anybody using wassel carbs what do you think?

baz · Sep 30, 2019

I must be completely out of touch I didn't realize burlen amal carbs were even made in the UK!!
The new set I bought roughly 20 years ago were good , just not finished!!
There was no fettling on the slides etc
Plus swarf
Also supplied with 2 ring needles and cutaway spray tube
They sat on my shelf for years but when I sorted them out they are actually very good
Can't see wassells being any worse but not tried them
But a mate has some on a Triton so I'll ask him and report back as the question is actually about how they perform
Cheers

Madnorton · Sep 30, 2019

Bernhard said:
Re Page 19, a clear case of accountants taking over the company profits policy, and then they end up killing the trade. . . . . . They really cannot see further than the end of their nose. . . . .

Never seen a poor director from that period, I would bet if you are lucky enough to find some paperwork, involving the accounts, share dealing and government loans from the 60's and 70's you may find it was not the accountants - they were just massaging, as directed to by the directors, the figures for the directors dividends and pension pots and could not care one jot about the company.

jbruney · Sep 30, 2019

Well, I really don't have a dog in this fight, so suffice it to say that my old junk Amals continue to do what they've always done. An occasional blubber with smooth overall performance, require minimal attention, very economical on fuel if used with discretion, make 850 scream like scalded cat & haul ass just as fast,..... and idle in an agreeable fashion. So it appears they may outlive me unless I just have to have something shiny under there.

Tinkerbell · Sep 30, 2019

Hi All,
I bought the Wassells for my MKIII and they work ok and get good gas mileage. The QC on the carbs as delivered was poor. One of the removable pilot jets was plugged with swarf and one of the throttle springs was covered in flaky plating. I kept the old spring and did not use the new one. I would not buy them again. Not a great way to save $100.
Sincerely,
Kara

Matchless · Sep 30, 2019

Triton Thrasher said:
Without a bit of competition, Amal might slip back into producing the Mickey Mouse shite they sold me a few years ago.

They have no competition with Monoblocs but the 389 I purchased a month ago for my AJS 650 is superb.

Tornado · Sep 30, 2019

Tinkerbell said:
Hi All,
I bought the Wassells for my MKIII and they work ok and get good gas mileage. The QC on the carbs as delivered was poor. One of the removable pilot jets was plugged with swarf and one of the throttle springs was covered in flaky plating. I kept the old spring and did not use the new one. I would not buy them again. Not a great way to save $100.
Sincerely,
Kara

So you like them despite having the same issues with swarf as reported in some Premiers and finding one bad spring, but don't think it was worth the $100 savings? Can't wrap my head around that one. Are the springs going for that kind of money where you are?

Triton Thrasher · Sep 30, 2019

Matchless said:
They have no competition with Monoblocs but the 389 I purchased a month ago for my AJS 650 is superb.

That’s good. If you didn’t have to file a slot in the throttle slide to get the cable in, you got a better product from them than I did.

acadian · Sep 30, 2019

Frankie17 said:
The Wassell carburettor was developed for a single reason Burlen cut distributor margins back to 10% off retail as at that point they had no competition for OEM replacement carburettors
Wassell Burlens largest customer at the time said enough is enough to Burlen and invested in thier own tooling once they introducd the Wassell carb Burlen quickly ammended thier dealer and Distributor terms to try retain thier business as Distributors were now using the Wassell unit price as leverage and Burlen were loosing sales rapidly

so lets put it this way if the Wassell carb had not arrived Premiers would now be £200 plus , if Burlen had continued to supply the trade at a price where everyone could make a margin
the Wassell carb would not exist and Wassell would still be selling Amal products as they did happily for 50 years or more before Burlen took over and basically squeezed distributors and dealers margins

As a result there is now a void in Burlens range no complete pre monoblocs / no Gp / No mk1.5 carbs available for sale and very sparadic delivery of MK1 range due to lack of re investment in the brand

Burlen have shot themselves in the foot and killed thier own cash cow and not been ripped off by Wassell who were only protecting thier own market share and saw no future with Burlen as a supplier

competition is good it helps keep rouge suppliers like Burlen honest

interesting bit of clarity, thanks

Craig · Sep 30, 2019

I have always tried to support my local bike shops , the closest is a bigger all moto-sports shop so difficult to get Norton parts there , the other BritCycle in Wolfville NS has been for the most part good , with quality Brand name products , however in last couple years the brand name parts have become very costly and not always as advertised ... a bummer, as now mostly I am having to search farther afield to get needed parts ,thank goodness for WalridgeMotors in Ontario , and still , usually get my orders quickly , they sell very good quality Brand name genuine parts !

Joe Schlaberdowski · Oct 2, 2019

Fast Eddie said:
I do find it interesting that folk often criticise the old Brit bike industry for being ‘run by bean counters’ and yet often those same folk will scrimp and scrape and bend over backwards to find a slightly cheaper source of a part rather than buy from those suppliers with a proven reputation and / or trying to do the right thing.

Often at old bike meets I hear folk proudly proclaiming how they saved a few quid with their Mickey Mouse knock off parts and how it is “ok considering the price” ... which, of course, usually translates to “it’s actually a bit shit but I’m too tight to care”.

I know that most of us don’t have money to pour down the drain, but we really have never had it so good with regards to parts quality, availability and choice. If we don’t support the good guys we will be left with no choice but the cheap Mickey Mouse shite... except it then won’t be cheap any more!

Then it’ll be just like the good (i.e. bad) old days!

You're right! Nothing's cheap when your job went to another country and now you are down to minimum wage and scraping to survive because those bean counters went "overseas" cheap and eventually even did themselves out of a job. Well, if your own country won't protect you from the predatory practices of other countries, maybe you have to go someplace else for your stuff. That's a hard call. But this I know for sure, one way or another you are done out of what you invented - developed - worked so hard for and thought was yours. Because it's a hungry world. Either they eat tonight or you eat tonight. And they sure as "kumbaja" hell aren't gonna let you have it if they can take it. I've watched my country being eaten alive while mush headed fools proclaim "it's global". I can just hear the modern day equivalent of WWII propaganda whispering over the airwaves, "it's global. Give up. It's global." It boils down to fair deals between trading partners and outright being preyed upon.

Onder · Oct 2, 2019

Capital goes where it is treated best. Business is about making money. Investment is about risking your savings to make money.
It isnt that hard to park your money in advantageous locations about the globe and you can fairly easily hold multiple passports too.
When this is the situation you get where we are at today.
Virtue Signal: I dont buy imported pasties!

Joe Schlaberdowski · Oct 2, 2019

Onder said:
Capital goes where it is treated best. Business is about making money. Investment is about risking your savings to make money.
It isnt that hard to park your money in advantageous locations about the globe and you can fairly easily hold multiple passports too.
When this is the situation you get where we are at today.
Virtue Signal: I dont buy imported pasties!

Tipp O'Neal (sp?) who I did not like, did say, "All politics is local." To say "Capital goes where it is treated best", takes out of consideration the human beings behind it all. And it is a justification for a whole host of ills and crimes. Going down that road, why have a border, and, for that matter, why have a lock on your own door? Somehow, to justify stripping a country of everything it has, "Capital" has become the "man without a country", not subject to patriotism or feelings for those around him. And not subject to any constraints, moral or otherwise, somehow untouchable, skipping from country to country like George Soros who sold out his own people during WWII just to make a buck.

You know, having read much in other posts here and other places, I wanted to say something about all this, but I have second thoughts now, wanting to get the Commando safely on the road before it snows. So sorry.

baz · Oct 2, 2019

Spoke with a mate of mine this evening who recently fitted a pair of wassells to his Triton
He says there is nothing in it between them and Amals

johnm · Oct 2, 2019

jbruney said:
I always kind of figured Canada being in the Commonwealth would have an advantage on price and such when buying from England and visa versa. I mean that's what it's all about right?
Not trying to stir up anything but the same should be with Aus & NZ. There is more than just support when there's a war or other catastrophe.... Tit for tat on financial dealings should enter somewhere. Forgive me because I'm just an American and we screw everyone everywhere anytime all of the time.

No. Any special deals vanished when the UK joined the EU. And I sure don’t see them coming back Brexit or not.

I just checked. In the 1950s 60 +% of our exports went to the UK. Today it’s 6.5 %

The UK entering the EU caused major economic recession in NZ in the 70s but in the end we became more competitive.

China is now our biggest export market and second largest source of tourists.

Tornado · Oct 2, 2019

johnm said:
No. Any special deals vanished when the UK joined the EU. And I sure don’t see them coming back Brexit or not.

I just checked. In the 1950s 60 +% of our exports went to the UK. Today it’s 6.5 %

The UK entering the EU caused major economic recession in NZ in the 70s but in the end we became more competitive.

China is now our biggest export market and second largest source of tourists.

China is our biggest source of our citizens being put into gulags on arbitrary charges....

johnm · Oct 2, 2019

Tornado said:
China is our biggest source of our citizens being put into gulags on arbitrary charges....

yes. I never said I liked it very much. Look at their influence in the Pacific

Bernhard · Oct 5, 2019

Madnorton said:
Never seen a poor director from that period, I would bet if you are lucky enough to find some paperwork, involving the accounts, share dealing and government loans from the 60's and 70's you may find it was not the accountants - they were just massaging, as directed to by the directors, the figures for the directors dividends and pension pots and could not care one jot about the company.

what about BSA in the 1970s then? Whatever happened to them?
As with the rest of the UK industry, how long have you got? Poor management, complacency, a lack of new models and more led to decline (by 1959 Honda had overtaken them). By the early ’70s the whole UK industry was in crisis.
A government-organised rescue operation in 1973 led to the takeover of BSA-Triumph motorcycle operations by Norton-Villiers, later known as Norton Villiers Triumph.

Triton Thrasher · Oct 5, 2019

Joe Schlaberdowski said:
George Soros who sold out his own people during WWII just to make a buck.

Born in 1930, apparently. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

Joe Schlaberdowski · Oct 5, 2019

Triton Thrasher said:
Born in 1930, apparently. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Soros

Several ways to read the "facts". The version I heard dealt with the zeal with which Soros went about the inventory on behalf of the Nazis. That interpretation may have been colored by his later currency dealings which came damn near destroying several countries. There is at least one country to which he cannot go. The main point though is his "money" dealings by which he enriched himself were at the expense of nations. Nations of people. He did not build industries in a usual way, thus putting people to work, but his investments, at best, were to further progressive causes, whether the people wanted them or not.

anybody using wassel carbs what do you think?

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