Past Another Cold, Dark Winter

 I'm getting back out with regularity now that the worst of the winter is past. Both of the regular road bikes are fit and took to the road effortlessly. I had a bit of a breakthrough with the Concours14 last year and we're understanding each other a bit more. It's a big old bus but it's remarkably agile for how big it is and we've come to a kind of mutual kinesthesis, but I still took the Tiger out first because it's like putting on an old shoe....

... and we picked up right where we stopped. The goal is still to get to 100k this year in the bike's 20th year on the road, and I think we're good to get there.

I took the Tiger out again for some exercise in the gaps between snow and ice at the end of March....

But when I took both bikes out between the ice storms of April (isn't Canada magical?)...

I enjoyed the Connie so much that in another break in this never ending winter last week the C14 got pulled out in front of the Tiger (which enjoys pride of place in the garage).

I took the bigger road home and passing cars was like being on an arrow loosed from a bow; what a monster that bike is! ...And yet so versatile with piles of luggage space, no chain maintenance and (now that I've got the tires and shocks worked out), exceptional handling for its size. All of that and the adjustable windshield makes it feel a bit like flying an F14 Tomcat.

The Bonneville project is still not getting the time it deserves, but I'm in a new phase of work and I'm enjoying pouring my time and energy into that. In the meantime, both road-ready bikes are facing a promising riding season.

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.

 

 

 

Plastic Welding

 I thought I'd give this a go when I discovered that one of the plastic dash bits (used) for the 2010 C14/GTR1400 Concours was upwards of $150US +shipping. One of the benefits of reading Practical Sportsbikes Magazine is that they're always dropping technical hints and ideas. They mentioned plastic welding in one of their project bike articles, so I looked it up.

The repair kit cost less than $40CAD and includes a heating 'iron' with multiple ends and piles of plastic strips you can melt into a repair. Starting with a simple crack would have been easier, but I had to rebuild the broken end of a complicated plastic form, including a missing bolt hole.

Here's the broken plastic dash panel:

I found a piece of plastic from a hex key tool with a matching sized hole, cut the end off the plastic bit  and grafted it on.

While that was cooling I melted some of the filler on the back and healed the crack up the middle.

I was liberal with the filler because I figured it would sand back. The only problem with this piece is that it's patterned on the surface and I'm not sure how I'm going to replicate that. The fix might be to take both pieces of and just paint them to a matching finish.

When I tried it for size, the panel lined up with the holes perfectly and is much more sturdy than it used to be. I'm going to finish sanding it and see if the raw finish bothers me while riding. If it does I'll take both dash panels off and paint both sides so they match. If I use a vinyl paint, I should get a matching finish that also acts like the original and would Armor-All up nicely.

So, what's plastic welding like? Pretty straightforward, and like most things if you practice you'll get better at it. The filler sticks provided in the kit melt easily under the iron and fill cracks and holes well. If you don't like the first go you can reapply heat and get it to set differently. If you're looking at absurd replacement costs for old plastic on a well used bike, a plastic welding kit is a good purchase.

Winter Maintenance: Fuel Injectors on a 955i Triumph

 It's been a busy winter and I haven't gotten as much done in the garage as I'd hoped, but breaks in the gloom are beginning to appear so I spent the weekend getting the Tiger sorted and giving plastic welding my first go.

2003 Triumph Tiger 955i Fuel Injector Maintenance

The old Tiger is up at about 90k on the odometer. I did a deep maintenance a couple of winters back (swing arm out, everything gone over from the wheels up) and that seemed to solve most issues, except the fuel injection. These early electronic fuel injection systems in 955i Triumphs is touchy. What I've found that worked is to pull the injectors each winter and deep clean them in the ultrasonic bath, so that's what last weekend was.

Injectors out! I put the end without the electrical connector into the ultrasonic cleaner and give it 10 minutes at 60°C. Once out I clean them up and back in they go. No hesitation or idling problems since.

That vacuum run stepper motor (upper left) is what manages the idle control system - it's touchy! Make sure you've got good vacuum hoses (the black ribbed ones in the pic) and the gasket for the stepper motor is in good shape, or you'll be stalling... a lot. I'm sorting a threaded holder for the fuel injectors here.

Tank off gave me a chance to sort out the airbox, which I now seal with gasket material. At almost 90k, maintenance takes on jobs like rethreading bolts and gasketing tired airboxes to keep everything tight.

Found a stowaway on the airbox under the gas tank. Probably good luck?

Tiger is back together again and ready to take a run at 100k in it's 20th season.

How well did it work? We had a break in the polar vortex (it was -30° last week). In 5°C we went for a blast up and down the nearby river roads and it felt sharp. Doing that bit extra with an older high mileage bike when it comes to maintenance is the key to a happy riding season.

Travel Photography Tech Wishlist

After 25 days on the road across the Iberian Peninsula, I have ideas about what I'm looking for in terms of travel photography tech. The Canon SLR with a bag of lenses is too much to lug around, and the recycled 7 year old Dell laptop doesn't cut it when it comes to keeping up with modern file sizes. An agile photo tech set also works on two wheels, so here's what I'd bring along if I were going light but looking for full technical flexiblity in terms of imaging while on the road:

Zenbook S 13 FLIP OLED

An absolutely bonkers sub 2.5lb laptop with 2k of colour corrected display with 100% colour gamut. It folds away to almost nothing, offers the power needed to make high resolution photo and video edits on the road and even converts to a tablet for digital sketching.

$1899

Sony Cybershot RX10Mk4

After lugging the SLR with many lenses around Iberia for weeks on end, I'm looking for a more compact but technically robust option. The Cybershot has a massive sensor, shoots in RAW and outperforms my SLR in pretty much every area. Being smaller and less fussy (just the one do-it-all lens), it does what the best camera always does: makes it easy to have it with you. I ended up leaving the SLR behind towards the end because it was more trouble than it was worth

$2199

Ricoh Theta Z1

Simply the highest photo quality 360 camera you can get. A massive 1 inch sensor means good low light, RAW shooting, a programmable Android based OS that lets you push the limits of this emerging format by creating my own plugins.

I prefer photography to video so the Z1 is the weapon of choice when it comes to 360 photography. The only thing it can't do is rough and tumble, but I have a plan for that.

 $1349

I like a good 360 photograph (not so big on the videos), but the old ThetaSC isn't great in low light conditions, Even a cloudy day can make things muddy.

You can make some interesting compositional choices with a 360 camera that conventional photography would struggle with. A better still 360 camera would let me explore this further.

Insta360 X3

The rough and tumble option. If I'm riding, in the rain or filming under water, the X3 does the trick and it's still in the shape I prefer for 360 cameras (blocky GoPros are awkward and not so aerodynamic). The Insta360 cameras are tough and this new one has such a good sensor that it approaches the Theta Z1 for low light and detail pickup. So close in fact that I think I'd just go with this new X3 and shelf the stirng of Thetas that got me into 360 photography to begin with. Ricoh just doesn't seem that intent on pushing the genre anymore.

$600 standalone, $713 with motorcycle gubbins

Apple iPhone 14 Pro

I got an iPhone 13 last year and the camera on it is good - so good that I found myself leaving the DSLR behind because, for candid snaps, the iPhone is more than up to the job. As good as it is, I'm wishing I'd gone a bit further and gotten a 14 pro with extra lens and that bit more photographic range. I'm still struggling with adapting to iOS after owning an Android from the very beginning, but I'd stick it out for the software integration and quality on the iPhone (Apple's stance on user privacy is appealing too).

$1549

This might all seem pretty expensive (photography isn't a cheap hobby), but when a single pro 400mm lens costs you about ten grand, this entire $7665 set offers much more flexibility with a powerful all-in-one camera, two 360 specialist imaging tools and a state of the art lightweight laptop for post production, and all while taking up next to no room.

If I wanted to boil it down to essentials, I'd take the Insta360 X3 ($713) and swap out the Cybershot for a Canon SX70 ($800) - another very capable superzoom all-in-one, and then I'd round it out with the same Zenbook in an open-box sale (I've seen such for about $1100). That'd get me within inches of the rich option for about $2600.

***.

I did alright with the old DSLR (these are wild Portuguese seas), but lugging all that about wasn't very travel friendly - I think I'm ready to migrate back to a prosumer grade all-in-one superzoom camera. I just need to make sure it beats the SLR with lense and includes the specs I need to improve my imaging (large sensor, full manual controls, RAW file saving, epic lens).

I'm pretty crafty with on-bike pics from the old Ricoh Theta I've got, but with newer (and tougher) tech I could push the boundaries there too.

Good example of how capable the iPhone is at photos (and a nice way to get to the beach - on a 90s vintage Africa Twin!). This is cropped in tight from the original and is still high-rez.