Terrier Tribulations
(Observations on Triumph Terrier LCJ 377)
by Paul Harris
(Observations on Triumph Terrier LCJ 377)
by Paul Harris
After gazing through rose tinted glasses at the photos of the old Terrier in need of restoration, I began to recall what it was really like to own and run an old Terrier that was well past it’s Best Before Date.
The trials and tribulations started the moment Dad & I got it home from Harpers in Worcester St. We transported it home in Dad’s 7 seat people carrier EDY 811, sounds posh but it was anything but. It was a converted Ford van, powered (or should I say under-powered) by an 1172c.c. side valve engine developing 36 BHP (27kW), 3 gears, 6v electrics and air driven wipers. How he tolerated it is beyond me. Anyway, back to the Terrier.
The trials and tribulations started the moment Dad & I got it home from Harpers in Worcester St. We transported it home in Dad’s 7 seat people carrier EDY 811, sounds posh but it was anything but. It was a converted Ford van, powered (or should I say under-powered) by an 1172c.c. side valve engine developing 36 BHP (27kW), 3 gears, 6v electrics and air driven wipers. How he tolerated it is beyond me. Anyway, back to the Terrier.
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Having got it back home we spent an hour trying to get it started, kick starting it to the point of near coronary heart failure, plug out to dry it off, plug back in, same result etc. etc. After the hour, Johnnie Manton appeared to collect his weekly paper money. John was well ahead of us motorcycle wise. He had a Douglas Dragonfly which he used to nonchalantly park with one of the pots on the kerb like a push-bike, didn’t bother with a stand. When we explained our starting difficulty to John he said “have you switched it on?”.
We switched it on using a screw driver in the slot in the centre of the light switch on the headlamp cowling and the bike started first kick! Dad was amazed because in his day all bikes had a magneto and didn’t have an ignition switch. The next trauma was when Dad discovered that there was oil in the clutch housing, “that can’t be right boy, look the dynamo (actually alternator) is also in there, lets get that oil out pronto” So for the next few months I ran the bike with the clutch dry, not a good idea I found out later. At that time we were both at the bottom of a long and steep learning curve, motorcycle-wise. |
The bike did not have a working speedo when I got it, so after saving up for a month or two I bought a new speedo cable from Mead & Tomkins on London Road and sure enough the speedo then worked fine, the needle wobble did not worry me too much as I could easily take the mean reading. However the speedo did cause me to have a number of near misses as I was so pleased it was working at last that I found that I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
The bike was not the most reliable machine and frequently let me down, stranded. I remember one incident in Cheltenham, I was working at BNS Physical Testing Lab in Brockworth and had day-release at Cheltenham Tech college studying for an ONC in applied physics. Me and a few of the college lads used to go into Cheltenham at lunch break for a coffee at a coffee house just off the Prom, called Geraldines (on the corner of Crescent Terrace, it’s not there now, it’s now called Memsahibs Gin & Tea bar).
When we came out of the cafe to return to Tech the bike, parked on Crescent Terrace, refused to start (not an unknown phenomena) so I cadged a lift back to Tech and at the end of the afternoon one of the lads took me back down into town in his Bedford Dormobile van, we quickly parked up by the bike, three of us leapt out of the van, picked up the bike, stuffed it into the back of the van and drove off. What amazed me was that not one of the passers by said a word to us at what looked like a very suspicious theft of a motorbike.
Besides replacing the drive side main-bearing (not up to the job, when Triumphs reworked the engine to 200c.c. for the Tiger Cub they beefed up the bottom end), the other cause of my problems with the Terrier were the electrics. My O-level physics course had failed to cover motorcycle electrics and my knowledge was found to be wanting. Looking back, if only I had understood, the Terrier electrics were clever, it was an AC generator (alternator) charging via a selenium rectifier. The alternator stator had 6 coils and to avoid over-charging the battery (chance would be fine thing) only 2 coils were switched in for normal running, the other 4 coils being switched in when the lights were switched on, clever. No zener diodes in those days.
The problem was that due to vibration most of the wires that were held into the multifunction switch on the headlight cowling by grub screws, had popped out. I did my best to re-connect them where I thought they should go but god knows what was connected to what.
For the whole time I had the Terrier, whenever I switched the headlight on, the engine cut out, so at night I rode everywhere on the side-light, tucking in behind any car that was going my way. Whenever I was dazzled or confused I would switch on the headlight for a few moments, then switched it off again, there would be an enormous explosion in the exhaust and off I would go again.
I came off the bike a few times, due mainly to a surfeit of ale, leaving the prop-stand down and the peculiar handling of the bike. When I bought that old Honda Prelude car to tour New Zealand in, it had a clever rear wheel steering system. Well the Terrier had a not so clever rear wheel steering system due to the plunger rear suspension. Going into a corner with some exuberance engine on the over-run having chosen a suitable line, then when giving the bike the gun part way round, the bike then chose it’s own line due to the rear wheel moving. Caused me many a panic up through Crifty Craft Lane, late, on the way to work in Brockworth.
Finally, I was working at Oakley spy base and the excessive mileage proved too much for the Terrier so I traded it in with Mead & Tomkins for a 250c.c. G2 Matchless UFH 620, wow, it was like a Rolls Royce to me. The Terrier was the deposit & I paid for the Matchless on the drip over 2 years, well £125 was a lot in those days.
One day I will relate some of my experiences with the 600 AJS twin (VXU 310) that I finished my motorcycling days on.
Lucky to be alive, happy days....
The bike was not the most reliable machine and frequently let me down, stranded. I remember one incident in Cheltenham, I was working at BNS Physical Testing Lab in Brockworth and had day-release at Cheltenham Tech college studying for an ONC in applied physics. Me and a few of the college lads used to go into Cheltenham at lunch break for a coffee at a coffee house just off the Prom, called Geraldines (on the corner of Crescent Terrace, it’s not there now, it’s now called Memsahibs Gin & Tea bar).
When we came out of the cafe to return to Tech the bike, parked on Crescent Terrace, refused to start (not an unknown phenomena) so I cadged a lift back to Tech and at the end of the afternoon one of the lads took me back down into town in his Bedford Dormobile van, we quickly parked up by the bike, three of us leapt out of the van, picked up the bike, stuffed it into the back of the van and drove off. What amazed me was that not one of the passers by said a word to us at what looked like a very suspicious theft of a motorbike.
Besides replacing the drive side main-bearing (not up to the job, when Triumphs reworked the engine to 200c.c. for the Tiger Cub they beefed up the bottom end), the other cause of my problems with the Terrier were the electrics. My O-level physics course had failed to cover motorcycle electrics and my knowledge was found to be wanting. Looking back, if only I had understood, the Terrier electrics were clever, it was an AC generator (alternator) charging via a selenium rectifier. The alternator stator had 6 coils and to avoid over-charging the battery (chance would be fine thing) only 2 coils were switched in for normal running, the other 4 coils being switched in when the lights were switched on, clever. No zener diodes in those days.
The problem was that due to vibration most of the wires that were held into the multifunction switch on the headlight cowling by grub screws, had popped out. I did my best to re-connect them where I thought they should go but god knows what was connected to what.
For the whole time I had the Terrier, whenever I switched the headlight on, the engine cut out, so at night I rode everywhere on the side-light, tucking in behind any car that was going my way. Whenever I was dazzled or confused I would switch on the headlight for a few moments, then switched it off again, there would be an enormous explosion in the exhaust and off I would go again.
I came off the bike a few times, due mainly to a surfeit of ale, leaving the prop-stand down and the peculiar handling of the bike. When I bought that old Honda Prelude car to tour New Zealand in, it had a clever rear wheel steering system. Well the Terrier had a not so clever rear wheel steering system due to the plunger rear suspension. Going into a corner with some exuberance engine on the over-run having chosen a suitable line, then when giving the bike the gun part way round, the bike then chose it’s own line due to the rear wheel moving. Caused me many a panic up through Crifty Craft Lane, late, on the way to work in Brockworth.
Finally, I was working at Oakley spy base and the excessive mileage proved too much for the Terrier so I traded it in with Mead & Tomkins for a 250c.c. G2 Matchless UFH 620, wow, it was like a Rolls Royce to me. The Terrier was the deposit & I paid for the Matchless on the drip over 2 years, well £125 was a lot in those days.
One day I will relate some of my experiences with the 600 AJS twin (VXU 310) that I finished my motorcycling days on.
Lucky to be alive, happy days....