Okay, so I got this Triumph 955i, 2004 model. She’s a beauty, but she was showing her age a bit, you know? Needed some love. First thing I did was give her a good once-over.
Checked the oil, which, honestly, looked pretty nasty. So I drained that old stuff out. Took off the oil filter too – that thing was caked. Got a new filter and some fresh oil, and poured that liquid gold in. Felt good, like giving the old girl a blood transfusion.
Next, I moved onto the coolant. This one was a little trickier, had to take off some of the fairings to get to the radiator properly. Found the drain plug, popped that open, and watched the old coolant flow out. It wasn’t as bad as the oil, but still needed replacing. Flushed the whole system with some distilled water, just to make sure I got all the gunk out. Then filled her back up with some nice, new coolant.
Then I went to the brakes. They felt a bit spongy, so I figured a brake fluid flush was in order. Started with the rear brake, then moved to the front. It’s a bit of a tedious process, you know, pumping the lever, opening the bleeder valve, closing it, repeat. But it’s gotta be done. Got all that old, dark fluid out and replaced it with some fresh stuff. Brakes felt much better after that.
- Checked and replaced the spark plugs. The old ones were pretty worn.
- Cleaned the air filter. It wasn’t too bad, but a good cleaning never hurts.
- Lubed up the chain. She was a bit dry.
- Checked the tire pressure. All good there.
- Checked and cleaned all the electric wire connectors.
After all that, I gave her a good wash and polish. She was gleaming in the sun. Started her up, and she purred like a kitten. Took her for a spin, and man, she felt like a whole new bike. All that work really paid off. She’s running smooth and strong now. Feels good to bring an old bike back to life, you know?
A Few More Things
One thing I noticed was the clutch was a little grabby. Might need to look into that later. And the suspension could probably use a refresh too. But for now, she’s running great, and I’m happy with how she turned out. Just goes to show, a little elbow grease can go a long way.
