classic motorcycle forum

I'm embarking on a new project - a Grumph / Tri-Greeves. I have a Hawkstone frame and a job lot of Triumph engine parts - both 500 and 350. I'm not at all familiar with Triumphs so would very much welcome any hints and tips from the collected wisdom here. I will have a load of surplus bits so these will become available once I understand what I need and what not.

Thanks in advance

I've gone over to the dark side (again) and bought a 1955 Francis Barnett Cruiser with a Villers 1H engine. When I started it it made the most unholy racket so I had a look inside the "silencer" and found this:



On dismantling the silencer I found that the front pipe had a baffle tube attached to it. This has about 20 3/4" diameter holes in a sort of spiral pattern. The baffle is not blanked off at the rear end. The silencer tail pipe has a blanking disc in the end and a slit about 5" long x 1/4" wide on the underside of the tailpipe.

The baffle tube was virtually filled with what looks like fibreglass wadding to an extent that only the first couple of holes would allow any exhaust gas through. I take it that this had been added by a previous owner.

Can anyone confirm whether this looks like the correct baffle tube? I'm puzzled by the fact the tail end is unblanked as this would just let the gases straight through. Or am I missing something?

This is the bike:



Needs some TLC but will be ideal for pottering around the Worcestershire lanes when done.

A (hopefully imminent) house move will see me with greatly enhanced garage space so I am considering extending my "fleet". I've always had a yen for Scotts and nearly bought one about 15 years ago but went for a Venom instead.

I came across this in ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1929-SCOTT-FLYING-SQUIRREL-498cc-TOURER-MATCHING-NUMBERS-VINTAGE-CLASSIC/163920723459 which looks very pretty and is the era I'd be looking at. It seems vastly overpriced to me especially as it's the economy touring model rather than a TT rep. What do people think?

I know the usual advice is to  join the owners' club (which I will probably do) but always respect opinions from the collective wisdom(?) here.

The lower fork spring covers on my ES2 looked a bit odd.



So on stripping them down I decided to investigate further. I discovered that a previous owner had taken a Ryvita packet, which is obviously metallised foil, and glued it to the metal with the shiny side out. It actually looked quite good from a distance.



Very ingenious and a cheap option, but I'm getting the bits plated.......

My 1952 ES2 is fitted with an (incorrect) 1 1/16" Monobloc 376. It should be a 1 1/16" 276 type but I'm happy to stick with the later carb at least for the time being.

The "correct" settings for both the 276 and the 376 (which is correct for later machines) include a no 4 cutaway. I've found it runs much better with a 3.5 component although the only one I have in my fairly extensive collection of bits is well past its best.

It struck me that perhaps I could skim .030" or so off the bottom flat face of a good No. 4 slide which I have (I understand the numbers increment by 1/16" per whole number).

I appreciate this will probably ruin the slide but as they's knocking on £30 by the time VAT & postage is included I'm tempted......

I generally consider myself quite competent with old bikes but confess to being flummoxed here. All the handbooks for my ES2 including the one by Edgar Franks who was responsible for much of the design detail, suggest that it should have a 1/2" reach plug (Lodge H14 etc). However, the threaded hole in the head is 3/4" long and a standard long reach plug fits fine without hitting piston crown or valves. Cast iron head by the way.

I can't imagine that such an error would have been perpetuated (but having written user manuals myself I know how an incorrect statement can be carried over from version to version). But if I fit a short reach plug, (a) the spark will be happening far from where the mixture is, and (b) the lower threads will get caked in carbon.

I'm still at a fairly early stage with the engine and have just correctly timed the ignition (which was 5/16" BTDC instead of 5/8"). I haven't run it with this setting but when I started it on the 5/16" position with a short reach plug there was lots of missing. Not carburetter as I've gone through that carefully.

Any observations?

And everywhere else for that matter. I hope everyone hasn't gone to faceache (or maybe they're doing Xmas shopping.......)

I've posted this elsewhere but for those who haven't seen it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAFZ9g5hH00

And the original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrtyd6ARqqM