Triumphrat

HKNY · 05-04-2012, 02:41 PM

This bike belonged to my friends brother who bought it new in 2001. It's been off the road since 2006 sitting in his garage and I've been asking if he wanted to sell it for a few years. I get a call a few weeks ago that he's moving and wants to sell the bike. I go and check it out and we settle on $1500. It only had 5000 miles on it but the front and rear rims are both bent from riding around in Brooklyn it's whole life, but otherwise it's in pretty good shape. I'm in the middle of cleaning the tank and carbs, the right side carb has a leak from the bowl. It looks like the drain screw was screwed in too far and put a slight crack in the bottom of the bowl allowing gas to seep out. I'm gonna see if I can locate a bowl someone has laying around as I'm not ready to upgrade to bigger carbs. but so far so good.

rwantin · 05-04-2012, 03:33 PM

Very, very cool. My kind of project.

Wheelhorse · 05-04-2012, 03:35 PM

Good deal on bringing her back to life. The price was right!

aaronp · 05-04-2012, 07:09 PM

I think, looking at the pictures, that yours is one of the earlier 2001 models like mine.
You can tell because the oil coolant lines that come off the top of the engine cross each other before they go into the oil cooler.

When they started making the Bonnies again, they started with this crossed coolant line design and a one piece head, but at some point they redesigned the heads to a two piece design and moved the oil outlets to be further around on the sides of the engine, and thus the need to cross the coolant lines was eliminated. They've been making them this way since.

There was a thread on here at some point where we were comparing our VIN's and manufacturing dates. You should post yours when you figure it out.
(Found it http://www.triumphrat.net/twins-talk...st-bonnie.html )

HKNY · 05-04-2012, 09:19 PM

Thanks AaronP, I'll check it out tomm and post the vin. Getting it all cleaned up and replaced the seat and fender with an MAS tail section. So far so good. The gas tank was pretty skanky after sitting for years with the gas in it so I tried cleaning the gas tank with vinegar, then muriatic acid 50/50 water mix but it was still gummed up. I got the bike to fire up and idle but i didnt want to chance any varnish getting into the motor. So I dropped the tank off at a radiator shop to be cleaned and red koted. On a plus note the carbs seem to be squeaky clean after going through them with what seemed like a gallon of carb cleaner hahah.

Junipero · 05-04-2012, 09:52 PM

Looking good! Glad you ditched that sissy bar.

HKNY · 05-04-2012, 09:56 PM

Hahaha thanks Junipero, that sissy bar was just terrible.

Bron-Yr-Aur · 05-05-2012, 07:51 AM

Wow nice acquisition! Great colors.

For that price, do you know how much you have left for mods before you break even?! Actually if you wanted hotter cams, you could sell yours to ease the pain. I just bought used cams like yours for $300 with a bit more miles on them. And even if you bought new good carbs, you'd still be way ahead.

Very cool

HKNY · 05-05-2012, 05:57 PM

Eventually I'm probably gonna go a 904 big bore kit with cams and FCR carbs, but I'm just going to ride it as is for now.

HKNY · 05-19-2012, 07:33 PM

Did some work to the bike recently. Picked up a set of Scrambler wheels and put new Dunlops on them, and since my chain was notchy and rusty as hell I bought a 520 conversion and new sprockets. Got new shocks and little odds and ends, I also took the carbs off to give them a thorough cleaning and I'm waiting on my airbox removal kit from TPUSA. So far so good, hopefully be riding by the end of the week.