Thoughts I had early this morning -

1. I now think the speedo cable was a new one, complete, but never been greased. It looks like ditto for the clutch nd brake cables.

2. There are four new grease nipples, but not any others replaced. Why not all of them? A bit odd so I bought some more as I was able to unscrew a couple more of the originals. One of these is for the steering head, which appears to have been rebuilt, as there's a trace of clean new grease on the outside at the bottom (and I didn't put it there). removed, I can look through the hole to the stem inside which is also painted green!

3. Ditto left hand rear plunger, could poke a plastic tube from a WD40 can through then look through and see the centre rod and it all looks clean. However neither (this or the steering head) have since seen a grease gun (yet), else there'd be loads of grease.

4. And why do all this but not put a new rear chain on? Maybe he ran out of time, or money. All a bit bizarre, the way some things are done OK but other things are just left or bodged.

5. All along I've been convinced this is actually a D3, 150cc, but now I'm not sure. My basis was the head and barrel shape. It looks exactly the same as my first 150cc D3. However engine number says D1, battery lighting. Even that's not right because there are only two wires in the generator, and two of the four terminal posts ('2' & '3') are not used ('2' is completely missing & '3' doesn't have a screw). This says AC lighting, backed up by the centrally mounted toolbox (no battery holder).

The engine is a replacement at some time, it is not the original, the number is different. Stamp is saying "DDB", = D1, but head and barrel style are saying to me 148cc D3. Did the 125cc top end change to the later more rounded 150cc style at some point? Or, can you put the 150 barrel head and piston top end onto a D1? (but see below...)

Addendum

Then I saw some info here about carbs, so I looked, the carb says on it 361/1, which again, I've just learned, should be D1 only!

Meanwhile, the tank filler cap being on the right side is saying D3.

Mysteries, mysteries!

Answers on a postcard to .....

Addendum - kill the front page

Right, I've just seen a post talking about "the early 'Pineapple' barrel type D1's" versus "the later 'Round' barrel D1's" (re head gaskets)

So that answers that question! It IS a 125 then.

Unless it's been modified ......

Addendum III

OK! So I have a stud pitch of 55mm. What does that tell us? Late D1 onwards... correct for 1955 (except the engine No. is not the original)

Carry on regardless...

Notes on LED lighting.

The warm white BAY15D from Classic Cars Leds is same brightness and colour, as far as I can see, as a 6V 21/5W incandescent I got (new). At least in terms of the tail light, not sure about the brake light.

I much prefer it to the all red LED BAY15D which is too red! And much lower current than the warm white, to me this seems wrong, want more power than that surely? The warm white draws >=140 mA for tail, >=270 mA for brake, so I am going with that for the mo.

The BAY15D incandescent bulb doesn't fit the Lucas pattern rear lamp properly! is slightly too long.

The LED versions fit perfectly.

A comparison test showed the low profile BA9S warm white LED (also from Classic Car Leds) is brighter than the equiv 2W incandescent bulb, so that's staying in the speedo. The hard white BA9S, with the sort of hardness that makes your eyes hurt, that's gone in the headlamp pilot position, it might be annoying to look at but I got an idea it might get me more noticed on the road.

Rear mudguard nearly finished.

Shiny new screws and nuts, shiny new plate from Tippers, looks and fits more betterer ...

New wiring going in:

Onwards ...

Aka, cone wrench!

No idea. Also possible, gas bottle spanner, aka, bottled gas spanner.

T'Internet has furnished two possibles, we shall see. Yes only needs to be summat to hold nut still, bicycle cone spanner is one candidate, t'other is gas bottle spanner.

All will be revealed in due course ...

Lost my bag of new engine screws, hate losing things really winds me up, the amount of time I spend looking for stuff. Was not in the "usual places" (piles and boxes of Bantam stuff) as it should be, so then I thought "wait a minute did I" – sure enough I had "filed it" away in one of my boxes of stock nuts and bolts in the spare room – still slapping myself for being an idiot. Really didn't want to have to buy a new set, although I have done that in the past, can't find a thing so end up buying a new one. Then about 7 months later the original turns up in a totally unexpected place that you wouldn't think to even start looking in 'cause it can't possibly be in there! One time, I'd put a thing in the filing cabinet FFS – "to keep it safe" – yeah so flippin' safe I can't find it again. Also, must never move things, else that's it, kiss of death that is, that's why my place always looks so untidy, just must not tidy up. Or that's it, gone!

Anyway – project stalled due to lethargy, I am blaming the weather, but also since I realised it's not going to all happen in a rush anyway. Originally it was going to 2 or 3 days just to get it ready for the road, but as we've seen it's turned out to be much more complicated. Nearly everything I take off has some silly issue with it that needs sorting. Today's is sorting out new pinch bolts for the bottom yoke clamps. The originals are very tired looking and been painted over.

Also I've been designing the new wiring and working out a way of adding a battery, since it'll have to be rewired anyway, and then designing a regulator, that's done and I am now waiting for a batch of PCB's to be made. Got the components waiting so can make a protoype when they come through.

Meantime need to get on with what I've got, I have spent a frightening sh!t load of money over the previous month, not all for the Bantam admittedly, but it's bread and cheese for the next couple of months!

Also I need to get the Ural ready for its first MOT, had to remove the sidecar brake disc because it doesn't work (how much time have you got for an explanation) – and the MOT rules say a sidecar does not have to have a brake but if it does it must work. So although there's no caliper and the hydraulics that go with it, I figured a disc on the hub is still going to look odd. This was a total complete barsteward to remove, due to the button head Allen screws being glued in with loctite. 2 came out, the other 3 had to have the heads drilled off, then an almighty struggle to unscrew the studs using molegrips. They fought back every single fraction of a turn.

The other tidy up for the MOT, when I changed the dualseat to a Lycette pattern single saddle, I left the pillion footrest on; it is also the bolt had holds the R/H silencer on, previously (the first time I tried a single saddle) I had got the short stud that is used instead in the absence of, but it is further complicated by that it also includes the rubber rebound buffer for the swingarm on the right side. So all this has to be replaced. Anyway already had it so just a case of swapping them over because again it's going to look odd for the test having a pillion footrest sticking out (it's not a fold-up type so can't just take the folding up part off) and no pillion seat to go with it.

Onwards! If we've got enough energy ...