Triton

Above are some of the parts I have as well as some examples of parts that I hope to get in the future. The Triton is quickly becoming the love of my life on two wheels. It is the perfect machine, far beyond anything I could have been thinking when I started in directly after dad died in July 2007.

I realized about two hours ago that I have right now all but the throttle cable that I will need to get the bike on the road (oil and hoses aside). I have the low mufflers seen in the picture, actually those specifically - all I have to do is get some adapters I used to fit the high pipes out of the head. I have a headlight assembly seen on the bottom which I bought for the KZ1000 but won't need. I also have the Joe Hunt Magneto seen in the side picture. All of these parts combined with some wiring and a bit of elbow grease will put the machine on the road in almost perfect order.

What is available to me through a wide variety of sources is an endless supply of parts that can be picked from to upgrade, rebuild, restore, and just enhance what I already have. 

I for example have access to every little piece inside that engine, which I'll be able to use in a couple of years to completely rebuild it back to brand new condition - and in places better than new condition, with 0 miles and ready to be run in again. 

There are also simply incredible wheels and brake set ups available, two of them are shown here. Everything has its price, and every nickel put into the bike will never be seen again - it's like shoveling money into a furnace. However as long as you accept this and don't mind it, you can just have the sweetest finest machine known to man.

The front wheel shown on the bottom right is a 4 leading shoe brake. That means there are 2 sets of brake shoes one on either side of the hub that activate when you pull in the level, a mechanical marvel, which costs the exact same as the disc brake setup for the same machine. 

The rear wheel - only the hub shown - offers a much smaller amount of braking, but is absolutely brand new, and cable operated. 

There are carburetors to be had, belt drive primary drives, lower handlebars, modern switch gear, better wire harnesses with modern connectors, progressive springs, performance clutches, and the lists are endless. 

This is not a bike I am building to sit in a museum, this is a bike that is being built to be ridden. Not always hard, but not always soft. This is the bike that I hope to ride every day (once it is on the road in a month or two) for the rest of my life - 3 seasons. Slowly as time goes forward I hope to just better and better it in every way I can. 

By rebuilding the engine, building up new wheels with these powerful drum brakes, upgrading the electrical system (which is incredibly simple) into something that can power modern lights and maybe turnsignals, by adding as I said modern clip connectors, refining the ride, electronic gauges, eventually re-chroming the front and rear fenders, and just continuing to upgrade and improve it where I can when I can. The mufflers on there now are cheap chinese copies of wonderful old English mufflers - the chrome will be gone in two years - I would like to eventually get real English mufflers for it. 

You name it, I intend to improve it - but all the while maintaining the basic look of the bike that my father rode all through his 20s. 

I believe there can be no better tribute to him. 

Also it being a 1967 it is outside of the laws of emissions, but I hope to make it as clean and smooth running as any modern bike can be with carburetors, and quite frankly she gets better than 50 miles per gallon running regular gas. So as far as just about anything goes, I am doing my best for the planet as any green hippie that goes out and buys something made yesterday. My bike has already left it's footprint.

What to Report?

It's 6am, and in just a few hours I will be watching the Triumph T100 leave forever. It was my father's last bike. I had to sell it because I got sued by some real bastards in Phoenix - a load of shit that a better man would have let alone... but the better man does not care about the American dollar, and these people did. Using Phoenix law against me that escalated a debt of $750 which I was told I had plenty of time to pay to $2300 and then sued me over it. Lovely. 

The picture above is not the Triumph T100, it is in fact the Triton - a combination of Dad's first English twin, and mine. 

Below is the gang of bikes (not all run), second in from the left is the T100. 

Forty is a Surfer, and Surfer's are Gods.

I discovered tonight that my friend Forty from the forum is a surfer. He's a very cool guy, and I quite like him. He'll be visiting Boston this summer, and might make it here to Worcester. He's looking at attending BU, and is going to visit it. 

I have been learning more and more about him as we have been talking online. I have discovered a great number of things of interest. Many things about his wit, his personality, and his intelligence. It's quite cool really, he's the perfect kind of guy. 

Very much opposite of his overall look in pictures (which I know to be real and not fake) he actually seems to be a dominant and yet versatile. This is quite something, quite a revelation as it is not something I'd have expected. In many cases, until now I'd have said in all cases this would have put me off, but in his case I find it all the more attractive. 

I do not do hookups. I do not date. I have not been with a guy since I was 15. But if I was going to leap off the deep end and throw my life into another's hands, this dude is someone I think I could trust with it. 

Tonight's discovery that he surfs, that is huge in another level of respect. He surfs in a wetsuit which I am dying to see a picture of. 

This is without a doubt one of the gayest posts I have ever written anywhere outside of my own personal notebooks. 

That said this is a true tribute to my friend which I could never tell him in person.

Motorcycles... and rambles

The above, as you've seen before no doubt is my father in his mid 20's in a field drinking beer standing between his Norton Atlas and his friend Chip's 1968 Norton Fastback.

Below is a Fastback for sale of that same year in Connecticut. It comes with a bunch of spares, and the idea of it for sale drives me crazy because it's $4000 which is affordable - except I don't have it! That spare engine could put the Norton back to rights... crazy thoughts drive through the brain like a jackhammer. 

Yes yes I'm high on pain killers, and I've lost my train of thought. More later. 

Triton and Bitsa

My mind is flowing again with motorcycle thoughts. I have 2 specials to continue and finish. The work will use up most of my spare motorcycle parts and then some. 

The Triton can be done up for about $500, and that being the meaningful bike, that is the priority. The Bitsa will be more expensive and time consuming, about $3200.

Triton first. 

When I started her after Dad died I had an interesting idea in mind, I had wanted to keep the bike as close to a Norton Atlas as possible, but but with high pipes and a Triumph motor. 

For the Triton I will need a front axle, dust cover, and nut. I'll need low pipes, rear axle spacers, a powerbox, another wire harness, and low exhaust pipes.

The general idea is to run the engine completely off the Joe Hunt Magneto, and have the powerbox run the lights off the alternator. The alternator has two wires and the Powerbox has 4 wires - 2 for the alternator, and two that will replace the battery leads. 

Bitsa

This one is more involved, a true Bitsa - which stands for Bits and Pieces - an English biking term from the 60s and 70s. This will be a Suzuki GS550 chassis from the late 70s, a 2003 Royal Enfield 500cc single cylinder engine, and a 1967 Norton AMC gearbox. 

I'm going to have to cut up the existing Enfield frame for mounting points to work into the Suzuki frame. What I'll do is make plywood templates of the Enfield engine and gearbox, then fix them into the Enfield frame and then bring the Suzuki frame down to a local welder and have them weld the one frame into the other making frame brackets in the process.

Now for anyone who has a standard new 500cc Enfield who wants to get real power out of it, what they do is they buy a 612cc Performance kit from Hitchcocks in England which includes an English made crank, barrel, piston, head, carb, gasket kit, bearings, clutch springs, muffler, high velocity oil pumps, competition cams, and all the small stuff. This comes to $4000 USD. I don't NEED all that, but I recognize that if I still had the stock Enfield, this is exactly what I'd be looking to do, so my budget is $4000. I can do what I need for less.

Here's what I need to do.

Norton Belt Drive and complete Clutch $863

Rebuild the Crank:

-Forged Connecting Rod with Bigend Roller $650

-Timing shaft nut $2.40

-Timing shaft lock ring $.30

-Timing shaft $38.30

-Thrust washers $1.18

-Timing Keys $1.50

Total $693.68

Timing Side:

-Pushrods $80

-High Capacity oil pumps $120

-Oil Worm $12

-Stainless Screws $11

-Distributor Gear & Nut $23.50

-Idler Gears & Washers $45

-Inlet Cam & Washer $72.40

-Exhaust Cam $72

-Timing Gear $19

Total $450

Distributor:

-body $50

-Gasket $2

-Washers $2

-screws $3

-shaft $9

-Bearings $26

-circlips $3

-cam screw $1

-lock washer $.50

-washers $.12

-Baseplate screws & washers $3.50

-cover $10

-screws $1.20

Total $113.70

Random:

-carb manifold $38

-piston clips $1

-piston rings $50

-powerbox $114

-stator $112

-rotor $114

-battery $40

-coil $40

-electronic ignition $110

-gasket set $28

-exhaust $260

Total $907

Grand Total $3,031

Put it all together and you get one of these:

KZ1000, Triton, Oldsmobile.

Ok, so the KZ1000 parts arrived today. I got the tank rubber, a headlight assembly, and 4 carb rebuild kits. Pretty splendid. Jon is coming tomorrow to help put the camshafts back into the KZ1000 which should move us much closer to having a running bike. The carbs do need rebuilt in a big way I think, and I am thrilled to have all the parts to do it, might tend to that tonight. Tomorrow we'll get battery acid and oil. Between everything might be able to put the bike on the road right then and there. That REALLY would be awesome. 

The Triton is on my mind pretty heavily. I quite want to finish her up, but I'll need a budget to do so. I have to drag it back out and start figuring out where I left off with the electrical and such. The trick is once I tie in the Magneto then how do I connect the wires? I suspect its the 3 to the alternator then the red and black go to what would have been the battery terminals and I'm good. Then the Mag runs EVERYTHING else. So that's pretty wicked. No turnsignals, just high beam, low beam, horn, tail light and brake light. Magneto drives the engine. Kill switch on handlebars shuts it off. 

Now as to the Oldsmobile, a friend is giving me an '88 for 2 cases of beer. Rough shape, but will make a good winter car. Good rain car. A good "I'm too sick to ride" car. Cheap and easy, and I will be the third member of the stage crew family to own it. Its a car I can just drive, listen to music, work on, be safe in. 

That's it for now. More later I'm sure.

Health Care Plus

So I finally have health care again. It took forever it seems, but I got it at last. Spent 6+ hours in the ER tonight and walked out with a bottle of much needed pain killers. I haven't been this pain free in months and it feels SO good. I feel like I can do anything right now, and it is a wonderful feeling. 

I missed the first opening night of Spring Show since... well ever. Been to every one since 1999 so that was weird. I hope to go tonight, but can't be sure. 

I hope to see Liam tonight, and Deedy, and Stevie, and Burg, and Dan, and Connor, all of them. Connor is talent but a wicked guy all the same. Told mom about him tonight while mildly sedated. She couldn't see why I am so attached to the idea of this spring show. These are the last batch I truly care about - though Ian too, he's younger and I think the world of him, but he doesn't do SS. 

This blog may ramble a bit more in the future, being medicated makes me feel young again but it opens up the mind more than when I'm solid. 

The trick will be to not weird people out while medicated - something I never managed before. But I will try. I have 19 pills to get me through till I can get more. 

I have to clean down here, and get this show rolling again now that I am feeling good again... 

WAHOO!