Odds & Ends Pt. 2

Front Chain Guard

  For some reason, probably known only to Triumph designers, the chain guard on this bike doesn't extend all the way to the drive sprocket housing. There is a one or two inch gap where the chain is exposed. Triumph covered this with a kludgy little "front chainguard" that bolts to a small bracket welded to the frame upright. Well, mine had gone missing, and the prices for original or reproduction items were just silly. Having the guards missing must be common, because I couldn't find a used one in my admittedly limited search. I was able to accumulate a number of pictures of the piece, though, and it looked like I could just make one.

  Started with a scrap piece of 22 gauge galvanized sheet metal, and cut it to a rough overall size I derived from looking at the pictures and measuring the space on the bike.

I curved it around a piece of 1-1/2" pipe, and then rough cut the contour to fit the area around the drive sprocket housing.

Cut a small bracket out of piece of 1/'8" galvanized, bent it to a right angle, drilled it, and shaped it to a pleasing contour.

I have an old spot welder I picked up salvage, so I used it to attach the bracket at the correct odd angle. Without the spot welder, I would have maybe pop riveted it, or maybe even tack welded it.

Some primer and a few coats of black and clear lacquer, and I have a part as good as anything I could buy. Total fab time: an hour or so (not counting paint drying time). Total material cost: pretty close to $0.