I bought my T'Bird new from my local dealer in Essex, which I have always understood to be in England (although doubtless there are namesakes on the other side of the pond). Not being very techie, I have confined myself to cleaning it and riding it in the intervening four years, but recently, having some time on my hands, I have started to consider a few small projects e.g. fixing the instrument earth problem. In that spirit, I found myself yesterday looking at the possibility of installing a Scottoiler, but couldn't find the vacuum spigot caps to which I would need to connect the elbow joint. That's because there are vacuum hoses running from each of them, and upon further investigation I found that they connected to a couple a canisters and a valve toward the rear of the bike. Intrigued, I consulted the Triumph service manual and lo, found that my T'Bird appears to have an evaporative loss system which is apparently only fitted to California specification models.
Could this be a clue to the sustained rises in temperature in Essex in recent years; the occasional ground tremors; the uplift in gun and drug related crime and the curious fact that, notwithstanding the bike is aimed primarily at the American market, my local dealer is famous for having sold more Rocket IIIs than any other Triumph dealer in the world? Did 'they' move Essex to California and not mention it?
Or could it just be that following the fire at the Triumph works in that year and the resultant shortage of bikes, the splendidly enterprising fellow who sold me my ride had persuaded Triumph to let him have a few models that were originally destined for sunnier climes? Assuming the latter, could anyone tell me if it would do any harm just to take these unexpected extras out and junk them?
Linear Mode
