Does she ride?

I welded up some bracketry so that I could stand the Manurhin on the bench with its wheels free to rotate - allowing me to run her in situ while I worked on electrics and fuel.


There is no battery on this scooter - power comes from the magneto, and only works with the engine turning, and so to test my circuitry, I needed to start her - regularly...... and man, does she smoke!
I rigged up an extractor fan and pipe to try and remove most of the carbon monoxide from the workshop, but I have to say, this stage of the project was not a pleasant time.


In previous stages of this Manurhin resurrection Ive taken loads of photos and tried to write about my experiences here on this blog.  Now I was singularly focused on getting the bike ridable - I learnt lots of stuff about the electrics and had to make some sweet little brackets and fittings to get her all together, but I simply didnt have time to document it.  I took the good part of a week to get her to the point where she was ready to get off the bench and road test.



Lets just take a pause here and consider the numbers;

• She's 58 years old.
• We suspect she was taken off the road, stripped of registration number and shoved in a barn at least 20 years ago
• Ive had her for nearly 5 years - 4 of which she's been in a shed
• Ive have the engine running several times for no more than 2 minutes at a time
• I have never sat on her, and never seen the engine power the wheels

Now was the moment of truth!

I rolled her out into the yard of my workshop, and started her.  The Beltomatic safety switch seemed to work, holding the engine revs low enough to stop the belt catching and powering the rear wheel.

I flicked the safety switch, twisted the throttle, and sure enough the bike began to move forward! This was rather exciting!  I tried the brakes - they are shit!... More of a deceleration device than a brake.  I rode her twice around the yard grinning and feeling very proud of myself......

And then something strange happened - it was as if I had become possessed by a guiding light or a visionary angel........ without any thought, i climbed off the bike, took my phone out of my pocket, phoned the local garage, and booked an MOT..... for that afternoon...... in 3 hours time.

Not only had I not tested the bike properly, but now I was going to ride her across Birmingham city center.... at rush hour.