Sweet Thunderbird from Denmark

James of Customs From Jamesville posted this beautiful 6T a couple of days ago.

Nice and simple and simply nice, great work, the tank is from an SCO moped, don't know what one of them is, but I do know I want one!

51 Thunderbird Bobber on The Bay

This has just made an appearance on the Bay, your's for £7,250.

This is the description that goes with it;

Description

Superb Triumph Bobber, this is certainly not your average thrown together budget job. This machine stands close inspection and has no excuses.
The bike was built in 2006/7 and upon completion was featured in the November 2007 issue of Back Street Heroes and also displayed on their stand at the NEC bike show. The basis of the bike is a 1951 Triumph Thunderbird, the frame is original uncut and standard rigid Triumph, the 650cc engine is fully rebuilt and balanced and has Bonneville finned rocker boxes and bespoke pushrod covers plus much more. The rest of the machine was built will a total disregard to budget and had many parts supplied by respected experts e.g. Barons Speed Shop and others. The paint and detail is stunning. Viewing is recommended as the pictures do not do it justice.
The bike is road registered and has a period number, it sounds fantastic and rides well and is a great crowd puller, silencers are not fitted but are supplied with the bike along with a speedo and front mudguard to make fully compliant with mot laws, but to avoid complication etc will be sold without MOT leaving the new owner the debate of ......................... The spec seems endless and all detailed in the magazine feature, please call for more details.

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More pics HERE

Pre-Unit Triumph, Bobber Build

It's always good to hear of another British Bobber being put together, and Paul has sent these pics in of the foundations of his pre-unit Trumpet build. Back in the Seventies the usual whine from the purists and rivet counters was that another good bike was being sacrificed on the alter of Custom. Well that just ain't the case any more, what we are doing is recreating bikes, taking disparate parts from under benches and off of the Bay and breathing new life into them and putting them to the work for which they were always intended. 

Right, rant over.

Paul says that the front end is from a '58 single down tube, swinging arm frame, possibly Speed Twin Id a thought  judging by the colour. The back half is Factory Metal Works, no info on stretch or drop but looking at the lines I doubt if it's much of either. Lucas at TFMW is really putting his stamp on the market now, and rightly so in my opinion, he turns out high quality well engineered kit that works. Wheels are 19 inchers at either end, the rear being built onto a '63 unit hub whilst the front centre  is a Tiger Cub number. Style before function, "Oh Hell Yeah Baby!"

The forks are heavy weight nacelle type with the ten degree raked yokes.

The thing that impresses about this build, even at this early stage is that everything is already bolted together properly and not hung together with tape and clothes pegs for the sake of a picture. This promises to be an interesting and tidy build and I genuinely hope that Paul keeps us posted on the progress.

Thanks Paul, nice one mate.

1963 T120 Bonneville ............ A Few More Pics

An interesting shot, although the bike was registered in '63 and as such one of the first unit 650 twins, and therefore the start of the 9 stud heads, the number cast in the head shows the casting to be 1962. The pattern was obviously a modified eight stud number as the bosses have been drilled off centre to accommodate the wider pitch of the 9 stud barrels.

On the deck it looks more like a Tiger 90, possibly due to the 18" wheels, not sure but visually it is a small bike for a full 650.  The quality of the restoration is first class and if trophy hunting is the new owners bag this should bag a few.

Brake rod running external to the frame, again an early feature that only lasted a year (I think!)

The ugly and impractical Tach drive, correct for '63/4 but almost guaranteed to melt on the down pipe. It is possible to fit a later right angle drive box on there, but that reverses the direction of cable rotation which renders the rare, desirable and original Tacho useless.....not good.

T110.....Standing on it's own two feet at last

Got the rubber on and the forks in today. Forks have been a worry ever since the commitment to order 'em, 3 inches under has never felt quite right, but as it turns out it was just about right.

A spacer on the bottom of the stem to adapt the 1" stem up to the standard 1 1/8" Triumph bearing,  a small mod to the top bearing nut and a 1/2" spacer beneath the crown nut and the job was done. A lot easier than anticipated and no mods to the frame which was the main criterion.

Still got a few jobs to sort out, the front wheel spindle, brake anchor and muddie mounts being the major things that need to be tackled.

Certainly pleased with the way it all sits, soon be time for some bitchin' black paint and get the motor in!

6 Volt Hooter..........Opportunist Goal!

Just took a flyer on this and scored it off of the Bay, New Old Stock , made in Birmingham and working, gotta be worth 20 quid. Beats the usual bit of Taiwanese tin normally secreted away somewhere on the bike, can hang this out with jingoistic pride.

Lustful Friday

Pic from  Todds Cycles

Started thinkin' about handlebar clamps to sit atop the TFMW springers on the Tiger Ton Ten, and after a few wrong turnings arrived at a set of these. Got the right vintage feel and should suit the period vibe,  exactly.  These are being made by Misumi out of Japan and look the Muttz Nuttz, the price is the only stumbling block, about  £220 over the counter in the US with shipping and possible customs duty on top of that. The brass is also a slight problem, there's been a conscious effort to avoid the use of "fools gold" on this build, which means a chroming bill on top of it all. Having said all that, there's still no Fat Lady tuning up yet and so there may still be a set slipping in under the radar.

1963 Bonneville..... Ya Live and Learn

Saw this '63 Bonnie up Geoff's a couple of days ago, one owner for very nearly all it's life it has never been messed with until the new owner decided to restore it!

Showing in excess of 83.000 on it's original Chronometric the motor certainly needed a freshen up. Sludge Trap so solid the guy didn't believe there was a hole in there!

I'll post full pics soon but the point of the post is, for the rivet counters, the pump slotted down alongside the gearbox back post.

Only fitted here in '63, the first year of the unit 650's along with the drop down tool roll holder seen just behind it. Not earth shattering information I'll grant you, but a handy snippet to drop into the conversation if you're checking out an early sixties Bonnie.

They all do that Sir.............................

...................... or, screw ya period correctness!!!!!!

You may remember when this was bought for the A7, all new in the box, direct from AMAL and the right spec for the model and year. Fitted a treat and looks so damn fine and, well... correct really. When we got the Beezer running a couple of weeks ago, there was a bit of a drip out of the carb but we was on a roll man, and starting it for the first time was the order of the day.

Stripped the carb yesterday to find the problem, easy enough to see where it was coming from, and that was from a small hole at the top of the threaded section at the bottom of the main body. Not visible in the picture but it's machined in there as a key slot for the main jet block. Took the float bowl off and then the larger "Mixing Chamber Union Nut" above and found a fibre washer in there. Figuring that the washer was at fault and seeing as it wasn't a cheap thing to buy a phone call to AMAL seemed in order. 

Called their Technical Help department today and spoke to a decent enough sounding bloke there. As soon as I started to describe the problem he more or less took the words out of my mouth and told me exactly what it was doing! Apparently they all do that when a) the engine is not running and b) if the carb is tilted over by more than 12 degrees. He was pretty much on the money on both counts, the drips come when the bike's on the side stand with the motor stopped, and the leak stops when the bike is brought up level off of the stand, and the small hole draws air into the pilot circuit when the engine is running. So it seems that there's a strict start and stop procedure  to be adopted with regards to when the old juice is allowed to flow, yeah like I'll remember that on a Saturday night! 

A7 Bars

Much as we like Renthal bars 'round here, the pair on the Beezer never ever sat right, looked wrong from day one. All the self convincing in the world never really quite cut it, they were wrong.

Got a pair of non-descript Japper bars blacked up as a possible alternative, and fitted 'em today. Far better, brings the bars in as part of the front end now instead of a set sitting on top of it.

Kinda makes the grey grips more acceptable as well, doncha think?

Good Start To A Project

This is sitting on the English bay at the moment, 3 days to go and a very good price, of course that may not be the case in 3 days time!

Looks to be a late frame as the top tube appears to be there, instead of the early swan neck.

Most of the big bits seem to be present and would take a lot of the heart ache out of starting from the ground up.

Check it out HERE  and if you do score it, let us know how you get on!

Cockroaches and Commando Calipers

Yep, come the great nuclear apocalypse that'll be the only recognisable things left on the husk of a planet. The time is getting close to let the old A7 see the light of day and there's still a couple of things to sort before the MOT ( annual government inspection ) The front brake, that of undeniable Norton-Lockheed uselessness has been living up to it's infamy especially with the neat but in effective little 125 master cylinder that was trying to coax it into action. So had to get help from the Big H! yep got hold of a bit of Sochiro's finest off of the bay, a master cylinder for a VFR 750!!!! Well they got loads of front brake action going on, and used to moving far more square inches of piston than the Commando caliper has got to offer.

So here it is, a bit bulkier than the cute little number from Spain but it does what it says on the tin! Could piss about and remove all of the incriminating writing on it, but it is what it is so let it stand I say.

There's a new set of bars in the works as well, hopefully more in keeping with the overall feel of the bike.