July 19,2020


     Well as per my usual it has been a long time between posts, but because this is mostly for me I'm okay with that. When I last logged on here I was getting ready to show the Hurricane in a local show called "the one". It has been going on here in Portland for 11 years and grew enough to fill the Memorial Coliseum with several hundred bikes, art, food and drink, and indoor flat track races. It was an epic event and the people that put it on gave me a prime location to show off my bike. I spent most of the weekend at the show and enjoyed standing near my bike to listen in while people looked at her. My son made a replica of a dealer tag I had seen online, and I wrote a short bio about this bike.

Looking good under the lights in the main exhibit hall.

This is the sign I put up next to her.

It was a show that focused on builders bikes and also it was sponsored by Indian so they had lots of brand new bikes on display. They include bikes like mine to help round out the vibe and I'm good with that. It was a lot of fun all weekend and mine was one of the few that was ridden to the show. I also got a nice pile of swag so that was a bonus.

Margaret on the table.

    At the same time I had decided to take the top end off the Bonneville as she was smoking on the left side and fouling plugs. I had hoped to clean up the head and replace the rings, but it was evident upon inspection that the main problem was worn valve guides. I had already taken the engine apart and bought rings so I took the head to a local shop for new guides. The mechanic told me that Triumph used soft material on the guides so the machines that made them would last longer so it was not a surprise that they had worn out. I was lucky that the valves were in good shape and all he had to do was put in new guides. I got her back together and she fired on one kick, but started leaking a little oil and running rough pretty quickly. I decided that the running problem was in the carbs so I took them apart, cleaned them up real good and reassembled them. The oil leak was due to a torn o ring and I needed a special tool to put it back together without hurting the o ring. I'm always okay with getting new tools so that wasn't bad at all. Now she doesn't leak oil and is running better than ever.

All cleaned up and ready to go.

     Next on the table is the 1969 BSA A65. I hooked up a battery to check for spark and lights, he has both. I took the engines top end off and have found evidence of unusual repairs so I will go slow and check out the whole engine and transmission on this little guy.

It sure is a cool looking bike and I love the sound they make! I'm hoping that my bride will like him and be his primary operator but we will have to wait and see. 

   On a side note while driving in SE Portland in early April I saw Wayne's old Plymouth at a body shop. I had to pull over and check the plate to make sure and I was right. I'm glad to see it has avoided the crusher so far and hope to see a sweet hot rod out there some day.

That's all for now from me, thanks for reading and remember to ride em, don't hide em!

Wayne's Problem...