Bonneville America Forums Forums General Motorcycle Forums Other Bikes My "You Broke It You Bought It" Thunderbird!

For those of you present at the 2016 GA Rally, you may remember a fun little story with how I ended up with another bike in the stable :-)

I've since shipped it out to Denver, and have been riding it around some amazing mountain roads ... when it's running anyway. ha.

At the start of this season I had power issues due to dirty carbs. Some seafoam cleared that out ... and nearly bucked me off the bike when it finally "coughed up" whatever blockage was in there and suddenly returned to FULL POWER.

Welp ... last week the ignition switch decided to die. Luckily it was only a few, relatively flat, blocks away from the apartment. The ... ahem ... "natural remedies" store I was visiting at the time was nice enough to let me leave the bike in their parking lot until Dani got home to help me push it back.

So now I wait for a new ignition switch to arrive ... and then try and find someone local with a bike jack so I can get the front end apart.

I'll be taking it out to Triumph in the Rockies later this month. Will post photos!

All I see it needs is a Garden Gate/Picket Fence set of Badges or Tastefully Painted on Tank Script. And an ignition, of course. You can get a fine bike jack at Sears for under a Hundy, BTW.

Ahh, there she is . So what's going on with the front end?

I have always like that bike. Yup needs Gate Badges.

i have a craftsman bike jack. you can have it if you want

First half of the ignition switch is done.

The dealer got the new ignition switch in ... and one (???) of the screws. Mkay.

Anyway ... I wired the new switch up and zip tied it to the cabling off the clutch lever. I can at least get a key in and get the bike going this way. I'll ride it over to the landlord's place to finish the repair this week i hope.

Got the ignition switch replaced. Took the front end apart and got the top yoke off after a good bit of persuasion. Drilled the heads off the security screws and replaced them with normal Allen type.

That was Saturday. Sunday, Dani and I decided to attend our first triumph group ride with some CO folks. All went well until we were almost back to the dealer. As the group pulled off the highway toward our exit, our rear tire blew ... at about 70.

I've bitched enough on Facebook so I'll spare y'all the details. Suffice it to say none of the other 15 or so riders stopped to make sure we were ok or to help. Never would have had that issue with this group.

Anyway. I was able to get control of the slide and bring the thing to a stop without severely injuring or killing Dani. So there's that.

Thank god Dani and the Thunderbird are ok Just funning you Jake. I'm glad to hear you guys are okay and managed to keep the bike upright. That's one of the fears with tubed tires, once they are punctured the tube rips and it get's real hairy real quick. You notice how it's normally the rear tire not the front ( which is better of course).
Such a shame the group just road on.

Well I think everything's fixed.

"Think", because I couldn't get anyone at the shop to properly relay the vibration issues I was having prior to the blow out. So the person who test rode it said it was "fine" after only riding it around the very poorly maintained road around the shop.

I swear to Todd, bike service departments just do not have the slightest clue how to even begin to treat people right. The shops that get praised are generally only acceptable ... the bar has just been set so low.

Dang good looking bike... hate it's giving you trouble. Ignition switches are a pain in the butt on those models.. had the displeasure of doing one myself once upon a time.

It actually would have been kind of a fun project, had I been in Atlanta with my garage and tools. It's good to have a reason to get the bike apart and get familiar with it.

We borrowed some tools from one of Dani's coworkers, and my land lord let me use the garage at his place to do the work.

Oh the joys of city life ;-)

Oh, new tires seem to have done the trick. Rides smooth now. $580 installed, but that's another topic.

One more electrical issue to run down and we'll be ready for the triumph rally this weekend.

We had a great weekend tooling around in Western Colorado on the Thunderbird. The bike ran well with no issues to speak of, other than a bit of an oil leak (more on that in another thread).

The event was the 16th annual "Triumph in the Rockies" rally. I think there were about 35-40 bikes there in total. Two groups headed out from separate parts of Denver on Friday. A number of other folks met us there.

We rode out with a group leaving from the Red Rocks area (Morrison). Kickstands up at 9:30am, we took the long way. Down through Jefferson, Fairplay, and Buena Vista. Then up through Twin Lakes, across Independence Pass, through Aspen to Carbondale. We then came down 133 and approached Montrose from the north.

By the way, Independence Pass was one of the coolest places I've ridden. The weather was ****** as we rode through, as it often is in the early afternoon. But man ... absolutely crazy.

The "West Denver" group on the way out:



Saturday everyone broke off into smaller groups. We did a loop through Telluride and Durango:



Just the part ya'll care about:



And some bike porn:







After the Saturday Ride, the hotel provided a bike washing station for a little "Show N Shine" contest (shouldn't it be "Shine N Show"?). People liked the Thunderbird:




Some pretty great riding. And not too much trouble with the weather. The good thing about the dry air out here, even after being rained on pretty hard we dried up in abut 15 miles.

Also, Dani got the itch for longer rides and maybe seeing where some of those dirt roads go. I see a Tiger in our future.

Is this the lot that left you stranded with the flat ?

Nah different group. That was the local dealer. The dealer does sponsor this event, but it's organized and planned by the RAT group. None of the dealership guys were there.

These guys were much more like what we have grown accustomed to with the Southeastern Triumph crew. The event even had a much similar feel, albeit larger and at a hotel rather than a pole barn.

Even had a guy who reminded us of Chy, a lady who sounded like Di, and a few mix and match doppelgängers.