Last weekend I had the pleasure of spending the day at Jason’s shop with his son and Angry Dan. We took to task the final setup of the head for my LSR Bike, the seats needed to be cut, especially the exhaust to allow more clearance to the piston. I had previously cleaned up the casting flash in the intake and exhaust ports, smoothed out the short side radius, enshrouded the valves and polished the chambers. Any little bit helps right?

First step was to see where the contact band was between valve face and seat. This was determined with a little layout fluid and the lightest lap. Initial findings had the contact area way out on the edge of the seat, This was good as it would allow the seats to be cut to sink the valves in a little further for that much needed clearance.

We used Neway cutters to cut the seats. Its a neat tool, there is an adjustable pilot that fits in the valve guide to center the cutter on the seat. There are 3 angles to smooth the flow into the port. the center angle is 46 degrees to coincide with the 45 degrees on the valve . This gives a very narrow band to make the seal and not transfer too much heat to the valve

After all the seats were cut with both cutters and a check was made with a bright light for sealing it was time for the final test. I used mineral sprits with some ATF in it for dye. Real simple, invert head, put in fluid, look for leaks in the ports, Both turned out well.
With that all done it was time to move on to the springs. In a previous post I had mentioned the spring setup I am using, Its a mix of BSA, Ford, and Triumph parts and some Titanium retainers. These are single springs unlike the traditional inner and outer found on most engines

Before fitment I had to turn down the bottom retainers to accept the new springs

Once the bottom retainers were all turned down to accept their springs it was time to set the Valve seat pressure. I installed all spring with the components I was going to use on EACH one. Then measured the Installed height of the spring from a referencable spot on the assembly. I then took this measurement to the arbor press and with an anvil mounted scale compressed the spring to the seat pressure I wanted and measured that from the same reference. This allowed me to get the difference in height needed to hit the target number on pressure.

All four valves required various amounts of shimming to get to the magic number. Here is some shots of the final setup installed on the head

-Cheers DAN

The Triumph National Rally is happening this year in Oley PA at the fairgrounds VSL and I got a booth and will be camping there all weekend, Come check t out!

While I highly frown on un-original content on this blog I thought this one was too good not to post. The $40 million dollar motorcycle. I shows the commitment of the race teams in the 60’s

I picked up a few bottles of 10w fork oil, filled it up with the perscribed amount and took it out for a test ride. What better way to test it than some riding down the center of the railroad tracks and a trip to Wharton state forest over in Jersey.
It was tuff to tell if it had improved much on the street, the higher CG made kept me feeling like a first timer on the bike, I did hit as many potholes and bumps as I could and found myself bracing my body for a shot that never came.
In the dirt is where this setup really shined. If you have never been to Wharton, its in the NJ pinebarrens. Place is all ankle deep sugar sand whoops covered with pine needles, cranberry bogs and mud holes that never dry out. With the dampening dialed all the way back the bike performed flawlessly in all conditions I encountered. I cant tell you it this is better than stock, (never owned it that way) but it was light years better than the progressive springs I had in there before.

The water holes along the road range from knee to ankle deep, not exactly the way to stray dry! On the way back when it was getting dark I went through one and must of hit a stump that sent the bike over and under water breaking the clutch lever in the process. After I picked my pride back up out of the mud and no replacement on hand, I tied the cable to the lever and and rerouted it in a way to use the frame and lever to pull on it like a lawnmower pull-start. If you have ever ridden home without a clutch you know what I mean.

Total miles today was 110 with 40 of that on the trails. Well worth the cost of the fork oil!

Back in Aug I had the pleasure of going out to Utah and working on the Four Aces Cycle pit crew. Wes is and his friends are a first class bunch of guys. I had never met any of them before and after one email exchange I felt like we were old friends when we met. Thanks for the good times guys. HERE is a link to my flicker slide show with 200 photos. Get the Salt Fever and see you there next year

A friend of mine put me on with someone who was selling this super rare Harmon and Collins roller cam set up for an A7/10 BSA, and just coming back from the salt has me thinking of finishing up the LSR bike for next year. I have never seen one of these in person and only heard of them for triumph pre-unit nitro burning motors. Cant wait to put this thing together. Enjoy
-DAN

Our friend Joe Z has been putting this on for years and its known to be a good time. In memorium of MCA “Alotta Beer, Allota Girls, and Alotta Curssin”

Me, Jason and Vincent are loading up the bikes right now for a big family camping trip tomorrow. We will ride our bikes down and meet up with our families and a few from the neighborhood. Plan on a full day of riding and a Shrimp boil to end it all. YESSSS!