1971 Triumph Tiger 650 restoration

Hello everyone, welcome back and a very happy 2021 to you all. While we  may have had even more free time than usual this Christmas -- normally perfect shed time -- my better half decided it was a good time to redecorate the bedroom. That is to say, it was a good time for me to decorate the bedroom. Or perhaps I say it was a good time for me to rebuild the bedroom.  So there has not been very much progress on the bike for a while. When I have been able to escape into the workshop I have mostly been cleaning things. Degreasing, derusting, wire-brushing, polishing (but not too much) all sorts of parts from footpegs to exhaust pipes. It is a gentle, pleasently mindless process and one that should not be rushed. Part 22... snapped. Part 25... busted. Part 26... loose. One material victory was repairing the kick-start mechanism. No more will it randomly let go and snap ones knee ligaments. Once I had bravely taken the gearbox outer cover off, the cause was very obvious. The kickst...

The kickstart lever (center) and cause of my sore knee. Suitably chastened by my sore knee and blown electrics, I approach the bike a few days later in a more philosophical attitude.  I start to make a list of what is missing, broken or just past its best, and get another surprise -- supplies of spare parts are excellent and they are very reasonably priced, compared to the Japanese stuff. One supplier in particular -- the excellently named Feked -- seems to have everything. I splash a whopping £230 on a ton of parts and consumables, and another £45 for a top quality battery . Plus the £55 registration fee, it's an expensive week, particularly as it does not even run yet. In the cold light of day, I find plenty of good reasons why. 1. Fuel. The carb is gunky, and when I try to remove the main jet to clean it, it breaks in half. No wonder it would not run. But here is another nice surprise. Despite being made back in 1970, the carb -- an Amal 930 -- still has a good supply of parts ...