Not sure I qualify, yet, but time will tell.
After a thorough, 3 month clear out of my garage/workshop, buying some new (or new to me) workshop tools that I'd long hankered after, I've spent the past month staring at a thoroughly tidy and sorted, but empty void. The garden fence is sorted, the dog training is going well, my sax learning is progressing, and my recumbents have every new part they could wish for. There's nowt left to do. Other than slide, inexorably, towards a bib when I dribble, and general decrepitude, thinking back on what I might have achieved if only I'd known then what I know now.
No longer. After some deliberation (well, about an hour) I've taken delivery of a non-running, Canadian re-imported, Triumph 750. Fortunately with the management's support.
I have form with British motorcycles, my last one carrying me on a daily 95 mile round trip into London every day when working in Victoria St in the late '70s. It was the only way I could afford the commute, but it was very heavy on bike maintenance, so I learned my Triumph Twins.
Having retired, and worked through the initial to-do list, I was bored, I needed a tinkering and fettling project. Hence a return to mucky fingernails (my sax teacher will love that..), long hours searching the internet for parts and advice, and the smell of Jizer (or maybe Muc-off now) in the workshop.
It turns over, has good compression and clearly has done nothing since the engine was re-bulit. But why did they seem to use any fastener they had to hand when they put the engine back together and couldn't find the bolt they'd taken out? If that was their mentality, are there any gremlins inside the engine that I can't see? But there are a number of small parts with it that I'll need, and clearly the original owner had intended to get it running again. But why did he stop? Too big a job, a major fault? Or a simply few years ahead of me on the slippery slope.
But, it has new tyres, the chrome is good, wheels are good, and it's almost all there.
I just hope this isn't going to qualify me as the Div of all time..... I just hope.......
Phew. I think I've avoided divishness - but there's one hurdle left.
The Tiger now runs quite nicely. I had to fettle the carb a few times, and replace the new throttle cable with another new one that was
just the correct length. The first new one I fitted proved to be a bit too short (as in the inner was not as long as it needed to be relative to the outer) so the carb was running at about 1/4 throttle, and no matter how far out I screwed the throttle stop, it made no difference - of course. I did succeed in shortening it - a bit too much so the adjusters ran out of travel. Rats.
Then I sussed I'd not driven the jet shroud in quite far enough, and then the pilot jet was blocked. Then a petrol cock leaked everywhere. So a second round of bits aquisition was required.
But, today, the new cable and the second fuel cock arrived and I fitted them.
It now does what it should when I close the throttle, it does what it should when I twiddle the slow running air mixture, and it throttles up smoothly in response to the twist grip. In short, it does what the 1930's design says it should.
It doesn't clatter any more than you'd expect for a 45 year old agricultural design of typical British motorcycle, made by people who ignored the sophistication of the new bikes arriving from the land of the rising sun, and could not be arsed to invest in new designs and technologies. We got what we deserved. It doesn't seem to drip any more oil then my good old, much-missed 1968 Daytona (sob, sob) used to do. It doesn't billow blue smoke out of the exhausts. It does have an exhaust blow where the rh pipe goes into the head, but a fix is in hand for that.
There's one remaining opportunity for divvishness: getting an age-related UK registration number, so it's VED and MOT exempt. I have filled in the DVLA form, added loads of supporting information and obtained dating certificates for both frame and engine from the Owners Club (who are approved by DVLA in matters relating to proof of age). I should be entitled to that black and white J plate. Let's see..... I could still be the biggest div of all time.
