No "before" photo, but this was a client's '59 Tiger custom bobber restoration. The client wanted something glitzy for cruising the Las Vegas strip - I think this fit the bill.

The client actually wanted a spool front hub with NO brake, but I talked him into a nominal/small drum. Even that proved to be inadequate, because the bike was a HOT ROD. When i was test-riding it, I was cruising with interstate traffic at a bit over 70, and I could wick it up and pass cars as though they hit their brakes!
Real gold leaf on the tank lettering, and my buddy "Bones" did the hand pinstriping job.

 

Moronic not to want a front brake. Form over function = ugly form.

 

Client build of a '68 Triumph T120R Bonneville 650, starting from scratch. (And I mean SCRATCH!)

I delivered the bike to the Atlanta area, and we (client, me, and a friend I brought along) cruised the nearby countryside on 3 bikes. It was a hoot, and you couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

 

Client restoration of '68 Triumph TR6R Trophy 650, from a very miserable "before" bike.

The client, Carl, brought the bike to me all the way from Florida, then came all the way back to pick it up when it was done! We then proceeded to load up and headed for the Texas Hill Country, where Sally & I treated Carl & Mae Lynn to a circuit of the "Twisted Sisters" (335/336/337), with photo evidence...

We also stopped in at the Stonehenge replica, back then it was in Hunt, Tx (it has been moved and refurbished since then)

 

Client restoration of a '69 Triumph T120R Bonneville 650

The "donor" bike was actually a decent "regular rider" from near Nashville, but if you looked close, the frame paint was badly scratched/chipped/scuffed, the engine smoked a bit, and it wept oil everywhere. Never mind the totally incorrect paint...

This was one of only two significant "warranty" bikes in 101 client build/refurb/resto/overhauls that I did in the almost 14 years I was in business. It was a long-distance warranty claim, I told the client to take the bike to ANY SHOP he wanted, but I would have to talk to the owner to ensure that THEY would ALSO stand behind THEIR work. It all worked out well enough; I had failed to tap the sludge tube FULLY "home", and the wide mouth of the tube was partially/mostly blocking the crank oil feed hole from the nose! Total damage was under $1,000 - New rod bearings, one new exhaust pipe, gaskets, oil, and labor cost. The only other significant warranty claim I ever had, I settled by paying the mechanic with a pair of shouldered alloy rims laced to his hubs by Buchanan's.

 

For those who don't care for choppers, feel free to scroll on to the next photo.

A client brought me this hardly-rolling hulk of an old '53 Triumph T110 Thunderbird 650 chopper, with nothing but disintegrated gears and rust in the transmission, no clutch at all, and the rest as you see here. He handed me a huge roll of mostly 20$ with a few 100$, and said to call him whenever that money ran out, and he'd bring me more.

Freddy became a close friend until his death a few years alter, we were both Navy vets, skinny, with scraggly beards, liked old bikes, and had sons in the Army. He made several more payments in large wads of cash, I didn't ask any questions. Every time he'd come over, we'd go have coffee; I'd often lend him Sally's '02 New Bonnie to ride, he got to liking that bike. After the first time, he'd ALWAYS ask Sally if she wanted to sell it, and she always said "No, thanx".

Apart from my paint design, which I named "Red-Winged BlackBird", he chose all the detail features including chrome springer fork, solo saddle, alloy risers with "ape-hangar" bars, whitewall rear tire, spool front hub, cruiser pegs, and straight pipes. He was blown away the day he came to pick it up, smiling a mile wide. But the story takes a turn at that moment...

Freddy had a rough life. He had heart surgery, one kidney, been stabbed very badly in the stomach, drank hard, smoked, etc. When he went to kickstart it the first time, he didn't weigh enough to get even one full rev out of the crank. He couldn't start the bike, period. BUT, his son was with him (to help load the bike on the trailer), so he took one stab and it roared to life instantly! Freedy's smile returned, even wider! He jumped on the bike and TOOK OFF down my driveway, spraying pebbles everywhere, and almost tossing it as he turned onto the main road! He gave it FULL GUNS down the street, and we could hear him cruising through the neighborhood whacking the throttle at every stop sign, till he returned a few minutes later with his tongue hanging out, laughing as hard as I'd ever seen him.
Over the next two years, his son would start it for him and they'd go riding almost every day. Sometimes, he'd take out his old Harley with E-start if his son wasn't home.

Then one day he dropped in for coffee and he "laid it on me". He really couldn't handle the old chopper any more, and he sure wanted Sally's Bonnie. It so happened that Sally had very recently delivered our daughter and she had stopped riding altogether. As it was she'd had taken to riding my '00 Legend 900 triple more often that riding her Bonnie. Freddy wanted to trade the chopper for Sally's bonnie, but he and i both knew the chopper was a worth a whole lot more. I got Sally's OK to proceed, then it came time to settle the balance! hee hee We sat down in my little office with cups of coffee, and he said he wanted my 12 gage Wingmaster shotgun. So, I googled up the value, and we deducted that amount. Then, he said he needed to pay off his tires & rims (I didn't even know they sold them on payment plans), so we drove down and took care of that. Next, he wanted a rear bumper for his truck, so I picked up the phone and found one; I did most of the work and we swapped it out. That made us even, and we unloaded the chopper, then loaded the Bonnie up on his truck.

I sold the chopper not long afterwards, looking a little more to my liking with drag bars...

This story is getting long, so I'll cut out the sad part about Freddy having a bad crash on his HD, and dying less than a year later. His son had me "wake up" the Bonnie every year (he never rode it), then finally agreed to sell it back to me VERY cheaply, apparently Freddy wanted me to have it back when the time came. I kept it a couple of years then sold it on...

 

Oops, another chopper! Scroll on if you want...

This was a "twofer" deal from a tiny town south of Laredo, TX where I heard thru the grapevine that a guy was looking to scrap a couple of old "Limey Choppers". Both had severely blown engines, one had a permanently chopped frame, and the other was a bolt-up hardtail so not too bad.

This was the weld-up bike, '66 (?) Triumph T120R Bonneville 650. My middle son Kevin shouted "DIBS ON THE ORANGE ONE!" as soon as he spotted it in the waist-high buffalo grass. Weeds were growing up thru the fist-sized hole in the cases, and we rummaged through the nearby weeds for well over an hour, scrounging up parts and hardware, till I figured that was as good as we were going to get.

There is a progress shot of my son, who had since left us to join the Army, just back from boot camp. We had been building the two engines side-by-side, so I could teach him the ropes.

BEFORE leaving for boot camp, he got the bottom end done and nipped up, we stuffed rags down the open throat and wrapped it very nicely in a giant heavy duty plastic bag.

The weekend he got home from Boot Camp, he installed the pistons & cylinders, then we stuck the engine in the frame. I had already installed the nicely re-chromed springer forks. That was the last time he touched that bike, the Army sent him to Iraq (2 tours) then all over the place (he's back now, and is a Major, in commando of his MedEvac unit, flying Blackhawk choppers.

The "After" photo was obviously incomplete, but I was made an offer I couldn't refuse, and I'm not a chopper guy anyway.

 

Don't worry! Only the "before" photo is a chopper! hee hee This was the other "twofer" chopper, a (mostly) '65 Bonneville. Blown engine was in 2 or 3 boxes. Supposedly the builder and his buddy had just finished building the two, then got quite drunk and took off for a ride. one thing led to another, and it became a race out on the highway. Red-lining freshly built classic Triumph lumps results in, well, blown engines.

I never completed this project, as I wound down my business I had FIVE "basket cases" left with mostly powdercoated frames & bits, re-chromed stuff, many boxes of new parts, several nicely painted tanks, a stack of new tires, etc... So, I put together some semi-matching stuff and l found a buyer within 2 or 3 hours of posting on e-bay. He ended up buying

 

Wow, great motobike building bio’s and stories of the bikes history and owners, thnx for sharing!…. FTG

 

Mucho respecto! That is really beautiful work.

 

Hey, I'm just getting started! (and these are only the Triumphs)

 

Through completely weird circumstances, I got a lead on a "bitsa" Triumph, 67 Chassis with '70 engine, literally DUCT TAPED-together, non-running, missing some parts, quite scruffy, but the seller was straightforward and honest, the engine didn't need a lot to get running! As always, by this time I had built up quite a shop full of classic triumph big twin spare parts. Those have always been my "long suite". One of very few rattle-can tank paint jobs I've ever done (an improvement, in my mind), and it turned out rather nice, without any extended cool stories. it sold well, kept food on the table; just what I needed. I seem to recall I was already on somewhat of a road trip, so the travel cost was mostly absorbed. Don't look too close and it's not a bad "after" photo...

 

My oldest brother, Oscar, was ALWAYS after me, to sell him my '67 Bonneville! Especially after I let him ride it once...

So, I found a '66 fairly affordable at Big D in Dallas, and made it looks as close as I could...

They made a very sweet pair, and Oscar still has the bike! (2023) I can't find my "2 of a kind" photo at the moment...

 

This was a client build of a Triumph 500 single carb, the guy wanted a few details besides black paint.

I took the opportunity to re-stage the famous Clint Eastwood movie "Coogan's Bluff" bike chase scene in my driveway... "Coogan" (Clint Eastwood) was chasing "Ringerman" (Don Stroud) all thru a convent area. Really cool bike chase scene... I'm sure Eastwood did some actual riding (close-ups prove it), not sure how much of the extended scene, there were some dodgy moments! If you haven't seen the movie, you NEED to. Groovy, baby...

Coogans Bluff bike chase - YouTube

 

This client restoration (refurb, really) was not quite as dramatic as some of the others, but it was a full tear-down without splitting the cases. '82 Triumph T140E 750 Bonneville Electro (Electric start). The client's wife backed into the bike with her car, and that took a scruffy "ride-every-once-in-a-while" bike over the line. The guy brought me the bike from Canada, then brought his '79 when he picked this one up. We had fun, and he rode away very happy.

 

This wonderful bike was my SECOND classic Britbike - 1970 T120R Bonneville 650 that I called my "TrophyVille" because I had TR6C Trophy scrambler pipes on it. I picked it up while my '67 Bonnie's engine was being overhauled, and I rebuilt it's top end and finished it before my friend Keith finished my '67. It only had straight pipes, but I found a set of mufflers for it later. I rode it all over our ranch for a few years, then "freshened it up", got the tank painted, swapped the Mikumi carbs for proper Amal concentrics, put decent tires on it, matching meters, a much nicer swap meet seat, stripped the black paint off the tail light housing, and generally spiffed it up. It was a WONDERFUL bike. Over 10 years of HARD service without a whimper. It sold well, too.

Oh, yes, a great "back story", when it was still black, with no mufflers, I decided I'd really get it running good, and try to enter the local flat track races. I spent days tuning it up "by the book", flushed it, changed all the fluids, even serviced the forks. That's also when I put good tires on it. I got it out for a test ride on our private property. Just coming off the pavement to a gravel earthen dam around our pond, I gassed it into a nice power slide then realized the throttle was hung fully open on one carb. I tried everything in the 10 seconds it took to get near the end of the dam, then low-sided it over the outer edge and into a huge prickly pear / mesquite patch. Messed it up too much to have it done in time for the race...

 

I've always loved the looks of a street stock Triumph. A mod here or there, I get. Equipment upgrades (stainless brake master cylinders, tympanium units, OK). But to change (with a few exceptions) the silhouette, shadow, or even the exhaust note is (as they say at Oxford) is "to go down." Plenty of asian bikes out there... But beautiful work there! Appreciate you sharing!

 

You do nice work, I’m impressed. If I had to choose, the 82 T140E would be my favorite. But the 59 Tiger is as cool as can be.
Thanks for sharing

 

Still more to come, lads...

 

This was a fun "rolling basket" '79 Triumph Bonneville T140D 750 Special that was neglected outside near the ocean and showed it. The "before" photo is exactly as I got it. I was just dumping the "black gold" from the crankcase. Pretty much a bare minimum project with just rolling chassis and engine, I guess add "headlight ears", nothing more!

The "after bike was pretty cool, it ran quite well, started 1st or 2nd kick, decent brakes, but it could hang in 2nd sometimes and didn't want to shift to first without multiple stiff prods on the shifter. I tried, but couldn't get it to wheelie, which I thought it very well should have been able to do. I sold it cheap, to a friend of a friend that needed basic transportation, and wished him luck!

 

Thank you for sharing these!

 

Most of you are already familiar with my scratch-built 65/66/67/68/69 Bonneville with '70 paint scheme that I built as a 50th birthday present to myself, to go vintage roadracing in AHRMA's Novice Historic Production Heavyweight class. I was at Texas World Speedway the day of my 50th birthday, getting my license on the bike's first real shakedown run, which revealed lack of top end lube which I easily spotted by the missing rocker feed oiler nut & exhaust rocker inspection cap! Thankfully i had my son's Ducati Monster along "just in case" and was able to finish the program on it. HUGE difference from struggling to hit 90 on low side of the high banking, to BLOWING by at 140+ near the top railing on the Duc with my glasses rattling around inside the helmet on the horribly rough track!
I have to admit, I had very recently unloaded a 15-foot U-Haul moving truck chock full of Britbike parts, PLUS my shop shelves FULL of new parts to work from. NONETHELESS, I built the bike to BONE STCK SPECS, apart from .020 over pistons, Sparx electronic ignition, and a plastic fender (I didn't have a steel one on hand). I don't think I exceeded triple digits on purposely-ordered parts, apart from the Dunlop 501 tires (EXCELLENT tires, by the way).

The bike never failed me on the track except for the last lap at Barber's, when I dropped a muffler and was "meatballed" (black flagged). I learned to get an optimum launch with cheap EMGO clutch plates and 40 year-old clutch springs, so by my 3rd race, I was NEVER beaten to turn one, even starting from the back row. Since I was up against OHC 750 fours, and Brit triples, with somewhat experienced riders aboard, that's saying something!
I really had the time of my life racing at famous tracks including Daytona, Road America, Sandia Raceway, Willow Springs and Barbers, plus I set my class record at the Bonneville Bub meet in 2008. That year I raced only half the available meets, but finished 5th out of 20 riders in the class, just minding my own business, not crashing, and the only time I even got off the pavement was in a heated race to turn one at Miller Motorsports (Salt Lake City) into the "boulders", but I kept my momentum, got straight back on track, and only lost that one spot.
What a hoot...

Daytona HOLESHOT! (note bigger bikes behind me, I blew past them right on the green flag)

Barber's HOLESHOT! (not even close, this is the corkscrew, 1/2 lap in)

Getting salted down at Bonneville, took a week to scrub that salt off everything...

Grattan, Michigan HOLESHOT!

Road America HOLESHOT!

Roebling Road, about to lose my holeshot advantage at turn 4

Definitely the time of my life...

 

1969 Triumph T120R Bonneville 650 rolling project to "mild" Street Tracker

I started with a barely-rolling project that had nice Borrani alloy wheels, this "before" photo was actually taken AFTER I installed a set of jugs & head, and handlebars so I could roll the bike around. I did a full overhaul, and had the chassis & black bits painted by a local oilfield painting shop that applied heavy duty Epoxy black for me.

The bike has a Hunt magneto that the seller included as only a shell with armature. I sent those bits to Hunt and they sent back a gem that GUARANTEED first-kick starts. In fact, I used to bet anyone near the bike $100 that it would start on the first kick, cold or hot, rain or shine. I never lost that bet UNTIL the one time I forgot to tickle the carbs!!! Anyway, it was a good friend whom I knew could really use the money so I was happy to hand it over. The bike also had the fattest tires that would fit on it, Magura "dogleg" levers, '65 tail light setup, '70 paint (my favorite), velocity stacks, aftermarket shocks, and a few other goodies including the Sparx solid state "finned egg" regulator/rectifier. I made a real nice profit when I finally sold it after riding it hard for a dozen years.

 

I have always wanted a '57 Triumph big twin (my birth year), this is as close as I ever got- '56 Triumph T110 Thunderbird 650. I heard about the sale which happened to be along the route of one of my back-to-back race weekend trips, so I stopped in Springfield, Mo to pick it up. The seller wasn't the culprit in that disaster, he had gotten it in a multi-bike trade. The engine was stuck and words can hardly describe the rest (look close).

Again, I had ample spare parts to draw from, so I made a reasonable effort to build it into what I referred to as a "T-Bird Rat Rod" including a nice nacelle that i was able to get in an even swap for a standard headlight and pair of ears; talk about a SCORE!

Just as I was nearing the point of attempting to fire it up soon, I was made an offer I couldn't refuse, and away it went. I would not have sold it if it was a '57; I'm STILL looking...

 

This is a "mostly" '65 Triumph TR6R 650, but came to me as a rolling chassis with Storz bodywork, 70s front end, and THREE engines to choose from! I pulled the heads and covers on all three engines, gathered up 2 more engines (more or less) out from under my cabinets, sorted the best bits, and slapped together this "before" photo

I built an AHRMA approved reinforced swingarm and mounted that up, overhauled my best set of carb bodies, wired the entire bike using little more than 10 feet of wire altogether, and came up with the plaything...

I had so many bikes, I didn't mind selling it before putting any significant miles on it.

 

I'm going to include the Tritons that I've built because after all, at their heart, and in the first three letters, they're Triumphs!

This was a friends partially completed project that I did a lot of the work on, then ended up buying when he sold me his entire collection and abandoned motorcycling altogether. It was a Slimline frame, my 6061 alloy engine mounting plate set, my swingarm spindle conversion kit, and a pair of wheels that Buchanan's laced up. Mark had "pre-wired" it, installed the carbs, and made a funky mount for the horn. I pulled some of the stuff off, along with a HORRIBLE brown leather seat, and built it right up. I took the opportunity to "re-appropriate" the gorgeous Lyta Spint alloy fuel tank for MY Triton, and installed my red tank on the bike, along with a much nicer seat that I found, and "cheaped out" with an Atlas oil tank and Mark's ugly former Commando rear fender and doofus tail light (with apologies to any of you that have a similar tail light). I had a "flip-out" Honda 750 kickstarter sitting on the shelf, so I used that, as well as a few other stray parts. Since 2 Tritons was one too many for me, I sold it right along, and made a tidy profit.

 

This is one of the earliest mockup photo I took of my FIRST Triton (still have it). I had wanted to build one for over 20 years, but never had the cash to buy a straight featherbed frame in all that time! Good frames came and went, but were always too expensive. Whenever I had plenty of play money, all I could find was JUNK! Then, when my friend mark was starting to build HIS Triton, the frame he ordered never arrived after SIX MONTHS. Finally, he got fed up and ordered another one. OF COURSE, the next week, the first one arrived! So, he offered it to me in partial exchange for the work he wanted me to do on his build. DEAL! I slapped together this mockup with a Triumph tank, just to start formulating a plan... (this was the day after I got the frame home, May 2010)

Mockup #2 with Norton High Rider tank & Emgo quarter fairing and rear rim with a tire on it. Better, but NO.

Over time, everything improved. The engine got a total overhaul to stock spec bottom end with M.A.P. big bore kit & belt drive primary. Tri-Spark ignition, in-line oil filter & cooler, my engine mount kit & spindle replacement kit, Excel shouldered alloy wheels laced by Buchanan's, and I scored a complete Suzuki GT550 Indy forks with 4LS front brake, Amal MkII carbs w/ K&N filters, downswept headers, early Commando central mount oil tank, and a bunch of other goodies from front to back.

I was able to take advantage of not only Mark's stuff being powdercoated, chromed, laced, and machined, but two other clients; so a lot of that work was virtually free for me on volume discounting from the trades.

This was going to be the finished condition...

Once I acquired Mark's Triton, I swapped tanks, and now it looks like this... (but I might go back to the Commando mufflers)