Featured What you been doing with your TRIUMPH today??

It's a nice Cafe Sandi,normally they are really busy , they are going to set up a take away van outside to ease the pressure on the cafe at busy times

 

@Markus so glad that your wife was OK.
Lets hope that you can now both look forward to some trouble free riding from now on.

 

@Markus I'm pleased that you journey ended well - sounds a close call!! I have to confess to having a little bit of jealousy over your current temperatures though.....

@Dougie D beautiful photos (as ever!).

 

Today I just rode around the local area for a few hours having fun. I almost didn't go out as I was feeling a bit down in the dumps (been a rough few weeks with yesterday being especially so, for reasons I'll not bore anyone with) but persuaded myself to and knew it was the right decision as soon as I started the Striple . I also went for coffee and a flapjack for my lunch at Dom's Bike Stop on the day he reopened for the season. When I got there it was busy with lines and lines of bikes parked, so I squeezed into a space on the end.....only for everyone to then ride off in a big group .

I am also loving my new exhaust, it sounds amazing. All in all, an aimless ride was just what I needed to lift my spirits and I came back jabbering away as usual about how great my bike is for @Helmut Visor to have to listen to (again)!

 

Went out for an early ish spin to find that the council, in their wisdom decided to salt the roads everywhere, just because the temperature was 1c last night, there was a slight grass frost but the roads have now stayed slimey because the moisture has mixed with the salt, had they left the sun to do its job the roads would be dry and clear by now.

 

Your bonnie is looking tip top @PatW ​

 

It was mate, now got to clean it, there's a horrible grey coat of salt over it...bugger..

 

A good ride out through the English Welsh borders, then west to over the fantastic B4518 to Machynlleth. High road with great views over the hills. North to Dolgellau and Trawsfyndd for another of my favourite roads the A4212 to Bala. Back home via Llandegla and Nantwich.
230 miles in mixed weather some sun, some hail, some rain, temperatures between 4 and 11 degrees according to the Explorer temperature gauge. I felt cold at times but great to be out there

 

Fitted carbon clutch cover,and heel plates.

 

Your bike is looking bee-yoo-tee-ful, @Mrs Visor. I'm glad you goto yourself out the door. Riding is great therapy. I hope that your time feeling down in the dumps is fleeting.

 

Beautiful route by the looks of it @FellZebra, and I love the gold wheels and forks against the black of your bike - it's a lovely looking machine!!

 

@Mrs Visor: Thanks!

 

@Bikerman: Thanks! Nobody can stop us!

 

No photos…..But I took the Speed Triple for its second service. So I actually rode a bike again…First time since September last year when I went to do the Factory tour.
It felt good but a little alien. Decent weather but I couldn’t mess about as my wife was collecting me from the little independent garage. About fifteen miles. New Michelin Road 5’s being fitted as well. Due to lock downs I hadn’t bothered getting the bike serviced over the last two years, it’s only done 3.5 k miles but hopefully we will do some more miles this year….

 

Wash, polish, chain clean/oil and adjusted the rear shock to see if it softened the ride after an instructor advised rear shock harden the front ???
Well it worked great. I put 2 full turns on the matriss mono (leaving another 25+) and it was smooth .

 

When you're next up there instead of turning right on the A4212 for Bala carry on up to Ffestiniog then take the B4391 which will bring you back out on the A4212 about half way to Bala. Once in Bala you can take the B4391 again if you fancy going on to Lake Vernwy

 

Good call @littleade we've been that way a few times

 

After watching a dozen YouTube videos over the past few days I got around to fitting a longer brake hose. My cunning plan was to use the brake lever to pump fluid out of the reservoir, via the bleed nipple into a vacuum pump bleed kit that didn't have the sucky bit attached. Then after changing the hose I used a syringe to push air into the 'bleeder' container which forced fluid back up into the new hose until it started seeping from the banjo bolt on the master cylinder that I'd left loose.



After tightening up the bleed nipple and banjo bolt a pump of the lever produced a tiny air bubble, after a dozen more pumps there was no air and brakes felt firm and good to go. However I then proceeded to bleed the system and change the fluid as it was due anyway.

The hose I'd bought was a bit too long and I had to use up an inch by making the loop under the tank bigger than necessary, that's as big as I could go without it showing.



To avoid fouling, I also needed to use a couple of penny washers under the mounting bracket for that hose connector, bringing it a little further away from the frame.

I now have lots of slack and clearance on the brake hose.





Next job is the clutch cable, which is making the front look asymmetrical (and also has zero slack for any future handlebar adjustments).

For anyone wanting to extend brake hose on a Speedmaster or Bobber (and possibly other Triumph bikes). Here are links to the parts I used...

https://www.venhill.co.uk/3-60184ls.html
https://www.venhill.co.uk/m10x-1-point-25-convex-male-adaptor-stainless-360125as.html
https://www.venhill.co.uk/625mm-line-with-18-bsp-swivel-nuts-3h0625.html
https://www.venhill.co.uk/10mm-copper-washer-10pack-c101-10.html

Length of hose required will depend on setup, I reckon to match OEM Bobber hose line you'd want 550mm and for Speedmaster, 625mm.

P.S. For completion, here's the torque settings I used...

Banjo bolt on master cylinder is 25Nm and adaptor that screws into connector under tank is 15Nm. I got these from Triumph's instructions for their own cable option kit, and are higher than what Venhill's instructions say. (Note, I used the original Banjo bolt not one from Venhill).

For the swivel nuts on the hose I used 12Nm as per Venhill's instructions and used 8Nm for bleed nipple as that seemed a common figure for these things found online.

 

Had a run through to a bike meet in Brechin with a few mates to see the new trike dealer that's just opened. not my photos but nicked them from someone else


I'm at the back pointing at some old cars that were rusting away


Lovely Triumph




As Brechin is not far from the start of the Cairn o mount road i was hoping my mates would take that road home, it's only about 50 mile longer but they didn't fancy it. i decided to go that way anyway as it's too good a route to miss, took a photo of another AA box, that was the only time i stopped on the way home

 

That trident is a bit tasty!