Spent the last couple of days cleaning and adding a little bling to the NC30 so today as the sun is out decided to go for a play. Flicked the fuel to on, full choke and away she goes, adjusted the choke to fast tick over until it would settle at normal tick over. Left it ticking over for a bit while i got the garage in a respectable state then had to take a call so switch it off for 5 mins or so, leathered up, hit the starter and all it does it turn over, doesnt even attempt to start. Had a prod through the fairings to check the vacume and that the breather hose isnt blocked, all ok there so went to go back inside to get the garage keys and bugger....no door key
After waiting an hour for the misses to come home from work to let me in i whip the seat unit and tank off, rear plugs out and covered in fuel, bugger was really hoping that wasnt the case as id lost my little tool for getting the front plugs out. I refused to drain the coolent out and remove the rad so just moved it foward as much as poss and went about the front plugs.....hour later im throwing everything out the garage trying to find my special tool as the backs of my hand now have hardly any skin left on them and my rad is covered in claret.
Didnt find it but did eventually get the plugs out, have a couple of sets of used plugs in the garage which i know work 100% so in went the first set along with more screaming and swearing. Left the fuel tap off as they'd be fuel in the carbs, hit the starter and there was i little bit of life but then as before it just turns over. Rear plugs out soaked in fuel
Checked electrical system, all good so probably another hour later i have another set of plugs in and same thing. I did also checked the spark on all plugs before fitting them and although they didnt give the brightest spark ive ever seen there good enough plus i know there good plugs.
Bike ran fine a few days ago and all ive done is change the airbox, ive tripple checked everything, spent all day fucking about, have no hands left and all when i should have been out playing, pissed off is not the word. Have a missed something obvious or am i chancing it with old plugs? i know they were good but they have been sitting for a year which i cant see being a problem but you never know.

Im having the same problem on my 30, plugs flood and foul very easily.. One possible way to improve spark is sand and clean the battery leads and earth connections to ensure good contact. Also you can narrow the spark plug gap slightly, it 0.6-0.7 normally, mine are 0.4-0.5 and they spark for longer before fouling/flooding. Once the motors hot it shouldnt flood at all, and maybe start with no choke if its flooding.. My advice drain the radiator, and pop the top rad forward, only one bolt and alot easier than fannying about in a tiny space... Also make sure the plug electrode spark areas are completely clean, use fine sandpaper.. Im thinking of investing in some new coils to improve the spark on my bike

my own experience is not only do you leave all that skin on the radiators - BUT, more importantly you bend all those delicate little fins and then they block the air flow. Check them out - takes almost no pressure with your knuckles to bend them.

Ok i didnt have to admit to this but i should know better........


So my shite day yesterday was down to my own stupid incompetence

On the plus side though i made another spark plug tool last night as i thought today would be another day of plugs in and plugs out and my hands cant take any more


Consists of
1 sawn off socket wrench
1 14mm socket hammered down on to the standard honda plug tool = front plugs in and out in a flash

Its not the first time thats happened - I've known people to miss races at Brands for the same reason. I'm surprised it started at all for you though! When it happened to Oggy, we had one of them rear wheel spinny motorised starter things and everything on it and it just would not fire.

lol..superb.

LOL!

Would be even funnier if I hadn't done that myself at a race day.

Tony, what a miss of a lovely day out yesterday on your NC30. This kind of situations happens more often but not everyone tells it on here. Glad that it is just this "small" issue and nothing major as in technical. Keep it clean and rolling on the roads

The home made spark plug tool is funny If it works, then it works! I use a deep socket with 1/4 drive of Tengtools box MR101 as my spark plug removal tool. It works spot on.

That is absolutely classic, at least you were doing the job right in the first place.

my sympathies tony, thought i was the only one to be struck by the gremlins mate fitted tax disc ready go and regulator shits itself had a rrx blade a few years back gear on ready for first blast of the year and the meta alarm decided to fuk up imobilising the bike took me 3 weeks to get someone who knew about them to remove it from the bike and fling it in the bin . so can relate to your frustration fella. guess that its just part of life with old bikes that we all have to accept from time to time dave.