Vintage Ride and Bike Show

Orv and I decided to take our old crocks down to Corvallis for a ride and show put on by the Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists.  There would be a ride starting at noon on Saturday, and then a show and judging on Sunday.  Since Corvallis is about 100 miles from our neck of the woods, we would not be riding the Triumphs down there, but Orv has a trailer so we hauled them down.  This was going to be a family affair with the wives along for an overnight stay.

A couple of days before the event, I decided to ride the Triumph to a nearby gas station to gas up, so I would be ready to ride on Saturday.  However, the bike started running really crappy and I barely made it to the gas station, and it quit completely on the way back.  Since Carolyn wasn't home I couldn't call her for help, so I pushed the bike to a nearby house.  I was only about a mile and a half from home, so I was just wanting a safe place to leave the bike while I walked home to get my truck.  The nice old couple who lived there insisted on driving me to my house, and then helped me load the bike when we got back.

With only a couple of days to get the bike sorted, I asked Orv to help me diagnose the problem.  We checked for spark and there was a good spark at the plugs. so we thought maybe the timing was off.  After resetting  the ignition timing and checking for loose wires in the electronic ignition set up we tried again, but no joy.  We pulled a plug and checked for spark and now had none......an intermittent electrical problem, the worse kind.  Orv's intuition, or some miracle led him to check the ignition switch, where he found a loose wire.

Friday afternoon I rode the bike down to Orv's house and he had it loaded by Saturday morning when Carolyn and I arrived.  We got to Corvallis early and got the bikes unloaded:

The event was at the Benton County fairgrounds, and there was also a vintage tractor pull going on at the same time.  Lots of excitement!

Getting ready to ride

As you can see from the photos above, it was a sunny day, so I put my tinted shield on my helmet.  But, by the time the ride started it was cloudy and threatening to rain (it's Oregon!).  The next problem was that my mirrors had gotten knocked loose in the loading or unloading process and I had to remove the right one and put it in my tank bag that I had bungied onto the seat.  Nevertheless, the ride was going well and we were seeing some beautiful country and going over some covered bridges, which were the theme of the ride.  Orv was following me because his speedometer had quit, but about halfway through the ride I saw that he was not behind me any longer.  Turning around, I found him stopped alongside the road......no spark.  Fortunately, the club provided a sag wagon, and so they loaded him up: 

I would have ended my ride too, but the sag wagon was going back to the fairgrounds via the I-5 freeway, which I didn't want to ride on, and I had no idea how to get back to the fairgrounds by myself, so I continued on with the ride group.

We went thorough several more covered bridges and stopped at a park near one of them, where I took these pictures:

I really was there

This pic gives an idea of the number of bikes that were on the ride: 

When I finally got back to the fairgrounds I had ridden over 100 miles and was about as tired as I used to get after a 100 mile desert enduro.  That old bike is not easy to ride, plus there were periodic showers.  

I put the right mirror back on at the halfway gas stop.  While I was riding, Orv and the ladies were at the vintage tractor pull and Orv is worried they are going to want to do that every weekend (not).

We loaded the bikes back into the trailer to be stored overnight at the fairgrounds campground.  One gets a thumbs up for finishing, and the other a thumbs down for a dnf.

Saturday evening we had a nice dinner and I was hungry since I had had nothing to eat since an early breakfast.  Then a stroll around downtown Corvallis and a good night's sleep in a motel of Carolyn's choice (above my standards).

At the bike show the next day I found I would have to join the club if I wanted to show my bike, so I am again a member of a motorcycle club, the Oregon Vintage Motorcyclists.

We cleaned up the bikes from the road grime caused by the wet roads:

And then moved them to the display area:

As far as the contest was concerned, we were up against some pretty stiff competition.  There were professionally restored bikes and some pretty rare and valuable ones like that Vincent in the background.  The bikes were divided into categories of British, European, American, Asian, and the featured mark Honda.  Here are some pics of what I found to be the more interesting ones;

BMW sidehack rig for Ray 

Honda turbo.  Didn't sell well when new, very valuable now

Early Hodaka.  My old riding buddy Jim rode one of these when we first started riding enduros.

The crowd at the show

Neither one of us won anything, nor did we expect to, but it was a fun weekend.  After we got home, Orv quickly found the problem with his bike and guess what it was...........a loose wire in the ignition switch.  The same problem my bike had just a few days earlier.  

A Brace of Bonnies

Orv came by today on his Triumph and we decided to go for a "reliability run" on our Bonnevilles.  We are planning to go to a vintage bike meet and ride down in Corvalis, Oregon on the 21st and 22nd of this month, and even though we are going to trailer the bikes down there, they need to go the distance on the vintage bike ride.  So we decided to go to lunch in Cougar, which is about 20 miles from my house.  Everything was going well, and I was pleasantly surprised again by how well the Triumph handles in the curves.  Then, a problem.........my headlight fell out of the headlight shell.  Not a big problem since the wires kept the light attached to the bike and it did not destroy itself on the road.  All I needed was a screwdriver to put the headlight back in the shell, but I didn't have a single tool.  Fortunately, Orv did, and here he is after the repair putting his tool kit back on his bike:

Pretty dumb of me to ride an old Brit bike and not carry a tool kit.  It doesn't take many to do most work on the bike, but they will be needed.

Here are the bike in the restaurant parking lot; my bike in the foreground:

After lunch we decided to ride the long way back through Woodland, and had no further problems.  After Woodland, and on the way back to my house, we switched bikes to see just how similar they are.....and they are.  I felt that his was a little smoother and he felt that mine was a little "tighter" and stiffer, like a newer bike.  Power was essentially the same for both of them.

We took a break at the Cedar Creek gristmill and then parted ways.  Total ride distance was about 50 miles, the longest ride I have made on the Bonneville.

Test Ride On a New Triumph

Triumph still makes motorcycles.  It's not the same company, they just bought the name.  However, they just came out with one that is meant to re-create the look of the classic Triumph of the 60's, and they did a pretty good job of it.  I talked Orv and Ross into going to take a look at them at a local Triumph dealership (that mainly sells Harleys).  Turns out they even offered to let us go for a test ride.

We just took our pick of a couple off the showroom floor, they were not even demo models:

They rolled them out into the parking lot:

Orv picked the black one:

And I picked the silver one:

You can see the resemblance to my Bonneville, but these are thoroughly modern motorcycles, with disk brakes, fuel injection, ABS, Traction Control, tubles tires, and electronic ignition.  They also run about 10 grand out the door.

The guy with the beard (Bob) led us around on a short ride that included some freeway, so we got a chance to "open them up" a little.  They are nice bikes, no doubt about it, and I could get used to owning one.  However, when I got back on my CBR, it felt pretty good.  Mine certainly doesn't have the horsepower or torque of the new Triumph (they are about 900cc versus my 500cc), but my bike is smoother, fits me better, and has a better front brake.  Actually, it's pretty hard for any bike to beat the front brake of the CBR.  At least not any that I can afford.

Ross opted not to take a test ride.  I think he doubts his ability to say no to an impulse buy.

Triumph Tweaks

I just couldn't stand that skinny back tire.  When I found out I had a slow leak in it, I decided to bite the bullet and get one that would look better.  So I spent another $87 on top of the $105 for the first tire, plus a whole afternoon of work changing it, to end up with this difference:

Old Look

New Look

Worth the money and effort?  I think so, but sometimes I wish I wasn't such  perfectionist.  

I'm also trying to come up with an acceptable mirror arrangement.  I don't like riding without having a good view behind me.  I bought some modern levers that have a threaded hole for a mirror, and I like the way the mirror turned out, but the clutch lever doesn't have the same leverage as the stocker and the clutch pull is stiffer.  I'll have to ride it awhile to see if it is acceptable or not.  

I have a lever for the brake side, but haven't installed it yet.  To make the lever fit the stock cable ends I have to drill out the new levers, which probably makes them non-returnable, so I'm doing one step at a time.

Here are a couple more pics of the bike with the new tire: 

  

Jenny Got Her Bike

Here it is, ready to head for San Francisco.  I've done everything I can to make this bike ready to ride with no need for anything for at least the next 5,000 miles:  

I also did everything I could do to make sure the truck made the trip, including a wheel alignment the day before we left.  But wouldn't you know, on the way home from the wheel alignment the truck missed a couple of times.  Nothing to do for it but to head out as planned.  We were going to take two days to get to SF, and sure enough, periodically the truck had a hesitation from a missfire.  I was worried it would get worse, and toward the end of the day I got an inspiration to put some Seafoam in the gas.  I've never used the stuff before, but I have heard of people who rave about it, so I thought I'd give it a try as the miss did not seem electrical, but maybe fueling related.  So, in Grants Pass I got a tank of gas and put in a can of Seafoam and guess what?.......the truck never missed again for the rest of the trip there and back.  Might make me a believer in snake oil.

Saturday Jenny and I went for a ride......she on the Honda and me on her old Kawasaki 250.

The bike in the background is her neighbor Joe's big BMW.  Her neighbor on the other side also has a bike.
Our destination was Alice's Restaurant, the iconic San Francisco bike hangaout, and a 90 mile round trip ride from Jen's house.  The approach to Alice's is along Skyline drive and it was really wet and cool.  I don't know where all the water come from, but the pavement was soaked.  Jenny was enjoying her new heated grips, and I was missing them.

You can expect to see some exotic bikes at Alice's, and here is one example:

Lots of fine custom metalwork in that bike.

After we got back from Alice's, I cleaned up both bikes and we took pictures of the Ninja for a Craigslist posting:

Sunday was Easter dinner and visiting with Carolyn's other daughter Carol Anne and her frind Chris who flew up from SoCal, Jenny's son Jonas (daughter Adena was in Hawaii with a friend), and Jenny's friend Damion.

Monday we had an 8 am appointment at the local DMV to transfer the title.  We had gone through this process with the Ninja two years ago, but this time it didn't seem to go quite as smoothly.......more like what I expected from a California DMV, actually.

Lots of paperwork:

The place just opened at 8, but already there was a long line of people who did not have appointments:

But the job got done, and then Jenny suited up:

And was off to work on her new bike:

Triumph Test Ride

We had a string of warm, dry days at the end of last week, and the roads got dry enough for me to take the Triumph out without fear of getting it dirty.  Unfortunately, by Friday afternoon when I got time to go for a ride, Carolyn was out of town, so there is no video of me riding off on my test ride.

Given the fact that she was not there to come and get me if the bike quit, and also due to the fact that our steep driveway means not being able to push it back to the house regardless of where it quits, I started out with baby steps.  First, I made a few turns around in the garage apron, and that is when I first got caught in the backwards foot controls.  I was heading towards the garage after gassing it a little, and when I went to put on the rear brake I had a moment of panic when it seemed I had no brake.  Then I realized I was automatically pushing down with my right foot, which was the shift lever on the Triumph.

I made a few loops around the garage apron and then cautiously headed down the driveway, all the time chanting the mantra "left foot brake, left foot brake".  Then I rode one way from the house for about a mile and then back and the other way for a couple of miles and back.  Then the seven mile loop around behind the house, and finally the twelve mile loop to Amboy and back through Farger Lake.  Altogether I rode about 25 miles and the bike never missed a beat.

Here are my impressions of the bike:

It steers really nicely......light and easy to turn.

The riding position is surprisingly cramped.  The seat feels low in relation to the footpegs and my feet are pretty far forward.

Suspension works, but isn't all that great.

Brakes are better than I expected, but it took awhile to even begin to get used to that left foot rear brake.  Thankfully, the front is still the same as what I am used to and that is the most important one anyway.

Engine vibration is bad.  Back in the day, Triumph twins were noted for their smoothness, but compared to a modern bike, especially my CBR, it is a real paint shaker.  Sometimes it seems the CBR is almost too smooth; the other day I was going 75 mph on the freeway for quite a ways before I realized I was still in fifth gear, not sixth.  The bike is so quiet and smooth there are not the normal clues.

Power seems plenty adequate.  I only got up to about 50 mph indicated, but even with only four gears, there is plenty of torque to climb hills in top gear.  The sound, of course, is wonderful.

It's no fun to start.  I can stand on the kickstarter when on the compression stroke, and nothing moves.  I have to make a real stiff legged jump on it to get through the stroke, and often that still isn't fast enough turnover for it to start.

It reminded me a lot of driving the Mustang........pretty physical and somewhat crude, but cool.  Things were really different back in the sixties, but so was I.

Well, no blog is any good without pictures, right?  So here are a couple of pics I took while on a ride with my friends last Thursday over to the coast to get some fish and chips.

This herd of elk was at a wildlife viewing area we stopped at, and is the largest herd of elk I have ever seen.

 And here is a small herd of motorcyclists.

The Triumph Goes Electronic

I had planned to convert to electronic ignition on the Triumph, and some starting problems convinced me that now was better than later.  Since my friend Orv had already done this with his '68 Bonneville I figured the easy way out would be to copy the system he installed and ask him to help me install mine.  In addition to the electronic ignition, I also went electronic with the charging system and got rid of the old voltage regulator/rectifier and the attendant Zener diode and heat sink.

These are the new parts:

Orv came over yesterday afternoon and we launched into the project.  His experience with having done the job before was invaluable and saved me a bunch of time and likely some mistakes.  Here he is checking over the directions:

When we were done we had this small pile of unneeded old parts:

After about four hours the job was done and the bike started and ran well.  It always feels really good to get a running engine after doing major work like that.  Points and condenser ignitions were always a pain, and the new system should be much more reliable and require less maintenance.  To celebrate, we went out to dinner at a new local restaurant.

It's pretty rare that I can have somebody to help me with a motorcycle project and it was fun working with Orv and, for a change, being the guy who fetches tools and does the grunt work.