My nephew Dan turned 14 today, so I had to give him some worldly advice… well, all I felt suitable for the early teen was this thought. He might look as though he knows what he’d doing, being a dab hand at wrenching by all appearances, but ask for some references… or see how clean his workshop is and organized his tools look. Sea Otters are the same, give them something bolted down and they’ll have it apart in a snap, or at least cracked open with a rock!
Take a moment today to remember the fallen from past conflicts who served with absolute conviction of their comrades, family and country.
This Harley is heading into a ravaged Germany a day after the end of the horrific hostilities of trench warfare with passing horses and soldiers. One horse meets another.
After my post a week ago with the small Meccano model motorcycle; this image cropped up on the WideWebbedWorld… If you couldn’t buy one, then make one! Probably a bit rattly, and a trail of nut’s and bolts will be left in its wake. Just like an old British bike!
There are few more satisfying things than sitting astride your rebuilt moto, kicking the engine to life and roaring down the road. Our chum Sanjay is seen here with his Speed Twin on a jaunt along the coast road near Chennai, India. Worldwide people like to see and hear the distinctive lines and grump of an old motorcycle. It is kind of a reminder of days when things were somewhat simpler and people managed with the world at that speed; these days we’re all too rushed with the blitzing pace of a world connected. Getting aboard these old gals and haring along a quiet winding country lane calms the spirit and breathes a fresh lease into your life. Batteries charged? Yup!
It all comes together: wheels are laced and new tyres shod onto the spruced up rims. Let’s not talk about the blueness… it’s somewhat bright, like an ice cream van from my youth… … but I’m sure in the right company and setting it looks perfect.
Nevertheless, bolting the chassis together with the ‘new’ tins, triple-tree’d forks and various brakeing, oiling, wiring appendages and fixin’s.
The headlight nacelle is a gorgeous unified design element of these twins, it’s a shame they didn’t keep this going through to later models, or even bring this back to the modern classics… … the Smiths Clocks look potent too – put’s the speed in Speed Twin.
Shoehorn the engine in, pop on the wheels and a motorcycles rebirth is imminent. Love the wall mounted tool rack, specialist pullers, keys, and Whitworth spangles are touched by the patina of oily hands.
The penultimate throes of the project always throw up hidden gremlins: tolerances between refinished and new parts, Lucasian electrical imps, and the other item that always takes patience: the paperwork. Every country, state, municipality, hamlet, whatever needs the bike registered, licensed , titled, taxed etc. A wad of document nearly as thick as the receipts for parts, machine work, painting, and the miscellaneous nut, bolts and washers renewed sith stainless steel replacements to allay future rot from damp Bengal Bay breezes…
oh, and the ice cream van? Mr Softee, Wall’s, ours was Coxon’s Ices of Seahouses.
Organisation is the Key to Success! Accumulating parts needs diligence especially when there is a lot of aftermarket bike parts not quite up to spec… i bought a clutch cable that lasted a hundred miles… you need to pay appropriately for some critical components. Can you clean up an original oily part off Ebay? Or cough up the dough for a new component from one of the small fabricators still making items for these old moto-madams? Don’t scamp on Far East parts though… it ain’t worth it!
Clean components, smooth swingin’ con-rods, sharp toothed gears, flat faced joints, new seals and assembly continues. I left my engine to an Brit Iron specialist, Ed Zender at Morries Place, with decades of experience, to get my ‘gin back into shape.
Once reassembled these twins are truly a work of art. Used in worldwide selling models by the Coventry company for nigh on half a century. You could display it in a gallery; though I’d rather see it ensconced in a rolling chassis, oil fed and petrol fired to romp you down the road…
(Heading is Bill Shakespeare)
Knowledge is Power! When embarking on the restoration odyssey gleaning as much information as possible about your particular moto is one of the most pleasurable. Well before bloodied knuckles, cursing screams and emptying coffers turn ‘The Project’ into a seemingly unendurable rout, amassing the history, details, period test articles, manuals is a great way to start learning about your machine.
Advertising is a good start: how did the team in the boardroom want to sell the ‘bikes? Fun, functionality? Or just those sleek, sweet lines of a steed of speed?
Remember this was modern design of it’s day! Features that put it above and beyond of the competition (bar a Vincent Black Lightning of course…). Love those illustrations, which were for the most part direct traced renderings of photographs.
“And Lo, it came to pass…”
Better get yerself a decent shelf-full of manuals which illustrate in line and photo how to both dismantle the machine and then put ‘er back together without leaving so much as a nut or bolt out. The Haynes book is legend as a well organised tome which presents a blow-by-blow account of the major sections of a motorcycle: engine, gearbox, chassis, suspension, wheels, and electrics.
A ‘Bible’ it seems, but more of a concise survey of the model; well worth a peruse to understand a bikes development. When did the rigid frame give up for a swing arm? What years have the smart nacelle headlight shroud? What colour was applied in what year?
Of course noting is a substitute for an Owners Instruction Manual, Workshop Manual and Replacement Parts Book. These are essential for the devoted restoree… … we hope you haven’t given up yet! Has the parts been delegated to a corner of the garage yet? Don’t lose heart, the fun hasn’t even started yet!
One of the most important things you DO need at this point in the game is an inspiration, a vision of your goal. Good photos of your model abound on the ‘Web for this. But one better thing would be to look at a bike ‘in the flesh’; look it over, take your own photos; if you could even ride it (if the devoted owner lets you) that’ll give you a faster pulse and the energy to forge ahead…
Unzipping an old moto, engine and chassis both, gives the restorer the first view of the road ahead. Will parts be useable with necessary cleaning and restoring or will a new replacement be needed? Our Speed Twin shows a veritable horror story when the internals are laid bare…
Primary and clutch are shot… though the aluminium cases look solid and serviceable. I bet it was a fun peek under the cylinder head and peering down the piston barrels into the heart of the twin. So remember kids if you ever want to abandon an old motorcycle distribute oil to the innards and cover the heck out of it with a protective layer of oil and put it away in a dark dry place away from prying eyes. Makes the discovery worthwhile…
The gas tank has seen better days and is past it’s useable life; probably only suitable as a wall ornament (in the garage or workshop of course). A nice included parcel rack could be cleaned, chromed and reused though.
After all of that discovery I think a cup of tea would be well deserved. The road ahead needs a bit of a head scratch before venturing onward…
A Rat bike reborn…
All over the world Triumph’s are still being unearthed from dusty sheds, oily tarpaulins, or aged cellars. Here is one such project from an Indian moto-forum where the owner, one Sanjay, based in Chennai, was gifted from a dear uncle. The photos show what 30-plus years in a basement off the monsoon airs of the Bay of Bengal can do. A complete looking bike but a LOT of work lies ahead. These were taken in 2009.
It’s got some rust issues. and may have some engine internals requiring a little more than basic machine work. However there is a worldwide network and supply chain of information available to these old gals’ restoration.
Ooh! To get my hands on something like this… It’s the Meccano builder in me; the lad who likes to take things apart; the biker who want to ride his very own machine… knowing every nut and bolt!
There’s a Speed Twin under there somewhere… a good soaking in oil, warm up the old Whitworth spanners and plenty of elbow grease… notebook, ziplock baggies, camera, and some helpful co-conspirators on the interweb or a local moto-group and the next several months or years are busied up!
…to be continued!
As a young lad when I wasn’t taking apart things to see how they were put together, my sister thinks I was just breaking them, I somehow absorbed construction of mechanical things that has given me enough ken of the built world – though some might declare a dangerous knowledge! I’m sure most with a mechanical tilt to the world did the same thing. There was of course another way of achieving the same thing: the Meccano Set.
Wheels, plates, ties, cogs, axles and of course the ubiquitous silver nuts and bolts and their screwdrivers and spanners. From cranes, and bridges to cars and trains; youthful engineers to be could envision a world of machinery about them.
two-Wheels? You bet! Here’s an old drawing of a motorcycle a young Ed Turner wannabe could bolt-up.
After figuring out a few structural and ‘gineerin’ rules, the world was yer oyster… or Ariel, or Norton…
A lively thumbnail doodle discovered on the interweb. Must be a Tiger with appropriate gearing. I couldn’t see my Bonnie being hoisted skyward…
A road beckons for some young couple. Wrapped up, packed up, and I’m sure mapped up. The onlooking pup seems interested in the proceedings.
Saw this Bonnie on Craigslist earlier… under those long legs and sissy bar is a nice little runner. Banana yellow for a banana bike. Two and a half grand and she’s yours. This was the first year of the oil-in-frame set-up and was supposedly a tall seat. You’ll need an upended crate to get on this perch!
As Harry Belafonte said:
‘Work all night on a drink a’ rum
Daylight come and me wan’ go home
Stack banana till the mornin’ come
Daylight come and me wan’ go home”
Look closely at this Triumph engine and you see a small tuning adjustment to scavenge more power from the twin. The spark plug has been repositioned to be directly over the center of the piston. What is the reason for this? Well the valve positions relative to the chamber and domed piston head provides the most efficient and powerful bang from the cross flow pattern within the chamber. Of course carb tuning and ignition timing are essential to attain these extra ponies!
Found online, here is a good summary of a Hemi engine…..
The term Hemi which is short for Hemispherical which simply means half sphere which is what the combustion chamber looks like, with one valve on each side.
The Hemi has been around for a long, long time in various forms. Early Triumph motorcycles used this design in 1937 and continued using it up until 1988. Chrysler borrowed ideas for their design from Weslake which built speed parts for Bonneville salt flat racers. Chrysler really utilized it best in automobiles in the early fifties and it’s still the all time power king in racing. A drag racing blown hemi produces in excess of 6000 horsepower which is many times what anything else is capable of producing.
The hemi has four main advantages:
1) The spark plug(s) reside directly in the middle and top of the combustion chamber. This makes for a nice, even firing pattern. This is why Hemi engines have spark plug holes right in the middle of the valve covers. Other “wedge” engines like Chevy and Ford V-8’s have their spark plugs off-center which is cheaper to build but less efficient.
2) Larger valve size. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Now draw a line through the middle of it. Now draw two circles on ONE side of that line and you’ll see how most ordinary V-8 heads are designed. To draw a Hemi, place one big circle on one side of the line and another big circle on the other side of the line. Bigger valves mean more efficient and rapid airflow through the engine.
3) Larger combustion chamber surface area. The chamber is of the pentroof design (used by Ricardo in the 1910’s) which means it’s kinda funnel shaped. More area means more even heat transfer and distribution. More fuel and air can be crammed into the combustion chamber thus producing more power.
4) By placing the valves across from each other, the intake and exhaust flows across the combustion chamber. On a standard wedge head, they enter on one side, turn and cross and turn again to exit the cylinder. That’s inefficient. The Hemi is a true flow-through design.
Today, there are numerous manufacturer’s who make more efficient designs than the 2-valve Hemi. Most of the DOHC 4-valve designs will easily outflow a Hemi to a point. They have more valve area, however the size of the ports is usually very small increasing intake and exhaust velocity. That’s great if you want maximum combustion efficiency but not great if your goal is to move massive amounts of fuel and air through the engine.
For today, the modern Dodge street Hemi is primarily a sales tool. The name, reputation and mystique alone will sell cars. It does produce great power & torque and is definitely an option worth considering.
………
Basically big lungs, Big Bang, big power!
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