20. maj - Bobber bits going on separate holidays

Today's ride is pretty much a repeat of yesterdays ride, with long stretches of two lane highways, at times completely with out other traffic. The GPS suffers the occasional nervous breakdown in small towns, but riding towards Marseille along endless canals, things look pretty good. 26 degrees C is pleasant, the sun is  shining to its hearts' delight - and the ignition light only goes out when the engine is in the upper third og the rev range, indicating dynamo trouble.

Yesterday the speedometer called it quits, the day before the horn went on its own separate holiday, but those two I can live without. The dynamo, however, is pretty essential, and not something I'd expect malfunction on what is a supposedly 'new' dkk 30K engine. One battery store sells me a trickle charger, and another one of those quaint batteries with liquid acid, that went out of fashion at lest a decade ago.

Hopefully my Swiss fellow Nimbus guy in Zurich can fix it if new dynamo internals are shipped down there, but until then I have to go though the rigmarole of taking off the battery and recharge it every night. A Nimbus can ride about 600 kilometers on a fully charged battery, if no lights are used.

All this time consuming activity notwithstanding I still make it in time to the mc museum in Marseille, that was today's end destination. Nice place with a number of hitherto unknown (to me) brands of French bikes, the best one being a straight four prototype with overhead crankshaft and the cylinder head below. Add to this a cast aluminium fuel tank that also does duty as headstock and upper frame. It was intended for the French Army, but France was occupied by ze Germans before more came of it. Overall WW2 was a very bad thing, but killing this monstrosity at birth shall not be held against it.

End up treating myself to dinner in an upscale Tunesian restaurant with a smokers’ section for those smoking water pipes.   

1938 MGC, with upside-down engine.

Note elaborately sculpted aluminum fuel tank, with does 
quadruple duty, by working as headstock, upper frame member 
and instrumentpanel holder as well.



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