Following Tim's example........

earthmover

opinionated, me?
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So, after Tim introduced me to the Twinshock and Pre 65 trials clubs in North Wales, I swapped my modern Beta for a TY175 Whitehawk. Then Tim acquired his very lovely BSA, and after a few rides on that I decided to try the Pre 65 route myself. A triumph Tiger Cub Trials, with a bored out 250cc engine, restored then unridden for some years.

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All I have to do now is learn how to ride it......:blast
Mark
 
Looks very nice, good look with getting used to it.
 
Corr ....

Give me a sunny day (that would be Kent, not Wales .. :D), a bottle of beer, some rags and a tube of autosol. That would keep me happy for days ... !!

Nice .. :thumb2
 
Very nice!:clap
Learned to ride on Cubs although my first one was a plunger and cost the princely sum of £5.
Engines lasted for about 10K before requiring rebuilding (I'm sure things have moved on a bit since then:rolleyes:)
 
Great looking bike and an astute purchase. Cub trials are making good money at present and the interest in the pre 1965 competition should underpin this.

Have a great summer on it and remember dont touch the clutch lever when you enter a section.

Staffords on this weekend, they always have a great vintage trial demo if you are around.
Steve
 

After adjusting the clutch, and a few other little jobs, I was able to try it out today. Need to work on my throttle control, it's very different to the TY I'm used to!
Mark
 
Excellent I enjoyed that, looks like you have your own purpose built section ready.
 
Thanks Steve. It's a small patch of land with a bank on one side which is just enough to get a feel for the bike. The practice ground we all use is about 45 minutes away where it will get further "testing" very soon.
Mark
 
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Spent a couple of hours at one of the practice grounds yesterday. The keen eyed observer will notice different rear shocks and footpegs, next is the rear brake lever...
Mark
 
Brakes cant be worse than on a TY, its the only thing that scares me on old trial bikes.
 
Some of those old trials bikes are so good looking, I could just stare at that for ages.

If you ever get sick of riding it, you could clean it and stick it in the lounge. Suitable permiissions having been sought, of course. :D
 
Brakes are for girls :D

I'll let you explain that one to Ange and Denise. :green gri

Brakes cant be worse than on a TY, its the only thing that scares me on old trial bikes.

Front brake on the Triumph is actually better than my TY! Don't know about the back yet, the lever is on the wrong side, so I can't find it in a hurry. When I do find it there's so much travel before anything happens my toe is nearly on the ground anyway!

Some of those old trials bikes are so good looking, I could just stare at that for ages.

If you ever get sick of riding it, you could clean it and stick it in the lounge. Suitable permiissions having been sought, of course. :D

This is true. Happily no such permission needed, Denise thinks it's lovely too.
Mark
 
Quick update, for anyone who may be interested!
The rear brake pedal had been hand made by the previous owner, and while a piece of art to look at, was next to useless as a control. Far too short and flexible, even for my dainty little feet! Being on the "wrong" side as well meant it wasn't intuitive, so when I did find it, it needed to have a decent area for me to stand on. Looking at various options, someone suggested that a Sammy Miller Products pedal should be ideal, and for £35.00 not too expensive. The footrests were horrible narrow things, exactly the same as standard on a 1200 GS Hexhead! Ebay turned up a set of alloy pegs, both wider and lower than the originals, which was perfect, and again only £35.00!

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This is the best position for working on the clutch....
The friction material on the old clutch plates was in poor order, and the pressure plate was a thin bendy affair, with only three springs holding everthing together. My problem was mainly when kickstarting the bike, as with old fashioned engines, you turn the engine over via the clutch. If it slips, you struggle to start it. Apparently this is a common "Cub" issue, and plenty of aftermarket goodies are available to help. Mainly by lightening your wallet. :rolleyes:

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The old .

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And the new.
Four (thinner) friction plates instead of three, relined clutch basket, new springs and an alloy pressure plate. The centre bearing is now 16 rollers, instead of 16 balls, which is apparently much better. The biggest single improvement though, is through changing my kickstart technique. I am used to kicking big two stroke singles over, so was giving the poor little Cub too much wellie! A steady push through works better.
I've also stripped down the forks, cleaned out the sludge that was in there, and replaced it with 15w fork oil. Now the forks work a whole lot better, but finding cut down MX springs in there was a bit of a shock! I'm sure I can make these better still with a bit of experimentation.

In between this twiddling, I have now completed 3 trials on it, and am really enjoying it. The last trial was on Sunday, at one of our favourite venues. Tim was free, so he got to see the bike in the metal for the first time. The club had set some new sections on the other side of the farmer's land, so we had three field margins, a green lane, and a tarmac driveway to blast along in top gear! Immense fun! Tim's BSA has the edge on top speed, but it doesn't wheelie quite as well, does it Tim? :green gri :D

One of the problems of using these old classic bikes "in anger" as it were, is that they don't crash quite as well as the modern bikes. And inevitably, at some point, you and the bike will part company. If not, you are either very skilled, or in the wrong class!
Section 9 of Sunday's trial was my nemesis. A climb up a rocky stream bed, then turn out to the right, before turning back to cross through the stream and up the left hand bank. The bank didn't look too bad, but when I hit it on the first lap the back wheel spun out from underneath me, and I ended up underneath the bike, facing the opposite direction, with my fingers trapped between the clutch lever and the ground. That'll be a five then.
On the second lap, I went at it a little too cautiously, and the bike only slipped down the bank, still facing the same direction. When I picked it up though, I'd put a fist sized dent in the tank. :blast

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In all the crashes, get off's and drops I've ever had (and believe me, that's a lot!), none has made me feel sick. Until this one. :(
I didn't manage that section on the next two laps either, finishing with a total of four fails. Small comfort came from the results, where seven other riders in my class had the same.
The section had been cleaned though, so it wasn't impossible. Just not by me.
Today I took the tank into work, and we tried blowing the dent out to no avail. There is an excellent bodyshop near the office, so I took it round to them to see what they could do.

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And this is the result. Not perfect, but at least I feel better now!
Mark
 
Ouch - bad news about the tank :( but in the end you got it for using and the next dent won't make you feel as sick ;)
Clutch looks good :thumb2
 
Good job Mark, tank's better than new :beerjug:

A far as wheelies go's, I'm not sure it was all down to the short comings of my bike :blast:D
 
Further update:

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A few months ago, at one of my favourite trials grounds, Kynaston's farm at Trevor, near Llangollen. A mate of mine is in training for the Scottish Six Day trial in May, and whereas I can't help him too much in the skill stakes, I can pick him up if he gets it wrong! We had a swap for a few minutes, and his bike is absolutely sublime, if a tad too modern for my tastes. :D

One of the issues I have been having with the Tiger Cub was the flimsy fork yokes. On more than one occasion I had the disconcerting experience of the bars seeming to turn independently of the wheel, especially in rocky sections. Telford Classic Dirt Bike show in February gave me an opportunity to compare what yokes were available to stiffen the front end, and provide some interchangeability (is that a word?) for me to try other forks if I wanted. Alan Whitton engineering ticked all the boxes, and a couple of weeks later a box arrived with some shiny alloy bits in it. These duly fitted to the bike have improved things no end, there is still some flex compared to the modern bikes, but I now have more confidence that the wheel will go where I want!

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Another shot at Kynastons, and no, the chain tensioner shouldn't be hanging down like that. It has just lost an argument with a rock.

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Next on the "to do" list, apart from a new tensioner, is new chain and sprockets. Not quite as straightforward as I'm used to, you have to take the clutch and primary chain off to get at the gearbox sprocket!
Mark
 


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