1971 Triumph Tiger 650 restoration

…and it started up first kick! I kid you not, nobody was more surprised than me. The correct thing to do after starting a rebuilt engine is to ride it straight away. Letting the engine idle does no good, it just generates heat which the new piston rings can’t get rid of because they are not yet worn in.  However I have an important check to do before can ride anywhere - I need to check the ignition timing. When I fitted the electronic ignition system, it included alignment markings to get the timing about right, but not spot on. Having had the engine failure before while running it ‘about right’ I was keen to check it before putting the rebuild engine through its paces.   An over-advanced ignition can damage the engine because the spark plugs set fire to the mixture while the piston is still moving up, causing a lot of pressure on the piston and rod and generating a lot of wasteful heat. It can even melt a hole right through the piston.  The timing is checked using a...

I've just come back from a lovely ride through the autumnal Chiltern hills, throughout which Bagheera performed faultlessly and was in her element chugging characterfully along the sunny backroads. The journey also brought up 100 miles since the engine was completely rebuilt following the disasterous overheat back in July. A frankly regrettable amount of time, pain and money has been needed to reach this point. As detailed in the last post , the engine overheat caused extensive damage to the top-end of the engine; damage beyond my ability or tools to repair. After a bit of searching around, I finally got a recommendation for a good engineer/machinist called H T Howard in Slough. After a quick chat with boss Andy, I was reassured that they really knew their onions, or more importantly their vintage British bikes. My first task was to source new engine internals. Due to the scuffing on the cylinder walls I decided to go up to the first oversize piston, officially specified by Trium...

Oh dear. Things had been going so well. So well in fact, that we had decided it was time for the wife to have a go in the back for the first time, and do to a ride out to the local branch of the Triumph Owners’ Motorcycle Club annual BBQ to show her off (the bike, not the wife). Up the big hill out of Henley on a hot day she started to struggle, then cut out completely. Pulling into a turning it was clear by the blue smoke coming off the engine that things were badly wrong. The engine had got way, way too hot and was burning off the traces old oil that had leaked onto the cylinder head.  It had got so hot in fact that the fuel in the carburettor had boiled, which was probably the reason it cut out. No amount of roadside fiddling was going to sort this out, so it was time to call Mr AA and kick back for the customary three hour wait. The next day it still showed zero interest in starting, so it was time for some fault finding. An engine will only run if it has three things; fuel, sp...

Whoa, that was a long break between posts, sorry about that. But I've not been idle, far from it. Bagheera and I have been out riding regularly. Each time we go out a few less things fall off or break; and each time I get better at riding her. And each time when we get back we fix what has fallen off and broken and we have a better motorcycle . If you read the last post , you'll know the first ride abruptly after two miles with a dead electrical system. The second went much better; until that is after about 15 miles when the red light flickered on -- I had lost oil pressure. This is bad news. Many of the bearings in an engine are plain bearings , which means the only thing keeping the moving parts from griding together with great force and destroying each other in mere seconds is a few microns of engine oil. This oil gets forced out of the bearings and must be continuously replaced by the oil pump and distrubution system. When the system fails, the oil pressure drops and the li...

Made in England Made in England There's been lots of progress. I have received my new classic-style black and silver number plate and fitted it. The repaired rev counter core is back and I have reassembled and refitted that too. I had a change of heart and removed the old contact breaker points igntion system, replacing it with a Boyer Mk4 electronic ignition and new 6V Lucas coils for better reliability.  These units replace the mechanical auto-advance mechanism with a simple magnet, and the contact breaker points plate assembly with a couple of contact-free pickup coils. These connect to a 'little black box' using the existing wiring, and the box then has outputs for the igntion coils. It precisely controls the ignition timing without any moving parts, giving a more stable idle, easier pull-away from low revs and more advance at high revs for greater power. And it's fit-and-forget, unlike the fiddly contact breakers. Not bad for £90 I think. And there are a few fini...

I had a very welcome envelope from the DVLA last week, containing the long awaited V5 registration document (the "log book"), finally making Bagheera road legal. This was followed two days later by another DVLA letter kindly informing me that my registration application had been successful and to expect my V5 soon.  A bit more bureaucratic faffing is now required to secure a actual number plate, which these days seems to need a lot of paperwork. I send off for a nice tidy 'classic' black-and-silver plate to put on the back of Bagheera. The Smiths 3003 series instruments may look the part, but it's best if they actually work too . While waiting for it to arrive, I decide to take the rev counter apart to see if I can fix it. The manufacturer, Smiths, clearly did want you to do this — why else did they seal the glass permanently on by crimping the metal bezel onto the case all the way around instead of screwing it on?  Some very patient encouragment with a variety of...