This is just a quick intro and my first post on the forum.
My name's Neil, and I've been riding mostly British bikes since I was 16 and I'm now just a little longer in the tooth and retired.
I have had many classics, an 850 electric start Commando that was less than two years old when I bought it... I was 19. Before that a late 1960's T120 Bonneville, before that, my first 'big' bike, at 17 was a very tatty Triumph T100P. I had no idea what a T100P was, but the renowned Reg at Charlies in Bristol (UK) told me it was an ex Police bike. All I knew was that it was fast, and that bits vibrated loose / fell off on a regular basis. Since then a few more including a 750 Commando, a Laverda 3C and a Buell S3. These days I have a Suzuki VStrom 650 (my first ever Japanese bike) for distance riding and an Armstrong MT500 ex-Army bike for occasional dirt and general day to day riding.
The reason I have joined this forum is because back in 1992/3 I built a custom flat tracker based on a 1956 Thunderbird, but with the pre-unit engine cases suitably machined to take 750cc internals. That was my test bed bike and I messed with all sorts of cams, timing and states of tune. It also featured in AWOL magazine..... much to my surprise. I rode it day to day, showed it at a custom show or two, hill climbed it and generally enjoyed the fruits of my labour. Then, on the point of yet another strip down and rebuild, this time with a view to installing a 5 speed gear cluster in the gearbox, I was offered a straight swap for a T140 in bits.... many many bits... boxes of the thing.... it seemed like a fun challenge and so the swap was done. Shortly after that I undertook a complete ground up restoration of a very sad looking BSA A65 (OIF) for a friend, and after a 9 months of solid graft, finding bits at autojumbles (ever tried buying one con rod?) doing all the work with insufficient money, and making the best bike I possibly could, I really wasn't in the mood to start on the T140..... and here we are.
I started the T140 build in December 2020 and immediately discovered that the bits I have are just that, a pile of bits, rather than a complete stripped down bike. It will take some time to complete, as I really don't have the funds to throw at it, but I have time, a little knowledge and an idea of what I want, which is a rideable street bike... but not a restoration.
My name's Neil, and I've been riding mostly British bikes since I was 16 and I'm now just a little longer in the tooth and retired.
I have had many classics, an 850 electric start Commando that was less than two years old when I bought it... I was 19. Before that a late 1960's T120 Bonneville, before that, my first 'big' bike, at 17 was a very tatty Triumph T100P. I had no idea what a T100P was, but the renowned Reg at Charlies in Bristol (UK) told me it was an ex Police bike. All I knew was that it was fast, and that bits vibrated loose / fell off on a regular basis. Since then a few more including a 750 Commando, a Laverda 3C and a Buell S3. These days I have a Suzuki VStrom 650 (my first ever Japanese bike) for distance riding and an Armstrong MT500 ex-Army bike for occasional dirt and general day to day riding.
The reason I have joined this forum is because back in 1992/3 I built a custom flat tracker based on a 1956 Thunderbird, but with the pre-unit engine cases suitably machined to take 750cc internals. That was my test bed bike and I messed with all sorts of cams, timing and states of tune. It also featured in AWOL magazine..... much to my surprise. I rode it day to day, showed it at a custom show or two, hill climbed it and generally enjoyed the fruits of my labour. Then, on the point of yet another strip down and rebuild, this time with a view to installing a 5 speed gear cluster in the gearbox, I was offered a straight swap for a T140 in bits.... many many bits... boxes of the thing.... it seemed like a fun challenge and so the swap was done. Shortly after that I undertook a complete ground up restoration of a very sad looking BSA A65 (OIF) for a friend, and after a 9 months of solid graft, finding bits at autojumbles (ever tried buying one con rod?) doing all the work with insufficient money, and making the best bike I possibly could, I really wasn't in the mood to start on the T140..... and here we are.
I started the T140 build in December 2020 and immediately discovered that the bits I have are just that, a pile of bits, rather than a complete stripped down bike. It will take some time to complete, as I really don't have the funds to throw at it, but I have time, a little knowledge and an idea of what I want, which is a rideable street bike... but not a restoration.
Welcome, from Northern California.
TO TT glad to have u with us!
