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Triumph cyl head stays

6K views 17 replies 15 participants last post by  kllrjo 
#1 ·
I just picked up a 67' triumph bobber and the builder omitted the cyl. head stays. Are they important? Should I fab some frame mounts and get those back on there?
 
#4 ·
the factory thought it was important! search the threads here for a heated debate on this subject......will they run w/out one? yes they will. how far? anyones guess! the last guy to argue against this called me in the middle of the night to bring him the 2 screws to his float bowl,a gasket and a float needle! on I4, 60miles from where i live.......when we installed the top mount we also found the aftermarket frame cracked at the back mounts and the holes wallor`d out on the front mounts! surprising how well the clutch worked after tightening everything up,too!
seriously, no law says they have to be there![except the law of physics!] and yet, the factory thought they were important enough to install them! [of course, the factory would have to WARRENTY any breakage, at their own cost!] i dont see the guys at JOHNSON MOTORS or TRICOR accepting many of these bikes w/out them!
 
#7 ·
I think the the truth really is that no one knows if they are truely needed or not. Triumphs have been run both with them or without them. The fact is the factory put them on there and after using the search engine on this subject and reading some of the horror stories in those threads I chose to run them on mine. Now some of those guys telling those horror stories might be talking out the side of there necks but I didn't want to chance my jugs breaking my cases. So if you chose to run without them do it at your own risk. Another thing you can do is look at the Triumphs these guys are building who build them for a living. Check out guys like Tony "the Tourch" at Classic Cycles inc., Wes at Fouraces, Tyler and the crew at Lowbrow, The crews at factory metal works and the great guys at flyright. These guys build these bikes for a living see if there running head stays. Anyway hope this post gets you in the right direction.
 
#10 ·
we have had customers pull off the freeway because they felt like the bike was shaking so bad it was going to explode, after carefully going over the whole bike they found the head stays were loose. they tightened them back up got back on the freeway and everything was good again.
so you decide if they do any good....
 
#12 ·
I've never really understood the big debate over head steadies. If the bike is gonna be ridden, why wouldn't you want to have them? If it's because of how they look, there are a million different ways to make them, make some that look great and flow with the rest of the bike.
 
#14 ·
Seen this debated time and time again. I agree 2 is better than 1,1 is better than none. They put 'em on at the factory for a reason. I don't think anyone here will argue the fact that the early Triumph motors we're state of the art for the time. Tyler @Lowbrow has A GREAT tech blog on how to build yer own.

Don't know 'nothin. Just my two cents......
 
#15 ·
I ran all last summer without one. The bike was in shakedown stage, and it was never a problem.

Winter rebuild is nearly complete and I've fabbed up a solid head stay mount and bolted it in. I figure it will probably transmit some of the vibration from the top end back into the frame instead of it getting to the frame through the front and rear mounts, therefore taking some stress off the mounts, even if it is just a tiny bit.

It won't make the bike function any worse, so why not?
 
#17 ·
I would say make some up, or get some of the stock style ones and just weld a tab on the frame. There is a thread on the JJ about custom top motor mounts for Triumphs here

http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61854&highlight=head

Here are the ones I made for my '55 pre unit Triumph last year, same idea would work fine for a unit Triumph.



Also, you want your motorcycle to perform at it's best most likely, so why have it vibrate and operate inefficiently, robbing power?
 
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