Burlen (Amal) Spitfire House in Salisbury, is about 35 miles from me and I drove there with my mate Graham to buy a new carb for his Norton. We were pissed because it was a wasted trip as the guy behind the counter said we can't sell you the carb you need as we're waiting for castings to arrive from China.
I didn't record it or get it in writing though :smiley: :smiley: Ron
Raw or finished castings?..:laughing: :laughing: ...Taking everything into account it seems the carbs may be a typical modern product with parts and services sourced from a variety of places...Amal Mk2 castings have been manufactured in Spain for a long time and that doesn't seem to worry people much...
We all know that because it says Harley Davidson or Triumph on the tank or BMW on the bonnet it doesn't mean it all comes from the 'source' countries...Far from it in fact (the Triumph twins are manufactured in Taiwan I believe)...Perhaps it's time to stop worrying so much about origin, reconsider our entrenched ideas of many of those destinations and concentrate on the serviceability of the end product instead...
I bought a beautiful CNC machined sump plate for one of my projects direct from the manufacturer in Taiwan...Great job, good delivery and half the price of any other...What more would I get anywhere else?.. Ian
I wish I could keep my workshop floor that clean, but then we work in ours.
About 20 years ago I was at a machine dealer and some company from Germany was looking at machining amal mk1 bodies.
We are a Burlen dealer and we have had to buy unfinished carbs and finish them from our stock.
I guess with the machinery, once they find an operator they should be able to jump in and correct the supply problems.
It's a shame they never purchased a sliding head lathe, that would have been better suited to making carb internals.
It appears Amal (Burlens) are going through a process of bringing more of their work 'in house'...Personally I applaud that effort as they are actively looking to solve some of their supply issues. At the end of the day there will be a few more skilled jobs in the UK and I presume, the quality and availability of their products will ultimately improve...
I am currently awaiting delivery of the latest version of the MK1 32mm Concentric which should be available around Christmas...I got a preview of the carb at Netley Marsh and it at least looks and feels very good...The body material must have been changed I'd have thought as it is far lighter than previous Concentrics...Less zinc and more aluminium?...
I wish them every success...After all they are the only people doing it...Ian
Ian you are spot on, Burlen has expanded their machine shop due to supply problem from out sourcing. I had a batch of their new aluminium MK1 30 mil concentrics and weighed them. Old zinc style 990grams and new type 645 grams. They had been supplying the aluminium ones for BSA rocket 3's for some time. Guys complain to me in Australia as they have to wait up to 6 months for a pre monobloc such as a 1950 AJS 500 if not on the shelf in UK. People do not realise that after Grosvenor Works closed down you could not buy the carburetters until Burlen took it up many years later. They also do not realise that the 276 comes in 3 different internal sizes being 15/16, 1 inch and 1 and 1/16 and that the bowls can be top or bottom feed and on various angles left or right. If Burlen closed tomorrow we would be in big trouble. They also come with a 2 year warranty which out of the hundreds of carburetters that I have sold I have only had one returned to me which had a bit of swarf in it so was soon fixed. I visited Ireland and UK about six years ago and did a tour of the factory and watched a guy drill out main jets and then use a go and no go gauge to check them. What a tedious job but he was proud of the fact that his finished product got fitted to motorcycles around the world.