Tim's Motorcycle Diaries: Search results for restoration

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Wednesday 16 March 2022

1971 Triumph Bonneville Project: Engine Out

The weather's all over the place at the beginning of March this year. Last weekend I had both road-ready bikes out for a shakedown, this weekend we're skiing in -20°C windchill; that's the road I was riding on last week.

As GP from Hammy Hamster would say, 'the elephants are against us.' With the outside trying to kill us again, I'm focusing on doing a complete tear down of the 1971 Triumph Bonneville project. I was originally going to see if I could get the bike in motion as it is, but a combination of factors including 1971 Triumph build quality and the early 80s muppet who tried and failed to turn the bike into a chopper's spannering skills have me now approaching this as a frame up restoration.

I've been working around the edges which has been good for reconnaissance in determining what state the bike is in, but now that I'm committed to doing the bike from the frame up the first job was to remove the bottom end of the motor and clear the way for a frame restoration:

The bottom end was surprisingly light and easy to lift out of the frame and none of the frame to engine bolts caused any problems. Some were quite loose, so a frame up resto is making more and more sense as I don't trust anything the chopper muppet did to the bike circa 1983.

It was my first time into the rear drums and, like the fronts, they were age seized but otherwise not in terrible shape, though whenever I get into the dark places on this bike it looks like a scene out of Indiana Jones.

I've left the frame on the bench as I continue to strip it of accessories. The last time I did some coating work on a project bike it was with Fireball Coatings in Elora but seven years on they seem to have evaporated. I've been looking for alternate (and hopefully better) options and KC Coatings in Guelph looks promising. I intend to get in touch with them and see if we can shot blast and powder coat the Bonneville frame, I just have to make sure they can do it on a complicated oil-in-frame design like this one. Powder coating adds thickness and can cause problems with fasteners and fitting things back together so I need to find out if KC understands that and can can work with this one so that its mechanical pieces will still fit back together.

Following the frame I'll sort out both wheels (bearings, tires and inner tubes) before getting the rolling chassis back together and then rebuilding the motor with my swish new 750cc head.

Motor out and on a pop up workbench by the window. It's lighter than it looks.

I set up the Black & Decker WorkMate by the back door to the garage to give me somewhere to work on the bottom end of the motor. With the engine split and out of the frame, I can lift the parts off the bike around easily. I might put the bench away and make some space while the project is in pieces.

Resources & Links

Power-coating Specialist in Guelph for the frame:

https://www.kccoatingsltd.com/contact

Where to find tires:

https://revco.ca/

Revco is fantastic at shipping (even during a pandemic) and very transparent and communicative with delivery times. Everything I've gotten from them has been expertly packed, is new stock (no old/new tires). They know what they're doing with motorsport tires.

How to DIY your own fender:

https://purposebuiltmoto.com/how-to-make-a-diy-motorcycle-fender/

If I had more space I'd have welding kit and an English Wheel set up in the workshop and get into a lot more fabrication. I'd go digital too. A industrial sized 3d printer would make me dangerous: https://tkmotorcyclediaries.blogspot.com/2015/11/iihtm-digital-workshop.html

Sunday 17 October 2021

1971 Triumph Bonneville Motorcycle Restoration: the baseline

Baseline photography for this 1971 Triumph Bonneville restoration project:

According to Low Brow Customs, this means I've got an A (January) E (October 1970 - July 1971) and was the 9125th 650 twin made that year (00100 is the starting number for each grouping so this was the 9225-100th motor made in the 1970-71 batch).

https://www.tomcc.org/Triumph/FrameNumbers

https://www.fagengine.com/blogs/tech/triumph-engine-and-frame-numbers

The frame was tricky to pick out - one of those sites mentions that the stampings are sometime very thin and this one's barely there - our best guess is AE07050, which would put it in the same month/year as the motor, which seems promising.

https://triumph-tiger-90.com/dating-your-triumph/

The chopper stuff has started to come off and the bike is up on a wooden base on the stand in the back of the shop.

Next up will be taking the tank off and beginning the GREAT DISMANTLE OF 2021!

Sunday 31 October 2021

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)

Sunday 15 May 2022

Forging Moto-Maker Spaces

As a family we attended a blacksmithing day at Happy Knife Forge last weekend. Highly recommended, it's money well spent. Jason will not only show you the basics, but is keen to get you up and running as a blacksmith. My granddad was a coal merchant back in the old country and the smell of coke burning on the forge prompted a sense memory from the crib; it smelled like home.

I've ruminated on fabrication and micro-manufacturing on TMD before from a digital perspective using the latest techniques. Given the space and tools I'd quite happily spend my time designing and creating using everything from medieval blacksmithing through 20th Century metal working and on into 21st Century digital manufacturing techniques. Connecting these processes separated by time but with the same intent would produce some genuinely interesting and bespoke combinations.

I've had the itch to get back into welding for some time, but a lack of space and gear means I'm not while I'm where I'm at. The blacksmithing experience has me wanting to expand my metal working beyond just welding, which means even more space and kit getting added to the wish list. You can do a lot in a tight space, and I am, but when it comes to storing the chemicals and managing the heat in some of these processes, there is no substitute for space.

A property with an old industrial building on
it would make for a fantastic restoration
leading to a multi-millenial foundry covering
everything from blacksmithing to digital design!

Given the time and resources I'd hit an intensive welding program, then set up my multi-millenial forge/shop/maker space with everything from blacksmithing tools through metal working and mechanical to 21st Century 3d scanning, digital modelling and printing. The forge would be in the corner of a repurposed, old brick building that also includes space for metalwork, all very fireproof. Across the floor in the same open concept.would be space for a paint booth/shot blasting station and plenty of mechanical workspace. Upstairs (open concept, with just a railing) would be digital design and manufacturing in a cleaner workspace. If I could walk out to that every morning to create, restore and repair, I'd hardly care if there were pandemics or anything else. Put it near some good riding roads (ie: not in Southern Ontario), and it'd be just about perfect.