MotorcyclesHelmet.Info

It is funny how bikers will select just the right motorcycle helmet, motorcycle chaps or motorcycle jacket to protect their head, skin and feet before they ever think about getting on a motorbike. Nevertheless, they will just hope on their bike with out a thought of doing a pre-ride safety check.

Pre-ride motorbike safety inspections are important. They insure that you make it to your destination and back again safely and help prevent brake downs.

Over the years, I have heard horror stories about terrible motorcycle accidents because of a blown tire or a brake or suspension malfunction. Fortunately, this has never happened to anybody that I know.

On the other hand, my wife did have a break down one day because we didn’t give the bikes a good going over before we went for a cruise.

My wife Sherry rides what a lot of biker women are riding these days, a Harley Sportster 883 Low and I ride a Honda VTX1300R. Sherry didn’t like the feel of the center controls so we had forward control’s put on her Harley. She loved the way her Harley rode after we added the forward controls.

All was good, so one sunny Sunday morning we decided to go for a bike ride in the country. It was a beautiful day and the ride was wonderful. We had ridden the back roads for about 90 miles or so and then decided to head back home for lunch .

The shortest way home was to take the highway.

As we turned down the onramp towards home it was a good thing I looked in my mirror because my wife was stopped buy the side of the highway onramp flashing her high beams like there was no tomorrow.

I pulled over, parked my Honda, and walked back to her to see what the problem was.

As it turned out, the linkage that connects the foot shifter, to the transfer case had fallen off and Sherry had no way of riding her motorcycle .

This was a big problem. We were ninety miles in the middle of nowhere, we didn’t want to leave a brand new motorcycle sitting on the side of the road and I could not leave my wife there alone sitting on her bike sportster while I went to try and find linkage. Although that would have been impossible because it was Sunday and none of the bike shops are open on Sunday where we live.

Not all was lost though. I asked Sherry if she knew the last time she had changed gears . She told me she had down shifted just before we turned onto the on ramp of the highway . So , I went on a quest up the ramp to see if I could find the linkage and the two bolts that held the linkage in place.

“Awesome!” About half way up the onramp , I found the linkage. I was almost home. I still needed to find the two bolts that connected the linkage on to the motorbike so Sherry could shift and we could continue our ride home.

I went up one side of the freeway onramp and down the other looking for the ever so elusive linkage bolts. Frustration was setting in, as I looked and I looked again for those bolts.

It didn’t help matters that two half drunk hill billy’s in an old 1953 faded red colored pick-up truck had stopped by Sherry and started to bother her. I think they thought better of it when Sherry told them to go do something with themselves that I am sure neither one of them had done with a women in years and they saw me walking up the ramp scowling. They drove off gesturing, I guess they though that we were number one or something.

Back to the problem at hand, I had the linkage but no bolts to attach it. I had my motorcycle, however, it is a metric bike and Sherry’s Harley Davidson is good old American standard.

If you know anything about metric and standard bolts, they do not fit. The threads will not match up. Anyway , that didn’t stop me. I found out that the seat bolts on my Honda are just about the same size as the bolts that hold the shifter linkage for the forward controls on a sportster Low. The difference is the thread pattern is a bit larger. They did fit just enough though; I just didn’t crank them in.

After my discovery, it took no time at all and we were cruising back home .

I guess the reason for this story is not to take doing a pre ride check for granted.

You would have thought that having work done on your new Harley by a certified Harley dealer would insure that the work would be done correctly . Well as it turned out, the mechanic that changed the controls on Sherry’s motorcycle didn’t put lock tight on the linkage bolts and after a few months of riding the bolts vibrated out.

Could the problem have been eliminated if the mechanic had installed the linkage the right way? Yes, it could have. However, it could have also been eliminated if I had taken the time and done a pre ride check.

We were fortunate that it was just a linkage that failed and not something that could have caused injury or death.

For your safety and the safty of others , take the extra time and do a pre ride safety check. It will save your life some day.

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Triumph

In 1902 the first motorcycle motorcycle emerged from Triumph’s Coventry works. Known since as ‘No 1’, it was essentially a strengthened bicycle with a 2.25bhp Minerva engine hung from the front down tube. By 1905 the Model 3HP featuring a 363cc single cylinder side-valve engine, was born. It was claimed the Model 3HP produced a heady 3bhp at 1,500rpm and had a top speed of around 45mph.

An Isle of Man TT win the same year further underlined Triumph’s reliability and road worthiness. As was said at the time, ‘Eight Triumph’s started, and eight finished…’

By the outbreak of the First World War the Type A, as it was known, had a 550cc engine slugging out 4bhp. The British Government placed orders with Triumph in order to equip army dispatch riders at the front. The now legendary Triumph Type H was pressed into service from late 1914 onwards and, in the face of the mud and misery that existed for its riders in the Great War, earned itself the nickname ‘the Trusty’.

With a capacity of 550cc the Type SD was too big to enter the Senior TT so Triumph developed an all-new single cylinder engine of 500cc capacity. The ‘Riccy’, as it became known, went on to collect many world speed records, including the flying mile with a speed of 83.91mph.

Other models followed including the basic Model P, which sold 20,000 units, and the TT (or Two Valve, as it was called), which became the mainstay of Triumph’s range.

1937 proved a landmark year for Triumph with the launch of a range of revamped singles (known as Tigers) together with the remarkable 498cc Speed Twin (T100). This model revolutionized motorcycling – it started well, ran well, had a reported top speed of over 90mph and simply defined everything a modern motorcycle should be.

The outbreak of WWII put a different complexion on Triumph’s commercial aspirations, as all production was geared up for the armed services. A prototype 350cc twin – the 3TW – was on the blocks and approved as the standard service bike when, on the night of the 14th November 1940, the Triumph factory was completely demolished in the blitz of Coventry.

Post war the range on sale consisted of three models - the Tiger 100 and Speed Twin plus the smaller ‘touring’ 349cc 3T – and in 1946 Irishman Ernie Lyons won the Manx Grand Prix on a Tiger 100, beating a host of Norton’s.

The 1950s was a golden decade for Triumph, although it started with the sale of the firm to rivals BSA. Triumph continued to be run separately however and in 1953 a new breed of Triumph bike arrived with the advent of the 149cc OHV Terrier. The 199cc Tiger Cub followed a year later, which proved a massively popular bike. The same year also saw the introduction of the Tiger 110, in essence a ‘sports’ makeover of the 649cc Thunderbird twin but with swinging arm rear suspension and a bigger front brake.

Two years later Johnny Allen set a new world motorcycle speed record (214.5mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats using a 649cc Triumph engine in a streamlined vehicle. His record was rejected, due to alleged timing gear problems but it inspired one of Triumph’s most famous ever motorcycles…

The T120 Bonneville.

The very essence of café-racer cool the Bonneville had the right, Spartan look and just as importantly, the performance to go with it. It was a truly special motorcycle and arrived just in time to take full advantage of what was to become a very special decade…

The ‘60s were to prove a fabulous decade for motorcycling in general and Triumph had a winning formula. The Bonneville was a fantastic success - the definitive sports twin of the ‘60s - both in Britain and in the States and competition success at the Isle of Man TT and Daytona spawned a myriad of models.

Social acceptance of the motorcycle was at an all time high. Bikes were still at the heart of everyday transport for many people but were also appearing in the coolest films of the decade, alongside screen stars such as Steve McQueen and Marlon Brando. Added to this was the birth of the rebellious teenager, who turned their motorcycles into cult café racers. Triumph’s output peaked at around 50,000 bikes a year with sixty percent of exported, primarily to the US.

Classic Triumph motorcycle pictures motorcycle pictures can be found on motozania at www.motozania.com

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