Delta in 2022, 34 years on!
In March 2022, 34 years after Pete Lawrence built this machine in a tiny shed in Stanmore, NW London, it's still going strong up in Bonnie Scotland, in the capable hands of Colin Ferguson. Colin commented: "Delta has passed its MoT, and luckily didn't need the two new tyres I bought last week: a Metzeler 110/90/16 for the front, and a 110/90/18 for the rear; except the front one isn't right. It's much fatter than the rear, and measured at 120mm. But marked 110 on the sidewall. So it's going back. Looks like I'm going back to Bridgestone Battlax at nearly twice the price." PNB
Photo: Colin Ferguson; tweaked by PNB in Photoshop
And still they ride...
Great to see one of the old campaigners still troubling the highways. Always impressed by the way Pete shuffled an even bigger engine than a Reliant into this package. It's interesting how these little 'car' engined FFs keep on going, there are several 1980-era FFs that have passed 100,000miles.
Good choice of engine.
The Coventry Climax designed Talbot Sunbeam is actually an excellent engine for this era of FF. Being mainly made of aluminium, it is relatively light, and very tunable. Many of the Hillman Imp tuners offer various degrees of tune up to 998cc, and at least 100bhp. I reckon mine is now around 55 bhp, and runs very sweetly, courtesy of a recent twin choke Weber conversion. Another advantage is that it does not suffer from the overheating issues which many of the Reliant engined machines have endured. The only real riding issue is to do with the rather agricultural Guzzi gearbox. It makes my BMW gearboxes feel slick by comparison! But it does do it's job well, albeit my left foot can be a tad
tender after a long ride.
Tyres
The odd sized Continentals are now on their way back to the supplier, and a new set of Bridgestone BT46s are are on their way. There is a fairly limited choice of classic tyres for a 16" front wheel, but the Bridgestones have proved a good allround tyre.
tyres
I'm running cross-ply Avon Roadriders (120/80x16 front, 130/80x18 rear) they're not as stiff as the OEM Super Venoms, so a bit 'white-liney' and move about a bit under conrering loads, but they're OK. £70 a pop, and wear well. You need to modify the Guzzi (Le Mans) swing arm to get the rears in, unless you've got the longer Guzzi-modified s/arm. (The Roadrider 130/80 is about 5mm wider than the same size Super Venom)
Reliants don't overheat unless they're run in vehicles with cooling systems that don't work properely. After only twenty years or so I fixed that on the Voyagers, FJ didn't even overheat when the fan switch went u/s last Wedensday (The third one!). We looked at the 'Imp' (AKA COventry Climax) motor of course, as the alternative to the Reliant, but the major point was the Relaint was in production, available to our spec. and very cheap (£600). It was also crucially smaller overall, essential for packaging in the Voyager two-seater, Hence my admiration for Pete getting it in the Delta.
BMW Also offered their boxer gearbox/final drive, but the Guzzi had better mounting points and was an easy fit to the Reliant. True about the gearchange, even fully massaged internally it's agricultural. Too much machinery! (Pretty much sums up the whole package...)