Rockin' and rollin'

Woo hoo! It's fantastic. I hadn't expected that the Triumph would be so addictive to ride....it just feels so great.

Café racing on an old Triumph dirt bike

 

Out and about

Firin' her up one sunny morning

 

Selfie with bike

Muffled

Added a pair of silencers. All is peace and quiet.

Woo hoo!

Done. And it even starts & runs now that I've got the timing set correctly. But...it is ear-bleedingly loud!

Bike!

Almost there....the Triumph looks totally badass!

Stickers

Finally plucked up the courage to sticker & lacquer the fuel tank and sidepanel. Part of the delay was waiting for the weather to become warmer and drier because I wanted to avoid getting any paint effects from moisture in the air. And it's been a long, cold winter and a late spring in the North West of the UK.

Pinstripes

Masked and painted in the gold pin stripes between blue upper and silver sheen lower parts of the fuel tank. Doesn't look quite as good as a hand-painted stripe by some old geezer in a brown overall, but it'll do just fine.

Rubber

The trials tyres arrived, so I've wrapped them round the rebuilt rims. The 4x18 rear is pretty easy to find in a variety of vintage-looking brands (this is a Bridgestone) but 19-inch trials tyres are now a rarity. This is an Ensign, and it matches the look of the old Dunlop Trials Universals pretty well.

Tank

Been busy with the paint & masking tape this weekend. Just need to add the gold pinstriping, several coats of lacquer and the tank badges.

Wheel #2

Have been held up waiting for the rear wheel rim which was on back-order at CWC. It finally landed last Wednesday and I built it up the same evening. All stainless - rim, spokes & nipples. Should last almost for ever and still look good.

Paint

Have started painting. Sidepanel and oil tank, plus the fork shrouds I made earlier.

Tinware

My TR6R came with lights originally, but I'm rebuilding it as a US West Coast TR6C....no lights. This means that my upper forks shrouds with headlamp brackets aren't going to be right, so I've made a couple of shrouds without the bracket.

Pipes

Fitted some '67 TR6C pipes - both on the left side, high pipes. The silencers were optional back in the day, so I'm going to see just how loud it is and get some silencers if it's really TOO much.

Rim

Built up the front wheel using a set of stainless spokes, nickel-plated brass nipples and a stainless rim in the same pattern as the original Dunlop rim.

I haven't built a wheelbuilding stand yet and someone (!) had borrowed my welder yet again and was late returning it so I was unable to knock one together, so I trued up the rim in place between the front forks. This helped get the wheel centred without having to measure offset - I just had to make sure it was centred between the stanchions. Finished up using a dial gauge, and was surprised at the amount of out-of-round caused by the welded join in the rim.

Nuts, part II

Found a little time today to make up the metric-thread sleeve nuts for the repro speedo; turned out pretty good, I think.

Nuts

Fitted the pushrods and rockerboxes. Bought a US model chainguard without the rear plate and fitted that. Engine plates are off again temporarily while I sort out a problem with one of the studs in the swingarm mount.

A while back I bought a repro speedo because the plan is to go for the '68 TR6C look with a single speedo offset to the right. This style of bracket requires special sleeve nuts and spacers in order to mate with the mounting studs on the bottom of the clock, so I picked up the necessary fasteners. All was looking good until I tried mounting the clock and discovered that the studs on the repro clock have a metric thread! The sleeve nuts are of course an Imperial thread (don't know if it's CEI or UNF. I may have to fire up the lathe and make up some bespoke nuts.

Running gear

Fitted the forks, though they'll have to come out briefly to fit the upper shrouds. Swingarm went in without a hitch and some mid-price shocks finished the rear end. I've swapped out the upper yoke for a solid mount TR6C item and have fitted US bars. The bike is a US import TR6R, but I have no pipes or lights yet and plan to rebuild it to "C" spec.

Forks

Rebuilt the front forks with new stanchions, bushes & seals. Meanwhile, Catherine (pictured) did a spot of Blogging and Tweeting.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

In!

Grabbed the motor with both hands and heaved it over to the frame, which was strapped down to my makeshift bike stand. Slotted it into place without too much difficulty and slipped some mounting bolts into place. I don't know how long the engine and frame have been apart, but it certainly seemed pleased to be back in its rightful place.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Head, Part II

Checked the height of the pushrod tubes with the head placed on the cylinders, and worked out the correct thickness of translucent seals (bottom) and o-ring (top) to seat properly. With these seals in place the head was between 1-1.5mm off the gasket, and this closed up nicely when the head bolts were tightened.

From Triumph 650 rebuild

From Triumph 650 rebuild

Hubs

Picked up the hubs from the powder coaters. What a difference! Fitted new wheel bearings so all I need to do now is teach myself wheelbuilding....

From Triumph 650 rebuild