More Deconstruction

I got the rear tire mounted and the wheel re-installed on the bike after cleaning up all the frame and swingarm parts:

I'm a little disappointed in the size of the rear tire.  The stock size is supposed to be 4.00 x 18, which is the old style tire designation meaning 4 inch width on an 18 inch rim.  When I ordered the new tire, I had the choice of 4.00, 4.25, or 4.50.  I chose the 4.25, and yet it seems narrower than it should be.  I measured it and it measures almost exactly 4.00 inches wide, but it looks skinny.  The jury is out until the bike is done and on the ground, but it would be expensive and a hassle to replace the tire with a 4.50 just to gain a little width, and merely for appearance sake. 

I cleaned up the rear fender and chain guard and then got the bike ready for front end work:

On removing the front wheel in preparation for re-spoking it, I discovered a mistake I made in the first restoration.  The spokes on the left side were all laced so that the ends were on the same side of the hub:

A closer look shows that some of the spokes don't fit the holes in the hub very well:

I had two sources for how they should look; one was the service manual and the other was the parts book.  The parts book diagram looked like the way I had them, but the service manual showed them alternating from inside the hub to outside.  I checked with my friend Orv, who has a couple of these old Triumphs, including a 1968 Bonnie like this one, and he said the spokes on both bikes alternated.  So that is how I laced them, and it looks a lot better:

I found my Harbor Freight tire mounting machine worked well for lacing the wheel without having to remove the axle and wheel bearings:

Next, I trued the wheel on my balancing rig and then mounted the new tire and tube.  I still need to get some spoke mounted wheel weights because the front rim is too narrow to use the stick-on type weights I used on the rear wheel:

Despite the fact that I replaced the fork seals in the previous restoration, they still leaked when I test rode the bike back then.  So now I have to take them apart and find out what went wrong.  The first step is to remove the handlebars, instruments, and headlight, which contains a lot of the wiring harness. 

Then the forks:

Another couple of  mistakes were discovered in this process.  The pinch bolt on the lower fork clamp was loose, and the top yoke of the triple clamp was also loose, even though the bearings were properly torqued.  It makes me wonder about myself as I was 20 years ago;  was I less careful in my work?  Or am I still making mistakes like that?