TOMCC is privileged to have secured the services of Nigel Sprocket, ex Triumph UK to give us the benefit his advice, and to add interest with anecdotes from his years at the Triumph factories.
Nigel joined Triumph in 1903 as an apprentice on the shop floor. He moved with the company to Meriden where he was soon promoted to Head draughtsman on the parallel twins project as a result of his ground breaking work on preventing leather drive belt slippage. When designer of the first Triumph parallel twin, Val Page, pointed out that Triumph hadn’t used belt drive for thirty years and he had already developed a parallel twin engine, Val was immediately transferred to BSA. (as an aside Val’s engine eventually became the BSA A7/A10 range).
Nigel moved on to develop Harris Bonnevilles where his innovative work on saving weight by developing porous castings astounded Harris Bonneville owners worldwide.
When John Bore started Hinkley in a stunning coup he poached Nigel from the dole queue to work in the experimental department where to this day he is developing a standard whitworth thread pattern not only for Hinkley bikes but eventually for all motorcycles. Imagine only one set of spanners required and they’ll be British!
Hold Onto Your Head Handy tool for working on your head, just weld a piece of 25mm RHS to an old spark plug, screw into the head and clamp in the vice. The first one I made use a bit of 25mm water pipe, and it worked okay until I lost it or lent it …
True surfaces, new gaskets and new oils seals properly fitted can result in an oil tight motor, particularly with the later 650/750 twins. Nigel Sprocket was working on a revolutionary solution to oil leaks in a secret department at Meriden and recalls – “after years of intensive research we discovered that the polarity of …
Nigel Sprocket “There ye go lad, a flash new selector mechanism for the new 650” Spotty Stapp (no relation to Grumpy Stapp, TOMCC member) “I was talking to a nip down the pub last night and he reckons we should split the crankcases horizontally so the gearbox can be assembled and tested before bolting up …
The only difficulty dismantling modern fork legs is to hold the damper tube while undoing the bolt that retains it in the bottom of the fork lower tube. To make this easy I welded a 30mm nut to a section of tube see diagram. Tube diameter doesn’t matter much, mine is made from a piece …