Little things that count

Thinking Juice

I got my oil pump banjo bolt back.  I gave a bottle of very good rosé to a chap I know who has so many machine tools at home that he's got a lathe in his kitchen because there's no where else to put it!  I also gave him a grade 8.8 7/16" BSF bolt to base it on and he has done a lovely job.  

In addition, this week I have received my valve collets (cotters to some).  These came with a nice touch.  In the past I have bought sets of collets for Triumphs and BSAs and I usually got two, four or eight pairs in a little plastic bag.  I suppose they would have been factory original spares.  The new ones for the Venom were not separated, but still unevenly joined at one end with little curls of swarf still attached.  I called Grove Classic Motorcycles Ltd to ask if these were as they should be, after all if they were a couple of pairs of duds I wouldn't be able to measure and check the shoulders so I wouldn't want to fit them.  The guy was out but called me back and explained to me (somewhat impatiently as though I was asking foolish questions) that they were all like that so that they always matched.  

It would seem that making a batch of these and then allowing the same size ones to be mixed up is undesirably risky.  In this age of hi-tech precision engineering this could be smiled at, after all, if you bought Honda ones, they'll be separated.  I would not be so dismissive.  Wherever I come across these practices I usually find there's a good but not obvious reason behind them, indeed I find them comforting because this has been thought about.  My collets can't be mixed up, so then they're a bit like parts for a flintlock pistol.  That's rather a romantic notion to me.  

To the left the banjo bolt story from correct part to re-made upsized bolt to replace the bodged one that snapped.  Looking closely at the "propper" one, it has stretched, so I suppose I'll replace them all.  To the right, the valve collets, old and shiny new "flintlock" ones.