The owner of this early Blade rode it in because it wasn’t running right. And all the stuttering and rough running was no surprise, as it was only firing on three cylinders. We took the carbs to bits and where it’d been stood on the side stand, leaning toward the left, the old fuel had eaten into the aluminium body of that particular carb, and it was rotten!
They were scrap. Now parts for these bikes are getting scarce in the UK (not so bad in the States) and most have been messed about at some point. Fortunately we found a set at a local breakers – in the back of a cupboard – so we had ’em, and put it all back together with the result of 120bhp at the rear wheel. Lovely!
The early ones are definitely the ones to go for; they only got worse with time…
Early Blades are best – this one with a fresh set of carbs made 120 very usable bhp.
