Su's next project a 1950 5T speed twin, i have spent the last two weeks flatting and polishing all the painted parts as they had accumulated many years of dust and over spray etc ingrained into the paint, a few part that are not good enough i will respray. Next job is to strip and inspect all the engine and gearbox parts ready for its rebuild.
do you just have a shed full of these projects that youve accumulated over the years, or are blessed with a benevolent and eccentric uncle?
Sadly none of the above, just good old fashion work, i will be posting some pics of a paint job in the coming weeks that will pay for the engine rebuild
Another great idea for cash, we could open for the summer months with guided tours and Su will do tea and biscuits
One or two of these sprung hub 5T's are beginning to surface in the VMCC Cheshire Cats Section. The lovely softish motor will run all day. Keep the pictures coming,I'm drooling already
Well i expected the white metal big ends to have play but had another expected surprise, when stripping the engine i had removed some Hylomar from around the drive side main bearing outer crankcase area and found a crack in the case and sure enough on stripping the engine found more bodged centre punch marks made in an attempt to hold the bearing in place :-( Good old 90's engineering for you lol.
When you think ah its just the white metal that failed and maybe the old bodger with shares in Hylomar wasn't so bad i find this pathetic effort
I will take your word for it don’t have a clue what I am looking at. Great story as always though love seeing the progress.
I have just remeasured the journals as they look fine and they are within specs for -20 thou unit 500 shells, so some LFH 500 rods but with 6.5" centres will work
Ha, there’s definitely been some “out of the box” thinking on those bodges, or should that be “out of their mind!”, lucky that parts for these engines are available and relatively cheap, I noticed it’s still rigid frame at 1950,( I have a 1947 T100), when did they go to rear suspension?
54 for swingarm i believe Mark and Triumph still produced some ridged bikes as well after that date but i'm no pre unit expert as i tend to stick with 63-70 unit construction bikes.
It’s little wonder that the British bike industry went down the pan with their glacial development program, I was looking at a 1938 T100 at the National motorcycle museum a few weeks ago, besides the front forks and a few other changes here and there my 1947 is the same bike!, going well into the 50’s with rigid frames is another example of the lack of investment and development, if you look at a 1992 Honda Fireblade and then a 2002 model for example they are totally different bikes!.
