Ed Fisher's 40A Bike

I've been studying this picture of a young Mr Fisher for longer than is probably good for me. I've always wanted to piece together something that pays tribute to the bike, but never had a frame suitable.

The frame is now here, James Holland has taken the two odd halves of a frame that I sent to him and jigged them into a mating pair. This will now be the foundation of the tribute Tiger 100.

Pedalling To A Standstill

For anywhere between 80 and 100 pounds you may be lucky enough to find a standard rigid Triumph brake pedal on the Bay Of Fools, chances are it won't be straight and it's almost guaranteed the foot pad will be worn down.

BIW tip of the week, buy a 350/500 Enfield Bullet pedal and pivot bolt for about twenty quid and massage it with the gas axe for a good close fit.

OK I know the return spring ain't the prettiest in the worls but it works oh so well and finding a regular coil type torsion spring to fit the rear brake plate has proved difficult up to now.

Sparks a' Flying......K2FC The Return.

Just got this back from Chip after he has worked his magic. A pukkah K2FC that came over from the States. Interesting to note, although competition mags were supplied on Trophies and the like going over the water, they were automatic advance and retard. The points end casting was the same as a regular comp mag, the casting for the cable and actuator were left undrilled and an ATU drive gear fitted in the timing case.

They Say You Can't Polish A Turd...........

............. but you can wipe the shit off of a diamond!

Been looking for a set of big bearing 500 cases that will do justice to building a motor for the Delta Head.  Tiger 100 cases are fine and other than the stamped number are the same thing, so for all practical reasons they would do fine. If we only do things that make practical sense, then we wouldn't do most of the things we do, and most likely have a big H#nd@ sitting in the heated garage.

I found out from Pete (Lurkingclass on JJ) that he had this set of '55 TR5 cases that needed a little love but were available. Most people here in England think of the rigid Trophy when they hear TR5 mentioned, but the model carried through until 1959 in limited production all it's life.  Only 4594 standard TR5s were built between '49 and '59 plus 178 highly desirable TR5Rs, not many by Triumph standards and being predominantly off-roaders who knows how many survived.

As you can see in the pictures there has been some very good repair work done on the dynamo ear, and there's witness that the motor was run subsequently, albeit without a dynamo. More evidence of dirt usage.

Being a sucker for punishment and determined to run a set of BB TR5 cases here in England, just for the kudos,  we made the deal.

Gave the pair of cases a cursory clean, before taking them to a retired toolmaker in the village to see if he could right the wrongs to the dynamo mount. Not a bad effort I'm sure you'll agree, and whoever did the initial weld repair was a master of his craft, no porosity or blow holes seen throughout the machining process.

Other than that, and a missing cam bush, the cases are in superb condition, It's as though the damage was a blessing in disguise and people passed over them because of it.

Rather than vapour blasting, which always leaves a degree of uncertainty, they were cleaned with hot water and washing up liquid followed by carb cleaner and a brass bristled wire brush. They will now be done again to get right into the corners etc. as the repair has been so successful.

Triumph Rigid Long Chain Cases

The search is over, if you're tired of having to look hard to find a usable pair of long cases only to get beaten in the last 10 seconds by an outlandish bid, Big D Cycles has come to the rescue.

These fine looking reproductions have just been released onto the market at USD 695 a pair, which is about GBP 450. In the current market that would be about right for a good pair of originals, but these are as perfect as a NOS pair and who knows what they would fetch.

Well worth it I'd of said.

Tiger 100 Race Kit Manifolds Part Deux

Decided on the Hal Hall Route, good price and flat and all ya need, barring the thin wall steel tubes that were slotted down the bores of the manifold to seal the potential gaps. On the original factory Tufnol spacers, the nut recesses break through.

Definitely looks the part.

Some say that's Triumph's prettiest ever motor right there, easy to see why.

Meanwhile Bill slipped a pic in the mail.

Notice the tubes.....................................

Tiger 100 Race Kit Manifolds

The Delta Head is earmarked for the '53, and therefore not available for this build, but I still fancy putting twin carbs on the 51. Just wondering if anybody out there has got one of the original manifold kits as shown here in the bottom right corner. Not that I expect to buy one, but if you have one for sale I'd love to know about it, I'd just like to get hold of some decent pictures and measurements to see if it's possible to make one.

Usual addy if you can help.

At Bloody Last................ 56 T100 Cases

Finally got some cases, easy you'd think, set of everyday pre-unit Tiger 100 cases, not the case at all. Martin dropped these off yesterday. 1956 Big Bearing, everything a fellah needs.

Ya can just see the bearing bulge hangin' it's bottom lip out in this pic, makes all the difference an eighth of an inch sometimes.

They all do that sir................................

A milling cutter will clean up what's left of that, shame but it really is a case of"Beggars can't be choosers" here. A few spots of weld on the inside where a couple of screws have broken through, and one or two heli-coils may well come in handy, but certainly a hell of good foundation to build from. Time to get the scrubbing brushes out first though.

E3677 Tacho Timing Cover

 

Managed to get hold of this timing cover from Todd at Small City Cycles , it's a genuine piece and came off of a running bike so all should be cool with it. Have to change the patent plate but as this one has recently been fitted, the rivets should come out pretty easy.

Have to get Geoff to do the oil seal conversion to get rid of the crank end bush, but otherwise all good.

Pre Unit Triumph - Must Have Accessory

Never seen or heard of one of these, which ain't unusual, but neither had Geoff and that is. First spotted in the '57 Tri-Cor catalogue, it's an obvious improvement...........once you've seen it of course..........and good any any pre-unit. Anyways up, about a week later I'm sifting through the US Bay of Doom and lo and behold, there they are! Repro of course but really nicely made and polished, a satisfying thing to have in ya hand, so to speak.

The guy does not sell into England through the Bay, but it's OK through his web shop so get over there, but keep it on the QT and you'll be the envy of all your chums in the Summer.

Oh, ignore the buck 85 , that don't count any more!

The First Cut Is The Deepest

I put a wanted ad on a forum looking for a timing cover with a tacho drive and after a few days a guy has come back and offered to take this one off of this bike.

Of course the best outcome would be to buy the bike complete, but the logistics of bringing it half way 'round the world make that difficult. If he's breaking it (parting it out) anyway I don't have a problem, but if taking the cover off is the beginning of the end for this old war horse then I'm not so sure it's the right thing to do.

Well I never knew that!

Watching an early front wheel on that well known auction site, and amongst the pictures was this. It's a 19" Dunlop rim, as fitted at Meriden, but the W351 stamp is the Triumph part number! So next time you're cutting a hub out of a wheel look for this mark, I reckon the resto boys would pay a premium for this extra bit of originality.

Primary Delight - Todd's Got It Covered

Spent a lot of time lately trawling the world trying to score a good pair of long primary cases, drop me a line if you have a pair excess to requirements.

Looking through the Jockey Journal for leads I came across this jaw dropping set up. Made by Todd at Small City Cycles and promised to be in production and on sale soon, needless to say.....can't wait.

Cometh The Skankweasel

SKANKWEASEL

More of an artists impression than the start of a true mock up, but the vital ingredients are there.

Definitely going to be running an all alloy Tiger 100 motor, the cases in the pic are 47 5T, probably not going to use them but it's not out of the question. The gearbox is good though, a fully refurbished unit from The Baron, complete with needle roller lay shaft conversion, it will be staying.

The tank is the narrowed early Bantam that Toddy modified for the 350 Goldie, so although this ain't the very one that'll be used, something extremely similar will be. 

Forks are good in principle, but the sliders are the later type for a clamp up spindle. These will be swapped out for the earlier push through spindle type to accommodate the "Pie Crust" front wheel. 

The yokes are the early type with the extra 10 degrees of rake built in, have to wait until the build is further along to see if these get changed to the later parallel type.

Pipes are going to be high levels, more than likely both up the primary side, for that off roady sort of style.

Seriously considering running the muddie at this length, not the height of fashion but it does allow the number plate to be sprayed straight on to it, rather than any form of bracketry hanging off of the side.

Anybody got a set of rear engine plates that they want to part with????

..............PASSED BY LIKE HALLEY'S COMET

Well, that's more than likely our lot for this lifetime, the chances of seeing another one for sale in the public arena is slim bordering on nil. A good price for Annie and Reg though, should ease their Christmas worries no end. I chucked a speculative grand at it, but it was always a forlorn hope, never going to go that cheap, although it did flirt around the twelve hundred mark up until the final 30 seconds, then the big players showed their hands.

I can only hope that the new owner will be happy with it, and it gets used probably not in anger on the track maybe, but at least on a running and used motor.

As One Pile Empties Another Starts To Grow Pt II

Won this on The Bay Of Fools the other day. Although not advertised as NOS it is hard to believe that it has either been on a bike or had oil in it. In the hand for 50 quid it shows that there are still bargains to be had in the over subscribed world that is the Bay.

There's a bit of a thing 'round here for stock oil tanks;

• They fit
• They hold the right amount of oil for the job
• They have all the right fittings and a mesh filter
• The hole in the return is sized right to divert the supply to the top end

Good enough for Big Ted Turner so why think ya know better!

The date stamp tells the tale of the tape........nice!

As One Pile Empties Another Starts To Grow

Manged to talk Chip into parting with this beauty the other day. It's a legendary 8" brake and "Pie Crust" hub as fitted to 54/55 Tiger 110s, a thing of rarity nowadays for sure.

It has joined a small heap of parts that are destined to be the next Triumph build. More information to follow on that soon, stay tuned.

Tiger 100 Race Kit

The fabled Tiger 100 Delta Head in action. Produced as part of the factory race kit, in very limited numbers, from '57 on. Forerunner of the Bonnie head produced from 1958 they are desirable to say the least, if you see one for sale, get on it !!!!!

WIPAC S179

This bad boy arrived today, scored off of the bay (as if you hadn't guessed) for half the price of a Taiwanese imitation, although I don't think they do a knock off of this particular light...... yet!

Listed in the very brief description as for a C15, I don't reckon it is 250 AJS/Matchless seems to ring a distant bell but that's not a definite. If anybody knows for sure please let me know.

The description didn't say it was NOS but it's hard to believe it's spent much time fitted to a bike, this is how it arrived with no attempt to clean it up, no signs of rust on the back plate and not a hint of fading in the lens.

Easy to imagine that it was designed by the same guy that did the WIPAC Sabrina posted on here a little while ago, all fifties starship dreaming style. They seemed to be far more adventurous in their designs over at Wico-Pacy than their compatriots over at Lucas.