Hope everyone is well, Not been on in a while. Busy, Life etc..

I need some help with the YBR..

I took a trip to Cambridge and back to Peterborough and after the trip, there was a new sound from the engine. sound like its coming from the top end.

A sort of whirring, winding sound but only under load. So when accelerating. Just holding speed I could not hear it.

The bike has been running fine. No issues with it running etc but I was concerned about this new sound so I decided to investigate today.

I took out the cam shaft to check it out and make sure the bearings are ok as well as other tings. All seemed good in the top end so no clue as to where the sound was coming from there.

But upon putting it all back together it went to Cinnamon Swirl. The cam chain decided it was not going to seat correctly on the bottom end and slipped about 45 degrees. So now when the TDC mark was in the right spot on the magneto, the cam sprocket TDC marking was no longer at the top is was on the left point forward. Oh yay. and it did not sound healthy.. obv...

So some messing about and I got it to seat correctly but the bike would not start and sounded like it lacked compression. Virtually no resistance felt on the kick start. Oh Cinnamon Swirl. Has that things skipping teeth caused a valve to get bent?

So I went on a mission to take a look at the valves.. What fun dismantling an engine is. Took it apart enough for me to get in there and take a look. And do you know what I found?

Sweet Éclair all. It "looks" fine but looks can be deceiving. Before I started taking the top end apart, the engine sounded quite rough when turning over. So Once it was all back together I took the little adjusters out of the rockers so they would not move the valves much. They still pushed on them a small amount a few mm. I tuned the engine over to hear how it sounded and this time it sounded fine. Still Éclair all compression though.

I put the valves back together and tried to start it. Apart from the engine not sounding like its got rocks in it, it still did not start and still Éclair all compression.

Is a valve slightly bent out of shape maybe? I can get some new valves. Just a ball ache to get the engine apart again to fit them. Or could buy a new top end that has the valves in it already.

This could all be a deep rabbit hole that I am about to go down when it may not even be the issue. It could be bad luck and timing and something else is wrong.. who knows.

Also, when i say it wont start, Theres no attempt at all not even a little pop or bang here and there. Just turns over and over and over and over. With little compression. I took the spark plug out and plugged the hole with my thumb and turned it over. There is a little compression there but I can hold it in with my thumb and thats not something that should be possible. There is also a spark and Im sure there is fuel as the pump is running and i can smell it when i had the exhaust off.

A friend just gave me a bike lift. Looks like its going to get some use sooner than I thought.

Ill add some pictures I managed to take. Maybe someone can spot something I didn't or thought was normal.

That will teach me for going on a missing to find the source of a noise!

Cheers blokes and galls.

The Tank bag from Amazon fits really well and will do the job fine.

That could easily have you off your bike. You need to have your head on a swivel these days for the damn things. As it's summer the biggest hazzard we have in Northumberland at the moment are dead animals in the road. These go from mice/rats/squirrels (nuisance) to badgers & foxes (very dodgy, particularly badgers as they are solid) to deer (piggin' lethal)! That's on top of the pot holes & gravel... Ride safe 

This morning I went to  Sportsbikeshop in Harlow, to see if I could get a magnetic tank bag for my Harley. I tried a few but as the tank on the Harley is only for show. ( tank is under the seat) the magnets didn’t work because of the plastic insert. I have found one on Amazon which I hope will be ok.
On the way to Harlow I stopped off at North Weald Airfield and took some pictures of the Hawker Hurricane that stands at the main gate.