The Cubs fork steering head cleaned up nicely with the three coats of paint removed over the past few evenings. I kinda like the raw steel appearance of ’em. However I’ll may go down the typical gloss black. Or….. Racing Green?
January 14, 2014
Citrus uses
To strip the old paint off some parts I’m using the interior friendly Citrustrip. It is working great for a couple or three coats of orange, white and black enamels.
Daub it on, leave for a day and it bubbles the old paint allowing it to be simply scraped off. A couple of applications should see the parts sorted ready for cleaning, priming and spraying. On another Vitamin C note I’m cooking up a batch of Kumquat marmalade.
A hefty bag was brought north by my bosses Claire & Ryan; picked from their tree in Louisiana.
I haven’t even scratched the surface of this bushel!
January 8, 2014
(½)+ (½)
Take a couple of beat up old Cubs, with plenty of parts missing, and with some thoughtful reassembly you could end up with a whole…
These forlorn relics of youthful two-wheeled exuberance have seen better days but a restorers eye and greasy fingers and furrowed brow dripped in sweat; as well as the ubiquitous emptying wallet, could very well let them, as One, ride the lanes again!
E pluribus unum: out of the many one…
December 14, 2013
Terrier Cutaway
The 150cc Triumph Terrier T15 was the smaller precursor to the Tiger Cub, a very similar layout and details with the odd crossover part. Here’s an aged cutaway demonstration engine with innards exposed to see how parts mesh into a machine for go. It take a mechanical understanding of the machine at hand to chop it into an assembled whole with holes…
This is fairly handy for my ensuing needs while reassembling the Cub. This grubby, ‘shelved’ display sure could use a good restoration. Itcsold on the UK eBay for £1,000.
December 11, 2013
Here kitty…
Another view of the Kit Cat Cub. The timing side this time and some more details in evidence. Open frame with the oil taken by the main down tube. Nice skinny big hoop on the front and doughty shoe out back with plenty of travel on those rear shocks. No seat? Of course trials are carried out standing up. I’m ticking my way through the factory parts manual and the list of parts still to acquire seems to be growing! Yes it’s a pocket watch of a moto but the inner workings are still complex…
December 9, 2013
Leicestershire Trials
During research for a suitable ignition system for the Cub restoration I navigate the Boyer Bransden website. They’re known for a broad range of electronic ignitions for vintage points and distributor motorcycles and cars. In their gallery I spied a nice trials Cub owned by Julie from Leicestershire.
There are some good details I can hopefully use on my restoration. It’s a nifty looking machine.
November 30, 2013
Workbench
I finally built myself a workbench to sort out tools and give me a decent platform to wrench on the cub project – as well as other house tasks too. Handy dandy pegboard to mount the tool selection for ease of selection. The basement has become my man-cave! Still a fair bit of organizing yet but it will develop as I work with it.
October 11, 2013
1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle
eBay is a good location for a spot of restoration research: the seller usually posts numerous detail photos of the motorcycle which can be utilized as excellent reference for assembly or ideas for component setup.
Here’s a cute yellow Cub that is in fairly complete trim. This has been listed with a nice selection of the needed views…
Nice dull gray cases; a patina of oily rag polish.
Bolt patterns, spacers; mounting brackets and cable routing. When parts come loose in a box this is essential information.
Also its good to see the little beating heart in slumbering pose.
The top end showing the arterial oil lines feeding the ready to go moving parts. You can nearly hear the ticking of the valves for this diminutive but doughty motor.
Amal: any British vintage bike owner worth their salt gets to know the needles, screws and orifices of the fuel and air blender. More mounting details are exposed. Gas hose routed from the fuel tank to the carb itself.
Oil feed comes from the small tank, a little peep of the oil hoses and exhaust.
Controls now; throttle, clutch lever and bracing to the nice wide bars. Lemondrop tank tarts up the deal.
Triple tree, headlight ears and handlebar mount clamps.
Front and rear for the laced hoops of the wheels. Knobbly rubber to offer grip over tarmac and gravel. One of my next tasks is relacing, so seeing the spoke pattern is handy.
As we’ve said before: the whole is greater than the parts.
October 10, 2013
Josef K’s ride
Two-Wheeled tiptoes… A perfectly balanced Triumph Tiger Cub in trials form; simple, purposeful, awaiting orders from a deft hand and a stance in sweet equilibrium. Inspirational for the project.
September 17, 2013
Cubby ‘gin
In the throes of engine component clean, inspect, degrease, polish, measure… I need these images of assembled engines for inspiration… They look like a neat little package in this condition.. A far cry for the boxes of baggies each zip-locked and sharpie noted.
…still on the lookout for a 40 over piston…
September 3, 2013
The Bricks of a Building
The Cub project is currently in an ever increasing number of individual parts. Each to be cleaned, inspected reused or replaced. I have several boxes of zip-lock bags with these components in this mid-restoration filing system. It’s kinda neat knowing each item goes through your fingers.
These aren’t my project but the photos remind me of the excitement of opening Airfix model kits and unfolding the instructions readying the plastic kit for subsequent assembly.
The whiff of polystyrene cement has now been replaced by the hydrocarbon oils and machine cleaners and lubricants. I have a mind to photograph the Cub parts laid out on the floor…
…or a lawn.
…here’s another one!
…brick by brick.
August 21, 2013
30 thou over and lookin’ good
A barrel arrived today for the Triumph Cub project. In terrific shape with a clean bore, nearly complete fins and a piston too!
Eye spy with my beady eye a hole of 63.75mm. Hopefully minimal hone and top deck milled then she’ll be good un for the job at hand…
…some assembly required of course!
August 11, 2013
Welsh invention
Though seen use from Egyptian stone block moving with trunks and Leonardo da Vinci sketches for his helicopter air-screw rotation; it was the development and patent of a Welsh ironmaster Philip Vaughan that the modern ball race bearing was created. Its 1794 timing came at an ideal moment for the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. However it was Frenchman Jules Suriray who patented the first ball bearing. Used to great low resistance rolling effect by Englishman James Moore astride his velocipede in the first Paris-Rouen road race later that year.
Bearings are of course very important in ALL wheeled and powered contrivances: today I measured for and ordered the bearings for the Cub wheels (two for each) and the crank shaft and main gear shaft.
However a bearing is only as good as its lubrication and cleanliness… Spin Doctor
August 9, 2013
As Happy as a Sunny Smile :-)
I must admit this one has done the rounds on the interweb; but with my ongoing search for Cub parts this is a true happy-face when one of those hard to find item crops up for a low price. It typically turns to a bawling (or swearing more like) when that part doesn’t fit…. Haven’t we all been there?
July 16, 2013
Air & Gas
For the chemist:
2C8H18 + 25O2 ~> 16CO2 + 18H2O
For the engineer:
Yup, a beat-up old Amal 376 Monobloc that will become the fuel air mixer for the Tiger Cub. It’ll have to be stripped, intricately cleaned, new jets, seals and hopefully get the appropriate giddy-up for the wee project.
Parts listed on the ubiquitous exploded diagram.
geordiebiker.com 