The World's Greatest Old Bike Mag.

The cover of this month's Vintage Bike Magazine, showing a piece of true Triumph exotica, the fabled pre-war Bronze Head adorning an early Tiger 100.

There is only two thing wrong with this magazine, firstly, it should be twice as thick and secondly, it should come out twice as often!

Written by men who are passionate about the subject with a lifetime in the industry, it goes to levels that other monthly classic comics fall lamentably short of.

Here's how they describe themselves;

Vintage Bike is written for those interested in British motorcycles in general and the Triumph in particular. The magazine includes how-to-do-it articles, stories by and about owners rebuilding and riding their bikes, and authoritative interviews with people who were there during the colorful history of the industry by such well-known authors as Kevin Cameron, Mick Duckworth, John Healy and many others.  Subscribe now. Articles and resources here on our website include an index of back issues.

Do yourself a favour if the description appeals to you, your life will be richer for subscribing to this magazine.

FLAT TRACK A7

Dick "Bugsy" Mann started his career hurtling 'round the oval on an early A7.

Makes me want to get the spanners out on mine!

Tom's Born Free 11Triumph

 Tom was an Invited Builder at the year's Born Free Show and credit where credit is due, the folks in charge of handing out the invites were right on the money contacting Tom.

This 650 Trumpet oozes Sixties show bike style and panache all the way from the axle plates of the chromed frame, right through to the rockers of the original 1930 H-D Peashooter springer front end.

The frame is a '53 with the classic light stretch in the lower rear rails to straighten out the line from the head stock to the rear axle. The motor consists of a set of T110 cases, restraining a heavily massaged crank that saw action in a Hill Climber back in the day. This is topped off with a set of 8 stud barrels carrying an early T120 head.

Although it was declared a winner at BF11, in the valley of the V Twins, it rightly caught the attention of the head honchos at Mooneyes as Tom received an invite to attend Yokohama 2019 and that's a validation of quality in anybody's book.

Thanks Tom. 

One for Phil H

Bumped into my old mate Phil at a bash yesterday and he expressed his disappointment about the lack of activity on here for more than a while. I promised him I would try and get my shit together, so here's a shot of a big Enfield from an NCC run down to Oxford around 40 years ago.

Good to see ya Phil!

1954 Triumph Tiger 110 (sort of)

Worked on this with Chris a couple of months ago, loosely based around a 1954 Ton Ten, there are parts that span the '54 to '59 production period. 

Complete overhaul of the front end along with a general tidy up and recommissioning. 

Spreading the rails

On the mid sixties 250/441 BSAs there is 1/8" spacer on the bottom engine stud, on the drive side between the frame lug and the crank case. This is often overlooked during reassembly, resulting in the lower frame rails being tweaked in. 

Using a 7" length of M10 x 1.0 studding with two nuts on the inside of the rails the gap can be spread to the specified 4 5/8". 

Once the motor goes back in there will now be clearance which can be measured accurately and a bespoke spacer made to take up the gap minus 0.002" resulting in minimal movement of the frame when tightened. 

1967 BSA Restoration

 Had this 1967 BSA B44 sitting around in boxes for 25 years or more, time to turn it back into a bike.

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.

A Fine Pair of Double Ds

A few posts below this one shows a Parilla Tacho that I confessed my lust over. In the year or so since that post moves have been afoot. I have had a pair of Bantam Speedos reworked and am now the proud of owner of this fine pair. Both are calibrated for use on Triumph Twins, the Speedo to a pre unit gearbox drive, and the Tacho has been modified for a timing case drive.

I think, just maybe, that this is the only pair like this in existence. 

Slipping a front end in

Put a front end into the Build Off bike, to get it looking more bike like. The shrouds are original Webco and really need re- chroming, which is a bit of a dilemma, once they are replated they loose the originality.

The front wheel is a 19, pretty sure this will end up being a 21 on a 7" hub. 

Another blog re-emerges from the fallout.

Chas is resurrecting his blog with a Sporty build.
Check him out HERE

Smiths Chronometric Tacho

Long time readers of this drivel may recall my love of the D shaped Smiths Chronometric speedo. Here's a tacho in the same body, never knew such a thing existed! Damn I want one so bad it hurts!