Fuel and additives

[espeas]

Good afternoon. I need advise re fuel/petrol and additives for the 1954 A10 I'm purchasing please.

[Catz]

If you're UK based then the best fuel at the pump is E5.
Personally i don't bother with additives or stabilizer though i'm sure plenty of folk do.
I tend to fire the bikes up every couple of months if left standing just to keep the carbs from gumming up. I try and let the engines warm up to operating temperature just to stop any condesation forming in the engine and the exhaust system.

[ChrisG]

Always use E5 and never needed to use any additives etc. However, I may get some of the magic metal balls that a guy at auto jumbles sells, if only to see if there is an improvement.

[JulianS]

I use E10 from the local garage in my A10. I use the bike year round and it runs fine and I don't have any fuel problems. E10 is the maximum ethanol content so the fuel I get may have a lower content.

I put some of those metal balls in the tank many years ago, they are still in there. Whether they do any good l don't know. They certainly cause no harm.

[DAVE BRADY]

Hi,

Rather than put metal balls in the tank occasionally I will splash out on some super unleaded or what ever they call it these days. 
I must admit that the bikes run a bit smoother and I put that down to cleaner burning due to the additives. Perhaps too expensive for everyday but a bit of a treat now and again is what we all need.

Dave.

[limeyrob]

I only use the super now, and look the other way at the till.  I've had too much trouble with gummed up and blocked carbs.
If you are not using the bike for a while you may want to try some of the fuel stabiliser they sell for mowers and chain saws to stop then gumming up when not in use.

[espeas]

Thanks everyone for your advise re fuel. The other thing I'll need to sort out is a basic tool kit. I know I have some old 'imperial' spanners and sockets somewhere but I can't remember the size system used back then (AF Whitworth??)

[V500]

"Imperial".
Whitworth is one particular threadform and AF is usually (incorrectly) applied to SAE (UNF and UNC) spanners.
You won't need the latter on an A10.

[limeyrob]

Whit spanners are thing of joy, about 5 will fix most anything in the world (so long as its old and British).  The spanners are all the right length for the torque and the size steps get bigger as the size goes up so you don't end up with a load of huge spanners.
BSF is always one size up so 1/4 BSF and 5/16 Whit are the same spanner. And the size is the thread size not the nut size so a 1/4 Whit spanner is about 13mm
The quality of 1950s and 60s spanners is incredible so aim to get those, Britool, King Dick etc.  War Dept (the little arrow) are good too.  Look for old American adjustable spanners - Crescent for example - last forever and people don't always know what they are.  These tools are very high grade chrome molly, look at Snap On prices to see what that grade of steel costs now.