Triumph Tiger 90

 

Triumph Tiger T90

This is the Tiger on the day it was removed from its garage home where it had sat since 1980. It went to a dealer for a month or so before coming to me in the Autumn of 2022.

Welcome to the Repair shed our latest recruit, a 1965 Triumph Tiger 90 350. Back before dad met mum he used to ride bikes. His last bike before moving onto cars was one of these, a Triumph Tiger 90. So when it came to selling the scooter and choosing my first classic bike there was only ever going to be one candidate. I spent ages looking for one and then out of the blue this appeared only 10 miles away. So as soon as we got there to have a look I knew I was going to buy it. The fact that it started and sounded like a Spitfire ticking over only helped to seal the deal. The very nice chap delivered it in a van a week later and here it is.

What do we know about this bike then? Well it's local to Cardiff as far as I can tell - so will have come from Bevans when they were situated opposite the Castle. I've been in and they don't have any archive material unfortunately but they were the only South Wales Triumph dealer at the time. I don't l know anything about its early history, but do know that from 1980 to 2022 it was owned by a gentleman called Bertie and sat in his garage exactly as it it now awaiting a restoration that never happened. (Bertie remembers buying it from a friend in Bargoed in the Welsh Valleys). So until it found its way to a dealer in 2021 when Bertie retired to West Wales and then on to me in 2022 it hadn't turned a wheel since the early 80s. The tax disc it's wearing in the picture above is dated 30th March 1980.

The original speedo. The milometer is broken and the numbers illegible, so I don't know how many miles the bike has done. The glass is broken too. I've replaced it with a cheap reproduction one that doesn't work

It's officially 'a runner' because I've been around the block on it. The gears engage, the clutch works, the brakes didn't really. The tyres are perished and its definitely been down the road a few times as everything on one side - rubbers, paint, tank knee pad, is different from the other side. The oil tank has been repaired where one of its brackets was broken off and the frame has been welded where it supports the exhaust and rear foot peg bracket. The frame and engine are its originals with matching numbers. It has been painted three or four times, starting out a very nice turquoise - some of which was still visible under the tank. It's been blue with silver stripes, silver with blue stripes and burgundy. Some bits, like the battery cage and oil tank have also been yellow. The frame appears straight but rusty and the entire bike is covered in 50 years worth of oil and filth. The seat is homemade and neither the speedo or rev counter works. And it goes without saying that the very first thing it did when it arrived was leak oil all over the drive. So that's where we're starting from.  

What's the plan? Well what I'm not going to do is spend the same amount on this as I did on the scooter, (famous last words). This is going to be: Take bits off, clean them, paint them if necessary and put them back on. We wont be using the word restoration at all. Safety items will be done obviously - tyres, tubes and brakes and we'll be changing all the filters and fluids (The oil tank is virtually solid with old oil) but the engine won't be coming out of the frame if I can possibly help it. The carb will get a service and like the scooter I'll attempt some paintwork myself. That's it. A smartening up with as few new bits as I can manage, to keep the costs under control. It'll be staying on its 6v electrics and I wont be changing the loom (laughs out loud - see later on). It'll also be staying on its points system because right now it's all working and I've never been confident playing with electricity.

At this time of writing, (Feb 2023), it's in many bits, half in the shed and half in the loft, so until it starts to come back together I'll just share with you a few pictures I've taken along the way so far and will update the words when there's something a little bit more interesting to report.

Stripping the original paint from the tank. It came off easily enough. Thank goodness for rubber gloves!

A bit of good news and progress early on. The finished tank. Flushed out and painted. It's not quite the original color and I'm not going to attempt the two-tone finish and pinstripes it should have, but it looks smart enough. It has the original rack and badges but new fuel cap, knee pads and chrome trim down the centre flange

Like looking at two different bikes - tank pads, handlebar rubbers, paintwork, all different on either side.

Well it made me laugh

Brake shoes were easy enough to replace which hopefully means we'll have a little more stopping power than it arrived with

My first ever attempt at re-lacing wire wheels with new spokes. I should really have replaced both rims too, but they're actually quite expensive so I just did the spokes, (and tyres, tubes, bearings and brake shoes). I couldn't quite get either of the hubs centred properly so used a car wire wheel restoration company that just happens to be close to my house. I hope that'll be the only bit I have to farm out. It's really going to annoy me that I didn't replace those rims!

Some of the original paint hiding on the underside of the tank

Both mudguards have been blue and silver and silver and blue, with burgundy in there too.

Might be needing a new air filter!

A yellow oil tank, ratty wiring, rusty frame and perished tyres are fairly typical of this type of project I expect.

None of this made much sense and there was no key

The homemade seat was one of the first things to hit the bin

The oil tank was full of sludge and used to be a fetching shade of burgundy with a white stripe and prior to that, yellow, unless the yellow was its primer.

I built a wooden bench on wheels to get it off the ground which made it easier to work on in my shed.

Everything that happened to it took place in that tiny space you see there.

You can see here that the frame has been roughly repaired/welded where the exhaust holding plate attaches. I've ground the welds to tidy them up, but otherwise left it. The oil tank brackets near here were also repaired. So this side has obviously hit the ground hard at least once. The oil feed pipes were full of sludge and quite brittle, so they've gone as well.

One year later. August 2023

Moving swiftly on to August 2023 and we've made a lot of progress. It's all back together again and looking pretty good I think. I cleaned everything as best I could and painted what needed painting. The list of new parts has grown significantly but didn't get out of control and I'm really pleased that we've managed to retain a lot of of patina. I didn't want it to look over restored and it doesn't.

A mix of new and original parts with some fresh paint and a lot of elbow grease

It was on this day, getting it outside for the first time and taking these pictures I realised I'd made a colossal mistake. I've never had much confidence when it comes to wiring. So I put the entire bike back together with its original loom still in place. Just after I took the picture above I tried to start it. But as soon as the key was put in the loom started to smoke behind the headlamp and the lights came on even though the light switch was in the 'off' position. I took the headlamp out and much of the wiring in there had melted. And no amount of fiddling with the ignition and light switches could make the lights go off. 

The answer to its wiring problems is in that box - a brand new Lucas loom, together with, thankfully, a simple wiring diagram. It went on surprisingly easily. But required the tank and side panel to come off again.

So I bit the bullet and bought a new loom, light switch and ignition switch and surprisingly it all went on really easily after I'd removed the old loom and works perfectly. We have working lights, and even a horn and the simplified wring diagram that came with it was a godsend as were the hundreds of pictures I took before stripping the old wiring out.

October 2023

We're virtually there and about to start test riding and sorting out the last couple of bits and bobs. The new Chinese speedo is going to be an issue I think and the primary chain case gasket that I replaced is still weeping a little, but other than that, it's done. And it starts 1st kick and sounds terrific although its clearly running rich and fouling its plugs after quite a short time.

Getting there, although at this point the original loom is still on the bike and about to cause some wire melting! And of course it's sitting on a piece of wood to help soak up the dripping oil

November 2023

Although it would start after the new loom was put on - and took me round the block for a quick shake down ride -  there were a few things that really needed sorting out:

The richness

It was running very rich. The needle valve was bent slightly out of shape and was attached on its richest setting. So a new one was sourced and fitted in its medium setting. At the same time I fitted a new pilot jet, just in case, and re-set the fuel/air mixture.

Sticking float jet

It kept cutting out after it had emptied the float chamber of fuel and it appeared that the float jet was sticking in its housing, so I bought a new one which seems to have solved the problem.

The primary chain case leaking

Despite having a new gasket the primary chain case was still leaking, so I took it off again and fitted two gaskets which seems to have done the trick.

Engine breather tube

The crankcase has a breather tube which exits the bottom of the engine. It's not unusual for this to weep some oil - but it was dropping all over the floor- so I've re-routed the pipe first to the oil tank, so that any oil goes back where it came from, and then on to the more normal exit point just below the number plate using an original shape oil breather pipe junction piece.

Rear wheel slow puncture

Despite the rear tyre and tube being new and having done zero miles its sprung a leak. A slow puncture empties it in a week, so the wheel is going to have to come off again which is annoying.

This is just about it. All the bits and bobs are done and providing nothing else crops up it'll simply be a case of enjoying it come the Springl

January 2024

Points and condensers

I hadn't yet replaced the points and condensers - so finally got around to that in January, except that I bought the wrong points. So for now its just had cleaned up originals and new condensers

The oil leak

With the engine started and the bike upright - as apposed to leaning over on its side stand - there was a really quite bad oil leak around the front chain sprocket. It was actually a very fast drip! I was sure it was engine oil coming from the primary case and not gearbox oil, or oil from the actual engine. To make sure, I put a couple of drops of green food colour into the primary case and then ran the bike and lent it over so that it would definitely leak. Hey presto - a steady drip of green oil! The picture below shows how much leaked out in just a few minutes! This pointed to the seal behind the clutch being defective and so it proved. Having bought a clutch puller and taken the clutch assembly out it was simply a case of replacing the seal and fitting a new gasket to the plate.

The source of the primary case oil leak - a completely worn out clutch baseplate seal

While the baseplate was off you have access to the front sprocket so I was able to give that a quick once over. The large retaining nut was only finger tight (!) and didn't have a tab washer behind it to keep it tight. So I took this opportunity to replace the nut and fit a new washer .

February 1st 2024 - a day that may go down in history. The first day, for years probably, where this machine hasn't tipped oil all over the floor. It looks as though the new clutch seal is doing its job, thank goodness.

List of parts replaced

• Rear light assembly
• Rear number plate plinth
• Rear tyre and tube
• Front tyre and tube
• Front brake shoes
• Rear brake shoes
• Front brake lever
• Rear brake leaver and rod
• Rear brake light switch
• Drive chain
• Cush drive gasket
• Rear shock absorbers
• Primary case gasket x 2
• Wiring loom
• Battery
• Wheel spokes front
• Wheel spokes rear
• Handlebars
• Most nuts and bolts, springs, clips and fixings
• Footrest rubbers
• Rear footpegs and rubbers
• Sump plug and filter/strainer
• Oil feed pipes from tank to engine
• Oil feed pipe from rockers to tank
• Tank mounting bushes and bolts
• Chrome trim for central tank seam
• Petcock
• All fluids inc fork oil
• Sparkplugs
• HT leads
• Kick start lever
• Both stand springs
• Air filter
• Seat
• Light switch
• Ignition switch
• Speedo
• Speedo cable
• Horn
• Horn and light switch wiring
• Front brake cable
• Clutch cable
• Brake light switch
• Handlebar grips
• Needle Jet
• Pilot Jet
• Float Jet
• Clutch puller tool
• Clutch baseplate gasket
• Clutch baseplate seal

Previous Triumphs

This is my first classic bike but actually my third Triumph and they've all come from the same dealer, Bevans in Cardiff.

The other two were bought one after the other between 1999 and 2004 or thereabouts. The Daytona 900 was my second machine after passing my test and holds the distinction of being the bike on which I travelled faster than on any other bike or in any car, ever. The second Triumph was a Speed Triple, which to be honest I never really bonded with. It holds two particular memories. It was the last motorbike my mum ever had a go on when I took her on a quick tour of Cardiff. She must have been about 70 and seemed to enjoy herself and it was also the bike I rode to Bridgewater one Saturday morning and traded in for my first and so far only Harley Davidson. (A 2002 Road King since you asked)

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My first Triumph. A black Daytona 900. I loved this machine and should have kept it. Really well built, although very heavy. I still think they look fantastic today. 

My second Triumph, a blue Speed Triple. I was a bit tall for this and didn't really fit, so never got on with it really. This was the last bike that my mum ever travelled on, for a quick tour of Cardiff and was also the bike that I rode to Riders in Bridgewater to trade for my one and only Harley Davidson (A 2001 Roadking).

*neither of these pictures are of my actual bikes - can't seem to find any, which is annoying but they're both the same model and colours.