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!
Had a bit of trouble with the carbs blocking after one of the old Meridens had been sitting for a few years. Apparently the go is to get this inside of the tank fiberglassed (costs more than $100 though) and I was looking for a more economical solution at the time (yeah I’m a cheap …
This one happened to me on the two ferries and a bottle of rum tour a few years back. About ten k’s before Opononi one of my throttle cables broke right at the twist grip nipple. It was dark so I carried on to the pub (I run a separate cable to each carb on …
Lots of ‘Repco’ type valve spring compressors don’t work for Trumpy heads and you don’t really need to fork out the coin for one if you have an ordinary carpenter’s clamp. Cut a piece of 25mm water pipe 75mm long. About 2/3’s of the way along drill a 10mm hole right through the pipe. Cut …
The OIF is the problem here, the rocker box had to be modified to get the motor to fit the frame, so instead of the stud that passes right through the rocker box on the 1970 and earlier 650’s a bolt is threaded into a stud that finishes inside the rocker box. British Spares market …
Read more “Head Torque Without Rocker Box Removal (OIF Bikes)”