Pre Unit Triumph Finned Timing Cover (Pt 1)

Missing Link Fink, a good friend of this site has recently obtained this piece of custom gold.

The problem being that nobody seems to have seen anything like it before!

Consensus of opinion has it that it was made here in England rather than over the pond in The Land Of The Free.

There is no method of fixing it to the timing cover, other than Duct Tape which is what's defying gravity at the moment, but that's not the final solution of course.

Personally I think I would dress the back side until the contour matches that of the timing cover and weld the two together. With a good weld and patient blending it should be a cool and rare head scratcher.

If anybody does recognise this part please get in contact or post in the comments.

Triumph Factory Custom.................

Whether the Cali dealers were trying to cash in on a fashion thing, or trying to clear old stock off of the showroom floor is not known, but somehow the bike in the picture falls somewhere short of the mark.
Be interesting to know how many were sold in this format.

Triumph Twingle

Mossy pointed these out, on the Bay in the States. 

E1485 cam blanks ground to fire both cylinders at the same time. Herad the term Twingle bandied about over the years but this is the first tangible bit I've seen.

Thunder From Down Under

Sidecar Speedway

Can't pretend to know anything about it myself! Mossy sent these pics over from The Great Southern Land, taken by his pal John Davey at a Vintage Speedway event I guess.

A quick search on Google revealed that these 180 bhp, methanol burning, brakeless monsters are still competing in a few countries around the world but predominantly in Oz.

There are, I'm sure, a lot out there who find it sacrilegious to do this to a Vincent but here at BIW we reckon it's what they were made for! 

Strange Monobloc Float Cover

Just scored this off of the Bay, not sure what to make of it. The listing said it's from a chopped Monobloc, it was sitting at six quid, no bids and an hour to go, so it was a speculative bid, and now I own it.
Thinkin' about it, has a chopped carb got a tickler, or float ???? probably not, both fed from the same float needle and rely on Archimedes to do the rest.

Today's the day...............all change!!!!!

....or "Beware Greeks bearing gifts"

Pic from The Daily Telegraph site.

Driving the car, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Transport Minister Mike Penning MP, in the front passenger seat, and Rt Hon Greg Knight MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group in a 1914 Rolls Royce Alpine Eagle  

November 18th it is then, the day that vehicles in Britain that are pre-1960 no longer require a yearly MOT (safety inspection). Not wanting to be a Killjoy over this, historically governments are not in the habit of giving nowt for nowt. Rather than try to explain the reasons behind this move, here is a copy of David Milward's article from The Daily Telegraph site posted in May this year.

The changes, which will come into force on November 18, will apply to cars the estimated 162,000 cars still on the road which were built before 1960.

Despite their age ministers believe that the loving care bestowed on the cars by their owners mean that they in a better state of repair than more modern vehicles.

It is estimated that two thirds of the cars travel less than 500 miles a year and have a lower accident rate than the national average.

The decision to scrap the compulsory MoT follows the Government’s “red tape” challenge, aimed at scrapping thousands of rules deemed to be unnecessary and outdated.

“Owners of classic cars and motorbikes tend to be enthusiasts who maintain their vehicles well,” said Mike Penning, the roads minister.

“They don't need to be told to look after them, they're out there in all weathers checking the condition of the engine, tyres and bodywork.”

However owners of the cars will still be obliged to ensure their cars are in a roadworthy condition, Mr Penning added.

Greg Knight, who chairs the all-party Parliamentary Historic Vehicles Group. welcomed the announcement.

“I am delighted by this announcement. Accidents involving historic vehicles are extremely

rare and the majority of owners are meticulous in keeping their vehicles in good condition. “Having to have an annual MOT test for a vehicle which may only travel a few hundred miles in a year was costlyand absurd.”

However there has been some opposition to the changes. Nigel Case, owner of the Classic Car Club, described the move as ridiculous.

“Scrapping the MoT on any car is pretty daft,” he said.

Just gotta wait and see.

Word from Wes.

Photo from Four Aces

Following the mag poser yesterday, had to mail Wes to find out how it was done. 

Good man that he is, Wes answered el rapido, here's what he said;

"In the mid to late sixties, before the ARD Magneto guys made the mags that use the timing cover and divert the "mag" portion of the mag to the front of the cylinder, guys wanted to run magnetos in the desert because Energy Transfer ignitions were unreliable and the Joe Hunt and Morris Magnetos of the era stuck way out of the timing cover and could be fairly easily knocked off by a rock.  Not a good thing in an all out desert race. 

 

Some tricky welder guys, like Sam and Harlan Bast converted your unit cases to accept a pre-unit magneto.  This one was done by the Bast Brothers, who also made air cleaners and skid plates among other things for the desert racing market.  You basically took a pre-unit case, lopped off the magneto ear and welded to the unit cover, often not even splitting the cases to do it.  Line it up perfect and weld it up.  The reason that one looks so good is that even before our fancy tig technology, guys could make shit happen in aluminum."

There ya go then! ............... now, where's the hack-saw?

HOW DO THEY DO THAT..?

Attention was drawn to Wes White's Trophy Desert Sled, as featured  on CHOP CULT  a while ago.

As the article says, a 1968 Trophy motor, but with a mag ???

Can't figure out how it's been done.

Better pics would be a bonus, but the outer case looks flawless. Even an aftermarket kit would still necessitate major surgery on the crankcase half.

Britax

Straight out of the old Pride & Clark advert in the back of the Motorcycle Mechanics,

can't say I'd ever heard of one let alone seen one.

Had to be done for a Tenner, looks more like it's been in a shed rather than pukka NOS,

gotta be late fifties, early sixties.

Now, where's that Goldie hiding.................................?

Just When Ya Thought Ya Knew 'Em

Left a copy of the latest Horse mag in the ol' crapperia the other day, nothin' unusual about that. 

ol

A couple of hours later, the good lady comes out carryin' said magazine and I'm waiting for the old "clear up yer own crap" routine........

........ but NO! She says, I like this and opens the book up on Clay's sweet 1957 Thunderbird build.

This sort of thing just don't happen, she's got good taste of course, but it don't happen!

Thanks to Clay over at Atom Bomb Customs for letting me use the pics.

Images by David Bradley