With power and reliability in mind, a 9 bolt cylinder head assembly from a T was bolted in place and the internals from a T 5 speed gearbox slid inside. Spark is managed by a Lucas Competition Magneto and fuel delivery is managed by a spanking new pair of Amal carburetors. I wanted the bike to be as close to a traditional period Cafe Racer as possible while doing just enough to make it dependable and ridable.
I spent endless hours sourcing parts, rebuilding and polishing. Making everything work together was challenging, but all worth it when I heard it run for the first time. Unfortunately, this story has a not so happy ending. Sofi, however, has decided to do something about it and has started the build of another Cafe Racer which she aims to raffle off to raise funds for researching a permanent cure for cancer. Images by Brandon LaJoie. It started out as a Triumph T bottom end, complete but in need of a total rebuild.
The cases were stripped and bead blasted, with all threads checked and repaired where necessary. A late sixties two piece crankshaft from a TR6C with the lighter flywheel was used, with reground journals to first undersize , polished conrods and all new bearings.
Later NOS nitrided E camshafts were used with all new bushings, and R cam followers running in Morgo tappet blocks. The cylinder is a Morgo cc kit and topped off with an early twin carb 9 stud head. The alloy pushrod tubes join the late style blocks to the earlier head, and house lightweight performance pushrods. The rocker boxes house lightened dural tappet adjusters and solid spacers instead of the original springs to reduce friction.
They are joined by an original finned Webco oil rail. Other goodies include a finned sump plate complete with drain plug, timing cover with tachometer drive and oil seal conversion and a Morgo rotary oil pump to keep the whole lot lubricated. They will be replaced with a Boyer electronic ignition unit which will be fitted further down the line. Still needed - Oil pressure release valve, intake manifolds, finned rockerbox caps and a dynamo blanking plug to switch to later alternator electrics.
These actually make it look quite tidy The Honda Monkey Bike sitting in the corner - I have to finish this by the time my girlfriends nephew has long enough legs to ride it - don't they grow up quickly nowadays. It is a sad day in the tool shed. The realisation has sunk in with priorities as they are, this project is never at least not in the foreseeable future going to see itself to completion.
Time and funds are being forced elsewhere with priorities being focused on raising a young family. So I am regrettably selling up with the intention of the funds going to a bike that is less labour and money intensive and a little more immediate in the roadworthy department.
Thank you to everyone for your support to this point, and lookout for parts to be listed on Ebay in the coming weeks. Ebay link to items currently for sale: ebay. Wednesday, December 24, A good year for me The arrival of my son, Arlo, has put a postponement on any projects.
Watch this space, too far in to give up now! So with the project at a virtual standstill right now I have got to enjoy one of my other favorite past times. With camera in hand and some image fiddling on the computer I have been playing at being artsy with bike bits.
Here are the results All Things John Tickle The engine and gearbox were finally introduced to the frame today. Impatience got the better of me, and while the frame still needs to be sent off to be checked for trueness, I thought it would be fun to have a little assembly time! Still a lot missing, but at least it looks like something now.
A quick cup of tea while I admire my work, take some pictures, and then dismantle it again to get the frame ready to send off. Saturday, August 4, The Primary Chaincase. I managed to score a Triumph Thunderbird outer primary cover for a reasonable price a couple of weeks ago. Its foot rest hole had been welded up, but badly and with no blending of the shape attempted, and a patch had been done at some point when the clutch had made a bid for freedom.
I blended the the foot rest area to match the top side with a disc sander attached to my drill. Several times I broke through the old welded patch and had to reweld the holes that I made.
Once that are was looking about right, I welded up the two lower screw holes that were cracked, and then set about polishing. First the wet sanding - grit in one direction, followed by , , and finally , all in opposing directions making sure to totally remove the previous sanding marks. This was followed by buffing on the polishing wheel and finally out with the Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish. Overall I am pretty chuffed with the results.
There is a slight ripple where the patch was done, but I don't think it will be noticeable when it is on the bike. Now I just need to find the matching inner cover - back to Ebay Unfortunately no before pictures, but here is the finished cover The Gearbox - Revisited. Well the gearbox is now complete.
All new bearings, bushings and stainless steel hardware. With the engine and gearbox ready to fit into the frame I feel like the project is finally moving along. You can read more about the gearbox in an earlier post - The Gearbox - Polishing The Outer Cover The next job that I will have to farm out is the frame which needs to be checked to make sure it runs true, and then the assembly can start in earnest.
After a long and frustrating weekend in the tool shed, I finally have something to show for the better part of a full weekend's work. Two weeks ago, while getting some parts that I will never use ready to sell on Ebay , I had an epiphany, a revelation on the direction to take this project. Among the pile of parts was a complete AMC clutch that I had picked up in the early stages of planning parts, and then promptly forgotten about. So with the primary figured out, it was time to sort out the rear hub so that I have something to align the gearbox to when I get there.
The choice was either the original Norton rear hub or a Triumph conical hub, both of which I had among my parts pile in the shed. The Triumph hub is the better brake, lighter and looks like a Norton Manx racing unit. However, it isn't a Norton Manx racing unit but a later knock off and I am trying to keep this project as original as possible.
So with that in mind, I decided to use the Norton hub - a full width alloy hub with cast iron drum bolted onto it. Looks nice but really heavy, and therein lies my weekend's work - trim down some weight and make it look a little less stock. The wheels spokes and all springs have been sprayed with ACF50 anti-corrosion fluid every year before the cold sets in.
The machine starts and runs excellently and runs on lead free fuel the sound from the gold star silencers and that little twitter when the throttle is closed is lovely in the ears. Year: Condition: Used ID: mfs Triton motorcycle built by Dave Degans of Dresda motorcycles in The engine is a heavily modified 6T pre unit Number 6T with a dating letter for the engine of The rear wheel is a stove enamelled Manx hub with stainless steel spokes and nipples.
The petrol tank is Fibreglass with a lining and the oil tank is Fibreglass. Engine Specification was built for racing see engine specification in photos Morgo barrel and Morgo pistons with a squished gas flowed head with large valves and centre plug conversion.
The ignition system is the Lucas Rita electronic ignition with new coils.
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