Are bikes getting too complicated?

[Horse]

The big problem would be spares availability of course.

It's been quite surprising how much of The Priest's Triumph has decayed, rotted or crumbled.

Its 20 years old now I think? Bikes aren't built for 20 year lives I wouldn't have thought.

Perhaps not, but it was non-critical things like connectors in the fuel system that particularly surprised me.

If '20 years', that would be an average. What could the worst case be? After all, it's only petrol

[Mr. Dazzle]

The fuel thing effected that particular bike pretty much from new. It's worth remembering that model of Triumph* was the first to have fuel injection, plastic fuel tank, in house twin spar ally frame etc. The fuel thing is more debugging than anything else.

*Nearly. Priests bike is not the very first T595/T509 family but the fuel system for example is the same as the very first 1997 "brand new design Triumph".
I.e. from when they went all in properly on an in house bike with loads of tech

[Count Steer]

I had a mini, I grew to hate "points" with a passion.

The problem with Minis was compounded by where they put the distributor. I saw all sorts of wheezes to try and protect them from the elements. A common one was to use a rubber glove with the leads through the fingers. The number of times one of my housemates had to get out in the rain and spray the distributor he should have had shares in the spray company (can't remember what it was but most Mini owners had some).

[Taipan]

Points were fine in their day. The trick was to set them using a dwell angle meter and the key to reliability was to use a locking "star" washer. But, yes they were still shite compared to the first CDi...

[The Spin Doctor]

Manual advance/retard and hand oil pump ftw

Don't forget acetylene lights.

[slowsider]

Manual advance/retard and hand oil pump ftw

Don't forget acetylene lights.

How dim do you think I am?

[Bigjawa]

I bet you all drive with loads of leccy stuff but nobody moans about that.
Leccy windows?
Central locking?
Power steering?
ABS


Just bikers moaning again

Up to a couple of years ago, I drove a Scudo with no ABS, leccy windies or central locking. PAS was just a mechanical pump. Ironically what killed it was the electronic control for the immobilizer would make the damn thing die at random intervals and you didn't have the wee mechanical stop on the pump that would let you dump the solenoid and just use a cable.

If points were good, cars would still be using them.

Last car I had with points was an 89 Panda, was going to replace them but the child in the local motor factors didn't know what the hell I was talking about.

[Felix]

Up to a couple of years ago, I drove a Scudo with no ABS, leccy windies or central locking. PAS was just a mechanical pump. Ironically what killed it was the electronic control for the immobilizer would make the damn thing die at random intervals and you didn't have the wee mechanical stop on the pump that would let you dump the solenoid and just use a cable.

Was it the 1.9D? I had the same van but the Pug Expert version. You could bin the Lucas Delphi pump for the Bosch out many a French/Italian motor for a simpler life and running on veg oil.