Rickman Triumph

I just found this thread and am a Rickman owner it is of interest to me. I have three Rickman street frames, all originally Nickel plated as were all of the original frames I have seen in the US. Two are the Japanese engine frame, both originally having Honda SOHC engines. In the US almost all of the Honda engine bikes had Orange gelcoat, the Kawasakis green gelcoat. My late Rickman sport runs and looks good, the earlier one is currently a rolling basket. It is interesting that the Honda and Kawasaki bikes use the same frame.

I also have a street frame intended for British engines, typically Triumph. I have seen Norton, BSA and Velocette engines in this frame as well. Matchless was also popular for the Metisse frames. My Triumph frame differs from yours by having loops on the sides to support the exhaust and at the back of the frame tubes to suport the back of the seat cowl. Most of these I have seen in the states were Blue. I will build this with a Triumph 650 engine with the Rickman 8 valve head. This will not be started for a couple of years due to other projects. As usual for a Rickman Project I am still missing some parts, steering spindle, fork internals, and swingarm being the most obvious ones.

My principal concern with oil bearing frames is the fear that a former owner has had an engine disintegrate and pass metal fragments into the frame. My oil in frame has a screen that screws into the oil outlet of the frame to keep this from passing back to the oil pump. I highly recommend such a setup.

It is interesting to see the variation in Rickman frames over time. For example, the metal profiles forks with 1/5/8 tubes such as you appear to have were later replaced with 38mm Betors. The British engine frame is narrower than the Japanese frame, from memory about 1.5 in narrower across the seat. the swingarm is narrower as well. If I could ask you a favor, could you provide me with length and width measurements of your swingarm. I have extra Japanese engine swingarms but do not have one for the british fram which I will need to make or modify from a Japanese one. Also, how did you deal with the swingarm bushings which are similar to the bushings that remove vibration on the handlebars of some british bikes but are at this point rock hard?

I was lucky enough to meet Derek and Don years ago at Daytona and got their autographs on my Rickman manuals. IMHO, Rickman was a great chapter in British moto history and these bikes outperformed their contemporaries which is why they were popular. Good luck on getting this chapter of British history back on the road.
 
Hi Ilikevelos
Rickman 8 valve in a Rickman frame just sounds so right. The 8 valve makes for a nice engine. My original 8 valve is in a Jim Lee frame, race not road. My ex police Rickman, same as Dellis also went racing & has a T140 Bonnie engine in it. The police bike frames had a black finish, Saint 650 engine. My late Rickman Trident has 38mm Betor forks but the 72 Rickman Trident has Rickmans own 1 & 5/8" forks, same as the ones on Dellis bike, these were never made by Metal Profile! On my Yamsel I swapped the swinging arm out for a wider swinging arm. I still have the original in the garage. I also fitted a Daytona engine as the frame had been well mullered & I couldn't afford to buy or keep a TD2 in one piece. Sounds like a wish list of Rickmans but I always wanted a Ralph Seymore Velocette Mettise lol.
Ps dont forget my signal yellow Rickman Daytona frame with a Commando engine in it, lol.
The headstock on a Rickman is the same length as the Norton. I fitted a Norton front end on this as spares weren't available for the Rickman forks. I've had stantions made since then.
My retirement is going to be busy 😂
 
Dellis said:
I have a Rickman Triumph Metisse the road race version which is road registered and needs some t.l.c. I’m only the fourth owner and I’ve known the bike since I was a schoolboy when it lived just up the road from my childhood home then a pal of mine bought it in 1984 restored it and it was back on the road in ‘91 it was then in regular use until around 2005 and has done little since then. I bought it from my pal in 2015 and it’s sat in the corner of my workshop since then, I didn’t really want the bike but was persuaded… Anyway I have very little interest in it, no idea why, but it just doesn’t do anything for me. When it came it has a stalled tank with a tank cover which I sold and am now in the process of ordering a new tank from Rickman. I plan to get it back together set it up and sell it. The question is what colour should I order the tank and seat unit in? There’s no point in me choosing a colour as I’m not going to be the owner so what do we think would be best to go for with a view to saleability? Or just sell it as is and let the new owner choose their own?

Dave
Click to expand...
Do you own a rickman Matisse CBX1000 ? If so a friend of mine sent me a couple of pics 👍👌
 
Shelby-Right said:
Do you own a rickman Matisse CBX1000 ? If so a friend of mine sent me a couple of pics 👍👌
Click to expand...
I had a friend that had a custom framed cbx. I don't remember the framemaker but it was a perimeter frame with no center maintube. It was very cool. Unfortunately this friend has passed and I have no idea what happened to the bike.

I had thought the rickman 1 5/8 forks were made to their design by metal profiles. I have a complete fork on my earlier Rickman Honda and most of one for the Rickman Triumph. I bought that bike from a guy that was drag racing it. It is an 836 and came with several fairly impressive timing slips in the 11s. Will build as a stock looking CR. Engine is fairly modified with the starter and gears removed and a cb350 alternator.

I have been amassing parts for the Rickman Triumph for some years and have most of what I need and will make the rest. For the fork I plan to try to use Racetech cartridge emulators to provide the damping.

I bought the rickman 8 valve top end years ago and look forward to building it. It will not fit a 750 case so I have a T120RV case and have a new T140 5spped LF harris cluster to install. I know the crankshaft will not take the rpm that the head will deliver so I will install a soft electronic rev limiter. I am not a triumph guy but would like to strength the crank in some reasonable way. Will probably seek to lighten the bike but will run the rickman forks, borranis with rickman hubs, the front is the later unshrouded rickman hub. Should be a fun build but is realistically about two years from the beginning.

Best.
 
Chris said:
Hi Ilikevelos
Rickman 8 valve in a Rickman frame just sounds so right. The 8 valve makes for a nice engine. My original 8 valve is in a Jim Lee frame, race not road. My ex police Rickman, same as Dellis also went racing & has a T140 Bonnie engine in it. The police bike frames had a black finish, Saint 650 engine. My late Rickman Trident has 38mm Betor forks but the 72 Rickman Trident has Rickmans own 1 & 5/8" forks, same as the ones on Dellis bike, these were never made by Metal Profile! On my Yamsel I swapped the swinging arm out for a wider swinging arm. I still have the original in the garage. I also fitted a Daytona engine as the frame had been well mullered & I couldn't afford to buy or keep a TD2 in one piece. Sounds like a wish list of Rickmans but I always wanted a Ralph Seymore Velocette Mettise lol.
Ps dont forget my signal yellow Rickman Daytona frame with a Commando engine in it, lol.
The headstock on a Rickman is the same length as the Norton. I fitted a Norton front end on this as spares weren't available for the Rickman forks. I've had stantions made since then.
My retirement is going to be busy 😂
Click to expand...
I did a general reply as I was away for thanksgiving. Would love to get a look at your 8valve and hear your experience with it. I am not familiar with the Jim Lee frame. I looked him up on line and saw his work, very cool. As to the velo frame, I screwed up not buying a rickman velo one year at the woods daytona auction, it went for under 10K and had a badass sounding thruxton engine. These custom framed bikes are an interesting part of moto history well worth preserving. Best.
 
ilikevelos said:
I had a friend that had a custom framed cbx. I don't remember the framemaker but it was a perimeter frame with no center maintube. It was very cool. Unfortunately this friend has passed and I have no idea what happened to the bike.

I had thought the rickman 1 5/8 forks were made to their design by metal profiles. I have a complete fork on my earlier Rickman Honda and most of one for the Rickman Triumph. I bought that bike from a guy that was drag racing it. It is an 836 and came with several fairly impressive timing slips in the 11s. Will build as a stock looking CR. Engine is fairly modified with the starter and gears removed and a cb350 alternator.

I have been amassing parts for the Rickman Triumph for some years and have most of what I need and will make the rest. For the fork I plan to try to use Racetech cartridge emulators to provide the damping.

I bought the rickman 8 valve top end years ago and look forward to building it. It will not fit a 750 case so I have a T120RV case and have a new T140 5spped LF harris cluster to install. I know the crankshaft will not take the rpm that the head will deliver so I will install a soft electronic rev limiter. I am not a triumph guy but would like to strength the crank in some reasonable way. Will probably seek to lighten the bike but will run the rickman forks, borranis with rickman hubs, the front is the later unshrouded rickman hub. Should be a fun build but is realistically about two years from the beginning.

Best.
Click to expand...
I hope I'm allowed to post this , it's not my pic , it's for sale . Cheers
Rickman Triumph
Rickman Triumph
 
Shelby-Right said:
I hope I'm allowed to post this , it's not my pic , it's for sale . CheersView attachment 117467View attachment 117468
Click to expand...
Hmm. Each to his (her?) own taste, but me no like.
The CBX is a fantastic engine, but I'm doubtful of the ability of the Rickman frame to control it.

I once saw a "replica" RC166 which used a CBX engine, the whole thing was scaled up in size to accommodate the larger engine, but the forks were still 35mm and it had a drum brake....
I can only assume it was intended to be a static display item. At the same event, there was a herd of tweaked CBX's from a French club who were circulating round Spa at a very high rate of knots. Bloody things came past me on the long straight doing at least 100 km/h more than I was, with the most unearthly scream. Most impressive, these blokes knew how to ride.
 
ilikevelos said:
I just found this thread and am a Rickman owner it is of interest to me. I have three Rickman street frames, all originally Nickel plated as were all of the original frames I have seen in the US. Two are the Japanese engine frame, both originally having Honda SOHC engines. In the US almost all of the Honda engine bikes had Orange gelcoat, the Kawasakis green gelcoat. My late Rickman sport runs and looks good, the earlier one is currently a rolling basket. It is interesting that the Honda and Kawasaki bikes use the same frame.

I also have a street frame intended for British engines, typically Triumph. I have seen Norton, BSA and Velocette engines in this frame as well. Matchless was also popular for the Metisse frames. My Triumph frame differs from yours by having loops on the sides to support the exhaust and at the back of the frame tubes to suport the back of the seat cowl. Most of these I have seen in the states were Blue. I will build this with a Triumph 650 engine with the Rickman 8 valve head. This will not be started for a couple of years due to other projects. As usual for a Rickman Project I am still missing some parts, steering spindle, fork internals, and swingarm being the most obvious ones.

My principal concern with oil bearing frames is the fear that a former owner has had an engine disintegrate and pass metal fragments into the frame. My oil in frame has a screen that screws into the oil outlet of the frame to keep this from passing back to the oil pump. I highly recommend such a setup.

It is interesting to see the variation in Rickman frames over time. For example, the metal profiles forks with 1/5/8 tubes such as you appear to have were later replaced with 38mm Betors. The British engine frame is narrower than the Japanese frame, from memory about 1.5 in narrower across the seat. the swingarm is narrower as well. If I could ask you a favor, could you provide me with length and width measurements of your swingarm. I have extra Japanese engine swingarms but do not have one for the british fram which I will need to make or modify from a Japanese one. Also, how did you deal with the swingarm bushings which are similar to the bushings that remove vibration on the handlebars of some british bikes but are at this point rock hard?

I was lucky enough to meet Derek and Don years ago at Daytona and got their autographs on my Rickman manuals. IMHO, Rickman was a great chapter in British moto history and these bikes outperformed their contemporaries which is why they were popular. Good luck on getting this chapter of British history back on the road.
Click to expand...


Hi,

Sorry I’ve not been on here for a while, I can let you have the dimensions of the swinging arm, what specifically are you looking for? When it comes to the bushes, it runs on two nylon bushes, so I’m not sure what you mean about the type bushes you mentioned. The swinging arm is now back in the frame, the only issue I had was that when I stripped the bike the swinging arm needed too much pressure to move up and down, the problem was that the chamfered spacers were too tight and needed some machining. They need to grip the central tube but they were gripping the outside tube of the swinging arm, I’ve now got it so there is zero play and everything moves freely.

Dave
 
robs ss said:
You've obviously never done the valve shims on one - pure bastardry
I'm still scarred from the early eighties.
Click to expand...
I did say "if I really wanted one"....
Is it actually worse than doing a Desmo though? To do that properly, you do need to at least remove 2 of the 2 mounting bolts and pivot the engine down to get the rear head.
My bevel is a "pre Desmo", not too hard to do in the frame. Just needs a tweezer and patience :cool:
 
SteveBorland said:
I did say "if I really wanted one"....
Is it actually worse than doing a Desmo though? To do that properly, you do need to at least remove 2 of the 2 mounting bolts and pivot the engine down to get the rear head.
My bevel is a "pre Desmo", not too hard to do in the frame. Just needs a tweezer and patience :cool:
Click to expand...
It's not that - the shims are really small in diameter and the tool requires you to put it between the 2 buckets you're working on, while the cam has them open. then close the cam to give clearance to get the shims out. In reality the tool is invariable trapping one of the shims in situ - so... start again. this has to be done twelve times - did I mention TWELVE?
By comparison, the Suzuki (GS) tool was used while the valve was closed. the tool had a cam built into it so that, as you inserted it, it opened the valve so that the LARGER shim could be removed. MUCH better!!
I think I have PTSD over this. ;) ;)

I used to do a few of my mates bikes. Kwakas were easy. Yammies were easy, Suzukis were easy. Hondas, including Bol d'Ors, were bastards!!
 
Last edited:
robs ss said:
It's not that - the shims are really small in diameter and the tool requires you to put it between the 2 buckets you're working on, while the cam has them open. then close the cam to give clearance to get the shims out. In reality the tool is invariable trapping one of the shims in situ - so... start again. this has to be done twelve times - did I mention TWELVE?
By comparison, the Suzuki (GS) tool was used while the valve was closed. the tool had a cam built into it so that, as you inserted it, it opened the valve so that the LARGER shim could be removed. MUCH better!!
I think I have PTSD over this. ;) ;)

I used to do a few of my mates bikes. Kwakas were easy. Yammies were easy, Suzukis were easy. Hondas, including Bol d'Ors, were bastards!!
Click to expand...
Easier to remove the cams than fart about with the tool & a pair of tweezers.
 

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