Slow Progress

Progress on the Triumph has been pretty slow, but that's OK.  I have plenty of time before warm, dry riding weather and I'm trying to stay under $200 per month for parts.

The most expensive parts so far have been the spokes and tires, but I also decided to get new fork tubes when I found out they were not too expensive and my old ones were not in the best of shape.  These new fork tubes turned out to be a problem, though, which is going to add more expense.  I have been noticing all along in this restoration that my bike had some differences from Orv's 68 Bonneville.  The impact of these differences finally became an issue when I attempted to put my old fork caps and bottom bolts into the new fork tubes.  They didn't go.  Thanks to some research by the parts person, Cassie, at the Portland store where I ordered the fork tubes, we discovered that my bike is an early 68 production model that apparently had some carryover 67 parts on it, and the fork tubes were one of these parts.  The thread type for the fork caps and bottom bolt were different than the fork tubes.  I have read that Triumph would make changes like that in the middle of a production run.........part of their poor quality control reputation.  Anyway, it meant either sending the fork tubes back, or getting new fork caps and bottom bolts that matched the new forks.  Since the fork caps were a little dinged up anyway, I decided to bite the bullet and for another $50 or so, get new fork caps.  Here is a pic of the bike with the new forks, fork seals, and fork gaiters installed and waiting for the fork caps to arrive:

The gas tank was removed and polished up.  Lucky for me the paint was still in good condition from the paint job I applied 20 years ago:

I removed the oil tank because I decided to repaint it.......it just wasn't quite as good as it should be.  Here it is curing inside the house where it is nice and warm:

Even while I'm waiting for parts, or money to buy parts, there are always small jobs to do to keep me busy.  One of these was to polish the cases on the right side:

I also bought some new oil hoses and fuel line and fuel filters.  The old stuff was either rotting (oil hoses), or so hard from old age they would have cracked from the vibration of the running engine (fuel lines).

Still lots of parts to find their way back onto the bike.  I am beginning the re-assembly mode.