Will he ever leave?!

Brando has shown his bike a bit of neglect the last couple of years.

So, before our ride to the Dime City Bike Show (read the earlier post), he

decided to come by Mean Machines to spend the day tightening things up.

Smart move Mr. Mitchell!

The ride over to St. Petes went well. Only one small glitch on the trip,

Brando had a burble as we were crossing  Alligator alley. I had an idea, but since

it didn't reoccur, we wrote it off as overheating from traffic, and carried on. 

The rest of the ride was great, show was great, but alas,

we had to go home.

It was a beautiful day. But that smile of  Brando's didn't last.

 This is where it all ended.

His Triumph just quit!

Nothing, nada, no more.

His ignition gave up. Thank God for cell phones!

And Henry.

So, to the shop we went.

And thats where Brando stayed for the night.

And the next night.

And almost a third night!

But he sorted out the problems, and finally went home.

And all was well, or so he thought!

So back to the shop. We had suspected a loose top end for a while,

so we decided to look into it.

(Brando was a little upset when I told him to step out of the picture.)

You see, back on Alligator Alley, I suspected that the Triumph

had suffered from a semi seizure. That is when the piston welds itself to the cylinder wall,

but immediatly breaks free, allowing the engine to recover. Some what.

And I was right!

A little piston repair, some new rings, and back together it goes.

(I thought he was supposed to be working on his own bike...)

I also had to fix his exhaust. Ugly, but it'll hold!

Brando must really like the hammock I got in the shop,

cause he stayed another night!

I started worrying about the guy.

Besides the piston damage I repaired, the top end was in very good shape.

 Lucky Brando.

But this was not yet the end!

(He at least waited a couple of weeks.)

Here we have a temporary repair of his stripped-out exhaust spigot.

(And his improvised inspection plug)

Yep, back apart!

Rich over at Desmopro (who happens to be around the corner) got

lured into welding a replacement spigot into the cylinder head.

Nice work.

 This is much better than the stock manifold, no threads to strip.

(Rich had nothing to do with the cork still in use. Neither did I.)

Brando does have a great bike. It's seen better days, but that's alright, it has been

at his service for the last 30 years! It even brought his ass down from Canada.

But Brando, please give your poor bike a little TLC!