The Under-Prepared Triumph Toolkit

November 30, 2009

Clearly not evidence of over-preparedness here. But, hey, we made it home under our own power! Nice!

I’m 50 miles from Nashville on Saturday with about two hours of daylight and my 1973 Triumph Trident suddenly goes dead hauling up the big hill coming out of Centerville.  The bike had been running sweet and strong all day.  Up ahead my buddy Professor Bob on his Cagiva with heated grips happily motored away.  Shit.

I knew the tank was full and it didn’t sound like fuel.  More like someone turned the key off.  The lights wouldn’t light so I popped the side cover off (a breeze on a 70s model) and checked the fuse.  All good.  Now what?

I heard the Cagiva so Bob’s figured out I’m down and that’s good.  I know he’s got a trailer in the driveway so already I’m thinking worst case.  After a few uncharacteristically cool moments of roadside diagnostics I noticed that a tired old ground wire from the battery had broken off the female connector.  My pal Tom Sharp must have installed that back in 1991.  There’s longevity for ya.

“Got any tools, Bob?”  His Cagiva had a nice little Italian pouch of metrics, but what saved us was his little nail clipper on an Easter Island head key chain.  The clipper nicely stripped off some insulation, the wire slid into the hole on the male ground tab and some 1991 electrical tape robbed from the harness held things together.  Lights, ignition, action.

I’ve already bought my own portable nail clipper for the tank bag (which won’t be left behind again) if only for good luck.  And with winter about here, it’s time for some freshening up of the electrical system anyway.  All’s well that end’s well.

Posted in Motorcycles