My Triumph T100C Experiences

The purpose of this BLOG is to document and tell you about my experiences with a Triumph T100C that I have restored and ride. The bike is not a concours all matching pristine example but a good bitsa that gives me riding pleasure (!?) and plenty of opportunity to learn my mechanical skills!!!

So this is a story of trials and tribulations that I will be posting to as and when I have time. The first picture is the bike in its current almost finished form, with new pipes and a good waxing.

The Starting Point

Now this will be of interest to those that like the spot the differences games. This is the bike as I had it but after giving it a good clean. It is really surprising just how much it costs and also the amount of effort needed when you start trying to get the bikes up to a really good condition. I have to admit that after spending far too much money it still does not look as good as I wanted but have had to concede because at the end of the day I wanted to ride it not look at it.

The main problems were that this bike was somewhat of a bitsa - the engine and frame numbers do not match and while it is essentially a T100C the engine is in fact a T100R with a single carb. conversion - so I kind of think I have the best of both models really - neat looking exhausts, a single carb. for ease of maintenance and tuning and a hotter engine for a bit of performance (OK I know the single carb. will kill some of that but it is jetted accordingly so it runs very sweetly now)

It came with Boyer Branson Electronic Ignition - I would say to the purists, I did not have the points and even if I did they would be in the same place now 2 years on - in my shed and not on the bike! The ease of starting and low maintenance is legendary - well worth having as there is nothing quite as satisfying as parking amongst the R1s and Fireblades, tickling the carb., going through the clutch release routine and then with a single kick firing it up to blast out a noise they could only dream of and I can get away with becuse after all its an old bike and old bikes sound like that eh!!!

So lets look at some of the detail of the bike as it was before starting on its restoration, well refurbishment really as I cannot claim to have restored it.

As you will have probably noticed it does not look too different, unless you have an eagle eye for detail - well I can tell you there is over £1000 difference and that is only what I have remembered to count - start one at your peril, good fun, loads of angst and heartache and just when you are about to sell it all you go for that final run down the road and hey guess what it runs sweetly, you lose yourself in nostalgia and the convince yourself that "well as I am in this far I might as well spend another few pounds to sort this little problem out!" - oh yes suckered in again - but of course for me it is easy now because it is all sorted, well apart from painting the tank the correct colour, perhaps rebuilding the wheels in stainless and that headlight is the wrong size for a T100C !!!! Oh dear here we go again.

Anyhow back to the refurbishment - I spoke to a very good friend of mine - John Roberts a real old stager with a wealth of experience and Triumph expertise - he gave me tips and confidence to strip the engine down. Another mate of mine suggested that I should get the mechanics spot on before ploughing money into the cosmetics - good advice.
I will add photos below of the strip down but after stripping it down and realising I did not have British sized tools and the special tools to build some parts I have to concede and John's words were music to my ears "Any fool can strip on but it is something else putting it all back together properly, if you want I'll do it for you" - "Oh yes please", I said- with a proviso that I could watch him build bits of it for my own learning. All agreed except for the one bit I did not really factor in - the condition being that anything that John said needed replacing I replaced becuse as he said "I am not building a bodged engine and then having guys say John Roberts built that unless it was perfect and ran as sweet as the day it left the factory" - I agreed and may as well have left a blank cheque book behind - it is mad how many parts needed replacing - it is to all intents and purposed a new engine - looks and runs good though so that's alright then!










OK the strip down revealed some problems - pistons scored and some amrks on the barrel - however these could take a rebore so I thought - not bad lets keep going - before I go any further the rebore did not happen - new barrels and pistons it had to be - in fact new everything seemed to be the order of the day.




It is quite an amazing sight seeing the engine stripped down by someone who really knows what he is doing. All the parts of the engine were absolutely cleaned down before any thing was pulled apart and everything labeled and put into boxes. I did receive a number of packets of bits with expletives written in the label explaining its state of usefulness - I did find it so amusing - who needs technical jargon! And so the parts purchasing started. New barrels, pistons, pushrods, bearings, shims, washjers, springs, this that and the other. The bigget cost was the head. You will see from the photo above that it was in a sorry state so I decided to give it the full works. SRM Engineering in Aberystwyth was suggested by my builder although there is a firm called Hargreaves Engineering in Carmarthen who could have done an equal job - but I was at the mercy of the builder and he said as he did not know Hargreaves work he was not too happy so SRM it had to be - having said that their work is extremely good if a little expensive. In went the old head and back came the same one with full unleaded valve seat conversion, colsbro valves and guides, a fin repair, skimming and 4 thread repairs to hold the rocker boxes - £495 exchanged hands ! Oh yes this is not a cheap job and so think carefully. The head is superb and works really well - I am sorry I did not get it bead blasted now but the costs were getting out of hand and so somethings had to cut back - memories of my mates words "get it mechanically right before doing the cosmetics".

So basically the decision was made and the bill paid - this is the time you have to bite the bullet because being so far in financially you might as well go the rest - bearing in mind that the bike will never be a concours winner because of the mismatch frame and engine numbers. Anyhow I though you should drool over a few of these shots - I think the light is great and they really do show the inards of the engine off well.

In my haste to get it all up and running I forgot to take pictures of the final assembly and so it has been almost a year now. I have been running it in, helped immensly by the speedo over reading so I have been going a lot slower that I thought - good news for the engine at least. Over 1000 miles and a couple of oil changes and it is running well. I have recently added new front pipes and H piece to finish it off.

I made a decision recently to not strive for totally original but to get it tidy and ridable - this is just about complete but I still cannot get my head around the number of screws, bolts and attachments that seem to relentlessly unscrew making a quite, smooth tight and oil free bike look a bit ratty when I have done 50 or so miles. I am learning and I think I have not sorted it all out !!! Here's hoping anyhow.

I will stop this posting now as from here on it is about riding and maintenance. My wife suggested I sell the bike a few months back as she quite rightly pointed out, I was spending money but not getting the enjoyment from it. This has now changed. A new clutch, primary chain, head tightening and valve clearance setting has transformed the bike and to prove it I entered the Saunderfoot 75 Trial and have done a few social rides as well.

A mate of mine with a Norton Commando recently remarked at the Triumphs performance as he followed me over 50 miles - "What cc is that bike?"!!! Oh yes perform it does and is quite capable of going well into illegal speeds. Lets hope I can keep it like that.

I have joined the Vintage Motorcycle Club and look forward to quite a few runs out with them.