My 650 Triumph story

About a year and a half ago I bought a 1960 Tiger 110 off of Auto Trader, low and behold it belonged to a member of this perish!

A few years earlier I had agreed to buy a R1100GS off of the same member and then reneged as I found a R1150GSA closer to home. I always felt guilty about my actions but the UKGSer was most gracious about the situation and I appreciated his understanding. When I discovered that he was the same owner of the T110 that I did purchase I felt somewhat redeemed.

This is a picture of the bike as I received it. It started easily and ran smoothly. The bike while maintaining some of it's 1960 Tiger 110 heritage, matching frame and engine numbers, nacelle head light shroud being at the top of the list it was not as originally manufactures. Namely it had been painted in a non standard colours, was missing it's bath tube and deeply valanced front mud guard. The bike was also supplied with a wonderful build file from a previous owner who had passed away.

I was very touched to review all the notes the previous owner had compiled, he was obviously dedicated to the bikes rebuild while in his ownership and had done much good work to the bike internally and externally.

Lovely bike!

I brought the bike home, insured it and started to ride it reliving my youth on a 1965 Triumph 650 TR6 but there was a difference! Although I much preferred the pre unit, duplex frame of this new bike to the unit construction of the 1965 TR6 this bike was equipped with a magneto!

Once warmed up, usually in about 10 miles from home, it started to run badly and would eventually stop altogether. Now me thinking I knew more than I actually did, took a very erratic approach to trouble shooting the main cause of the problem and I'm sure I made things much worse. The result was eventually having to be picked up in a van and brought home feeling a bit humble in the fact that I had taken a much loved bike and made it an ornament not capable of running under it's own power.

As I had mentioned earlier the bike was not original when purchased. Some would consider this a bad thing, I was beginning to think it was a good thing as I knew it's basic bones were good, I just needed to learn more about the early Triumphs and mags and rebuild it and create the bike I really wanted.

The rebuild. On it's final ride out it became very evident on disassembly that the motor had over heated due to detonation, broken an exhaust valve push rod (suspect lack of guide lubrication again a result of high heat) and both pistons damaged beyond usefulness. A high price to pay for stupidity!

Once the motor was apart was able to access it's condition completely. Other than those items mentioned all else appeared good but did change out the rod bearings along with new pistons, 9.5:1 +.020, new push rods, checked and relapped all the valves, new gasket set, barrels rebored and reassembled. I also determined to replace the magneto, primary cause of engine failure and the carb with a new Amal specifically jetted and set up for a TR6C A picture or two of this process.

While the bike was off the road I decided to change the bikes appearance along with some of it's sundry equipment and remake it into a 1960 Triumph TR6C as sold in Canada so to that end I t the following. The bike as purchased had the wrong speedo on it, was a later mid 60's unit where as the 1960 used a chronometric Smith unit. Very expensive to find one in working order now a days and even then they are very suspect in their operation as they were in 1960! After trying to find one in reasonable condition and price with no luck took a different path. Replaced the speedo with a new Lucas made look a like electronic chronometric speedo. When powered up it does the self check like a 2020 Ducati! has one trip meter that is resettable and must be calibrated once installed on the bike and driven off of the original speedo drive on the gear box.

As I had now taken the plunge away from period correct I did not stop there. In addition to the speedo I installed a fob relay for all electrics and ignition. To start the bike now you press the fob, the speedo does a sweep confirming the bike is ready to go and once you've turned the petrol on, "tickled" and choked it give it a kick and run she does. The original 1960 bike had no key just a kill button to the mag mounted on the handle bars. I still have the kill button and is functional and can be used to stop the bike or the fob can be pressed to also stop the bike.

Mag replacement.............I looked around at the options available, there are loads! I settled on the Thorspark system, as the original mag remains on the bike along with the auto advance system on it's drive end. A small electronic pick up is installed where the points were housed in the mag. All very easy to do and the appearance of the bike is intact. A coil system is installed under the tank out of sight that the electronic pick up in the mag is wired to the coil system. A battery is required for this system. I set the timing at 37 degrees BTDC, this is done with the positioning of the piston on compression stroke, I then painted hash marks on the alternators stator and rotor so I could use a strobe light to time the motor and confirm the advance systems function by watching it with the primary chain guard removed. The electronic pick up needs to be positioned, a rotating member on the end of the mag were the points were originally mounted and a stationary unit mounted to the mag case under the screw off cap. Sounds far more complicated than it is. The bike started on first trial kick. A few pictures of this process

Can someone turn these pictures 90 degrees please!

Excuse me for jumping in, but I was just thinking about your engine problems, having helped tinker with my neighbours 2 pre-unit Bonneville's a while back, when they were both running like a crock of shite.

Your issues seem unusual, given the bike was running cleanly when first acquired. OK. a worn mag can cause all manner of problems, particularly if the timing slips, but this sounds more like an oil pressure issue to me. If you have the old style OPRV, I assume it was visibly activated once the oil came up to pressure & that oil was returning freely to the tank. However I am wondering about the possibility of a failed timing side bearing, which is a known weakness, that can lead to a catastrophic loss of oil pressure once the engine warms up.

Apologies if I have jumped the gun.

Here you go




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Sorry, some days I’m just a right dickhead.

The paint! I'm no painter so the following pictures represent hours of work and many retakes but finally something I can do now and am quite happy with. I bought the enamel paint from RS Paints and they are called Aztec red and Ivory. The Aztec red is more of an orange but was the original colour used on some of the 1960 TR6C's as sold in North America. I then clear coated the paint to give it durability, the clear coating is the hard bit for me but I have finally mastered it and what was once hard not so much any more. A few pictures of this phase.

I think I know where this is going

squbb34, thanks for your comments. I'm getting there in a back ass way! But to answer your question, when I first got the bike it would run smoothly for 5 minutes then it started running badly .With old mags when they get hot they can break down and cause ignition problems. In my case this turned out to be true. I have now ridden the bike just under 900 miles after the rebuild and it's running like a top and invariably starts first kick when cold or at running temperature ...........Back to the story!

Where I'm at today with the bike.

I've almost finished it, just switched over to siames pipes as they were the common pipe as used on early TR6's .As I said in the previous post It now has just under 900 miles on it and it is really running well. I am now happy with it's configuration but best of all it's just so much fun to ride. Really taken back with how much I enjoy it and looking forward to warmer weather to get out on it once again.

They can be difficult bikes to sort out but once done I find it very rewarding to ride and own. I do appreciate this forum, it raises everyone's game as we can all learn off of each other. If I can help anyone out with one of these old bikes happy to assist. A few more final pictures of the almost finished bikes, suspect they will come out sideways so asking for your help "Nin" in flipping.

That is a real credit to you Bill

Fandabbidossi
It looks marvellous Bill

Lovely. Bloody lovely.

Thanks for your encouraging comments gents. Wish I knew how to post pictures properly!!

Looks lovely. Those Smiths instruments are great.






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What did you do with the Nacelle unit Bill ?

I sold it to a friend in the states. He mention that I had sold it to him to cheap!! Story of my life