The short drive home was as uneventful as it usually is, until a rumbling splash of yellow muscle car pulled along side. A ’72 or thereabouts Ford Mustang Mach1. No buzz of a bumblebee here; just a grumble of a swarm of honey-seekers. The young lad driving it looked about sixteen…
Probably a 351 Cleveland V8 under that bulging hood.
Picked up the latest copy of the excellent Caff Racer rag. Grand reading with a cup of tea! Cafe scene, road racer builds, local groups, clip-on and rearset suppliers, Triumphs, Nortons and Beezas galore…
Here’s a beaut photo of yesterday’s triple in action. Pilot is Klaus Mueller at a Triple prepared moto from the fine folks at Rob North Triples in the East Midlands. You can even pick up a race-ready 750 for twenty grand… Race proven at the Manx GP!
If I wanted to hare around one of the premium tracks of Europe for twenty four hours what better beast than a Gulf colored Triomphe! This Moto is set up much like Slippery Sam, the original 24hour killer from 1970. Remake of LeMans but on a bike?
“A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.” Michael Delaney
Barry Taylor, the “bashful, bumbling, boring, Brummie” sparky from our current fave telly revisit is here seen getting his tempestuous Bonnie going. What’s German for: “fuel tap on, tickle the carbs, and give her a nice swift kick”? Oh yes: “Mein BMW ist eine besserre motorrad als ein Triumph!”.
Aye mebbee sonny, but not nearly as much fun!
Disassembly of the brake master cylinder required a bit of force and sweat. The lever mount case cracked so I sawed it off. The cylinder spewed forth its grimy innards so they’re in a baggie with cleaner. Hopefully I can acquire a new mount, a rebuild kit, scrub the parts up and the job’ll be a gud un! These items are 300 bucks new so I’m avoiding being skint… The clean one pictured is a new one.
Here’s the rebuild kit:
“Workin’ on the site from mornin’ ’til night; that’s livin’ alright”
Back in the early eighties when there were only four channels on the Telly and over three million on the dole. One much watched programme in particular gave light relief and laughs to many. The adventures of three brickies from Newcastle whilst working in Dusseldorf, Germany. I watched one today where Oz, the irritating one with wisecracks galore superbly handled by the indefatigable Jimmy Nail, had a argument with some Germans and was sacked from his job, catching a bus to head back to England his compatriots chase after him. The only mode of transport is a Triumph Bonnie owned by the Brummie Barry, played by a droll Timothy Spall. The unspoken leader Dennis (Tim Healy) gets a backie from Barry to chase down the bus….
“Workin’ all day for a pittance of pay, then blow it all on Saturday night. And you kiss the dames, but you don’t ask their names, that’s livin’ alright!”
Of course Oz got his job back as the graftin’ bricklayer but he still had something against the Germans:
“‘Cos they’re the bastards that bombed me granny!”
One of yesterdays photos given a little Instagram treatment: shallow depth of field creating a miniturized appearance to the Bon. Add a little faded colouring and you have a nicely detailed and completed 1:32nd Airfix kit. Plastic cement anyone? I’m sure to get first place in the diorama group…
A year ago I was pushing the bike after an electrical breakdown; a similar fall day greeted me so I took my chances (though after this years ironing out the electrical creases with less of a worry!) and headed out for some refreshing autumn air. It turned out to be a perfect ride, apart from some slow traffic in spots, but we managed a few choice miles under the last vestiges of the luminous rusts of “fall color”.
The tank looked splendid under the blue skis and earthy backdrop. All we needed was a twist of the throttle and the twin romped along at a pleasant clip.
Sheridan Road had the usual cyclists and Sunday drivers, all obviously looking for the same smile inducing journey. A last hoorah before the dreary tones of winter settle in.
What a photogenic little bike she is… just plays up to the camera. Especially with a firework arboreal setting as fiery as the Northshore in October.
A few self portraits of us zipping along are included for a touch of action. The well-to-do homes of the northern suburbs can keep their castles and palaces!
Sheridan Road has a few perfect spots where the combination of corners, hills and dips converge to provide enjoyable swoops on the moto. Dappled trees provide a calming rhythm of light and shade.
Fun Achieved!
“I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.”
Henry David Thoreau
550 foot pounds per second or about 745.7 Watts. The power of motorcycles is of course measured in it. Here are a few well known Moto’ and their respective figure:
Honda Cub: 7
Vincent Black Lightning: 70
Ducati 916: 114
Honda CB750: 67
Kawasaki Z1: 82
Triumph Bonneville: 46
BMW SS1000R: 193
It was of course Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider that provides a visual cusp of a counter-culture youth between the free-lovin’ sixties and the ‘back down with a thud’ hangover of the seventies. Well this here is a chopped Turnip left to fade under a moth eaten canvas tarp in some back pasture barn. The communes fled decades ago and the pot smokers moved out west…
“Needs some T.L.C.” Darn tootin’ it does! But boy if you squint hard enough- well, just close your eyes and plain imagine, you can nearly see a chromed out beast resplendent with Union Flag petrol tank. The journey this time? A couple of weary biker vagabonds heading eastward from Newquay along the A303 across the Salisbury Plains, stopping off at Stonehenge aiming for the seafront of Brighton before meeting an untimely demise on the A23 by a swerving white Ford Transit driven recklessly by a pair of Cockney chavs…
“You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.” George Hanson 1969
I love ink lined technical drawings showing exploded components. You can see how it all goes together. Here’s excerpts from the Triumph Workshop Manual for a ’75 T140V/TR7 of the front brake system. This will help me with my updated stopping project as mentioned yesterday. I can see the draughtsman lined up in a smoky office at Meriden, Coventry poring over a Mylar sheet taped to vast drawing boards. Examining with a keen eye over the top of a thick pair of hornrims, parts sent up from the development workshops. They occasionally make sure their Rotring drawing instruments are filled, tapping their briar pipes occasionally on the heel of their oxfords.
…and if you’re going to go fast, you’ve got to be able to stop too! I’m slowly acquiring parts for the front end to set up a disc brake system. The conical drum brake standard to the ’72 T120R is okay for delicate slowing maneuvers but when you need to slam on the anchors then they’re more comical in reality, you always have to think ahead with traffic and have a potential run-off space – which you should do anyways when riding!
Basically as the front end of the late model 650 and it’s beefier 750 younger brother (the T140V or TR7) were much the same; all I have to do is swap out the fork lowers, add a caliper, hoses and brake lever with master cylinder, and change the wheel to a disc braked one. Well, the eBay searches have been going well, indeed some items are coming with extra stuff that I can flog off to pay for itself. Get some new seals, stainless hoses and stainless pistons then Bob’s yer uncle, the Bonnie will then ‘HALT’ on my two-fingered command!
With your feet on the air
And your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head’ll collapse
If there’s nothing in it
And then you’ll ask yourself
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