Andy Kerr.
Where to start, I suppose at the beginning. 1981,some year that was ! The
year I met my wife, the year I married my wife, the year our daughter “ Jessica” was
born and the year I started to build my Triumph Thunderbird.
This is the first picture I have of my bike, it was taken in our then bedroom
and shows nothing than “ A collection of rusty bits of metal “ as
my wife dear Caroline would say
Summer 1982
18 months of work ( with a lot of help from friends ) and the Triumph is ready
for the road.
Winter 83/84
After a year or so, of every day riding and 16,000 miles, through all weathers,
the road took its toll. The need for a rebuild was in order, time to improve
on one or two things i.e new ( second hand ) petrol tank, seat re-design
and similar. A brand new Duplex clutch assembly was a vast improvement over
the old ( and I mean old ) single chain assembly, especially when trying
to find neutral.
1986
This picture was taken at the I.O.W Brit Bike rally in 1984, its first run off
after the rebuild
Time for for a face lift and some. I decided the electric blue paint job was
too seventies!
The new (s/h) Bonneville front fork worked well, compared to the old mark 1
with 4 inch overs; although the conical hub twin leading shoe, brake was
most strange, as the drum was oval. The introduction of the aluminium rear
mudguard stays also appeared at this time. These were the first of my hand
made stays.
At the beginning of 1991, I joined the 3Bs rally club. Unfortunately, I needed
a bike for rallies and runs, thus bought a Kwaka 750 LTD and used the Triumph
for local and prestige runs. The bike stayed like this until July 91, when
I decided to take the triumph of the road, to make it really special. Little
did I know it would take me over 7 years and cost more than the Queen spends
on toilet paper to get it back on the road.
Finished!
To be an “anorak” for a minute or two, the spec, reads like this.
Engine: Crank T140 (lightened & balanced ), Nourish conrods, Morgo 750 barrels,
morgo rotary oil pump, E3134 cams, T140 9 stud head (flowed port) with lead free
Nucleus valves and Mukuni 32mm cards.
Hayward primary belt drive into a Bonny 5 speed gearbox. And other bits and pieces.
Rolling chassis: Standard 1957 Thunderbird single down tube frame ( known
as the whippy),
Hand made swinging arm ( by Eric Cheney), Fournail rear shocks, Slab yokes,
handlebar clamp and rear- sets
( by Billy Mills 3Bs Wiltshire ), Hydraulic front brake conversion ( by Owner),
Electronic rev counter ( by owner ),
Hand made rear mudguard stays and foot peg hangers ( by owner ) Combination
chain guard and rear brake linkage (by owner),
and a whole lot more.
I have a list of names, of the people who helped, and its a long list, I am
not going to write it all ( I cant be arsed),
but if you are one of those anoraks who is sadder than me, send me an “E” and
I will get back to you.
So !! I thought it was finished. What the f*** did I know. 753 miles later,
the engine went BANG! Big style..........
I was crushed, the bolt that holds the “p” clip, which retains
the oil scavenger pipe, that hadn’t been touched for twenty years,
came out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It made a mess
