Project Triumph Flat track
Classic Bike Guide’s friend, Neville, has his mind on a new project
Neville starts a new project, starting with a Tiger 100 engine and a BSA A10 gearbox
Where does the idea for a new project come from? Often it’s something you see, or maybe it stems from a want, or a dream. What so often puts us off the idea are the pragmatic basics – how do I do it? How much will it cost? Can I finish it? And so often we fall at that first hurdle.
Living in the countryside may at first, seem like a disadvantage – there are fewer specialists, no industrial estates with machine shops, bike breakers and parts distributors. But where there is no help, you learn to do it yourself. And so it is that here in one of the only English counties without motorways or even an Ikea, you have a huge number of multi-talented, multi-skilled people, who, once you’ve found them, are happy to help. And their biggest contribution to any project, is letting you realise that it’s all possible. And Neville is one of those people.
Our resident genius and frequenter of sheds is up to something. Not content with making a tree-pulling Gold Star-engined dirt bike recently, there’s a new Tiger
100 engine sitting in the workshop. And beautiful it is too. Although we’re always tripping over 500cc C series Triumph parts, this one is complete and comes with a nice magneto, twin Amal carbs, lockwire where it should be and even a needle brazed to the output to get spot-on timing – pointing to this being one hot engine.
“I always liked these engines,” said Nev. “There was a boy we used to hang around with and we were all on slower bikes, but he used to let me have a go on his Tiger every so often. It was great and I couldn’t afford one then, but I can now.”
But it can’t be standard. We’re talking
of the man that built a JAP V-twin engined Ariel Red Hunter. So there is a BSA A10 gearbox sitting next to it, the ’box that always gets fitted to his bikes. “They’re strong enough, you can get bits and they fit.” To mate the two together, a Bob Newby belt drive is on hand to provide a light clutch, with no slipping issues and no need for oil in the primary chain case. They’re quieter too, not that noise is a consideration here.
A set of period Converta plates are on hand to bolt the engine to the gearbox. They’ve been used, but are classics in themselves and being alloy, they shouldn’t add to the weight. The gearbox is slightly wider than the engine, so the plates need a little shaping or some spacers may need to be found.
There’s an alloy tank to go on, which is nice, small and lightweight as always. Then there are the rear sprockets – one is fairly standard, but the other is a huge 60-tooth blank, made by Talon. This will then be machined out to fit whatever hub comes along.
And then there is the frame. The whole idea of this project is to build a rigid Trackmaster-framed bike. This example may have started life as a BSA A10 frame,
but needed new downtubes as the originals were beaten up. So Neville made and bent some new tubes and welding genius Steve welded them into place. Gone is the swingarm and the frame is now rigid, with the plates on the rear hoops to hold the aluminium plates to allow adjustment of the rear wheel. This is so you can tune the wheelbase for dirt track riding!
“I went to see Dirtquake a few years ago at Kings Lynn speedway stadium. I even had a go on my 1200 Sportster with knobblies on,” says Neville. “Since then I’ve fancied building a dirt track-style bike. And this is it.”
We shall bring you more as the project progresses. There’s a Honda front hub under the bench and a BSA 19in rear wheel, but as for the rest, you’ll have to wait and see. As I have to. But it’ll be worth it.