[ST] RE: Triumph "special" tools

["Keith Tynan" <keith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IMMHO,

A lot of Triumph's innovative use of little known fastening mechanisms stems
from the growing feeling in Europe that companies need to protect themselves
from the litigation culture that's perceived as sweeping westwards. Hence,
not only fasteners are becoming unorthodox, but pratt warning stickers
proliferate on every available surface of the machine. Another consequence
is perhaps Triumph's unwillingness to divulge details of their products, or
enter into correspondence about matters. Whilst I view it all as very
lamentable, I don't see it changing (for the better)... ~:(

A lot of this attitude is bolstered, or forced - depending on your
perspective, by the European Union/Commission, which is, as we speak,
forging legislation to prevent customisation of vehicles and to prevent
unqualified fettling of them. One's only to read through the editorial of a
British Motorcyclists' Federation (BMF) magazine to appreciate the work they
(and MAG for that matter) are doing to try to arrest this insidious
constraint on our freedom, to realise the storm clouds that're brewing...

A salutary case in point (hearsay - so apologies if the details are
inaccurate in any way) is that high-end Yamahas use front brake calliper
mounting bolts that can only be used once, resulting in something like a GPB
40 one-off cost for calliper removal!! Just a small step in helping to
discourage the home mechanic... ~:(

It's a thought-provoking question as to whether all of this legislation
would have been created if the biking public still comprised mainly
enthusiasts with a high level of mechanical competence - as it was, say,
forty years ago, rather than today's biker, who on average, comes to biking
straight from car ownership and seems to have comparatively less technical
competence (with exceptions, of course). Do we thank the late Mr. Honda, and
his successful marketing campaigns for this, or is it symptomatic of a
western society that's increasingly tending to 'outsource' (to the second
and third worlds) its manufacturing capability?

On a more neutral note... I seem to remember that there was a query about
feeler gauges for measuring tappet clearances. The ones I used cost me
around GPB 25 (to special order) and are in steps of 0.01 mm. [BTW, BRG's
tip is to make sure ALL shims are in place before rotating the cams (i.e.
DON'T rotate the cams with any of the shims removed) - you risk damaging the
cam face if you don't.]

Regards,
- --
BRG
mailto:keith.tynan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/keith.tynan
'00 BRG Sprint ST 'Wolfram'


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