Triumphrat

Ruxton

Guys,

I hope you don't mind me posting this as a seperate thread. I did it as a reply on the "Meriden Factory Tour" thread that English spanner started. It's just that I had so much fun sitting down and recalling this stuff from 1982 that I thought I'd post it for whoever wanted to have a read and a giggle at my "ownership misfortunes".

Don't get me wrong. Owning this bike wasn't all bad - there were heaps of fun times with the bike and mates as well! It's just great fun sitting down and committing the memories to the keyboard.

Cheers,

Russ

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English spanner,

Mate I'm very pleased for you that your Meriden Bonnie is still going so well.

Let me tell you a few stories about my long lost '81 T140E(S) Electra.

Back in those days I was a young married bloke with little kids and struggling along like everyone else with my first home mortgage. I'd had numerous bikes up to that stage but somehow got it into my head that I had to have a new Bonnie. At the time I was aware that they were troubled times at Meriden and I didn't want to miss out on buying a new Bonnie before they disappeared.

I worked many many hours at a second job doing panel and paint work for a local Datsun/Nissan dealer and slowly saved up my dollars (four thousand one hundred and sixty three of them to be precise!) and finally realised my dream.

After waiting what seemed like an eternity my bike arrived from England. The big day finally arrived and I was there when it was uncrated. The first thing I noticed was that the paint on the side covers was soft and sticky, like soft enough that you would have black paint on your fingers after you touched it. Oh dear, not a good start I thought - but never mind, that must be part of the thing they call "character" I thought. I'll fix that.

Then I chatted with the mechanic whilst he did the final assembly and pre-delivery. He carefully went over everything and then fired her up. I sat there and took in the experience of hearing my beloved Bonnie burst into life right before me. Ahh - how sweet it was. As sweet as nectar. Speaking of nectar, I thought - I wonder what that nectar looking stuff is thats dripping onto the floor? A quick diagnosis revealed the metal oil line that fed the rocker boxes was split. No worries I thought - that's obviously just a bit more of that "character" stuff. I dutifully removed the part and silver soldered the pipes back into the T piece like it should have been done back in the factory. I hadn't even paid for the bike at that stage!

Anyway I finally took delivery and enjoyed my bike immensely for about the 2 weeks. My first weekend ride was with a mate who'd just been silly enough to buy one of those terribly unreliable Harley Davidson things. I quietly mused how I would manage to tow him home from our ride after he would have undoubtedly broken down. About 60 miles into our ride my brand new Bonnie covered my foot in oil after the oil pressure sender unit blew apart for some reason. A roadside repair and my mate, and my somewhat red-faced self, were on our way again

Then I started to have a bit of a problem with the occasional "failure to proceed" scenario. We eventually traced that particular problem to a faulty electric ignition unit (Good old Joe Lucas) after which it was fine for oh, another couple of weeks at least.

Then one day she failed to proceed again. I thought, ahah - I'm onto it this time, and trailered it back to the dealership to have the electronic ignition looked at again. The boys could find no problem with it but the problem persisted intermittently until they traced it to the back of the ignition switch that had fallen apart. A new switch and we were away again!

This sort of stuff continued over the next few months. One memorable time was when she "failed to proceed" about 4 miles from home. By this time I had become very proficient at pushing my motorcycle so the push home was no trouble at all. A bit of exploritary surgery found that the crankshaft pinion gear had sheared about half it's teeth off for some reason and had bent a few valves in the process. Ahh - more of that "character"!

This sort of thing was to typify my ownership of that particular bike during the time we were together. The "straw that broke the camel's back" finally came when I had to travel to Sydney (about one thousand miles) to be with a mate who had been seriously injured after a woman in her car had taken him and his bike out. I was more than a bit worried about whether the Bonnie would get me there but set off anyway. My bike by this time was using a lot of oil and was getting quite rattley in the piston department. I rode the 600 kms (350) miles as far as Brisbane and used over 2 litres (about 2 1/2 quarts) of oil to get there.

I decided then and there in the pouring rain that my days as a Triumph rider were over. The bike had beaten me. I negotiated a deal on a well used BMW R100RS that had 120,000 kilometres on the clock and ran like one. My Bonnie had 9,997 kms on the clock (less than 6,000 miles) and it was up for a rebore. I rode that BMW for years and it never once failed to get me to my destination. I later traded her in with 250,000 on the clock.

So you can see that whilst your experiences with your Meriden pride and joy have been pleasurable, mine were far from it. Don't get me wrong - I'll still sit and admire a Meriden Triumph for hours. I'm just not in any great hurry to own another one as my primary transport.

Cheers mate,

Russ