Topic: 500/550/650's that followed me home

[rb550four]

Excellent, I was wondering how old it could be ,generally. Haven't found the ID plate yet.
A blower! Just thought of it. How great would that be to have a Triumph with a blower on it
smokin' up the shop!

[Restoration Fan]

Matt,
It's the only Triumph in the shop.
It's a Kalamazoo Triumph,it's old, it's got patina....Dual fuel. Wood and coal.
Goes through fuel like crazy. I expected it to be fast but I expected a bit higher output.
  I've been adjusting the air ,trying to get a little more out of her. Then , running her WFO, I adjusted the exhaust, didn't perform much better. Must have fixed jets, can't remove them..can't find them anywhere.Ebay??
Seems to be firing properly,not too sooty, not to oily,not bad for old school, no electronic ignition here. But I do suspect either the gasket or O ring could be changed , no oil , just some escaping smoke. Checked the exhaust ring, seated properly.
It's getting enough air...maybe pods...naaa.
Maybe put a manometer to it tomorrow and check vacuum at a lower burn rate. Should be good when the needle evens out.
  Yeah, once I get it running right, I'm thinking knee dents, clip on grate handles...1/4 turn of course. My first Triumph, oooohh, I'll bet there is a forum for Triumph owners. I wonder how many of these  things are out there, I'm going to check Craig's List right away.

LOL, too bad there isn't a "Like" button on this forum or I would have hit that button several times on this post. 

By the way, VERY envious of your shop and all the bikes.  Maybe at some point in time, if you ever do decide to part with any of the bikes, offer them up on the forums before you sell them to someone else.  At least that way, you would know they would be going to people who have the same passion for the bikes as you.

[rb550four]

Ron, If I could ever part with any of my bikes, they would be offered her first for sure.

I started another roaring fire in the Triumph tonight and am still wanting to maximize it's output.
We have lots of smart guys here, so I thought I might run some ideas past all of you all, get some input.

Idea #1- I'm running a 6" exhaust pipe. Most of the heat goes up and out the pipe.
I had some 3x5" aluminum step flashing  laying around...a few shots on the centerlines with a stovepipe crimper gives curvature to  long center line and when crimped the opposite direction, flares the short ends outward...when center screwed to the 6" pipe , transfers wasted pipe heat to the sheet allowing a small fan to capture the residual heat and transfer it in the artificial breeze. I"m  thinking to screw these sheets equally  along all sides of the 6" pipe.Then centering this pipe inside an 8 or 10" pipe,capping off the top end except for a blower hole, add blower and force salvaged heated air thru a small  directional vent to the room to be heated.

Idea #2 cut the top and bottom out of a 35 gallon drum. Cut the top off a 55 gal. drum and the 55 gal drum  to the length of the 35 gal. drum. cut a hole the size of the 35 gal drum in the center of the bottom of the 55 gal drum and weld it tight into the said hole. Cut the same hole in the top of the 55 gal. drum and weld it tight to both the 35 and 55 gal drums. Put on it's side so it rolls. On left top cut and prep for a 6" pipe for exhaust from the newly made donut. Do the same for thee bottom right , that would be the initial inlet from any woodstove. Either box the entire unit in a metal box and add a fan to blow salvaged heated air  to room to be heated .

Seems safe and easy to me but I ride by the seat of my pants .My question to anyone who is interested is do you foresee any issue that may result in a burned down shop and has anyone seen  this before and know if it works?

[rb550four]

  So I went back to the shop to do some  more cleaning... but if you know how I'm wired, you know I won't be able to because of my last post... I need to improve ideas.
  I got as far as restarting the fire in the solid thick cast Triumph fire box when this occurred to me...Firewood isn't the fuel to use.
  What if, I got a propane  fuel injection unit from an LP engine. Changed the orifices out to natural gas, hooked up a hydrogen generator system that is just laying around and use hydrogen as the fuel ? 3000 degrees of fire power from water, no toxic emissions, by product is water.
  The only problem is that it will have to run all winter so it doesn't freeze To do this I must generate a constant 15 amps  @12 volts to brake down the H2O.
  I was toying with making a small electric generator out of Honda parts when I thought perhaps I could reach this goal by solar power, thus eliminating the need for an energy wasting (by friction)shaft driven generating system.
  As I'm over 50, living in upstate NY, solar has not been one of my strong points and has been long considered to be an energy source only for those below the Mason/Dixon line and those that live in the s.west. So I don't know enough about it. Perhaps someone here does.
I would like to know if anyone would be good enough to pass along such needed information.
I know solar has been much improved since the 80's but I don't know much more than that. but I do know that this will solve the generating issue thus, the ability to run constantly would be obtainable.
  If I can make this work in the shop, it's going in the house too. Of course at this point there is always a chance of explosion, but what the heck, if you're goin' in ,go all the way,and sort out the details later right?
  Need input please. It just got bigger than my little shop.

[rb550four]

OMG !!! I got it figured out! It's so simple! Figured out how to do this with what is already on the market, now to figure out how to get it off the grid.
  I'm sorry guys but in just a few years we will be wondering why we were so F in stupid, paying all that money for heating oil, busting our asses messin' with firewood, it 's all so simple that it's hard to fathom. Can't even believe it. I've been screwing with this stuff for years and believed it to be so complicated , something was always missing to make it all work. I just installed a major component 3 weeks ago and didn't even realize it.
  Hint: we can do it now but only on the grid (so far), it involves a power inverter, hydrogen generator, and either an on demand hot water heater or on demand boiler that runs on less than 8 lbs of  gas  (This wasn't available here when I was fooling around with hydrogen generators....we were busy trying to get lawnmowers and cars to run on it...This is much better!).
  Thank you for giving me time to figure it out here, gentlemen. If anyone is interested in throwing more ideas at this, I'm all ears. I think it's time we can all change the world , for the better.
 

[rb550four]

  It's been really cold here lately , less than 20 with a wind chill of -2 in the day time. I'm not complaining, really , when I see those poor folks out in Buffalo NY that have 6 feet plus of snow in 24 hrs and the cold I feel pretty lucky.
 The lack of output from that Triumph stove leaves me house bound and chomping at the bit to get back out in the shop. There's things to do out there, but I'm thinking it can all wait til the weekend when the temps go back up. Guess it's time for a  cocktail and a movie, or screw the movie  and just have cocktails, it could go either way.

[Restoration Fan]

 
  I was toying with making a small electric generator out of Honda parts when I thought perhaps I could reach this goal by solar power, thus eliminating the need for an energy wasting (by friction)shaft driven generating system.
  As I'm over 50, living in upstate NY, solar has not been one of my strong points and has been long considered to be an energy source only for those below the Mason/Dixon line and those that live in the s.west. So I don't know enough about it. Perhaps someone here does.
I would like to know if anyone would be good enough to pass along such needed information.
I know solar has been much improved since the 80's but I don't know much more than that. but I do know that this will solve the generating issue thus, the ability to run constantly would be obtainable.
  If I can make this work in the shop, it's going in the house too. Of course at this point there is always a chance of explosion, but what the heck, if you're goin' in ,go all the way,and sort out the details later right?
  Need input please. It just got bigger than my little shop.

rb,
I'm no solar expert but I was personally intrigued when I watched the Elon Musk special on 60 Minutes a few months ago.  I knew about the PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla companies he had but they mentioned this company called Solar City and talked about how they had become the largest solar provider in the US.

http://www.solarcity.com/company/team

Supposedly, you pay nothing for the solar panels....they pay for it.  You just supposedly pay less for the energy you use then.  You can read more about it on the link above.

Hope it helps.

Also, for what it's worth, we installed a gas, tankless hot water heater about 3 or 4 year ago and it is one of the single best investments that we ever made.  It's big enough that it can handle 2 showers running concurrently while also having either the washing machine or dish washer running.  Frankly, the water heater can handle the demand better than the water pressure from the street can.  We paid about $1400 total for the water heater plus installation, but here's the catch.  Home Depot (where we bought the water heater) gave us an estimate of $2200 to install it because it involved moving the location of the water heater about 12 feet (it has to be located on an exterior wall for venting).  I contacted my plumber, who also has the capability to run black pipe and he did it for me for $400.

When you first put demand load on the system for hot water, it takes about 45 seconds for it to get up to speed...but once it gets there, you can fill up the entire 3-story house with water and it won't run out.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

Oh yeah, one last thing...Georgia has an energy efficient tax credit that essentially gave me about half of the cost of purchase & installation off on my taxes the next year.

[rb550four]

Thanks for the link  Ron, I'm fixin to read it tonight.
  I've put in  a few on demand hot water heaters in town and they are like you say for sure and people like them better than the old HW heater with a timer. I don't do many of them as most people around here have wells  and on demand units just don't last long on well water.
  3 weeks ago I installed a on demand type hot water heating system (standard baseboard, couldn't talk the customer into radiant) didn't give it much thought at the time. The unit was new to me  so I just followed the install instructions to get the job done without major understanding of it's working  improvements over other manufacturers or older machines ....Well, I did some reading...But recently read all the paperwork thoroughly. These new machines are incredible  , and the possibilities for heating homes with a fuel (other than petroleum products ) that is plentiful , ecologically friendly,and out of the hands of big oil companies are better than ever. Hopefully, alternative fuel technology can evolve as quickly as computer technology did and these items can play a big part as stepping stones to a better future.
   Gasoline may never go out of style completely...but if it does , I hope someone comes up with a suitable substitute first. Riding Hondas are just too good to give up.

[rb550four]

  Still no new bikes. 12 step program ya know.
I've been trying really ,really hard...let a bunch go by that should have come home with me.... What? No I'm not crying! ...much. (sniffle).
I have some room left in the cluttered garage that I haven't finished straightening out yet, but I can see the floor. Some projects parked in a line that I can't muster the energy to start.
   So, I'm getting a snowmobile on Monday....Surely that doesn't count on the SOHC-A 12 step program. Need to turn wrenches on something new to me.
   Just got a call from a guy...Honda 500 twin....all the papers...all together...$300...I can pick it up next Saturday. I don't even like twins that much. I'll bet it has a brown seat. I'll bet it isn't worth the fuel to go see it.
  Shoot! I bet it'll be on the trailer when I leave this guy's house.
This probably won't help me with the program.
Does a twin count as 1/2 ?... Half of what?.... Isn't there a point system? I'm a little fuzzy on the rules, seems like this could be a gray area.
 

[Stev-o]

Twins can count, I have an RD350. Unsure if a 500T is worthy of any points though.

What snowmobile you getting?  How much snow is there??

[calj737]

Graft the tracks into the 500T then you have an SOHC-mobile. Only counts as 1 

[rb550four]

No snow yet.
Never had a real snowmobile before , this one is maybe an 89 yamaha 650, the owner has done some work to it so it was very fast, a racer he said.
   He hasn't run it in years since he got ill, and wants it to go to a good home. I'll get her up and running and see what it can do on the ice this year.

[rb550four]

Cal, I did that  to a 550 once I still feel kinda bad about that. It just never felt right about it.
  Maybe it's worth the 1/2 point just to keep the 72 450 company, I think it suffers from piston envy around the 4's.

[rb550four]

Recently I was having a fit about freezing my a$$ off with this Triumph stove and went on about some ideas to capture and direct the flow of heat (blower). So I decided that today was the day to cob the idea together on this ancient stove and see about improving it's output.
   First, since too much heat seemed to be going out the pipe, I had some 3x5" aluminum step flashing around, so I crimped the centers so the screwed center  point would lay flat on the pipe and the corners would flare outwards. Thus absorbing some lost heat and allowing it to be transferred to the tips of the flashing.

Then wrap the whole thing up in an 8" pipe to collect and direct the saved heat down the pipe and out where it's needed. The unit iself only allowed heat to rise. So I slowed it's escape upward and diverted it to the work area by means of (like a hood scoop) capturing heat long enough to direct it to the working area via same fan

  Not high tech, but works better.  The fire box has the mass , but no cooling fins... Perhaps I should drop a couple of finned jugs under the grate and lay them on the cast fire box?
Maybe next time.
Think We'll try the barrel idea next time ans skip this old stove.

[rb550four]

Still no new purchases of anything that says Honda on it.
I did however check out a full dressed Wing, just because I thought it was on CL too long. It had 64K on it, looked nice enough, runs good,all papers, local....but that mileage...it just seems high enough that if anything is gonna wear out and break it would be the day I get it home. Owner is fed up trying to sell it and is putting it in storage for the winter.  He wanted 8oo and I offered him less as a matter of habit. Maybe I'll check back in with him in March , if he still has it and see what he might take then.
 I almost picked up that 500T but luckily was delayed by 18 inches of snow in three days, so I don't know it it's a go or no go. but my snowblower has been getting some exercise.
The 89 Yamaha snowmobile is up and running,took it out for the first time today,it's a beast.
Needs a little more tinkering and a fresh belt or new clutch springs. The belt is on order but I want to run it some before playing with the clutch, it's been sitting for 4 years and it's a bit stiff still.
  As for cleaning up the shop , well that's taken a backseat to snow removal and everything else so far.But I haven't given up on it yet.

[Stev-o]

Lets see the snow machine out in its element

[rb550four]

Tonight I took the snowmobile around the yard....Makes the yard seem so small...Too bad I don't get the same effect with the lawnmower. Too dark for pics of that tonight.
   Guess the 500T is a no go. Oh well, but there is good news, well kind of, it'll wreck my 12 step program for a while, I guess ... it says Honda on it and it's not a 550.  I'm picking this up tomorrow
 http://catskills.craigslist.org/mcy/4797745471.html
It looks beat, cheap, and something I just have to try, anyone know if these are good machines?

[Restoration Fan]

Tonight I took the snowmobile around the yard....Makes the yard seem so small...Too bad I don't get the same effect with the lawnmower. Too dark for pics of that tonight.
   Guess the 500T is a no go. Oh well, but there is good news, well kind of, it'll wreck my 12 step program for a while, I guess ... it says Honda on it and it's not a 550.  I'm picking this up tomorrow
 http://catskills.craigslist.org/mcy/4797745471.html
It looks beat, cheap, and something I just have to try, anyone know if these are good machines?

I had a buddy who had one new back in 84 and he loved it.  As a matter of fact, that and a Nighthawk 450 were the last bikes I've ever ridden (back in 84).  Looking forward to changing that in a few months.

[calj737]

Tonight I took the snowmobile around the yard....Makes the yard seem so small...Too bad I don't get the same effect with the lawnmower. Too dark for pics of that tonight.
   Guess the 500T is a no go. Oh well, but there is good news, well kind of, it'll wreck my 12 step program for a while, I guess ... it says Honda on it and it's not a 550.  I'm picking this up tomorrow
 http://catskills.craigslist.org/mcy/4797745471.html
It looks beat, cheap, and something I just have to try, anyone know if these are good machines?

With a Scottish flag on the tank, it has to be a good machine! Worth the price for that lovely alone-

[rb550four]

Is that what that is? I've been looking for the "O"s all afternoon.

[Riceman]

I need to get me a stove for the shop,but since I've gone without for 26 years why bother now.
Post card from a friend.

[rb550four]

A few years ago , I'da said the same thing but as I get older I 'm less willing to be uncomfortable,  life should be easier as we get a little older because we get a little smarter +1, but we forget a bit more with each passing day - 10.
 I want a better stove , probably find one this summer = -9.

I just did the math, and need to get some kerosene for the salamander.

[rb550four]

I love  having new projects in the shop, but they can't be ugly, They have to look like something worth saving in order to take up the space.
 So I carefully removed the stickers that was covering the side covers of this newly acquired Honda , they said 650 .Thought perhaps the two machines shared the same side covers.
Craigslist\owner advertised it as a 750, That's what I thought I bought... but I had this nagging feeling. Carefully removed the owner applied rattle can flat black paint that was sprayed on everything from the tag on the neck...turns out to be a 650 frame dammit.
 I'm gonna run through the engine numbers to find out what that is, just in case there is a 750 in the cradle. Don't know anything about these mid 80's bikes or if it's even possible to put the 750 in the 650 frame yet but I'll find out soon .
  Fortunately I'm not as pissed as I thought I'd be about the whole thing so far, and I'm willing to accept it for what is. A complete 84 Honda 650 ,clean title, with 23 k ,in need of some work for $400? maybe it could be a good deal?

[Stev-o]

maybe.  It's nice buying a bike that you already have, especially if you have lots of parts on the shelf, instead of having to buy each part that you will need

[rb550four]

True. I bought this 750 (I thought) because I don't have a 750.
I bought a non sohc this time so there would be some left out there for you guys.