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So true. Lately, my project efforts focus on freeing up workspace by putting basket cases back together. It's slow going but it does eventually clear off a workbench or two.
Meethinks Mr. Fletcher might be better off finding a "Motorcycles Anonymous" group somewhere than asking for our help!

I have a carport, an 8' x 12' shed, and a small workshop off the carport.
I only have the two Triumphs, but I still troll Craigs List for other bikes. Unless it's something really attractive and reasonable, I don't want another project. My Bonneville is relatively trouble free, but I look for a decent Japanese 250- 450 twin with an electric leg, something I don't have to plan all morning to ride into town.
Maybe I'll just go to the dealer in Lenoir City and buy a new RE Meteor.

Going slowly and carefully. It took over an hour just to make the props for the pistons, which have to be a precise thickness if you don't want the pistons to move around while you're trying to get the cyl. barrel on. (Oh, BTW, this is a TR5T.)

I wasn't able to source proper flip-lock, wrinkle-band ring compressors for this size piston, so I have to use those T-bolt clamps, which are inconvenient in a few ways. First, they have to be completely opened to get them on, and then it's difficult to get the bolt back in place without rotating the rings. Then you have to get just the right tension on the bolt so the rings are compressed but the compressor will slide down. Ideally the ring compressors will support the weight of the barrel without sliding down until you push the barrel down. That's so that you can get the pistons properly aligned with the bores before pushing the barrel down. (There is a bit of side-to-side play on the connecting rods.) The barrel must be slid down over the rings straight and decisively; if it "kicks up" on one side, it's back to square one with the whole process.

Lastly, once the barrel is on, in order to remove the T-bolt clamps, they must be slid down past the bottom edge of the piston skirts, and the wooden props removed, one at a time, while the cylinder barrel is more or less suspended in midair.

All that remains is to prepare myself mentally to drop that barrel on tomorrow.

I've got that job to do tomorrow on my A65. I have the 9" x 5/8 x 5/8" support sticks, but no proper ring compressors. I can usually get by with 3" worm-gear hose clamps, especially if I have a second set of hands helping. I generally have to buy dinner afterward though.

Lannis

I too, use the worm gear hose clamps. It helps to pinch out small divots every couple of inches to keep the hose clamps from trying to enter the cylinders.

And here in use, although you can't see the divots here.

Tom

Its quicker and easier to have some strips of annealed aluminium or brass and compress the rings using cable ties over those strips instead of using hose clamps. Then, once the cylinder(s) are over the rings it takes seconds to snip the cable ties and take the annealed strips out. I have never needed a second pair of hands and never had a problem.

John

am i alone these days in just using the bionic fingers approach to piston rings?

nothing else has ever worked for me.

You are not alone, me too.

Me three.
It's easy if you simply line the ring gaps up toward the thrust face (1 piece oil ring) then rock the cylinder a bit so it first covers the portion of the ring away from the gap. Then work the cylinders slowly over the rings, gradually straightening, applying a judicious poke here and there, until the rings are fully in. Done it many times that way.

But, I think I can hear the howls of outrage from here. WHAT, DON'T YOU KNOW the ring gaps have to be staggered? Yes I know, and that's what I do when using a ring compressor. But I also know that rings that aren't pinned rotate when the engine is running and they will not stay lined up for long. Haven't had any smoking problems either. But to each his own.

A little time filing a lead in the barrel with a 1/2 round file makes the job easy.

i think my stuff must all have chamfers in the liners already.

whichever, ive never been coordinated enough to manage any of the ring compressor techniques, whether its real tools, hose clamps, plastic soda jug strips, zip ties, whatever.

but if i carefully lower the jugs and work the rings in by hand they generally do it without a lot of fuss

I did that the first two times I installed cylinders on a triple. It worked the first time, I broke one ring the second time The bike was my only transportation, so I rode the bus to the end of the line and walked a couple of miles to the dealer to get a 500 ring (he said it would fit.) Had to do the whole trek again to get a correct 250 ring.
When I did my A65 I used a couple of hose clamps. I also did that the last time I put new rings on my Trident. I have one of the correct triple ring compressors, but it's too loose on a standard bore piston. The hose clamp is only difficult to remove from the center piston.
I have bought a couple of those T bolt ring compressors for when my cylinders come back from boring. You haven't lived until you put cylinders back on a triple, it's another job which really takes three hands, but I've always been able to do it alone.
The triple liners are already chamfered at the bottom.

i think on occasion ive run a bolt into the top of the jugs and then suspended them from the frame as i work the rings in. normally i dont do it but it seems to me that it might be helpful on a triple.

Another vote for 2 of those wider 3 inch hose clamps, for 650/750 twins. Goes to the races in the top of the tool box so you always have them, and you can use it alone without a helper to keep the weight of the cylinder off the rings so you don't break/bend, just get everything lined up and the cylinder started down to the clamps, and then gently and evenly loosen the clamps a little at a time and gently rock the cylinder down. In the garage, a real ring compressor works better, but who has one of those with them on the road?

Good thing I never had to remove/replace cylinders away from home. I'm sure that it happens all the time.

We tried the fingers-only way last night but it was too much of a fight.

Used the hose clamps and they slid on fairly easily. Have to find the sweet spot where the clamp is tight enough to squeeze the rings down to a .010 gap but not so tight that it won't slide.....

Lannis

well, it does happen often enough at the races. Daytona, for instance, is approximately 4000 miles from home up here in the great frozen north, and that's pretty much "on the road."

Well, I work so slowly that if I had to do this for pay I couldn't buy a popsicle with my weekly earnings LOL!

Anyway, I finally got done with prepping my 1979 T140D for the upcoming riding year. This bike has very mild engine mods, including MAP 9-1/2 to 1 pistons, retimed intake cam (98.5 deg., exhaust stock 103 deg.), R lifters on both intake and exhaust, new AMAL Mk IIs with European jetting, and a pair of Uni sock air filters and a short (and unfortunately noisy) muffler to let it breathe. It is a real pleasant ride but like all of them, it takes a bit of maintenance to keep going and there are always lots of things to improve and fettle.

This year in an attempt to get rid of some of the stiction that infects these forks I replaced the cheap fork tubes I originally bought for this with made in Britain OEM quality tubes. The cheap Chinese ones were .002-.003 oversize, which decreased the clearance to the sliders about half, so I am hoping this will help a lot. . The "never leak" fork seals, of course, leaked and soaked the brake pads with oil. I replaced them with the two lip standard seals, in the hopes of getting better life and better sealing, but I am introducing back a major source of stiction here. Anyway, other than those changes, I left the forks as I had them, otherwise optimized to decrease stiction--viton piston rings to replace the o-rings, etc. Hopefull after the seals wear in, I won't have added too much stiction back.

I also changed the front brake pads, changed the disc to a full floater disc, changed the sock Uni air filters to some black ones (just an appearance preference here), and changed the engine oil and Charlie's filter, the trans oil, and adjusted the valves and the chains.Finally, I fixed a broken wire in the turn signals and revived them. It took forever to get this modest set of accomplishments done, but now that the days are a bit longer and the snow is melting in Alaska, I'll have more motivation to do my T120, Commando and Spitfire more quickly so I have them all ready for riding come May.

Always used the fingers method when all I ever had was singles, from Bantam, Villiers 225 etc. up to the ES2 and 500 Clipper and so on. Now, with twins, I managed to get the barrel on the Daytona the other day with the correct clamps but it was still fun holding barrel up without pulling it off the rings while I got the ring clamps out of the plot. Next time I might try holding the barrel up with some kind of rig as Kevin suggested. There's never anyone handy when one gets the urge to do those kind of jobs. Made up a couple of handles recently when I had to put the assembled engine without barrel into the frame a few days ago. I guess I'm just getting old...... now that I'm over 80.... but summer is coming!

Cheers, Wilf