Restoration of 1951 Vincent Rapide - Part 85 - Checking the Carbs for 2021!

[@coreylevenson]

As soon as I saw that Swiss Army knife on your bench, I thought of Allen Millyard! Nice touch! Happy New Year, Mike!

[@iivaridark6850]

Me too! Actually I thought Allen has good taste because I have had the same type of army knife in my rear (tail) bag for many years... :)

[@candymintz]

same applies when I see a hacksaw and a barbeque , appears there's another V10 in the works from another British guy. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oqOQooacjMmfj68

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you Corey! Yes, it's amazing what you can do with a Swiss Army knife, barbecue and hacksaw 😉. Hope you have a great 2021! Best wishes,

[@williamwallacedebruce9221]

Ah the importance of the Swiss army knife cannot be over estimated..............All the best.

[@charliesharpe5004]

Thanks very much for your clear diction and thorough approach. One thing I've found useful is a 1/4" Whitworth obstruction spanner. This has jaws at 90° to the shaft. It is helpful in getting the inlet stub off without removing the petrol tank. Mine is a "SNAIL" brand, probably from a 50's car tool kit. Cheers from Australia.

[@TheMightyGarage]

Many thanks Charlie. Best wishes, Mike

[@georgemartin5481]

Hi Mike. Good to see you dabble in the black arts of motorcycle carburetors. For what's worth, I'm not using the chokes on my '86 Guzzi LeMans. It does have accelerator pumps!

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you George! Hope you have a great 2021! Best wishes, Mike

[@TheClassicMotorcycleChannel]

Another great video Mike!

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thanks again! Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for your great videos! Best wishes, Mike

[@MarBl66]

It may be worthwhile to experiment with main jet sizes. I also replaced my worn carburettors on the Rapide against new ones from Burlen Amal last year. On the first test rides the bike felt tired when going to higher revs. As I had the same effect with my Velocette the year before, after equipping its Monobloc with new jets, I tried bigger main jet sizes. A 180 immediately gave better performance and a 190 seemed to be even better, but in a more subtle way. So I will check it against the 180 and compare plugs. With the Velocette I also had to go two sizes up for optimal performance. Suspicious about the coincidence I did some research and found a remark on the Vincent Forum about the Ethanol in modern fuels causing a more lean characteristic. The advice was to go two sizes up. I dont know anything about the petrol in the US, but here in Germany we have 5% ethanol in our standard fuels.

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you very much for your advice. I really appreciate it. I haven't ridden the bike too much since replacing the carburetors and will definitely look Into this. Best wishes, Mike

[@nigeldavis4220]

Happy New Year Mike. It looks a lot warmer in your workshop than it does mine!

[@TheMightyGarage]

Happy new year Nigel. Yes, I insulated the garage a few years ago (link below) and it has been so good to have a warm place to work over the winter. Hope all is well. Cheers, Mike. kzbin.info/www/bejne/bZnaXqF4f7qpgac

[@MothershipVideos]

It's amazing someone sat down and designed those carburetors. I love how the fuel line just swung down from no where ready for you to attach. Happy new year.

[@59jaguar]

Mike you are the Mr Rodgers of motorcycle repair. Thanks for the video! Happy new year!

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you very much Roger! That is very kind of you to say. Happy new year! Best wishes, Mike

[@TheDavey333]

Nice to see you back in the garage, doing a bit of tinkering 😀 Have great year Mike 👍

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you David! Yes, it feels so good to be back in the garage again. I've got another couple of videos already lined up and a long list of projects 😉. All the best for 2021! Cheers, Mike

[@mickducati1947]

Happy New Year Mike to you and family 😜👍

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thanks a lot Mike. All the best to you and yours. Hope you have a great year. Best wishes, Mike

[@sameednakai8766]

Happy New Year Mike, great to see you working on the Motorcycles again!

[@frao4160]

Happy New Year, Mike! Looking forward to seeing ALL your bikes on the road.

[@TheMightyGarage]

Hehe, Yes, you and me both! I was supposed to have them all running by now with what was happening last year, but it just didn't happen 😉 Best wishes, Mike

[@thakery5720]

The first thing I did to my Mk3 Commando was junk all the choke mechanism, and the bike was much better for it. I know this is sacrilege but if you don't get anywhere with these 'new' carbs maybe you should investigate a different make. I hear Lectron carbs are being manufactured again and of course there is always Mikuni - many people are turning to them for all sorts of Brit bikes these days .

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you very much. Yes I agree. I'm going to see how these work out, but it is possible that I might look into different types of carburetors. A lot of friends are using the Mikuni carburetors and are very happy with them. Best wishes, Mike

[@guyfuller1369]

Gone are the days when user serviceability was fundamental to mechanical design.

[@sf940477]

All the best for 2021 Mike. Noticed the mug of tea is that to wash down the heroes 🤔. Ps why do you think choke not required?

[@TheMightyGarage]

Ha ha, thank you Stephen. Yes, for sure, and the mince pies 😉. The choke didn't seem to have any effect on starting the bike and so I thought I might try without. I'm trying to get back to a baseline carburetor set up so that I can look further into some performance issues. Thought I would start by reverting back to a simple and standard carburetor set up. Best wishes, Mike

[@gerrypowell2748]

Happy New Year do we ever stop working on our bikes❤️

[@TheMightyGarage]

Hehe, never 😉. It's always something, isn't there Gerry! Best wishes, Mike

[@larrys.3992]

Happy new year!

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thank you Larry. Happy new year and best wishes, Mike

[@larrys.3992]

@@TheMightyGarage My late brother gave me a Swiss army knife in 1974. Which I still have and use to this day. It seems motorcyclists from England to Oregon all have one on their work table!

[@Kevin-cy9cv]

Ah good to be back in the workshop, do you think taking off the filters and replacing them with the new intakes will mean you might have to change the jetting? Happy new year Mike

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thanks Kevin. Great point. The jets are per the original specifications without air-filters, so I will see how they perform and may need to make adjustments if I put air filters back on. Best wishes, Mike

[@jimh.5286]

Interesting video. Now that you've been watching Allen Millyard and have a Swiss Army knife, I was wondering if maybe you might create a 8 cylinder Vincent Rapide.

[@TheMightyGarage]

Hehe! Thanks Jim. Great idea! I'll go and fire up the BBQ and get my hacksaw blades sharpened 😉 Mr. Millyard is in a totally different league! I love watching his videos and how easy he makes his incredible projects look!

[@mightybeanstick9872]

Did you check if that needle was bent as you suspected? If it was, that may have contributed to the issues...?

[@mred7030]

spotted .

[@tadpoles10]

A good start to the new year Mike, what's the thinking behind 'not needing a choke'? atvb t ..

[@TheMightyGarage]

Thanks a lot Terry. The old choke didn't seem to work. It didn't seem to make any difference whether it was on our off when I was trying to kick start the bike from cold. So I'm going to try without for a little while and test to see if it makes any difference. Best wishes, Mike

[@tadpoles10]

@@TheMightyGarage Thanks Mike, good luck with the testing when it eventually happens 👍 atvb t ..

[@craigkeller]

All those fiddley bits! Rube Goldberg must have been British? What were the problems with original carb setup? I’m starting the new year on a no carb diet.

[@TheMightyGarage]

Haha, thanks Craig. I found that the chokes didn't make a difference to starting the bike and so thought I might try the bike without for a while. I've been having some performance problems and also the old carbs were different, so thought it might be good to go back to the original configuration as a new baseline to start looking at the performance issues (the bike doesn't seem to be fast enough!). Best wishes, Mike

[@MoeLarrycurly1]

🏍👍🏼🖖🏼🍺😃😃

[@mred7030]

aladdins cave .