Last Sunday's Ride

So with Larry and Ashley out in California for Born Free and the fact that it's over 100* around here lately not much happened on Saturday. Sunday however a few of us got together to take a little ride and have some fun. Ian, Whitey and I decided to meet at the old Garage Co location and work from there. We ended up heading out Shelby County 11 towards Chelsea and looping back around past the new Garco location. Ian split off about halfway through to do the family thing, but it was still great to get out and do a little riding with good folks.

The meet up at the old Garco.

Ian waiting for the damn light to turn green. He has this bike looking RIGHT. Now he can concentrate on the shovel he's building.

Whitey on the most kick ass modern Triumph I've seen waiting for the damn light as well. I'm going to do a real photo shoot of this bike one day soon.

Ridin' the back roads.

Saw this in someone's yard. I LOVE riding out in the country.

More tree lined roads.

We pulled over to discuss directions and I snapped this one of Whitey's bike.

Ian talking to Whitey about what way to go. I don't know the roads in this area so I was just following where they led.

I thought y'all might like to see my master cylinder.

Another reason I like to ride in the country. Folks are still patriotic out here. This wasn't just a July 4th deal this was a permanent display.

The driveway next to the display.

From across the street.

This was just down the road and really caught my eye. I love this stuff!

Just Whitey and I at this point.

We stopped at a cool little cemetery to take a drink and ended up walking around a bit. Really cool place that I may use for pics some other time.

So that's it for this time. I'll have more pics later. Gotta do the family thing this weekend so it may be a little slow with the posts for a bit.

The Flyrite Sporty Is Finally Home

As most of you know I've owned this bike for a couple of years and have been slowly working on it as I could. This whole time it's been at Larry's shop (Garage Company Customs) where I would tinker with it on Saturdays when I could, or when I had parts/supplies. Well finally most of the fab work is done and since Larry and Ashley are going to be gone for a couple of weeks to Born Free, I figured now is a good time to bring her home. This way I can work on it when I have time instead of just on Saturdays. Before, I had to remember to get/order the stuff I needed, and then remember to take it with me or find a way to transport it to the shop on Saturday. Sometimes this was a pain plus it's hard to concentrate and work on your bike when everyone else is cutting up, having fun or just working on something more interesting. This way I don't have all the distractions and hopefully I'll make some progress. My first batch of parts should be here today and some more will be here tomorrow. I still have stuff to get, but at least I'm on my way now.

I have to take a minute to thank Larry for letting me leave the bike sitting at the shop so long. Larry is a good friend and has been truly supportive of me during this build. I also have to say thanks to Spenser for helping me, encouraging me and sometimes just plain ol' doing it for me (Larry did some of this too). It's good to have friends and I hope all of you are able to find folks you can hang out with, work with and basically just share your love of cool bikes with. I also want to thank Bill, Ian, Ross and Whitey for all the support, help and Brotherhood they've provided. Enjoy the pics and stay tuned I hope to be posting more like this soon.

Outside the new shop waiting to go on the trailer.

Big Boss Ross from Southpaw Machine hooked me up and gave the girl a ride home. He's the only one I know with a trailer long enough .

You can see here that she takes up damn near the whole rail. Hopefully during this build will be the only times she ever sits on a trailer.

Got her to the house, Ross is amazed that I think I'll be able to squeeze her in my crowded garage.

Ready to get off the trailer and into her new home.

The next day I pulled her out and sat there staring at her as I made a list of what I need to buy and what I need to do. It's not a comprehensive list, but it's enough to get me most of the way there. Yeah, you can see that I'm a geek with my tablet and keyboard. But it DOES do a good job of keeping me organized and lets me look stuff up without having to come back inside and using the desktop computer.

I love these lines and can't wait to have a long bike on the road again. The Triumph used to be set up very similar to this and I've missed having a bike with that style.

All my babies are together for the first time at home.

I'll post more as I get parts and start to get some work done.

History Of My Triumph

I bought this bike back in 1990 (I think). I've been through a lot with it and I plan to keep it forever. Sometimes I think about selling it, but I've been through too much with it. Since I've posted so many pics of it recently I figured I'd give you the history of my 1970 Triumph TR6C Chopper/Bobber/whatever the hell we're calling them this week......

This is how it looked when I brought it home for the first time all those years ago. I paid $200 for it from a high school girlfriends ex-husband (yes, he was an addict!). The motor had never been started since it was rebuilt because the guy was too cheap to get a new carb. The tops of the pistons were even still shiny.  I fabbed a hinge pin for the float and fired it up, rode it down the road and back and parked it because of water in the oil blowing out the vent.

I sold it to J.D. Foster for $300, he added the hardtail and extended Triumph front end, but decided he REALLY wanted the old Ironhead Sportster I had out back with the blown motor so he traded me even. I added my kickass sissybar with a REAL WWI Trench Shotgun Bayonet welded to it  a solo seat and a set of Apehangers and was on my way. This bike was my only wheels for a few years.

I was on my way to school (I was an older college student on the V.A.'s dime) one day and was rear ended by a semi. His front bumper was right on the top of my tire. If I hadn't heard him coming, stood up and leaned over the tank I'd have a broken back at least. You can see how the seat is folded in half. I keep that seat on the wall to remind me how stupid some people are.

 I played with a few different configurations while I was rebuilding it.

Got it finished fired it up and took it down the road only to hear a nasty squealing noise so it got parked in 2000 because of a lack of funds. The insurance you say? Well, I was a newlywed and of course I had to take care of the wife and 2 kids I married into first. This pic is in the basement den of our house. Somehow I convinced the wife that it was an Art piece and I was able to keep it in the den until it was time to rebuild her right.

This is how it looked as of January 2, 2006 I still need to work on the gas tank, replace all the wheel bearings, reassemble the rear wheel, mount the rear fender and a bunch of other stuff.By this point I've had the motor completely rebuilt by Born Again Bikes in Texas and was well on my way to getting her back on the road.

Mar 5, 2006 She's almost done this time around. The rack on the back fender was made by my great friend Blaine before he died of a heart attack (way too young too). The rack is meant to look like a scaled down version of the old parcel grid that Triumphs had back in the 50's & 60's on the petrol tank. I scored the original Wassel fender at the Barber's Vintage swap meet back when the Wassel stuff wasn't well known and before they got expensive and copied by everyone for $20.

The springer turned out to be too short and the bike handled really bad. I added a Sportster front end and things got better. About this time I was hit by a truck while riding my Honda Shadow and broke my leg. This caused me to put the Triumph on the back burner while I recovered and then while I enjoyed my time on my '95 Bad Boy I bought with my settlement.

I got serious about getting her back on the road late last year and ended up getting her finished in time for the Dixie Round Up where the bike took the "Best British" award. By now I had changed the gas tank back to a stock Triumph tank and added forks off of a '67 or so Triumph.  Now to get some real miles put on her. Bikes are meant to be ridden, not looked at!

Bikes From Friends No Longer With Us.....

Found these pics of bikes that belonged to a couple of my Brothers who are no longer among us. They're quite a few years old, but kick ass bikes none the less. Check em out and enjoy. Hopefully I'll get over this melancholy mood and get some more bad ass pics posted.

JD's Sportster. (John "JD" Foster) JD was a damn good friend for many years. We rode together, laughed together and did a few other things I shouldn't mention till the statute of limitations runs out. That's an earlier version of my Triumph in the background. We rode everywhere together and always managed to have a damn good time.

One of the many bikes JD built while I knew him. Unfortunately a crash took him away from us a couple of years ago. Ride On Brother!

Yep, we both liked blue.

Another good Brother was Blaine Smith. He was always wheeling and dealing to pick up some cool stuff. Blaine was a big help in getting the Triumph back on track, he didn't get to see the latest version, but I still have the pieces he made for me on the bike. He is the man who made the rack on the rear fender, as well as the one who helped me get upswept fishtails on my old Shadow ACE 750. This bike was a Triumph chopper that was built, painted, but never had an engine installed back in the 70's or early 80's. Blaine got it off ebay, put his motor in it and proceeded to terrorize the town. He eventually sold it because he was afraid he would be the one to screw it  up and he didn't want to be that guy.

Blaine was taken from us by a heart attack a few years ago and he is greatly missed by those of us who knew him.

Dig the cool paint on the rear fender of the Triumph.

This is the neck area of the bike. Now you see why he didn't want to be the one to screw it up. Rest In Peace Brother. We'll ride together again one day.

OK, tomorrow I will post something, cool, bad ass or at least not so depressing!

More Pics From The Ride!

Just some more pics from the ride into town.

Whitey and what USED to be a Triumph Bonneville America. Now it's just a bad ass bike.

Pickett and his Nightster

Sweet Shovel ready to leave the parking lot.

Bad Ass little Sporty, the helmet says Speed Demon and the bike looked fast for sure!

Sweet little bike rolling on its merry way!

Another Sneak Preview!

Just a couple of preview shots of the Triumph. It is ALMOST done. The last few pieces should be here by Tuesday. Be sure you make it to the Dixie Roundup NEXT Saturday so you can see the bike's debut with its new look.

HAVE YOUR HAPPY ASS HERE!!!!!!!

Triumph Sneak Peek

I've been working on the Triumph this week. I was going to do the paint scheme I've had in my head for awhile, but decided that I still plan to get a "real" paint job done on the bike next year so I'm saving that idea and just went with a solid color this time. I used a different brand of paint this time so it is a little different. Once I get it finished I'll post some good pics. In the meantime here is a teaser ;-)

Enjoy!

Progress On The Triumph

Since the GarCo guys were out of town in Daytona this weekend I decided it was time to work on the Triumph again. Once I get it painted all I need to do is reassemble it and it'll be done (for now). I picked up a harbor freight blaster for $15 bucks (had to try it at that price) and got to work on the frame. The blaster did OK, it worked GREAT with little stuff like the front motor mount, but a whole frame is a little much for it, but I got done what I needed to do.

Here is the frame and the blaster set up outside the building where I work. It's nice to have a warehouse area with room to play at work.

Had to do some grinding and cutting int eh neck area to clean up where I had cut those damn plates out. Didn't make it perfect, but it looks better. The tank will hide this area any way and next year after the Sporty is finished I'll tear this one down again and fix it right as well as get her a real paint job.

Blasting away at it. I mostly wanted to get the grease and oil off and I accomplished that at least.

Making a big mess here. Even with goggles on I still had to flush my eyes when I was done and again this morning. That sand gets EVERYWHERE.

Got a nice coat of primer on here and a few coats of paint. I don't know if I like this color, but I'll wait a day or so and see if it grows on me.

This pics really shows what the paint looks like. I used Duplicolor Metal Specks paint. I like their stuff, but I'm not sure about this color yet. More pics later as I make some progress.