A couple of weeks before my 50th birthday a high school
friend of mine sent me a text informing me of an online auction of a British
bike collection. Although I wasn’t looking
to buy anything until I finished my Hornet restoration I decided to take a look.
Wow, there were a couple of bikes that I was really interested in. The
Lightning Rocket was one & the Royal Enfield Interceptor was the other. I
ended up with the winning bid on both. The pick-up date and time was on my
birthday to top it all off! Pictures of the bikes as purchased are below.
I checked the oil & pushed the BSA up and down the road
to get it pumped through engine. The oil looked clean so I thought I would give
it a go. There were two issues with the bike. The first was that the rear tire was
too large for the bike and rubbed the fender lightly. It was also missing a
coil. Although it shifted through the gears I would not be taking it for a
spin. I hooked up a Norton dual lead
coil to the points and connected a battery charger. Spark was great. I had the
original tank but it was full of rust and I did not want to use it. One carb
was stuck so I cleaned out the slide to get it working smoothly. I filled the
carbs with gas via a syringe and gave it a couple of kicks. It started fine but
ran a little rough. It should be a great starting point for a restoration.
The original owner had taken it apart and restored it at
some point in time. It has pre-unit mufflers, some odd bits in an already odd
6 volt wiring system and is missing the gages. He probably was not sure where
to get cad plating done as all hardware is painted gold and some has been
swapped out. I will collect missing parts for now and line it up for
restoration behind the Interceptor.
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