What have you done to your bike today....

[gazzatriumph]

Thankfully there have been no more dramas with my Bonnie. Took her out for a spin today and she seems to be improved by the extra tooth at the front but I'm now wondering if I might go another one tooth bigger or opt for a smaller rear sprockets. Does anyone know if the 790 Bonnie's are restricted? I've seen a claimed top speed of 115mph for the 2001-2 790's but when I was out today I was coming close to the 100mph mark, which is near enough the red line on the tacho and the engine just seemed to lose all power very briefly and the went back to normal as if, at 100mph some sort of limiter kicked in. I think my other Bonnie can get by 100mph but never seen it on this one.

Not the same bike but my Triumph Sprint 995 had a restrictor. I found out on a track day at Donnington, I'd only had the bike a week so hasn't had a chance to open it up. I'd booked the track day up when I had an R6 but didn't want to cancel it.

 

[Don the Don]

Triumph Service Manuals & Wiring Diagrams

Triumph Motorcycles workshop & service manuals, owner’s manual, parts catalogs, wiring diagrams free download PDF; fault codes list

www.motorcyclemanuals.info

Have a gander on these @MartytheMartian you can download them what are appropriate they may give some info.

 

[Don the Don]

Today I went for a bimble on the Enfield, had a nice sedate run around the country side and loosen up my fillings, lovely little bike and loves the back roads.

 

[gazzatriumph]

Today I went for a bimble on the Enfield, had a nice sedate run around the country side and loosen up my fillings, lovely little bike and loves the back roads.

View attachment 34788

It's a great looking bike, just me but I think bar end mirrors would look great.

 

[Don the Don]

just me but I think bar end mirrors would look great.

Had thought about it, but being a Trial bike I don't know, not that this bike is ever going to see any serious mud and dirt, gravel and country lanes and the odd minor off road at the most, it would take too long to clean the bugger.

 

[MartytheMartian]

I've got a hard copy of the Triumph workshop manual @Don the Don but I've been too lazy so far to go and dig it out so I was hoping that someone might have done a spot of legwork before on the subject. I did see a piece, in a documentary about the history of the Triumph Bonneville, that was a review when the bike was new and the reviewer said it was had a rev limiter. The gearbox on the 790's is the only flaw in an otherwise brilliant bike for me. The revs are way too high at 60-70 mph as far as I'm concerned and you feel there should be a sixth gear to take the rpm's down a touch and the fact that it hits the redline on the add on rev counter at pretty much dead on 100mph seems stupid to me and you really can't improve that much on the sprockets because taking down the rpm's at the top of the range equates to being too tall in first gear.

OK I guess the Bonnie is supposed to be sedate, vintage, biking but, with bigger jets and TOR exhausts like wot I've got it feels as if it wants to be able to go faster.

 

[MartytheMartian]

Today's task was pulling the Daytona out of the shed and giving her a look over. Apart from touching up a chip out of her paint on the tank and cursing the, thankfully small but still very annoying, blisters on the tank she looks to be none the worse for having been neglected and so I reckon that both her and my blue Bonnie just need me to get them down for MOT in the not too distant future. I have to say that the Daytona may not be the fastest, most modern or most user friendly 'superbike' but she is a beautiful looking machine and that 955 triple sounds tasty. The only two bikes that may not get an outing this year and which actually need a fair bit of tidying up cosmetically are my Royal enfields as the chrome on the exhausts in particular is covered in rust spots and the alloy needs de-furred too. Surprisingly the wheels are in better nick than my Bonnie's. Maybe Indian chrome is better than Italian?

I've been thinking about getting stainless rims for the Bonnie's but, even building them myself it's something like £160 a wheel in spokes and rims plus requiring expertise and a jig to put them together and maybe buying used hubs to lace up I reckon it would be something insane to buy after market wheels. There is a company in England who sell them but they don't give a price which suggests it's pretty bloody scary.

 

[Don the Don]

One of the best places going, even do tubeless, but like everything else to do with bikes nothing is cheap, some places run into thousands that is almost the value of the bikes.

Central Wheel Components Ltd

Central Wheel Components

central-wheel.co.uk

 

[MartytheMartian]

It was them I looked at for the price of rims and spokes @Don the Don - £90 per rim and £70 per spoke set so £340 for the components alone per bike. A couple of years ago I looked at having wheels made up and it was something like seven hundred quid a wheel. Why on Earth did Triumph use those shitty Italian steel rims?

 

[Scrappy]

A gorgeous day to be out on a bike, so I rode the Scout Bobber over to Castle Rising in Norfolk, just over 160 miles.

 

[gazzatriumph]

Wife to the cover off for me on my RE 350, started her up, started first time, it was nice to hear the engine running, I'm going to miss riding this year but hopefully next year.
Any thoughts on running the bike. I never used to during the winter but have the battery on an Optimate and there is a dehumidifier running all the time in the garage which is attached to the bungalow. I ran the bike as was worried about leaving it not running for so long, any thoughts?

 

[Don the Don]

short runs do more damage over winter causing condensation inside motor and milky oil, I block exhaust, place it on the Battery conditioner and you can either drain the fuel tank or I use Putoline fuel stabiliser that stops any nasty corrosion or E10 issues just add to tank and run prior to putting away.
other folk will have other ideas but I have always used this stuff and the bike starts and runs straight away next season and the petrol has not degraded I simply put a little fresh in the tank to help out.

 

[Public Enemy]

Totally agree with Don, unless you're gonna run the engine for 20 minutes or more to get full operating temperature, it'll do more harm than good mate.

 

[half ton]

What Don and Tony said , I would change the oil just before you ride again as well

 

[Don the Don]

What Don and Tony said , I would change the oil just before you ride again as well

Agree, what I do, an engine lying in new oil is better than carbon soiled old oil

 

[Scrappy]

I used a fuel stabilizer in my old Bonneville that I hardly used for over a year, and no issues at all when I came to run it just before selling. I think it also a good idea to occasionally check tyre pressures and if the bike isn't on paddock stands then move the bike so the same part of the tyres are not continually in contact with the ground.

 

[Scrappy]

A relaxing and enjoyable ride this morning for a couple of hours or so. I stopped at a favorite spot which was quiet and peaceful, and I had a several nice minutes watching a buzzard (I think, maybe a kite) carrying a stick which it took from tree to tree just in front of the viaduct, landing in the branches pausing for while before flying on to another nearby tree, all the while holding on to its stick And in the distance where red kites gliding and circling in the sky.

 

[Public Enemy]

Was the bird qualified for stick shift?

 

[gazzatriumph]

Cheers for the replies, when I get back on it will need an MOT and I'll have a full service. The current oil has done well less than 1000 miles.
I won't start her up again as this seems to be the advice. I've not used a petrol additive before but will have to look at it as normally the petrol would be only 5 months old and I've never had any problems with any bike before but it's going to be quite a bit longer than 5 months. Would it be worth draining the tank or use additive. Prefer the later as simpler.

 

[MartytheMartian]

I can't give any advice as I have got to admit that I've been somewhat cavalier with my bikes. Given that I'd hardly put a couple of hundred miles, if that on each of my bikes since I last changed their oil and filters and being a tight Scotsman, I haven't given them fresh oil despite those previous oil changes being up to two years ago. I figure that if the stuff has been in the ground for millions of years another year and a bit in the bikes shouldn't have caused too much degradation and there was no signs of emulsion in the oil. As for fuel, my bikes had pretty much nothing left in their tanks when they were last run and fired up just fine. I do plan to do oil changes before long but I'm not gonna let it worry me too much as I reckon that, even if I never did another oil change or maintained them they'd probably still keep running long enough to outlive me given the limited miles I get to put on them.