That's a great looking Triumph! (Guzzi too)

Cheers!

Beautiful machines. I love the chrome oil bag on your Bonnie, and the AN fittings on the oil lines. The bar height looks perfect. Your Guzzi makes the hair on my arms stand up; lovely bike.

I can't be sure of the OHV / OHC status of the Lifan until I see a close-up of the motor.

Cheers weldangrind. The Triumph has virtually no chrome on it. The frame is nickel plated, and the oil tank is stainless, as are the pipes. The Guzzi has virtually no chrome on it, nor black paint. Everything,including the petrol tank is black powdercoat.

You must've spent hours polishing that oil tank.

Right. Found an English pdf file of the parts manual for all Lifan 125, 150 and 200 GY motors. They are a counter balanced pushrod OHV motor. Yeah!!

The counterbalance is a small parasitic power loss, but it will be overcome by the OHC setup. I haven't ridden an counterbalanced bike yet, but I bet they're smooth.

Arrived at my local shop about 10 days ago. Dead battery, twisted the stiff throttle cable, cable broke. Waiting for their mechanic to come from the main dealer 60kms away to change the above, put some go juice in and fire it up so i can hear it running. Larger fasteners have that nice khaki green finish on them not unlike Guzzis from the 80/90's. Fit and finish is good, decent compression on the k/starter. Enclosed 4 pics.
Mike.

That is an attractive motorcycle. :)

Sharp bike. I like how the headlight shroud flows into the fender.

Thanx guys. Mechanic apparently fixed all the foibles today, tomorrow i will check it out and hear it run. Every person's opinions and tastes are different, i personally don't like the headlight surround plastics supporting the front fender. I will also remove the pretend rad shrouds/tank plastics too. The tank is steel, i'll be looking to change the h/bars immediately for alloy Renthal type copies and some Thai copy of an aftermarket silencer (about $45 ish). Oh yeah, price to ride it out of the shop; $1246.00 !!
What i'd dearly like to do eventually (after a year or two and some proper mileage) is make the thing look like it was made in the 70's, ie a Honda TL/SL/XL 185 or similar. Round headlight, aluminium mudguards, different thin long tank, solo seat and even twin rear shocks. All doable out here. Anybody knows where i can buy 15-16" long dual rear shocks?
Mike.

Something like this 350 trials RE Bullet...

Google is my friend... plenty of shocks available in the 360-410mm range. Sorry. All with 4-5" of movement, prices ranging from cheap to silly.
Mike.

Good taste in bikes Sir! :) I just sold a 72 Triumph Daytona - Good job I had a spare hehehe...

Yeah, by 71 they had ironed out all the small unit 500's weaknesses and minor irritants. Good bikes. This shop selling the Lifan is doing my head in, nice girls running the place, no mechanic, new throttle cable fitted, did'nt check the electrics. Battery not connected, not filled with acid, and they can't find the top plugs. "Can we get you another one in with a different colour, sir?" Aaaah...

So, popped in again today. Sales girl seemed a bit more enthusiastic, had put a bit of fuel in the tank, swapped a battery off a scooter, so it would run. Fired it up, first time i've heard it run. Boy is that silencer pretty loud for a stock pipe! Took it for a spin, getting used to the N @top and all the way down for the up changes and vice versa. Went to a garage and put another $1 in the tank and ran better. Fiddled with the tick over screw, idles nicely. Bit buzzy at 50 mph, rear sprocket is 46, dunno what the g/box sprkt is. Front forks seemed good, brakes good, clutch and g/change good, rear shock a bit stiff. Speedo now has 19 kms on it. Gonna buy it, hopefully do the deal Monday 22nd.