Pickin' up bones

I picked up this hacked up pre-unit chopper chassis for free. The frame, in my eyes, is junk, but it had some good unit parts on it. Forks, front wheel, tapered bearing headset... all unit I thought until I saw the rear wheel. Skinny axle, sleeved spacers, well holy smokes, this here is a rigid Triumph rear wheel! unfortunately they used tapered wheel bearings, and they ain't cheap. I really have no idea why they used such a skinny axle on these bikes. I plan to ride the bike n dirt, so I may not even use it. I'll probably use a 1954 on thicker axle wheel, and just grind flats on the axle to fit the axle plates. Anyway, a hard to find piece these days, now to find the hard to find brake plate.

Rigid Numero Uno

I got 2 extended front ends in the pile, one with extended tubes, the other with extended lowers. I thought the lowers might be a cool trick park, but upon inspection, they were total redneck style. The lower bolt was welded shut, and the internals welded to the bottom. There was no room to ever be able to remove the forks tubes, so out came the grinder. I don't know a lot about fork tube differences, but I just happen to have a nice set that were exactly the same length as stock, so I used those. I took the two front ends and managed to make one good set.





Now a I have a roller. I know I want to run double 19"s and the pull back yokes. Finding the right bars is the problem, but I know the Stelling Hellings T3 bars look great. SO now the hunt begins for a set of those and some ram horn pipes, or similar repros.

Walt Fulton's 1951 Thunderbird

Ridin' Buddy

Took Max on a nice long ride to Port Costa and back on the '64 TR6.
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Happy Father's Day To Me! The Oregon Haul

The Triumph factory rigid, my elusive acquisition for 20 years, my unicorn. I have never been in the right place at the right time, and I have just watched prices climb and climb. I got word of 2 stashes in Oregon. I was determined to finally get MINE. I sold a bike, kissed my wife and thanked her for being so understanding and enabling of my mental illness, and set off for an 1100 mile ONE DAY road trip to Oregon and back.

I left just after 4AM Saturday morning. I haven't been in Oregon in about 10 years. Last time I did so Lori and I were driving a '63 Ford Galaxie back from Seattle. That trip didn't go so well. I had never been on the I-5 section and it was beautiful. The views of Mt Shasta were amazing. I was scouting future family vacation spots left and right.



I arrived at my first stop. I met some really cool dudes that have been into bikes and cars a hell of a lot longer than me. I picked up a 1952 frame set up for a Harley 45, and a chromed 1950 frame. Also a '66 Bonnie motor in a '63 frame, a butt load of wheels and parts, and a cool old Sansui and Marantz receiver.



On to my next stop 4 hours north. This time I picked up a '59 Bonneville motor with an ironhead top end in a 1954 frame, a 1954 T110 motor (8 bolt alloy head), a set of 47 5T cases and parts, and a bunch of other really useful... crap. All in all both stops, almost enough to build 3 rigids from.

Loaded up and headed home, I left at 6PM and made it home at 2AM, ahead of schedule.









The aftermath. I unloaded the car and trailer on Sunday in about 100 degree weather. This should keep me busy for a while. I already know how I want to build 2 of the rigids, and I can guarantee they will not have 16" rear wheels with unit front ends.



'63 frame, '66 Bonnie motor. Set up as a flat tracker at some point, neat oil tank mod.
















Be Happy


All I can say is EPIC.

Bell Moto III Helmet 1977

A few months ago I was wandering around my new favorite man cave antique store in Concord and found this dusty old Bell Moto III helmet for $20. I've been watching prices on these for years skyrocket and be ridiculous. And the new ones aren't cheap either. I wore it for a while and then decided I should start restoring it. I removed the old foam and took the foam out of a helmet I don't use anymore and it fit perfectly. I then went to Ned's in Concord and got some color-natched rattlecan. I should add he was really excited to tell me how close he got it. I haven't decided if I'm going for the full resto look with stickers and all... I am leaning towards that.

Hypothermia and a tee pee

The new splash park at Larkey Park opened up by us. This has been an unseasonably chilly and windy year so far so it was mid 60's and breezy, and the park was in shade. I had to pull Max out when he couldn't even communicate anymore from being so cold. But the place is great!



Maeve was happy as usual




And after talking about it for a while, with Max's help, I made him a tee pee out of some old branches.

Hill Holder

I've been helping Kjell with his '56 T110 project here and there, guiding him with parts. He wanted a small front hub (talked him out of a spool) so we got him a Tiger Cub, 1956 specifically. If we were mounting this on a later style clamp fork, it would be a breeze, it's almost direct mount. But adding it to a pre-unit set of forks is proving more challenging as the pre-unit axle is a slide-out type, pinch bolt and nut. The other problem is the Cub hub uses 2 different sized bearings with different inner dims.





This is my leading idea. Flip the forks so that the open-pinchbolt end is on the right side. Weld the drain plugs shut, cuz no one uses those anyway. New stepped axle to fit the different bearing inner dims. Brake plate rests against right fork. Inner bearing spacer sleeve spacer. Left side spacer, and a nut to hold it against the left fork. That should allow the axle to slide out the right side.

1949 Harley Panhead first start full length

I've been going through some old videos and found a bunch of videos of the Panhead first starting a couple years ago. I assembled them into one long video for posterity's sake.

1955 Triumph is a roller

I have been slowly productive on the '55. I've been juggling it with my '62 rebuild and some side projects. The motor is in LA with Wes awaiting completion.

My 62 and 55 motors together. NOW KISS


Polished my gearbox cover


Made all my motor mount hardware, CEI. I'm trying to keep all the hardware British. It has a certain look that I want.


My helper


Spray bombed the wheels and put some Ensign Trials Universal tires on


Pulled the bent swingarm back


Made an order with ACE in the UK for a bunch of chassis bits I needed to finish the rolling chassis.


And this is how it sits (mockup motor and exhaust). I boiled the oil tank and the white house paint came off revealing a similar paint scheme to the 3 gallon gas tank I picked up, weird and cool for now. While the motor is being finished I plan on rebuilding the gearbox, doing all the gas tank repairs (new bottom bungs and badge bungs), and building the bash guard. I picked up a Haifley Bros seat and ppad. Debating having a TT style seat made. The bike may have 2 modes, street and dirt.