2008 BritBike Calendar is in the mail. If you by any chance missed to order the calendar of the year be real quick we have only a small amount left in stock. Be sure to secure yours NOW or miss out!

Next item from BritBike.com offered to our members will be a real cool t-shirt. Final design is about to be cleared and within a couple of weeks the t-shirt will be awailabe for you to order.

I was proud to buy Louise Kramers old 1957 BSA Dirt tracker. However the bike was very poor condition and a lot of the correct parts was missing. Therefore it's great now when #10 Neil Keen provded a genuine racing seat and #29 Tommy McDermotts 1954 Daytona oiltank arrived thanks to Dick "Bugs"Mann and Adrian Moss in UK. Life is good sometimes. More to come about this restoration.
Here is a link to the project website.

Greetings Britbike members,

I'd like to introduce Tri-Spark as a new sponsor of the Britbike site and also thank Morgan for making it all possible with his efforts in organising the site.

Tri-Spark manufactures ignition systems that eliminate the points ignition in the old British bikes and that makes maintaining them a whole lot easier.

Plenty of Triple riders now have the Tri-Spark kit fitted on their machines and the feedback is positive - better running, better idling and easier starting are the most talked about benefits. Racing teams are also having success with the Tri-Spark at the track.
In addition we now have Tri-Spark kits for Triumph, BSA and Norton twin cylinder engines. Quite a number of these are now in service and getting good reviews.
We also have ignition lead sets available and we're not far away from releasing a machined points cover engraved with the Tri-Spark design.
Some of you might like to know a bit more about the Tri-Spark system, where the idea came from, how it works and how it compares to other systems available for our classic bikes.
The first ignition system I designed came along back when I studied electronics in Canada in the 1980s after developing a keen interest in the subject from a very early age.
In fact I started out my career as a young lad dragging home old radios and TV sets that I found on the curb and then taking them to pieces to see how they worked.
I soon gave that up after figuring out that there was actually nothing to see inside old radios- all the action was concealed in odd looking parts which made the subject all the more interesting and mysterious.
Back in my college days I first put my T160 in the road in 1986 and it was then that I designed my first ignition system for the triple. This design was unique in that it had an adjuster for spark advance on the handle bars that enabled me to try different settings on the road. It was successful in that it worked but it was not refined for manufacturing and it got left unfinished as projects sometimes do.
Two years ago while I was recuperating from shoulder surgery, I found while searching the web (between watching TV and taking pain killers) that The Triples On Line web site was full of interesting people working on their triples.
The questions people posted about ignition related issues reminded me of my old ignition design and I thought - now that I have a manufacturing business it makes sense to design a modern ignition system that will solve these problems.
So what is this Tri-Spark ignition system and how does it work?
The major bits are a rotor and a pick up plate that fit inside the engine plus a black box that goes under the seat and this all wires up to the stock ignition coils to produce spark at the plugs.
What sets it apart from the well known Boyer and RITA kits is that it's a sequential fire not a wasted spark system. This simply means that the coils are fired individually for each cylinder and the benefit of this is a more powerful longer duration spark with a minimum of power drain on the battery.
But isn't it easier to use a wasted spark system like the others you might ask? The wasted spark idea was one of the things I tried with my very first system and I knew from that experience that the engine was sometimes hard to start and was prone to plug fouling.
Compared to the Boyer MKIII on the same engine with the same ignition coils the Tri-Spark makes 36% more voltage and 10 times the spark duration which can easily be seen with the eye.
With an inbuilt microprocessor to control the timing the Tri-Spark is able to give a consistent advance curve with idle stabilisation and dwell control giving top performance while minimising the drain on the battery and charging system.
You might be wondering what all this means when you're going down the road - does it really matter how big the spark is as long as it lights the fuel?
David from the USA answers that in his email where he says,
I've installed the TRISPARK on my 75 T160 and It is the best the bike has ever run from immediate start to consistent low idle to smooth pickup throughout the throttle range needless to say I am completely satisfied and will spread the word to whom ever will listen.
As proof of my satisfaction please send me a quote for my 1975 850 commando electric start.
So these days with new technology it's possible to make a system that produces more spark, uses less power from the battery, giving easier starts, smooth running and a steadier idle.
In the coming months we will be expanding our product range to include more engine types plus we will be adding some useful accessories so please check out our web site www.trispark.com.au for the latest info.
I'll be please to hear from you if you need any further info.

Best wishes,

Steve Kelly

4th Edition The BSA Double-CD

Covers some 1930's models, the wartime SV, and almost all models from 1945 to 1973.
HUGE Service Sheet section! This is the "must have" collection for anyone who owns, maintains, restores, or just loves BSA motorcycles.
Price: US$65.00 includes worldwide shipping

Read more about BSA CD-Manuals!

Triumph Fourth edition The Triumph Double- CD
The Triumph Collection covers almost every Triumph model from 1935 to 1985, with Spare Parts Lists, Workshop Manuals, Service Sheets, or technical articles. The fourth edition has now grown so large it is a double-CD, over 1GB of material in all.
Price: US$65.00 includes worldwide shipping

Read more about Triumph CD-Manuals!

The Norton CD is now into its FOURTH EDITION, and covers not just the Commando, but all the so- called "heavy-weight" twins (as opposed to the under- 400 cc twins) and the "classic" singles - the ES2, the International, and of course the Manx. AND, we even have a post- Commando bike covered, with the inclusion of the workshop manual for the rotary-engine Interpol 2. There is a rebuild manual which also covers the LIGHTWEIGHT TWINS, and the Commando section has been added to with another Parts List, Stage 2 Tuning Notes for the 850, and other minor service-related matters. There is of course a complete set of factory- issued Service Sheets for the Commando (over 170 pages worth!). AND we have added a new Maintenance Manual for the 16H, Big 4, 18, & ES2 singles, and more "memorabilia". There is also a NEW Engine Data Base which covers from the 1946 Model 18 to the 1963 Atlas. This is a single-CD set.
Price: US$65.00 includes worldwide shipping

Read more about Norton CD-Manuals!

This CD covers AJS and/or Matchless machines from 1926 almost without any breaks right through to 1967 for Parts Lists, plus fifteen workshop manuals or out-of- print service and maintenance textbooks covering much the same period. Both twins and singles are covered, and one of the workshop manuals is a Norton Matchless full-on Workshop Manual that covers ALL models (up to 650 cc twins) from 1957 to 1966. The Norton-engined models are well-covered too in other works, and there are lots of lovely reproductions of sales brochures from various periods as well as some excellent histories of the Matchless marque and engine number details. This is a very complete compilation and a MUST for the AJS/Matchless enthusiast. This is a single-CD set.
Price: US$65.00 includes worldwide shipping

Read more about AJS-Matchless CD-Manuals!