Christmas in March

Yes Yves! You've finally let the cat out of the bag!!!!

While I am sad the bike is no longer sunning itself in the Mediterranean, I can't think of a better place for those tires to touch the ground than in your charge. And I know you know how to keep the bike in top shape.

Congratulations to you, and so so good to see you standing over your new baby.

With all the best regards,

-Kenny

Not a bad idea Yves... With this bike you might spend more time on the road than in your shed.

The show must go on...

That is a top, TOP bike Yves.

I do not mind admitting that I am rather envious!

Can’t wait for your updates when you start fitting the supercharger...

Good for you Yves
That's one beautiful bike !
sam

Sometimes a friend asks you for a little help but in fact he is making you a HUGE favour in doing that.
As some of you may know, about a month ago I accompanied Yves on his trip to a certain Mediterranean island to see this beauty and meet with its very nice (past) owner.

After a huge crate landed last week in front of Yves’ home and his ‘Precious’ was unloaded, someone got the boring chore to ride it to Yves’ workshop about 8km away.

Sorry folks, it was me.

The bike easily started on second kick, very quickly held a metronomic idle, its thundering exhaust note bringing neighbours out of their houses...two fingers on the clutch, a very light touch on the gearlever and the Sunburst was away.

The engine feels full and well behaved at low revs, crisp and tight as soon as the throttle opens up. It pulls effortlessly with very little vibration and the bike happily lurches forward at the slightest twist of the wrist.

The Mk2 Seeley is incredibly well balanced, nimble and light, yet stable to the max.
After but 15 seconds on the Sunburst, I felt completely at home, everything falling naturally at the right place.
Road holding is superb, the ride much more comfy than I thought it would be.

Obviously, I rode very carefully and ‘slowly’ about 100km/h-60Mph in the traffic. The bike is not even run in, with less than 350 miles on the clock. Only once, towards the end of the ride, did I let the tacho go around 5k...that engine is eager and punchy, with the classic PW3 growl over 4k!
Then it was over, and I felt a craving in my gut as soon I turned the engine off...

Yves is a lucky man to own such a gorgeous machine, but I don’t know anyone more worthy to own it!

Hello again Yves / Bruno, I read the above description of you impression of the Seeley's ride qualities and have been thinking about it off and on for most of the day. (thanks for posting it by the way), If I recall correctly, you ride a feathered framed Norton, so I was wondering how you would compare the two? Cj

cjandme said:

Hello again Yves / Bruno, I read the above description of you impression of the Seeley's ride qualities and have been thinking about it off and on for most of the day. (thanks for posting it by the way), If I recall correctly, you ride a feathered framed Norton, so I was wondering how you would compare the two? Cj

Click to expand...

Hello CJ, it is a pretty good question, but very hard for me to answer to precisely at this stage.
First of all, I really rode on eggs with Yves’ beauty, and its engine is not even run in yet. Even so the real problem was that for a significant part of the way we were on Brussels’ exterior ring road which is at that point a 6-10 lanes highway with mad lorry traffic...

Engines and suspensions are also different on both bikes, so a direct comparison is not really possible. I felt that the Seeley was a bit lighter than mine but the geometry and handling of both bikes were definitely in close family. Because of the Seeley rearsets position, I had to stretch a little bit more over the tank than on my Slimline.

Yves’ engine felt a bit more direct and revvy than mine, due to his lightened crank and FCR accelerator pumps, my twin 32 Amal-fed PW3 850 engine being torquier at low revs and probably a tad more punchy higher up, again verrry difficult to make a definite comparison on these circumstances.

It is clear that both bikes come from the same lineage, with a similar tight feel on the road, center of gravity and weight distribution probably quite close as well.

All in all, two great bikes to ride, one of them being an absolute gem to look at as well, the other one being a more traditional pukka caferacer...

Thanks a bunch, tough question given the circumstances, and probably not fair of me to ask at this point in time. Cj

Hi there,
What a pleasure to work on the Sunburst, the first I did was to make new alloy brackets to bring the footrest lower and more to the front, work done! Last saturday I try again to put my leg over the Seeley with the help of my friends, I use a step from 10cm to put my left leg, the good one, this help a lot to put my right leg over the seat, so far so good, but now I must tchek if I was able to put my foot on the footrest, and yes I can, but I can not stay long in this position. and you must know that I change my re-education, before the kinesit was coming 3 times the week at home, but sins a week I go every day to the kinesist torture workshop, it's hard but I make progres, this is my moning job.
In the afternoon I go to my workshop to work on the Sunburst, I take the whole primary transmission out, the next job was to take the 4 speed gearbox out, will be replaced by my TTI 5 Speed. At that moment you discover how easy it was to work on the Seeley MK 3 and how difficult it is to work on the Seeley MK 2, becouse of the two lower frame tubes, the lower bolt from the gearbox is facing the frame tubes, so you need to rise the engine and the gearbox, not only to make place for the lower gearbox bolt but also to make place for some bolts that make the connection between the gearbox brackets and the frame. So you must take the headsteady away and also the front bolt from the engine, then with a crick you must till the engine forward to take the right gearbox bracket and gearbox out.
To do this job a receive some help from Pierre and Bert, aka Johntickle on the forum. Thanks friends!!
BTW, Pierre is the painter from my former Seeley, he was also the painter from the helmets from Senna, Schumacher and other F1 riders.
Pierre wish to congratulate the painter from Kenny Cummings for his perfect and amazing paint job.
I ship the gearbox plates and my TTI gearbox to Jean Noel Gindrat from the Yellow Perril team so he can adapt his E start system.
I hope that the Sunburst will be ready the same day as my leg and hip, In a few weeks maybe.
Thanks for your suport
Keep you posted
Yves

Hi all!

I have been quite busy in the workshop, this is what I did on the Sunburst in the past couple of weeks:
- Made new brackets to bring the footrest lower and more to the front, see pics from Bruno
- Took the gearbox out as well as the gearbox plates
- Shipped the plates to Jean-Noel Gindrat, so he can design new ones specially matched to his E-start
- Shipped my TTI 5 speed to Jean-Noel to build the E-start around it
- Took the oil tank out to make some changes for clearing the E-start
- Flowed and machined the inlet manifolds, to remove the steps
- Polished the back mudguard and the font engine brackets
- Polished of the silencer and protection plate on the Maney exhaust
I hope to receive the E-start by next week and the oil tank back by the end of this week.

As you can see, I am modestly trying to make the Sunburst even more beautiful than it already is.
My health is finally starting to get better and better every day.
I'll keep you posted!
Yves

And here are a couple of pictures from Yves’ stunning work on the Sunburst, enjoy!

Front fork:


Silencer:


Forward engine lug:


Distribution cover:


Yves’ new forward and lower footrests position :


The original Sunburst footrest position, high and backward:


Rear fender: