You know how it is when you get a new bike and after you've made the incredible – and unexpected – discovery that it actually works? That's right. I decided at once that I should banish the RE Woodsman to the deepest recesses of The Shed prior to selling it and instead use the oddly purple Bonneville as day-to-day transport. What's the worst that could happen?
Do not answer that.
What actually happened was a deluge. Hopefully while you're reading this we're suffering from hosepipe bans and the like, but back in March things were decidedly subaquatic. So the Bullet – which is weatherproof – carried on plodding through the muddy floods while the almost immaculate (only when viewed with eyes closed and in the dark) Bonnie returned to the bench. But why? Had I not already recovered the previously absent main beam? What else could possibly be a cause for concern?
Although I have few worries about riding a bike in the rain (well…) I do feel concerns for an old bike's electrics. As I've told you before, I ran a 1975 T140V over the winter of 1976 and the electrics were seriously unstable in bad weather conditions. Time to take a closer look at a minor horror show that I'd already spotted: the tangled mess of wiring gushing from the back of the headlamp shell. There
