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Aug. 13, 2014
Ok, I could have started here:
But no. At the moment I had the cash in my hot little hand, the best available Triumph triple was this one:
I might have liked the red one better, but this is what I have and as we all know, I do enjoy a project.
1. Mirror missing – No worries, I’m going to remove the front cowling anyway and have already installed the same $20 bar-end mirrors that I had on the cafe racer.
2. Key (which wasn’t actually a Triumph key) broke off in the ignition switch. The mechanic up the road gave me another ignition switch in trade for all the eBay work I do for him and it’s also already installed.
3. There’s no key for the gas cap – I had to bust my way into the tank to siphon out the old gas – the person I bought the bike from supplied a replacement gas cap, but it too has no key. Locksmith on the horizon.
4. This bike is too tall for me. I’m 5’4″ – Everything is too tall for me. I have some thoughts on how to lower the seat height.
5. There is no front fender. This is going to cost some money – A used replacement is $100-$200. I may find something else suitable.
6. The main fairings are damaged – from laying the bike down in a corner I suppose. Actually I suppose it happened more than once as both sides are damaged. I think the style of the stock fairing is somewhat dated so I’m happy to have the bike without – the absence of them brings the bike to what’s called a ‘street fighter’ or ‘naked’ – Which translates to ‘The bike has been crashed’. No matter, I believe the bike will look as I want once done. The bad part is (at least as far as I can see at this time) is without the fairings, there are no turn signals. For the time being, I’ll mount new ones on the front cowl where the mirrors were. $12
7. Bent Shifter – taken as an opportunity to swap the gear pattern from the standard one-down and five-up showroom style to the race style I came to prefer with the cafe racer – More on this, later.
8, 10 & 11. Again, no turn signals. License plate held on with zip-ties and the tail light lens is broken and no lights. All of these have been fixed and will be discussed in later chapters.
9. Slow leak in the rear tire. Seller told me the valve stem needed to be replaced (he had it hooked up to an air compressor when I arrived). This would mean pulling the wheel, unmounting the tire and pushing the new valve stem through the hole from the inside of the rim. Lucky me, it turned out to not be a cracked rim or cut tire or even the valve stem. It was just the inside core of the valve stem which I purchased at the bicycle store for $1. The tire has been holding 33 lbs for the whole week. Nicely solved.
There are other good aspects – the engine, gas tank forks – none of it leaks a drop. Big improvement from the Triumphs of the 60s. Then there’s the tires. Expensive and highly regarded Michelin Pilot Power with 80% of the rubber remaining. Stock rear tire size is a huge 190/50 zr17. This is a nice score. And there are many things that do work. The engine is strong (more on this later), good battery, starter and obviously the computerized fuel injection system is all A-OK as the bike started right up on 2 year old gas. That computer was certainly doing some compensating. All the gauges work (and they’re beautiful) . Head light, horn, clutch – these are all good.
Then there’s the bike itself.
I did mention that the bike starts up very easily – this is one of the things I was looking for – computer-controlled fuel injected modern bike. We had one before in the 2006 Kawasaki Vulcan and it was super-reliable. But it was just not my style. That was the only modern bike I’d ever owned and I was well aware of how reliable it was – always started in any weather.
So now I have this Triumph – It’s tall and big. I wonder what it’s like to ride it? Knowing there would be no consequences of riding an unlicensed vehicle inside the safety of our trailer park, I started it up and took it up and down the streets. First gear mostly – Clutch is good, brakes are good. Seems pretty powerful, but of course I can’t actually test that in a 15 mph zone. I was able to shift to second and it looks like the transmission is good too. Despite having to lay my chest over the huge gas tank and reach pretty far for the the controls, I find it’s pretty nimble in tight, slow situations – this is an unexpected plus.
The bike has so many little things missing and needing attention I really want to make sure I’m going to keep it before making any serious modifications or investments of time.
I decided to sneak it out on the highway and see what’s up. There are two 55mph roads just outside my driveway so off I go. I get on the road and perform the following test four times. Putt along in third gear at about 40 mph, make sure there is no one behind or in front of me, drop into 2nd, twist it hard (mind is being blown by the enormous acceleration) let it go up to about 7 of the 10,000 RPMs, click into 3rd and again take it up to about 7,000 RPM – Look down and see I’m going about well over 90!. Brake hard back down to about 40 and notice the brakes are also better than anything I’ve ever experienced. I do it again and am also very aware there are 3 gears left. I have no doubt the bike could easily reach the advertised 160mph top end. I am stunned and delighted. This is awesome! Oh yes. I’ll be keeping it. I know I’ll never be riding it at that speed (65-70) is plenty for me, but every once in a while I may give it a blast, because… it’s a blast.
Now that I’m sure this is worthy of my time, let’s get to work and get the sweet-dream licensed and on the road.
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