Burnin' the Midnight Oil

Yesterday afternoon I headed up to John Trigger to help get the triumph ready for a test 'shake-down' at Mallory park today. At nearly 01h00 this morning we finished. I loaded the bike up and headed home for a few hours kip before loading up my gear and the KMR Kawasaki then heading back up to Mallory Park.

With all the work JT needed to do to the bike, it was always going to be tight... but JT has done an awesome job. A few weeks ago she was a tourer with a sat-nav holder and all the Triumph catalog crap on it. Now she's a bit closer to being a proper TT machine.

JT is probably the countries best Triumph tuner (Kawasaki and BMW too). His bikes won a TT and finished first and second in the British championship last year (Smiths Truimph). It wasn't his first British championship either. He isthe Triumph factory tuner. Pedigree. .

He built up most of the chassis and breathed some magic on the girl. She's making good power now and the delivery is as linear as a big vee twin. Beautiful! I still have a bit to do to finish her off... but in the wee hours of the morning, she was ready for some on-track testing.

Triumph Build Starts

A few weeks ago I picked up what is to become the TT Supersport bike. A 2014 Triumph Daytona 675R road bike from Jack Lilley's in Ashford.

The guys at Jack Lilley gave me an old, dented tank with the bike... I took it down to my friend Steve at MTS Classics and got to work modifying it for more capacity....

Steve's magic blaster cleans in seconds!

I went back a few days later - Steve had smoothed out the kinked dent on the corner of the tank. No bodyfiller needed - a master craftsman!

He's also tack welded to tank bottom in place for a fitting...

Neil, Andy and Steve - preparing his twin-engined classic slideycar for racing on the weekend...

...got to give it a test run in the yard! 

The Triumph was owned by a London wanker (...I mean banker) and had the whole Triumph aftermarket catalog thrown at it. The Satnav holder kept on hitting my helmet when I was tucked in and the heated grips were so fat my hands ached after 10 minutes.

Most of it tat and bling. Crap that doesn't enhance the looks or make it go faster. What a waste of cash. Easy come, easy go I guess.

I started stripping it down last week - this is neat... a few bolts  and wiring clips and the whole nose piece comes off. I like.

There is so much to do to the bike to turn it into a TT racer... it took me two evenings just taking things off... still got a long way to go...

 

... a few kilograms of stuff. Most of it crap.

Fairings and bigger pieces.

On Friday evening I dropped the bike off with John Trigger at JT Engine Developments. He's going to help with the build while I am away for work... and he's also going to breathe some magic on the engine. We spent 3 hours going over everything on the bike. JT is meticulous - I think it's in good hands :-)

Here's a 675R build he's almost finished... a work of art!

I've been sourcing the long list of go-fast parts for the last two weeks... John is sourcing a whole lot too. This is the longest wait for the build... and also where the highest risk is - people and suppliers letting one down. I sure as heck hope it all comes together!