Totally wired
There is a component on a motorcycle which is often ignored, frequently abused, rarely serviced yet is vital to its operation ...
rguably there are several components on motorcycles which come under the category of 'important but ignored' and I bet you're mentally naming them right now.
Drive chains are one such bit which often are ignored until they barely go round and are brown with rust, their matching sprockets too can be left until they resemble discs of metal maybe with a bump here and there, as the machine's owner wonders why performance has suffered and likely needs a hot cam or a cereal packet under the barrel to restore performance ...
You may be shaking your head at this but friends who work in motorcycle shops have shown me such examples. Electrics, too, are often ignored until things go wrong, where simple servicing would have saved any grief. But by far the most abused component is the control cable.
Yes,the simple bits of wire which operate throttles, brakes, clutches, valve lifters, decompressors and chokes on our types of motorcycles are fine until they're not, then will make the riding experience something approaching vile.
I'll grant you, in recent years there has been a move away from using traditional wire cables to operate various bits of a motorcycle. This started when disc brakes were corning into fashion and the concept of a fluid in a hose to operate some pistons in a caliper to grip a disc of metal so a motorcycle can stop.
From there came hydraulically operated clutches, and now I'm led to believe, there are throttles which are sensors sending a signal to fuel injection units, rather than wires lifting a throttle valve. It remains though, for our motorcycles, there will be at least three, possibly four and maybe even five wire control cables, known as Bowden cables.
When these cables work, they are excellent, but when they stop working because of damage or wear, they are not only inconvenient but downright dangerous. On this project, the silver lining to this cable cloud is they are neither worn nor damaged - mainly because they don't exist. Now, cables are not difficult to get, but certain assumptions have to be made in order to use off-the-shelf ones. These assumptions involve all controls being standard and fitted to standard bend handlebars, while at the other end, the brake arm and clutch actuating mechanism need to be standard too ... well, one out of four ain't bad, to misquote a song lyric.
Because it is part of the gearbox workings, the internal clutch lever is standard though as the cable abutment (yes, really, Triumph called it that) is loose and held in place by a split pin, it too could have been changed and, given the surprises thrown up by this engine, I count myself lucky it hasn't been. The rest of the controls and bars, even the brake plate, are all non-standard, and each change will have an effect on the inner or outer length. So while it is possible a standard cable might fit, it would be pure luck.
In common with many enthusiasts, I have a selection of cables I've been ' saving' since