Fast forward to the end of a very long month, and things have changed yet again. I know it's hard to beat a nice short-framed rigid with a nacelle, but it happened.....
Scanning through the L.A. Craigslist, another 'chopper' with no price in the title appeared, so I popped it on the screen to take a look. I was a bit blown away to see that it was the same basic dreambike I wanted to build, no nacelle, but a couple of other goodies. Two weeks later I rolled it outta the truck into the driveway of it's new home.............
At first sight, it had almost exactly the lines I wanted! The Sporty rear fender may be a bit much, but we'll see how it works with the saddlebags- I do like that much side-fender keeping mud and crap off of things!
As I studied it a bit more, a few extra little goodies became quite evident: the Joe Hunt magneto will definitely sell as I really prefer the clean lines of the stock points cover and being able to fix the points in the middle of nowhere; and that BSA oil tank sure looks like it holds a bit more oil that the regular Triumph rigid oil tanks one finds! The fact that it also has a 750 top end is kinda neat, too!
The Vokes air cleaner is a nice touch as well, but a little remounting may need to be done, as it is taking away a little space where I need to mount the coils when I go back to points.
Another nice treat was the belt drive:
But the best thing of all was getting handed not only a valid title, but also a registration that uses what I believe to be the original black and yellow California plate! The Ed Kretz and Son chromed surround doesn't hurt either! Last time I had a chance to get a Triumph with it's proper black and yellow was almost thirty years ago, so I am QUITE stoked!
I still have yet to start it up, did compression test, made sure it sparks (and STOPS sparking when I push that little button on the handlebars) I mostly need to get fuel tank and lines set up for that.
This bike was previously owned by Keith Moore of Anaheim, and was supposedly being set up to be the mail bike-there were going to be two big baskets stuck on that Sporty fender so he could take shipments to the mail. I am talking with the current folks at the shop- hopefully they can throw more details at me. The motor has got a 750 top end, so I'm hoping if they might be able to tell me to what extent a rebuild may have been done on the lower, seems that too many goodies have been added to just throw them onto an old, unrebuilt engine.... I do have the three main parts of the nacelle, a local shop will be able to make the lower covers that I'll need; I also have a beautiful 1950 tank already painted and ready to go. The rear end is not stretched, just dropped a couple of inches, so I may have to revert to the 0 drop 0 stretch hardtail I had made up earlier this year- it also seems a bit more beefy. Yep, things will all get figured out, as it's going to need a down to the frame repaint at the very least. I'll keep ya posted! Joe
Scanning through the L.A. Craigslist, another 'chopper' with no price in the title appeared, so I popped it on the screen to take a look. I was a bit blown away to see that it was the same basic dreambike I wanted to build, no nacelle, but a couple of other goodies. Two weeks later I rolled it outta the truck into the driveway of it's new home.............
At first sight, it had almost exactly the lines I wanted! The Sporty rear fender may be a bit much, but we'll see how it works with the saddlebags- I do like that much side-fender keeping mud and crap off of things!
As I studied it a bit more, a few extra little goodies became quite evident: the Joe Hunt magneto will definitely sell as I really prefer the clean lines of the stock points cover and being able to fix the points in the middle of nowhere; and that BSA oil tank sure looks like it holds a bit more oil that the regular Triumph rigid oil tanks one finds! The fact that it also has a 750 top end is kinda neat, too!
The Vokes air cleaner is a nice touch as well, but a little remounting may need to be done, as it is taking away a little space where I need to mount the coils when I go back to points.
Another nice treat was the belt drive:
But the best thing of all was getting handed not only a valid title, but also a registration that uses what I believe to be the original black and yellow California plate! The Ed Kretz and Son chromed surround doesn't hurt either! Last time I had a chance to get a Triumph with it's proper black and yellow was almost thirty years ago, so I am QUITE stoked!
I still have yet to start it up, did compression test, made sure it sparks (and STOPS sparking when I push that little button on the handlebars) I mostly need to get fuel tank and lines set up for that.
This bike was previously owned by Keith Moore of Anaheim, and was supposedly being set up to be the mail bike-there were going to be two big baskets stuck on that Sporty fender so he could take shipments to the mail. I am talking with the current folks at the shop- hopefully they can throw more details at me. The motor has got a 750 top end, so I'm hoping if they might be able to tell me to what extent a rebuild may have been done on the lower, seems that too many goodies have been added to just throw them onto an old, unrebuilt engine.... I do have the three main parts of the nacelle, a local shop will be able to make the lower covers that I'll need; I also have a beautiful 1950 tank already painted and ready to go. The rear end is not stretched, just dropped a couple of inches, so I may have to revert to the 0 drop 0 stretch hardtail I had made up earlier this year- it also seems a bit more beefy. Yep, things will all get figured out, as it's going to need a down to the frame repaint at the very least. I'll keep ya posted! Joe
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