Steering Head Bearings (again)

The only reliable one I ever had was a K1, the other two (R80RT and
K75RT) both let me down.
--
Tim two#21, YGL#3 & BOTAFOT#84

Due to the limitations of current email, the lip movements may be
out of synchronisation as you move your finger under the text while reading.

tim dot ukrm2 at dsl dot pipex dot com

 

Now, shall I choose a tale about fixing the Wing, the KH or the TS?

 

I've adjusted them once before. The bike was fine when I picked it up,
but over about 1k miles the bearings started knocking. Tighten them up
and over the next 1k the knock's back again.

The bike had its 12k mile service early (more in keeping with the
timescale as opposed to mileage done), which hints that the previous
owner wouldn't have skimped on maintenance (it's an expensive service).

 

Any you like.

The Wing's troubles are caused by the inaccessibility of everything.

Very little has actually gone wrong with it.

If you want to suggest that the quality of engineering on your Triumph
is comparable to that of a mid-seventies Japanese two-stroke, you'll
get no argument from me.

Except that they're still on their original steering head bearings,
afaict.

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C/CBX1000Z
|_\_____/_| ..66073../..15556.../..Ebay./.Ebay./pending.
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17
'^' RBR-Visited:35 Pts: 705 Miles:2429

 

Triumph have been going for a while - you'd think they could afford a
better designer than some spotty YTS oik.

 

Well, I've done about 40k miles on K100s and in that time I've broken
down once due to a broken wire feeding the fuel pump. Not bad on bikes
pushing 20 years old. Current one's done about 83k miles and the other
one... I don't know, figure it was clocked when I got it.

 

In their current iteration they've not been going that long really; 10
or 15 years I think. Could be wrong though...

 

Production started 1990

This timeline is quite interesting.
http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycles/triumph/time06.html

 

Me too, at one point their capacity was 5 bikes a day and I was
thinking... that's, say, 50 weeks a year, 5 days a week, 5 bikes a
day... 1,250 bikes a year. At say, 6k a pop that's 7.5 million turn
over and assuming, say 33% GM (which I'd guess is ridiculously high)
that 2.5 million. Hmm, 2.5/60 is about 4%- not a good ROI.

Of course, I don't have a clue about the costs of things but I'd guess
I've been optimistic on the returns here. I'm guessing that economies
of scale need to kick in later to make this work.

 

The bloke had a few quid, didn't he?

This bit I found interesting:

"1992 - The Daytona 1200 is launched at the NEC show in Birmingham,
with a claimed 147bhp, higher than allowed on British roads."

I always thought the 125bhp limit was a voluntary limit?

 

If I had an oxyacetylene outfit, I might well do that. Acksherly,
I have a MAPP gas torch now, that is hot enough to do brazing.
I'll bet it would do the trick quite easily, too.

But, if you exercise a modicum of care, the Dremel method works
fine and has little risk. As I said, no need to grind all the way
through, just enough to weaken the beast so it will crack when the
BFH is applied. Much quicker than carting the works off somewhere.

 

I've got just a simple single bottle thingy that uses MAPP or propane
fuel, no oxy bottle involved. Using MAPP fuel it gets hot enough to
soften stubborn studs or shift nearly anything automotive that needs
heating to remove.

I used to have a proper oxyacetylene rig when I was a lad, my dad
borrowed one from the widow next door whose husband had been a weldor.
My dad, having welded Liberty ships in Superior WI during WWII and
truck bodies for a few years after that, knew a bit about welding,
and passed some of it on to me. Unfortunately the widow's son
learned of the whereabouts of the rig some years and many bottles of
gas later, and plucked it back.

The fun that can be had burning things up with the gas axe cannot be
comprehended by the average joe who hasn't had the pleasure.

 

Face it, Andy: you're going to be called a **** again anyway. Might as
well get a few laughs first.