Theshock springs had rusted so theywere
rubbed down and paintedwithRustoleum.
It’s very elastic socopes well with theflexing
of the springs.
Thewheel rims arestainless as arethe
rear brakerodand most of the fasteners.The
mudguards arestill the Hamrax ones which
Chris had used previously.The forkstoo were
restored both inside and out.
ForClairetouse theCub, ease of starting
wasplacedveryhigh on the agenda.Allthe
originalTriumph electronicswereditchedin
favour ofaBoyer electronic ignition unit and
aBoyer Powerbox.Thishas resulted in the
elimination ofvarious unreliablecomponents.
To tidy everything up,all the electrics have
nowbeen hiddenawayin‘Claire’sbasket’
situatedbehind the saddle.Fittinga2mm
head gasket instead of the moreusual 1.6mm
one also makes starting easier.The kickstartis
morelike a‘pres sstart’according to Chris.The
thicker gasket alsoreducestop speed slightly,
but Clairedoesn’t intend on breaking any
speed limits anyway.
Lighting is nowLED throughout,fed by
the generatorand Powerbox,and modern,
reliable switchgearcompletes everything.
Theoriginal headlighthas beenreplaced with
aDaymaker-styl eone purchased from eBay,
and this morethan adequately lights up the
road without dimming on lowerrevs–amajor
improvementonold Lucas equipmentand
essentialwhen using energy transfer ignition.
AMikuni carbhas replaced the original
Amal and the little Cub ticks overareal
trea t. Theclutchtoo has been improved
by the addition of anApicoclutchand Rex
Cauntclutch springs which have re moved
the annoying habit of clutch slip thatCubs
can suffer.Chris even managedtoget some
tank badge backing mounts this time,sot he
badges arenow complete.
To completethe lookhe wantedtoachieve,
Chris needed someknobblytyres. He chose
Kendas not onlyfortheir ex cellentvalue,
but becausefindingtyres of thecorrectsize
tofitthe Cubprove dtobequitedifficult.
Although these arenotionally‘budget’tyres,
Chris is morethanpleased with thegood
roadholding they provide.
TheCub nowstartswell,handles like
adream, isvery lighttomanoeuvreand
stop s... eventually!With the wideratiogearbox, it is possibleto go through the
first three gears intwenty feet.Top gear,
even with the lowere dcompression,givesa
respectableroad speed,sok eeping up with
trafficisn’t aproblem.
Futureplans include thefitting ofa‘back
door’clutchaccess plate.ManytrialsCub
owners will already be familiar with this
modification.It allo ws the gearboxsprocket
to be changedby just ta king offtheprimary
coverand cl utch.Currentl y, to change
the sprocket it is necessarytoremove the
head,barreland split the bottom half of the
engineto accomplish thisrelatively simple
task.Following this,astainless steelexhaust
systemreally would be the icing on thisvery
tastycake.
Claireand Chrishaveone morething
plannedforthe Cub–and that’s to returnto
the Manx GPforasecond honeymoon!Bright modernityimprovesthe classicCubexperience, plainly