Rings and Carburetors: Swimming Upstream on this Vintage Motorcycle Restoration Project

The never ending winter drones on up here, so I'm putting my back into getting the '71 Triumph Bonneville project closer to a state of mobility.

I have a new 750cc head and pistons on hand, so I gave the piston rings a go. Installing them is pretty straightforward and the first set went in no problem, but as I was compressing the second set into the cylinder sleeve it didn't feel right, so I backed everything out and the bottom ring came out in pieces. I can only think it was already compromised in the package.

I sent Britcycle an email and they looked through the warehouse to see if they had any extras laying around, but I was out of luck, so it's a $100 failure (new rings, taxes, shipping). Ouch. This got me looking at costs for this vintage project. The last one I did was the Fireblade. Those are my favourite kinds of restorations. Parts are easy to find and relatively inexpensive, the bike is rideable fairly quickly and, after riding it for a season, I can turn it over for at least what I put into it (or with a small profit as was the case with the Fireblade).

New cylinder heads and cylinders... and broken ring.

 

I think I'm still right way up on the Bonneville simply because these older bikes seem to work under their own economy. I was looking up prices of what I've got on eBay this evening and the frickin owners manual that Bryan threw in at the last minute is $50US! A used top end is $500US (and Bryan gave me 2 of the things!). I imagine I could double my money just parting it all out, though dealing with people doing that would be a giant pain in the ass - at least it has been with the newer bike crowd, maybe the vintage types are less adversarial.

I had a couple of choices when I was considering going old school, and I think I picked the hardest possible one to bring back to life. The technical side of it doesn't bother me, but with costs increasing all around I'm bothered more about the high prices and difficulty finding and shipping parts than I am with what I've got to do to bring it back. That old BSA would have probably been a better choice for my first vintage resto, but it (and alas, Bryan) are long gone.

I've got what I've got, and I've got a lot of it, and I'm crafty. I'll see what I can do about replacing fasteners and the other bits and pieces I'm missing without it breaking the bank, those these strange old British pre-metric fasteners are a story unto themselves. The goal right now is to rebuild the bike to an operational state and then maybe ride it for a bit before putting it up for sale. I still need a seat and exhausts and I'll need other odds and ends like control cables. If I can get it back to a state of play, I think I can cover costs and move it along, then I'm thinking I'll go back to my favourite hunting grounds: forgotten bikes from the 80s, 90s and 00s that I can turn over for next to nothing while giving me a chance to ride something different for a little while.

When the ring crumbled on me I changed gears and rebuilt the Amal carbs. That went well, but I'm missing two of the bolts to put the second carb back together - they weren't on it when I wiped the mud and rust away. It's these little setbacks that stall things, and it's not like I can grab a couple of replacements out of my big tray of bolts (most of which are metric).

 

How simple can you make a carburettor? These old Amals are pretty close to first principles. The combination of archaeology and simple mechanics is very appealing when everything else I ride carries a computer and my day job is all about them - it's nice to be fully analog!

I'd broken down the carbs in the fall and left them packaged in a segmented toolbox. Putting them back together was problem free and the kits I got from Britcycle replaced all the gaskets and rubber grommets in them. The old rubber bits were really showing their age.

Guess which one is the 50 year old ring (I;m assuming they're original)?

Just need some bolts (at $3.50US a pop)

If money and time were no object I'd dig deeper into this vintage resto thing - I dig the mechanical simplicity and I enjoy seeing how mechanical evolution happens over time. As a hobby in retirement, it has great appeal, but I'm some years away from that much free time on my hands.

I'll see this one through and then refocus on the SPQR-WRO (small profit, quick return - with riding opportunities) side of it where the costs and time commitments aren't quite so demanding.

 

 

 

50 Year Old Triumph Bonneville Restoration: Amal Carbs and the Fuel Tank

A place where logic, precision and cause and
effect still matter in a world gone mad.

 After the random weirdness of work, time in the garage with the old Bonneville is remarkably
straightforward and logical.  I suspect the bike was in the middle of a Captain America Easy Rider customization in the early/mid eighties when it got parked and time left it behind.  I got it from Brian's storage shipping container where it was out of the weather and raised off the ground.  I don't know where Brian got it from but I suspect it was always stored inside.  I battled with a mid-nineties Kawasaki that had been left outside back in 2014 and this much older machine is nothing like as seized, rusted and difficult to get into.

Anything that doesn't immediately loosen gets a bit of heat and then comes free without any headaches.  Not being in a rush and leaning on the spannering skills I've refreshed over the past decade is making this an enjoyable and meditative process.

The surface rust came off the tank with a bit of sanding.  I'm going to see if I can knock out the dent and then strip it all back.  I used Metal Rescue on the Honda Fireblade tank in my last project and it did a fantastic job of cleaning that unused and rust tank out.  I'll let it sit overnight and then do the power wash tomorrow and hopefully the tank'll come back to me.

The Amal carburetors on the bike are remarkably simple compared to what I've been up against before.  Last time around it was a bank of four last-generation-before-fuel-injection carbs on a '97 Honda Fireblade.  Before that it was a bank-of-four on a '94 Kawasaki GTR1000 and then another complex bank of four on an '81 Yamaha XS1100.  The old Bonnie's single Amal carb per cylinder is a simpler design from a simpler time compared to those complex Japanese four-pot carbs.

Airbox sleeves off.

Carb clean up with a fine wire brush and wd40.

Some aluminum corrosion in the bottom of the carb bowls but it cleaned out nicely.

They've been sitting for a long while, but all the hard parts look to be in good shape.

After an initial cleanup I'm going to break down each carb and clean the hard parts in a ultrasonic cleaning bath before reassembling with new gasketry from British Cycle Supply Co..

Ultrasonic bath bringing the carbs back to clean and ready to breathe for the Bonnie again.

My plan is to get the bike operational mechanically and have it going next spring having cleaned up and rust painted the frame and body.  Once it's operational I'll ride it for a season rough and get to know it before looking to a complete engine rebuild and deeper restoration of frame and body panels at a later date.

In order to get it back to rideable, these are the parts I think I'll need:

• 
  carb gasket rebuild kit x 2
  
• exhaust pipes x2
• mufflers x2
• ignition cables (and possibly some other electrics)
• headlight
• indicators
• battery
• head and sump gaskets for the motor (I intend to go in and clean things out/have a look around before I run it)

Old Bikes Have Soul: A ride out to Ross Hergott Vintage Cycle in Wellesley

This caught the eye of Alanna a few weeks ago and we rode out to Wellesley, Ontario to Ross Hergott Vintage Cycle today to have a look:

We're both still in recovery from week one of year two of pandemic school, but we finally got ourselves into motion after noon and made our way through some fierce winds to Wellesley, which is one of those places that's only 45 minutes away but I've never been too.

The goal was this all day vintage motorcycle ride-in and we saw old bikes on the road coming and going.  While we were there at least a dozen riders were hanging about, chatting and looking over what Ross had on display along with what they'd ridden over on.

Ross has a fanastic shop - the kind of place that looks like it has grown out of the ground with layers upon layers of collectables, tools and bikes that could only look like it does because he's been there for decades.

We had a chat with a guy who rode a 125cc 1950 BSA Bantam over to the meet.  The tiny bike had been in his family for generations and he knew a lot about its history and restoration.  Old bikes like these tell a story simply because they are survivors.  Of the tens of thousands of BSA Bantams churned out in the 50s and 60s, only a handful remain, and to see one of them in fine fettle at this meet was a real treat.

My trouble-making pillion suggested the kid with the chopper pit bike take on the Bantam in a race.  It wouldn't be much of a race (they didn't exceed the speed limit at any time because they couldn't), but it was fun to watch the kid stall out and the old BSA putter off down the road to victory:

There were a couple of well looked after 70s Triumphs for sale at this meet.  Going for about five grand, they put the lie to that Tiger I'd been looking at online in a previous post.  I'm still hoping I can find a reasonably complete older British bike that I can rebuild from the inside out for a couple of grand and then bring it back to working order.  I'd thought that project would be a Triumph but after seeing some of the lovely BSAs at this meet (I'm a sucker for a polished alloy tank) I'm starting to think that perhaps something from Birmingham Small Arms might be in my future.  I'm hoping for a simple, light-weight, air-cooled machine that lets me get analogue in a deeply mechanical way.  A twin would be ok but a thumper would be even more on point, and BSA made some wonderful thumpers...

That blue BSA back there scratches an itch!

I'd feared it would be a Harley Davidson snooze fest but there was an interesting mix of old British bikes in addition to the HDs on hand - no Indians though, which was a shame.  Harleys always make me think of mennonites (Wellesley is in the middle of mennonite country so they were on my mind).  At one point Harleys were state of the art machines but they suddenly decided to stop evolving and just push out variations on the same theme for decades.  The motor company's recent bikes show a rejuvinated interest in modernizing their designs.  From Charlie and Ewan's latest Long Way Up on electic HDs to their Pan American adventure bike and newest Sportsers, HD is flexing some engineering muscle and suddenly considering them doesn't seem as absurd to me.  I hope this new forward-thinking approach pays off for them.  I want to be a fan.

We had lunch at the Nith River Chop House (great food, but don't be in a rush, they won't be) and then rode over to a Eco Cafe on the Connestogo River in St. Jacobs for a nice coffee on the patio overlooking the river.  There we ran into an old fella named Albert who must be closing in on 100 years old.  He's dealing with terminal bone cancer but told us some amazing stories about the decades he spent farming in South Western Ontario as the world evolved around him.  I'm feeling old and this guy had over 40 years on me.

I don't often head into farm-world to the west of us (lots of bugs due to the livestock and tedious, straight roads), but this ride out to Wellesley had me looking at the landscape in a new way, and knowing there's an interesting classic/custom shop out that way means I'll be keeping it in mind for future rides.  If nothing else, the chance to ride on roads I haven't been round and round on during this past year of pandemic lockdown felt like a breath of fresh air.  The chance to see old bikes was the cherry on top.

HD have always had an eye for style - this modern art inspired badge is lovely, then they stuck it on with a couple of philips screws, which casts a light on the other side of Harley ownership.

I get the urge to customize but at some point throwing away a bike's ability to handle for looks ceases to make sense to me, though you've got to appreciate the effort, I just don't share it.  I like a bike that prefers corners to straight lines.

A 1971 Triumph TR6 650.  This fifty year old survivor was also in excellent shape, and only five grand!

If you love chrome, HD have you covered.

I can't say Nortons have ever lit my fire, though I can appreciate the brand's historical significance.  Having said that, this 750 Commando is a lovely thing!  Look at those pipes!

1970 Triumph Daytona, Seven-Thousand, five hundred of your finest Canadian Dollars!  Restored in 2014, it's been sitting in someone's recroom ever since!  A close-up look revealed a lovingly looked after old machine.

Birmingham Small Arms Bantam - and one of the smalled, simplest carburetors you'll ever lay eyes on!

If any of these get your motor humming and your wallet out, get in touch with Ross, he might be able to help you out:  Ross Hergott Vintage Cycle.