Featured What you been doing with your TRIUMPH today??

Sunset over the Scrambler at Ringinglow just to the West of Sheffield, around 1350 ft and it's 6.8 deg air temperature in Summer gloves. Ouch.

 

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner with Amazon Prime, @Dawsy. Thank you!

 

They were brilliant Sandi, you may need google translate for some of their sayings. Lovely TV . Enjoy..!

 

OK weather so took a ride.

 

I do like the look of the yellow street cup, looks like a proper motorbike

 

I do like the look of the yellow street cup, looks like a proper motorbike

 

Fun ride in mixed weather today

 

The tiger now has 50,000 km and is out of warranty. I plan to do the servicing myself.

Last weekend, I changed the engine oil and reset the service indicator.

This weekend, I replaced the fork oil.

used oil

vs new one


and partly dissassembled

 

OK, this was yesterday! Woke up to a decent day and decided to head for British Superbikes at Knockhill. Met my cousin there and had a fantastic morning of practice and qualifying, then racing started at 2pm.

Rain started at 2.07pm!!

Sheltering from a thunderstorm, we at least enjoyed a good laugh with other bikers talking bikes, riding routes...... and weather! Still a great day!

 

Hoping to get mine washed ready for a trip to Ireland on Friday. Still f******g raining.
It does look to improve as the week goes on though so fingers crossed.

 

Good luck with the weather mate, every time I have been it has rained.

 

Aye, same for us. We’ve not been on the bikes for around 10 years, preferring Scotland or over the channel but one of the lads said he fancied trying Ireland again, so here we go. We did go to Wales once, it rained and wasn’t as good riding as Scotland or abroad so won’t be going again.
We’ll see how it goes this year but I’m fancying the North of Scotland again for the lads trip next year. I’ve got a trip to the Alps in August on the bike with one of my brothers so looking forward to that trip.

 

The alps sounds good. I did Switzerland a few years ago, which was awesome.

 

Yeah the Alps is fantastic. My lad lives in Chamonix so we’re there regularly. Sometimes I’m on the bike sometimes we’re in the motorhome. If we’re in the motorhome I use his bike. I’ve a bike trip in August and a motorhome trip in September. Looking forward to both.

 

Got a few jobs done around the garden, jet wash green paths etc and then the jetwash bypass valve bust water coming out everywhere.

Job stopped!

Youngest says, " for Fathers Day why don't we go for a ride around and I'll buy us a fish and chip tea!"
"Yes, why not!"





After that it only seemed right for me to fuel both bikes up and buy some sweets for pudding.

A stop for sweetie consumption on the way home


A very pleasant evening ride around through the lanes of maybe 30 to 40 miles. Weather was good for the ride despite having to stop jetwashing earlier for 20 minutes or so, for a passing through very heavy rain session

 

Had a nice rideout to the Grosser Feldberg in Frankfurt a few days ago. A good friend who was keen to ride together since I ordered my bike joined. Her Harley is more than 30 years old and in the meantime has 125000km on the clock.

 

Technically, this isn't what I've been doing with my Triumph since it was my handsome husband who had the "fun," but close enough. HH so kindly was doing periodic maintenance which included an oil change. And like @Eldon's and @FellZebra's recent experiences with things that don't cooperate, things did not go as smoothly as he expected. He struggled mightily trying to remove the oil filter, and then when it wouldn't budge, he struggled some more. Who installed the non-budging filter previously? The dealership. And from reading various posts it seems this is not an uncommon problem...way over-torqued filters from dealerships...do they all do it??

What should have been a 30-minute max job turned into much longer with lots of interesting words, numerous tools, googling, and looking to TTF (and maybe another forum) for help. Those last two were my contributions in addition to me asking him if he was sure he was turning it the right direction. Yes, he's been riding since 1966 and has done nearly every kind of maintenance (roadside and in the shop) including a current motor rebuiild on his 1971 Norton, but I still had to ask the question! Fortunately, he's a kind and patient person so I didn't have to duck when I asked and he unequivocally assured me "yes, honey."

And to add just a little more insult, it was a hot day in Georgia (and it's nice and humid in GA unlike the dry heat @Sandi T has in AZ) and he was laying on his back since the motorcycle rack is currently occupied by the above-mentioned Norton.

After trying various wrenches, a clamp, and a strap (and him suffering my suggestion that our 17 yo son should try since he's strong, which HH roundly rebuffed), he finally prevailed by using sandpaper (my contribution gleaned from another forum) under channel locks. The filter got a bit deformed in the process but not anywhere close to what would have been had he resorted to the big screwdriver technique (also suggested by me but already considered and declined by HH as he wanted to avoid being in a worse fix if the screwdriver tore through the can).


After completing the job, his next step was ordering a filter wrench the right size for my filter. He has every other tool in the shop, so how'd we miss having that one, I wondered, thinking that he'd have needed it for his 1976 Triumph...then I learned his Triumph doesn't even have a filter. I take it all as a win-win...oil changed and a new tool on order!


But I wonder if we should have ordered it in pink instead

 

That tightness for filters is ridiculous!

I basically wipe an oiled wet finger around the new filter seal then put it on hand tight, with a rag for extra grip, to finish it off.

I have the tools you are purchasing, in black I may add, and they are yet to fail. I also have a few other options, to suit various access restrictions, including a strap wrench which I made from an old socket and a discarded piece of seatbelt some 20 years ago when I was skint

 

@Martine glad it got sorted in the end.
But yeah I've had challenges getting filters off in the past and wondered whoever in the dealership / previous ownership feels the need to tighten them up so much!
And just like @Eldon I've also got a range of oil filter tools to use depending on tightness / accessibility including the good old home made one with a bar and some webbing!

 

I find the clamp type filter removal tool awkward to use due to lack of room, I have one I used to need for my car which had better access. The tool HH bought (not pink) is so easy to use, did mine yesterday as it happens but mine is the super version as it is blue. It was cheap as chips a few years back but they seem to be £10 and upwards now but still a handy tool.