Featured Resurrecting 1966 Tiger T100ss

I’m still awaiting the completion of stripping the mudguards of the old chrome. Meanwhile I’ve sorted out the parts that I’ve got that need replating. I had thought that everything needed doing but after receiving an estimate for the parts that I think were original to the bike I’ve got to rethink the number of parts I’m going to get done. Looking objectively at the parts I have, I’ve removed some bits as they’re able to be cleaned up adequately. One part, the front wheel trim cover, has the chrome worn through to the backing Also it has a small crack in the outer edge. The repair to the crack and re-chroming costs more than double the price of replacement part. I’ve ordered a new one and the original is going in the spares box.

I have to look at the refurbing of parts in two different ways. For the T100 the parts I originally bought into may, or may not, be the original parts. As I’m all for keeping to the original parts and would catch the cost of repairing and re-chroming them if I think they’re original, I’m by no means certain that’s the case with any of the parts in ‘the pile’ so I’ll replace when there’s a saving on the cost. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure the bits off the Bonnie are all original and I’ll repair them wherever I can.





Meanwhile here’s one bit of the Tiger that seems to have scrubbed up quite well…

 

Hi darkman. Thanks very much for the info.

I’m using the measurements from the table in the T100 w/shop manual which blanket covers bikes up to ‘71. Which includes the figure you’ve given. The same figures/table appears in my manual for 650 twins. 1963-70

Front. T100 8” Brake. 19” wheel WM2. -1/64 in.

 

The Bonnie rear hub and brake proved just to be a slide-in on the Tiger’s frame. It fits… yay!

 

25/7
The front TLS hub and drum together with the rear QD hub are now at the wheel builders, along with a fairly substantial deposit, to lace those parts into chromed rims with stainless spokes. But not before a minor hiatus the night before.

I’ve removed the Bonnie wheels and hubs to provide the builder with a pattern to measure the offset figures as I only had the hubs from the original bike and no rims attached with which to do the calculations. In fact it was only a few days before that I found any form of schematic representation of the front hub that gives any sort of clue as to which two points are used to measure on the front hub. But try as I might I’ve never found any schematic for the back QD wheel.

The offset for the front TLS brake is (minus) - 1/64in. That’s a minus figure and means the drum/hub is below the datum line that the wheel rim provides. That was easy enough to check by laying a straight edge across the rim and slipping a 0.015 thou feeler gauge between the straight-edge and drum lip. Check… Ok so far.

After cleaning up the Bonnie rear wheel assembly the night before I was due at the builders workshop I thought I’d check the measurement myself as it might be nice to know just wtf I was doing. But, no matter which way I tried it I just could not find which two surfaces provide the gap of 1 1/16in. In the end I thought to put the job off to another day while I found out what needed to be done. Ultimately, after a constructive conversation with the builder I took the parts in and he showed me how to measure the hub out. It turned out to be fairly straightforward really, especially when you know what you’re doing.

The secret lies in realising that unlike the front hub, the measurement has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the brake drum. In fact the drum has to be cleared out of the way and the straight edge lays across the face of the male splined sprocket and is extended out to the wheel rim where the measurement drops to the wheel rim the specified distance (1 1/16in).

Simples.(when you know).

 

25/7
So.. just for the record, This applies to the set up of a

Front wheel
Twin Leading Shoe, Front brake.
From around 1968 to 1970
19 inch WM2 wheel rim

A straight-edge is laid across the diameter of the wheel touching the rim at both sides and intersecting the brake hub. There should be a 1/64in gap between straight-edge and the drum edge. Measurable with a 0.015in feeler gauge which should slide into the gap.

( Thanks darkman. )

A picture is worth a thousand words. Then this must be gold dust. It’s the only article I can find on the internet that has a pictorial representation showing how to measure TLS hub offset.
https://www.classicbritishspares.com/blogs/news/recognizing-wheel-offset?_pos=1&_sid=9cd2c4ef7&_ss=r

 

25/7
And this applies to the set up of a

Rear wheel
QD wheel from around 1963 to 1970
With a 18 inch WM2 wheel rim

The brake drum is removed.
A straight-edge is placed on the face of the Male Splined hub and extended out and over the wheel rim.
Measure the drop from the underside of the straight-edge to the rim.
The measurement should be: 1:1/16in. (27mm)

 

If, like me, you’re not sure what to measure, it pays to take note of the workshop manual table. It conveniently notes that on the
Front wheel you are measuring the Drum/Rim relationship. But on the
Rear wheel you are measuring the Hub/Rim relationship.

Not by any means the same thing. I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had just ‘read the instructions.’

 

Finally got the mudguards back from the platers. I had to take them to a specialist to get the old chrome plating off so that I can clean up the bare metal ready for painting. Quite a simple job I would have thought but it’s still taken a month when it was estimated at two weeks. Nevertheless I picked them up and found a rather less than wonderful job considering the cost. On closer examination I found that the rear mudguard I now had wasn’t the one I gave in to them. Luckily they were able to find mine in another batch that was about to be prepped for re-plating, but I still had another trip to them to exchange the parts.

The mudguards both look as if they might have been from this bike, at least all the holes seem to be in the right places. As both are chromed though, they wouldn’t have been like that on an original ‘66 T100, they would have been painted, but I suppose, it’s always possible (though unlikely) that one of the many previous owners had them chromed. So it’s just another puzzle yet to solve.

I’ve had to go over both mudguards with wire brush and abrasives to clean back the outer and inner surfaces, but there is still a bit of pitting which I’m going to have to treat with an anti corrosion agent of some sort. There’s also a rust hole just in the corner of the rolled seam. It’s very small, only a little bigger than a pin head. That’ll need plugging.

 

Just a couple of small anomalies.

Stripping the petrol tank I’ve come across the last, small vestiges of green paint at the very back, near the petrol tap mounting. It looks very like the original Sherbourne Green shade of the bikes colour scheme and goes to show to some extent, that this probably was the original tank.

Getting all the bits together for the Petrol tank, mudguards and stays to paint, I found that the rear mudguards ‘U’ shaped support stay appeared to be a bit bent out of shape because the left side of the stay has a more pronounced radius shape, coming out wider and away from its mountings at the shock absorber. The part is listed as a ‘Lifting Handle’ and the curve gives extra access for the hand to get away from the wheel when pulling the bike up onto its centre stand. Who’d of thought

Edit 25 Feb ‘26.
“Who’d of thought” indeed. It turns out that the extra curve on the left side of the ‘lifting handle’ has nothing whatever to do with a kind thought by Edward Turner to ease the life of the owner by providing a bit more finger room when lifting the rear end of the bike. What it’s actually for is to provide sufficient clearance for the seat hinge to operate as you lift the seat.

 

I started prepping the tank and mudguards for painting. It didn’t take long to realise that despite now having the paint and compressor etc, this is going to be well beyond my capabilities to get even an adequate finish. I did think that a halfway decent finish would be good to have but I have to admit my limitations. Consequently I’ve decided to hang the expense and farm out the job to a professional. That may even save a couple of months of my effort that could be invested in other items that might push the job on a bit. Luckily my first delve into t’internet found a specialist painter almost on my doorstep and I took the parts to him last week to get his opinion. Subsequently I’ve arranged to take the job in at the middle of next month.

In the meantime I’m fitting up the mudguards to the frame to make sure that I’m not making an expensive mistake by painting something thats doesn’t fit in its respective hole and that they are the right ones for the bike. That is by no means certain as these mudguards were chromed and the originals wouldn’t have been. I think it’s unlikely that the originals would have been chromed during the life of the bike so I’m pretty sure these are not the ones that the bike started off life with. But they’re going to have to do.

And in fact, they do fit. The front guard stays required a bit of manipulation and are still a bit tight but I have yet to find a bottom stay from ‘69/70 that will clear the 2L/S brake linkage. That can wait a bit though until the rebuilt wheels are back and in place.

 

Thanks darkman. I’ve offered up the old 19” tyre off the Bonnie and it lays in ok when seen from the side although the guards radius looks slightly larger, but I’ve seen worse. I’ll have to have the tyre on the new wheel when I get it back, to check front to rear alignment. That should be shortly but in the meanwhile I managed to pick up a bottom stay at Kempton last week which is the ‘garden gate’ square one that it ‘should’ be. That one is 1/2inch longer that’ll give me a bit more to bend if I have to. I couldn’t find a s/h 69/70 bottom stay but if I have to they are available new. Only thing is though, that all the new ones with the single central tab seem to be chromed

 

Did a paint tester on the paint I previously ordered up months ago. I was looking for a darker green than the “correct” Sherbourne green and a clearer white than the Alaskan white version that alwaysvseems to end up as a parchment yellow colour as it ages.
Anyway they both have ended up just about where I want them although both look lighter in daylight. The green is almost the later Windsor green and looks better in the flesh.

 

Ha! I’ve never heard that before. But I can see it now.

 

2/11
I’ve pulled the mudguards off again and I’ve now taken them to the painter for attention. There’s a small rust hole and a crack in the rear guard that has to be welded up then the parts sprayed the chosen colour. Hopefully they’ll be ready by the end of December. Meanwhile I’m preparing and painting the fittings and quite a few of the other ‘black bits’ from around the bike.

On Thursday I picked up the wheels which are now finished except for the tyres, they’ll have to wait until we are a lot nearer the completion. The hubs have been laced into a new, 19 inch chromed front rim and 18 inch rear rim using stainless spokes. They look pretty good and one neat touch is that the rims are stamped ‘Made in England’ similar to the originals.

It might soon start to look like a motorcycle.

 

The paintwork on the petrol tank and mudguards is now completed. I’m really pleased with the results. The painter has got just the shades of colour I wanted on a near perfect job. Meanwhile I’m still faffing around with cleaning up and painting brackets, struts and other incidental ‘black’ bits but it all needs a bit of assembly work now.

 

I wasn’t going to get tyres until closer to completion of the work on the bike so that they would be ‘newer’ when they went on the road. I reconsidered that when I realised that I wasn’t going to be able to get my tyre of choice, Avon, easily. For the most part I couldn’t really track down a trader that could supply a pair in the sizes I needed or who had the ones they advertised actually in stock. I had more luck with Dunlop tyres and eventually obtained a pair from a specialist in Classic tyres.

Another hitch in the proceedings I’ve come up against is that I’m using a builders step/trestle to work on the bike and I’ve already fitted up the wheels to the frame and forks which was okay. But, the trestle is a bit on the long side and there isn’t enough room to fit both wheels to the frame at the same time when the tyres are on the wheels.

I got lucky and obtained a reasonably cheap hydraulic lift on eBay that fills the bill quite well to replace the trestle and gives me a bit of movement and also a bit more space around the bike. I’ve made up a small plywood working surface to the lift that I can secure the bike to and get both wheels and rubber on at the same time.