Super Rocket

Arrggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's enough to drive you bonkers the kind of crap you have to put up with these days.
I thought you already had the bike. So it's stuck in a warehouse somewhere waiting on the paperwork to be sorted out? Why does life have to be so complicated. It's a sign of the times I think.
INXST sounds interesting. In excess tax? :roll:

Hi Mark
Yes, the bike is sitting just across the line in a US warehouse.
I've forgotten what all of the acronyms stand for, will dig out the information handout. It's as though the process has deliberately been made as difficult as possible. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind that would be. I would have guessed that money coming into the country in exchange for an item leaving would be a good thing. Once the bike has left the country it cannot be a liability to the US, it's now Canada's problem. Only the cash remains behind.

Glen

Hi Glen, hope this all gets sorted out soon for you. As it happens I got a call a few days back from a guy I work with saying his neighbor wants to sell some bikes / parts he inherited. When I called the guy he said he did have three bikes and parts and said " I think they are Nortons, odd things. Never heard of them before". I'm going to look at them today but in the conversation he said his son had also been left two BSA's from a grandfather and one is a competion off road bike "something Rocket" he thinks. The other is a Lightening. I will try to find out more but I know even if it is a Super Rocket it's been used & abused, not like yours. Of the Nortons I do know one is a 1975 MKIII & think the other two are Commandos too just by what he has told me.

I finally got the bike home today. It hadn't been run for a couple of years but started in three kicks, settled right down to idle and started first kick every time thereafter.
It isn't perfect but it is very nice. On the road, the clutch slips and it misfires if the throttle is opened more than about halfway, so it will need some fettling.
It is less buzzy than my 650 SS so I think it will make an OK 65 MPH cruiser, especially if I gear it up a bit. Right now it feels very low geared. For example, after turning a street corner, I would normally use second for the other bikes, however this bike pulls away in third no problems. It is very torquey but I suspect the overall gear ratio is quite low. It feels like it could easily pack 10% higher gearing and that should set it up for a fairly smooth (not Commando smooth tho) 65-70 MPH cruise.
Comfort is excellent.
The advertisements for 1961 on models state "full race 357 cam" I think of a full race can as something that would not be street able, so I think their terminology was partly marketing. At an idle though, it sounds very cammy but smoothens out immediately when the revs are picked up. It does sound pretty cammed up. Other 61,62, and 63 Super Rockets I have heard on YouTube also have this same lump, lump, lump idle, quite different from the Nortons idle sound.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=em- ... tion=share

Glen

excellent!

now that it's running go and ride it every day until you completely forget all the border hassles .

i used to drive flatbed freight across the US/Canadian border and i understand the complexities. every little detail had to be right and on schedule or you were screwed.

more pictures, please.

I haven't ridden the bike for awhile now as I'm awaiting some fuel tap parts. The fuel taps on the bike are original push pull type Ewarts taps. These taps use cork sealing rings and are notorious for leakage. There is a common modification to O ring for Ewarts and the PO has done that. From my reading, the only fuel tap that leaks more than an original Ewarts is an Oring modified Ewarts! Plus they are damn hard to push and pull with the oring in there.

The taps were leaking when closed but after some use seemed to seal up OK when left open. My temporary solution was to leave them open all of the time. On the second day home with the bike I parked it overnight on the side stand.
The Carb float didn't like this and managed to flow lots of fuel into the engine. Not aware of this, I started the bike.
It sounded off somehow. I looked back at the tailpipe and saw raw fuel spraying out!
I shut the bike off , went in the house and ordered some ball valve type taps like I have on my other bikes. They just seem to work. Originality will have to go out the window on this item.
Years ago I burned up a good Matchless G80 due to a leaking Ewarts tap. It's good to know that they still leak!


The new taps and their adapters are here (BSA tanks have a 3/8BSP thread, most British taps are 1/4") but I failed to notice that the spigot nut on the end of the fuel hose is only 3/16" BSP whereas the new taps are 1/4".
New spigot fittings are on the way.

Glen

Hi Glen, I just stumbled across this thread. Beautiful bike ! Glad it ended as it did instead of on a sour note. Thanks for posting. Cj p.s. are your other bikes jealous or are they playing "nice" with each other?

Hi CJ

I've parked it at the back of the pack, so hopefully there won't be any hurt feelings.
After replacing the crudded up Carb with a new Concentric I had as spare, the bike is running great.
It's no match for the 650ss as far as power, handling or braking go, but it is a comfortable old bike with a nice amount of low end torque.

A little late to the party here, but I can relate to the import woes. Two years ago I bought several land Rover 300Tdi engines and transmissions from a broker in the UK and hired a reputable shipping company to get them to the US. The seller crated them in fine marine grade plywood, only to learn that unless the wood is heat treated to kill any bugs that might be living in it that's a no go. After proper metal crates were procured they were on their way to Newark NJ. Once there, US customs impounded them, stored them in a secure warehouse before having them trucked to another place where they could be X-rayed for hidden contraband stuff, then trucked back to the docks for local carrier pickup. Guess who got to pay for all that? :roll: Not to mention the fact they had to be declared as agricultural equipment power plants to get them in :roll:
On another note, VERY nice A10. Glad it worked out OK for you! If all goes well I'll have mine up and running again this summer.

here's how air canada ships across the pond

worntorn said:

In the US there are hundreds of tiny banks and each state acts almost like a separate country in some ways. Just different to be forced to wait two weeks and not what I expected when sending a certified cheque by Priority Mail.
Then the seller decided to short cut the crating arrangement the shipping company required and we had agreed upon. He decided that a crate was not needed for shipping the bike as his sister owns a Harley dealership and new Harleys are shipped without a crate, just strapped to a pallet. If it is good enough for A Harley, it is good enough for a lowly Brit bike, was the attitude!
What he failed to understand is that Harley does not hire common carriers, they have their own trucks and ship only Harleys on these trucks, so there is no fear of other merchandise falling on the uncrated bike. Also, the Harley goes directly to it's selling dealer without changing trucks, whereas the common carriers like mine (Hercules Forwarding) use small trucks to haul from out of the way places to major centres where the crated bike is then "cross docked" to a large highway trailer. The large truck and trailer will take it north to Seattle where it will again be cross docked onto a small truck for final shipment to Lynden, WA. That is why this shipment needs a crate.

The seller instead strapped the BSA to one of these leftover Harley pallets and called my shipping company for pickup. Of course they took one look at the way he had packed to bike and refused to load it, then decided that they did not want any further involvement with the shipment.

I convinced them to try again after convincing the seller that he must crate the bike as originally agreed upon. This was all very frustrating to this retired carpenter because I could build the crate in less time than I spent trying to convince the seller that it was mandatory! Unfortunately I am 2700 miles from the bike.
Finally after about a hundred phone calls and many emails to the seller's sister ( he has no email!) , apparently all unopened, the bike was loaded last Thursday.

Stay tuned!
This was an impulse buy based on a very blurry phone pic and the information that the bike has only 542 original miles, which is not believable. So I deserve to get burned a little or maybe a lot!

Glen

Click to expand...

Time for an update on the Beezer.
I've been trying to ride it locally but the mag had the hot start problem. Fortunately some enterprising Brit developed a cure for this and it is called the Easycap. I purchased one of these from BritCycle supply and had my clubmate fit it plus give the mag a general refurb, new bearings,seals and points.
As of last week, the hot start problem is no more, so it's time to expand the circles of confidence with this bike.
Other small improvements I've made are-

-Replaced crudded up 28 mm Carb with original equipment type 1 5/32" 389 Monobloc, newly sleeved and rejetted to stock West coast (higher compression) Super Rocket specs.

-Replaced standard sized 21 tooth engine sprocket with 23 tooth.

-cleaned up and deglazed slipping clutch setup. Clutch now works perfectly.

-replaced banged up and partially crushed stock exhaust with Siamese headers and Gold star silencer. This was an available factory option in 63.

-replaced worn out and ineffective single leading shoe brake with 2 leading shoe brake from a 68 BSA Lightning. This is a good strong brake.

- replaced leaky Ewarts taps with new fuel taps.

-replaced torn fork gaiters

-opened up Carb insulating spacer from 1" to 1 5/32, which is stock inlet size.

-Replaced incorrect and rock hard seat with new item from RK Leighton. Very comfortable!

There are still quite a few things left to do on the bike. The rear brake is worn out and useless. The tach doesn't work. The lighting system doesn't work.
On balance though, it turned out to be a good machine. The engine runs beautifully now and pulls nicely, though it is not a hotrod like the 650ss. The engine has had a recent full go thru and tested at 98 percent on leakdown, the same as my new build 1360 Vincent engine. The engine has had the SRM needle roller conversion on the timing side main plus the SRM oil pump conversion. It doesn't wet sump even if left sit for two months
Everything inside of the primary also appears to be new or near new. The bike shifts well and is really quite smooth for a solidly mounted parallel twin.
The engine/trans/primary work was said to have all been professionally done 530 miles before I bought the bike. The condition of things does tend to make me believe the seller was truthful with that number.

It is not a fast bike by any stretch but it does pull nicely through the gears with minimal need for revving. It's not a bike the begs to be revved like a Commando or the SS. It will pull out from a stop and merge with speeding traffic very easily with just one third throttle or so, quite surprising really. But then there isn't really much more to be had in the other two thirds of the throttle. In short, a very torquey ride.
Funny thing, I have this lovely new Thruxton R to ride, but all I could think about while travelling last week was getting home and trying out the old BSA with it's repaired magneto It's an old sweetie of a bike.

Glen




Here's the new 2 ls brake from a 68 Lightning wheel. I purchased the rusty Lightning wheel complete for $100. After a couple of hours cleaning, the brake hub looked decent. The shoes were almost new.
The 2 ls brake fit into the existing Super Rocket hub without drama.

Sure is a beauty.

Classic.

Real nice BSA.
That front brake fit nicely in my 441.

Bob Z. said:

Real nice BSA.
That front brake fit nicely in my 441.

Click to expand...

There's actually a smaller copy of that brake (over an inch smaller in diameter). I retrofitted one to a T100 for a client, works very well indeed. Yours looks like the smaller one. It's also the 69/70 variant, whereas the one on the Super Rocket is the 68 only version with the brake cable exiting to the rear.