Vintage Britbike Owners’ Must.Do’s (and Don’ts)
We’ve built several classic British specials, all chronicled in these pages over the years, but with the inherently limited print space we’ve got, many of the day-to-day details on maintaining one of these 50-year-old machines have gone missing. In the interest of full disclosure, we’re sharing with our readers a few timely and time-proven tips for keeping classic iron on the road.
Do The Tighten Up
Just as the famous Archie Bell and the Drells soul hit suggests, doing the tighten up is your path to true happiness. Though time consuming and, at times, frustrating, keeping nuts and bolts secured on classic motorcycles is an absolute must. Recently, after logging the first hundred miles aboard our 1959 Norton Dominator, our resident classics expert Nick Coumos in.sisted we ride no further before reading up on engine hardware torque specs. He carefully tightened each piece of hard.ware, which proved prescient, as many had loosened considerably in just 100 miles. Likewise, exhaust flanges, primary and timing side bolts and nuts securing the running gear should be shored up after every ride of, say, 50 miles or more to ensure all the motorcycle’s bits return home safely. Oh yeah, and this will help the rider return home in one piece as well.
