Too much off road?

[badrooster]

I've been riding my 96 a bit aggressive off road I guess. When I got home I not only found the rear turn signals hanging by the wires, but later found the sub frame broken. No weight on rear except rear rack. I guess I'll have to strip it and weld it up. Maybe add some more support while I'm at it.  Anyone have any "been there done that " wisdom for me? Also anybody know where I might get some matching signals. I only have one, and it's a front , a little shorter stalk then the rear.

[Nick Calne]

Congratulations to my knowledge you have done something new, unique, original.  Just what sort of off roading were you doing?!

Good luck with the welding!

[badrooster]

Mostly gravel and dirt roads. A little jumping. I was chasing my son on his 990 ktm. The old tiger does handles surprisingly well off road with speeds up to 50 mph. Even better on the slow technical stuff.

[London_Phil]

Once repaired, you might consider Pannier frames. The ones I had on my Steamer mounted from the rear foot peg mounts and the rear of the subframe, creating a triangulated support.
Should improve the support of the rear frame/topbox.
I'm sure someone had this before, and some triangulated weld supports were involved.
Might be worth a forum search?

[Sin_Tiger]

This failure is actually more common than you might think, pre '96 bikes were more prone as there's a slightly longer gusset under the top rail where the riser joins it on later frames. Don't be hard on yourself, I've seen more than one "street only" Steamer with this failure.

Just get someone who knows what they're doing with a TIG welder to join it back flat, then plate the vertical sides with some 2.5-3mm flat bar or cut sheet and you'll be back in action again.

(Specialist subject mode on) The indicator stalks on the Steamer are all the same length, 75mm from flat end to where the threaded tube exits if my memory is correct. The hard part to find is the actual head / lens, as long as you still have that you can get replacement stalks either from Trevor at Sprint Manufacturing in the UK for a sensible £9.00. I've seen others on Ebay but I have no idea what the quality is like. Again don't be too hard on yourself, these do age and get brittle, they seem fine and then one day you'll look at them the wrong way and they'll disintegrate into shrapnel.

If you have a longer stalk on the rears, it's possible that they have been replaced with ones from a Daytona / Sprint fronts, I've seen that done to get clearance for some aftermarket side racks.

https://www.triumphparts.co.uk/product/indicator-stalk-front-trident-trophy-daytona-speed-triple-900/

Apologies, I just looked at your second pic, those are aftermarket indicators, similar to Girly ones

https://www.triumphparts.co.uk/product/indicator/

[badrooster]

Thanks for the support and great information.  . I'll update with the fix and finish pics when complete.

[Sin_Tiger]

Best of luck with the repairs, we're always happy to share what we have 

[badrooster]

Got it fixed!  Welded the frame, then added bar as suggested. Probably stronger then before.  There's two pics of what triumph calls cat converters for California. If any ones interested, it runs and sounds the same with or without them. The last pic is back together and ready for more abuse.  Added the heed crash bars and lower foot pegs I found from a parts bike. Please excuse the husky 701 turn signals, but some parts are scarce around here and the price was right.

[Sin_Tiger]

Excellent  pretty decent looking job too. Doubt there's enough material in those to melt down for jewelery 

I'm not sure I can excuse the indicators, I have a reputation to maintain    but they're close enough to those on the Roadies & 800's to get away with it, if you've got the weather for a ride 

[ghulst]

That is looking good!    Looking forward to seeing more pics of the bike out in the boonies.

Oh, and on the indicators, there might be inmates here who might have some lying around. If you ask me, I know the Husky ones are not original, but if it gets the bike back on the road... I am all for it.

[ssevy]

My original rear indicators dry rotted at the rubber stalk, so I reinforced them with a piece of hacksaw blade and some of that self-sealing silicone tape. I bought new ones, but they have already begun the drooping process. Whatever the rubber material is in the stalks, it must degrade over time regardless of UV exposure.

[Sin_Tiger]

I spoke to a chap who's in the business of supplying liquid "Rubber" etc. for small batch casting. He explained that the industrial manufacturing process uses different composition materials and a higher temperature and higher pressure technique, more akin to injection moulded plastics. I was told that after market copies will colour fade and become brittle quicker as a consequence. Sometimes factory is best 

[Bixxer Bob]

2013 Explorer has the rear indicator droop we all know...

[ssevy]

I spoke to a chap who's in the business of supplying liquid "Rubber" etc. for small batch casting. He explained that the industrial manufacturing process uses different composition materials and a higher temperature and higher pressure technique, more akin to injection moulded plastics. I was told that after market copies will colour fade and become brittle quicker as a consequence. Sometimes factory is best 

My new ones were factory, but I suspect they had been on a shelf in a warehouse for a fair amount of time, and that may have contributed to their flaccid tendencies.

[Sin_Tiger]

There was barely any flex in original Steamer / T300 stalks from the factory, I did get to handle a set once    so rigid repro's aren't such a big deal as far as I'm concerned.