conditions for making really good power with crispy throttle response. Wet roads out in farm country , make those Dunlops work. Expecting some slipping , what a thrill. Aired tires and checked oil yesterday , think all I need is a can of fuel from hardware store to wake her up a bit. Gotta go before fog burns off & roads dry out. Riding farm country might be a bit of a bore but it’s a hundred times better than riding in town and you can open her up and let her run wot out there !  

I’m sick , I absolutely go looking for spilled soil n gravel , not so much the paint. You gotta read it , how much  , how deep , what medium. The best ones you hit it , drift thru it , regain traction inches from shoulder , cheap thrills. I’m gone !

One particular intersection, a 3 way , side road breaks off to the left how perfect is that. Only a stop sign for side road and a nicely kept triangular island of dirt n gravel , or at least till I spread it everywhere. So break left cut that island in two , natural weight of the bike causes drift , 404s won’t spend much time without traction , curve of the road takes me to the edge of the shoulder , but safe to run off blacktop right there. Big fun minimal danger. Maybe you remember a guy named Bruce Lee , hey. And maybe you remember his famous line “ Be Like Water “ , well everyone should study exactly what he was trying to tell us. I can get further into it later , if needed. Gotta motivate , gotta do what I didn’t yesterday , sometimes you gotta ride !

I am surprised with tear down of 250 engine , other than missing clutch arm by 1 tooth I found everything else inside to be assembled correctly. Good to know my engine building skills were good even 44 years ago , could have been a bit cleaner but overall it is real good. Not even any gasket or seal bad , had assembled it with an old skool sealant “Gaskacinch” , basically a rubber cement. Obviously not good 4 decades later. Think once everything is cleaned I will use  3 Bond (grey) or gasket eliminator (purple) - (aka:grape  jelly) on the 2 main cases. Not sure what I will use on cam/trans covers, I will see what adheres to the British cast aluminum best. So it will get the best of care with all my years of experience and best sealants made. No expectations, it will seep , leak or dribble its British ! To cam it or not , I have chosen not to cam this engine , stock cam , stock piston. Only performance goodies will be head , intake & exhaust. Let’s just say she will be a heavy breather !

The one thing I didn’t mock-up , rear wheel. All new rear brake , sprocket on one side and a spacer on the other side. Spacer has a pressed on washer that hides/protects the sealed bearing behind. Over confident that it fit , it got powder coated with the hubs & some other bits. It don’t fit.

Jetting for the 30mm Amal will start with stock jetting of the 28mm as per my Haynes manual. Elevation here is about 57 feet above sea level , so I dial it in for sea level , any mountainous rides will require some smaller main jets , the needle is in the lowest possible position so main jet is only way to adjust for elevation , idle mixture screw has no effect above idle. My only change is the slide , I will use a 3 1/2 cut away instead of a 3 , in anticipation of it needing extra air off of idle on the snap. Not building a race bike , LOL , I demand perfect jetting , it gets you max performance and possibly max fuel mileage. I like good fuel mileage , performance is my final goal !

Amal Concentric 930
3 1/2 slide cut away
106 needle jet
2 ring needle , clip in top groove ( lowest needle position )
200 main jet
1 1/2 turns out to start for idle mixture

Initial settings , definitely close , any main jet corrections will be due to porting & exhaust changes. We will see if she is a turd or a turd with a bit of an attitude , cause all my bikes have an attitude ! Not building a race bike , honest , trust me !