Father-Son build - 1953 Triumph Speed Twin bobber

[C.Johnston]

Updates updates updates.....

Woke up to this...rough life I know


Finally got to use my Whitworth wrench! lol.. the hardware holding the gearbox and engine to the mounts were Whitworth. Coincidently, a 17mm also fit perfectly so it was a little anti-climactic.

Started off removing the primary case outer cover to expose this....


Primary by christopher.johnston, on Flickr

On the left you see, behind that alternator park, a gear coming off the bottom end. Attached to that gear is a chain that goes over to the clutch.. The black thing is the clutch.. Had to get creative removing that - special tool required that we didn't have... Anyhow.. Clutch was supposed to have 11 plates - there were 9!

Then rear primary cover was removed which exposed hardware to remove engine and gearbox.. First to go was gearbox. Uncovering dirt exposed this brass plaque showing what gear has been selected.



it's stuck in 4th right meow.

Anyhow.. then pulled engine out...

From left to right - Bottom end, gearbox, cylinder head (behind that, cylinder barrel)


Everything bagged and tagged




With the addition of +/- a couple of over wrenches/sockets, a couple of screwdrivers, and a rubber hammer.. the whole disassembly was done with hand tools.



The nail polish is for labelling parts L or R right example. And my toes.

C'est fini


Tonight/tomorrow I start cleaning parts, etc.

[Nick475]

this is going to be awesome. that is such a great looking frame. slap on a single saddle and a straight handle bar and you could call it a day! (although i hope you do way more crazy things than that) great work so far man. i gotta convince my girlfriend to let me get a bike haha

[C.Johnston]

It's along the lines of what I want to do.. I want an OEM+ look to it. Something not too custom, but subtle and clean.

Here's a pic of my Miata and old Subaru to illustrate an example of how I like to build things...


Untitled by christopher.johnston, on Flickr

and from 2011...

Subi Love by DeathLens | Matt@PfaffTuning, on Flickr

[Nick475]

ah sweet. my neighbors own a biker bar so i go and eat there a lot. although most bikes there are big harley cruisers, occasionally a bobber style bike rolls in. but they are always overdone with chrome everywhere and 6 tone bright ass paint jobs which just look stupid. keep it simple dude!

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Two things I didn't know prior to this thread:

Springed hubs are something that existed
Triumphs required their own wrench.

Do carry on.

[TheTynosaur]

This is gonna be awesome

Sent from my HTC 3D using Tapatalk 2

[Mainflow]

what is your camera setup? your pictures are awesome

[C.Johnston]

Got home from school and spent a bit of time on it. Even a little bit of work a day makes a difference.

Took the frame outside and sprayed some stripper on it.. I wanted to strip it down to see if there were any repairs made, etc. Turns out the factory colour was underneath the reddy orange/orangey red. The 1953 5T's were only painted one colour.. all of them - and that was a maroon colour (insert Triumph paint code name here).


The stripper didn't work the greatest so tomorrow the rest will come off with a wire wheel + power tools.

Then I decided to get gangster on some shit. As I mentioned, it was a farm bike, and it's 60 years old so it's got some marks here and there so I wasn't going for perfect.. here's what I got.
After cleaning....


Sanded...


Then a bit of shine added.

[C.Johnston]

what is your camera setup? your pictures are awesome

Thanks. I am usually shooting with my Canon 5D classic with either a 85mm or 50mm attached.. I do have a 400mm, 105mm, and 30mm but I don't use them often.

[C.Johnston]

Yesterday I went to a vintage motorcycle rally with my dad and his friend. There, another friend of his gave me a box of Whitworth wrenches to borrow, a clutch tool, cool little shop rag, and a pair of shorty mufflers for Triumphs.



Saw a super rad old Harley with an awesome story - still all original.
Cliff notes:
- Grandfather bought it, rode it all around.. had a son.. it sat for a long while...
- Grandfather's children became of age, pulled it out of the barn, sent it to my dad's friend to get it running... kids rode it around a bit... put back away in a barn under some hay...
- Grandfather's children have children.. enter bike coming out of the barn again to get ready for grandchildren by my dad's friend (current)..


Then this morning pulled the timing cover.....


Sanded the oxidation/gashes down


Made it shiny again.


Still needs a wee bit of re-sanding and a re-polish to get it where I am happy enough.. but I'll do that when finishing touches are required. This is preliminary work to make it easier later.

Also started stripping the frame down.... This shows the shitty paint with a hint of original paint and some of the braising ..

[M.Doban]

This is just WAY too cool! And great work on the covers so far... as well as your photography. I shall be subscribing and eagerly awaiting updates.

[Zman86]

Subscribed. I'm waiting for the day I can have an old triumph in my life. Keep up the good work!

[C.Johnston]

Who doesn't love updates.. After a can of spray on stripper, 4 steel wire wheels for an angle grinder, 3 steel wheels for an air grinder and 1 brass one the frame is to a point I'm happy with. So now it is primed and after I will smooth out welds and fix up any damaged bits.. Anyways on to pics...

Pretty interesting how the frame is made of cast bits with the tubes braised in and other things welded on like mounting tabs, etc..


This is my favourite part of the frame.. It's where the stack for the carb goes through.

[Miroteknik]

Love it. Will be watching.

[Nick475]

Who doesn't love updates.. After a can of spray on stripper, 4 steel wire wheels for an angle grinder, 3 steel wheels for an air grinder, 2 turtle doves, and 1 brass one the frame and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeee

sorry i couldnt help myself