Come on, you old brute, I muttered at my 1977 Triumph 750 Tiger. The rain was pouring down, I was 60 miles from home and the engine was stuttering away like it had holed a piston. That was a trick it had done three days after I bought the bike about two years before. Not a nice introduction to British biking but one that was fixed cheaply enough. The cause was the points advancing the ignition timing by about 30 degrees. Itself a function of the vibes produced by my immature need to take the engine to 7500rpm. Those were very early days!
Prayers often worked wonders on the Triumph, so I muttered some as speeding cars roared past, huge plumes of water drowning both myself and the machine. But no joy, the Tiger began to lose its motive power. The road was busy with traffic, forcing me to slew off on to the grass verge. The Triumph usually handles well but not off-road. The front wheel skidded away from me.
The grass did provide a soft landing, neither bike nor I seriously injured. I picked the Tiger up, worried by the burning smell coming from under the seat. I turned off the ignition and tore the saddle off. A bunch of wires had shed their insulation, were shorting out on each other. Only a mad optimist would ride a Triumph any distance without a full complement of instant cures. So soon sorted.
I was absolutely drenched through by then, shivering with the cold and damp. Having just done a 3000 mile tour without any incidents I figured I had got away relatively easy. The last time I did a long tour both ends of the silencers rusted off, baffles shooting out to threaten following vehicles. The tremendous noise thus produced caused the police to go wild every time I came within a mile of them. Carburation was also adversely affected with flat spots and a deal of excessive vibration even at lower revs.
The Tiger was usually okay up to about 5000rpm, which was good for 80mph on the clock, thus 70 to 80mph cruising was surprisingly easy. The single carb set-up did not seem to affect the performance too greatly, compared to the Bonnie, as a mate with one of these was so afflicted by vicious vibes at higher revs that he could not use his extra power.
Besides, my Tiger usually did 60 to 65mpg. The lack of carb balancing was much appreciated because the rest of the motor needed attention every 500 to 600 miles and a daily tightening up of all the bolts! Neglect of this had bits falling off or such poor running that my feet were left numb from the vibes after as little as 10 miles.
Early horrors included a clutch lever that should have come with a Bullworker and cables that snapped with horrifying ease. I once had both the clutch and throttle cable go on the same run! Nylon lined cables provided an eventual solution, although spare ones are both taped alongside and kept in the toolkit.
Another nasty was a set of Lockheed discs that whilst powerful had such a wooden feel it was dead easy to lock up the wheels in the wet. I fell off six times until I got used to them. The good side of this was pads that lasted for 18 to 20,000 miles. Tyres (Avons) were nearly as good at 12 to 15000 miles, although once down to 2mm the usually good handling became very squeamish when white lines and the like were encountered.
The Tiger gets its handling finesse from a relatively strong tubular frame, reasonable mass (under 400lbs) and stiff suspension. What this adds up to is good stability all the way up to the ton (the most I ever got out of the bike) and a flickability that brings a big grin to my ugly mug down the back roads. Apart from the brakes and occasional poor running, the Triumph feels very secure on wet roads, much helped by the controllable power output.
As mentioned, the engine is limited to about 5000rpm by the vibes, but this is fine as a large lump of torque comes in from just past tickover. As useful for roaring around town as it is for back road hustling. Once under way, the bike can be bunged in third or fourth for most of the time.
The box has always stayed smooth but the action is heavy enough to destroy trainers. The only thing that upsets the change is the drive chain being on its last legs. The chain only lasts about 5000 miles, but the sprockets never seem to wear and the chains are ridiculously inexpensive.
One nasty bit of engine design is the chain primary chain - I've always found it better to replace them every 10,000 miles. It's probably possible to get twice that mileage but it's living dangerously as they quite often snap! One mate had his go at 70mph, throwing him off and wrecking his motor. Better safe than sorry.
The engine had done 12000 miles when I bought the bike and I've added another 37000 miles. Perhaps, surprisingly, given all the horror stories I've read about British bikes, apart from a valve job at 29000 miles, the holed piston and countless primary chains, the motor is still basically as it came out of the factory. Helped by fitting Boyer ignition after I holed the piston. Guess I must've got one of the good ones!
Hard riding often causes the Tiger to sulk, refusing to start until it's kicked about a hundred times and I'm slumped helplessly over the bike. This is actually a sign that the coils are on the way out - they rarely last more than 12000 miles. I did try some out of a foreign car but the vibes caused them to disintegrate in less than a 1000 miles. I could have sworn that the dying exhaust note chortled in Triumph at destroying these awful foreign components.
The lights could also provide moments of fear and loathing. They were 12 volts but defective wiring would either cause them to dim or blow. Invariably, the lights failed when they were most needed on deserted roads with no street lighting. Several times I suffered from massive eye strain and near misses riding home for miles in total blackness. Even rubber mounting the lights and directly connecting them to the battery didn't provide a complete cure. So insidious were the vibes that a total solution appeared impossible.
This tendency became most pronounced when I tried to take the Tiger despatch riding. My finances dictated a quick infusion of cash but the Triumph did not take too kindly to being thrashed mercilessly through city traffic. Apart from electrical bits exploding, and the need to kick the bugger into life, the bike would have been an ideal DR hack - cheap to run, easy to throw through traffic, secure over greasy roads and an easy going nature. After a month of frantic madness I'd cleared a thousand notes and decided that I'd had enough. The rainy season had started and I knew the Tiger was as reluctant to get drenched as myself.
It was after the DR debacle that I decided it was time for a minor refurbishment. The chrome was in a parlous state, most of the frame paint replaced by rust and the engine covered in corrosion. A week off the road and careful application of Hammerite solved most of the horrors. A mate did the cycle parts in British Racing Green to good effect.
I know someone else with a Tiger 750 who has done over 60,000 miles without any great trauma so hope that there is plenty of life left in my engine. I can see that all the hassle involved will not be to everyone's taste but the flip side is very low running costs and loads of on the road fun.
P.L.J.