Featured T509 Raised From The Dead

Andy T509 · Jan 11, 2022

Hello, I'm a newbie with a little project! I purchased a T509 Speed Triple in green brand new in 1998, managed 45,000 miles on it in 3 years and went to trade it in for a T695 Sprint ST in 2001 and got declined - the dealer wouldn't offer me anything for my T509 as a trade in. So being young and stupid I decide to strip the bike and build an under seat exhaust of my own design! That didn't go well and I was left with a badly bodged bike which got parked in the shed at the bottom of my garden whilst I moved on with life. So on Boxing fday 2021, I decided to rebuild the bike, I have given myself till end of March 2022 to get the job done. I will now try to add a photo of what the bike looked like when I got it out of the garage:

Octoberon · Jan 11, 2022

Look forward to seeing the revival project progress. Good luck.

sprintdave · Jan 11, 2022

Great stuff Andy , another T509 saved from the grave. I have one and think they are iconic, good luck.
There is a builds and projects section here and I'm sure we will all be following you with great interest.

David Cooper · Jan 11, 2022

Hello Andy.

joe mc donald · Jan 11, 2022

Andy T509
Great intro and great project. Do the rebuild on the projects section with lots of pictures so the inmates here in the asylum can take the journey with you. And welcome to the family.
Joe.

Smilinjack · Jan 11, 2022

It doesn't get much more iconic than a green T509, you are undertaking a holy mission I wish you every success with your venture, please keep us up to date with your progress.

Gordon MacBean · Jan 12, 2022

Brilliant. I'll be watching this thread, my kind of project! Hope it does well and please do give us the blow by blow account of resuscitation.

Andy T509 · Jan 12, 2022

A little bit more history for this project! I have been planning the rebuild for a number of years, and have been keeping an eye on eBay for tempting offers.

Finally last November a T509 came up for £900 in quite a tatty condition and only running on 2 cylinders. The good thing aboutthe bike was it semed to have all the parts that I needed to rebuild my Green bike and also came with a selection of green and black body work, a spare swining are / wheel assembly and a spare exhaust for a T695 (which is handy as I have one of those as well).

The eBay bike made it to my shed, and on Boxing day I started to try to determine why it was only running on 2 cylinders - after a few days I managed to borrow a compression tested and found that no 3 cylinder had no compresion - so I decided to use that bike as a pure donor.

I have since got my original Green bike running, although its a bit smokey (see photo) and I have stripped the swining arm of the eBay bike ready to get it powder coated (see the other photo).