Sunday, June 7, 2009

1956 SoCal Night Drags







Mike Ward was there with his "Eight Ball" record holding Triumph 500 Fuel bike as well as the Bill Koch owned "Dubble Trubble" built by Bud Hare. I think Dubble Trubble was one of the very first dual engine Triumph drag bikes. "Lucky" Franklin's all chrome 1948 "Iron Tiger" was a real sweet looking Triumph Drag Bike judging by the two photos in the article. And then there is the first real motorcycle drag slick pictured and written up in this article that was made by the Cadet Tire Company. I believe the larger slicks used on the 16" rims by some of the big bikes were automotive type skinny slicks made by Inglewood in CA. I had one of these Cadet slicks built on a Dunlop 19"X 4.00 Universal some years ago but traded it to a guy named Adrian that had a complete 1950's era BSA A10 Dragbike that needed it. I would love to see the finished restoration of that one.

4 comments:

  1. I found this site purly by aaccident .It is the best site I ever saw for vintage triumph motorcycles. Having a 1956 TR6 #71711 and racing it over a forty year span, and having collected forty years of parts I find this the greatest!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey shoot me a email at kustomhut13@yahoo.com. I would love to hear about your history with your TR6 and if you have any old pics I'd love to see them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My dad now 94 years old was a bohemian biker, that is a motorcycle rider from the early 1950's. To show you how hard core he was in about 1958 when my mom went to visit her aunt in FLA. for two weeks within the first hour she was gone my dad pulled the bike into the kitchen ,it was a levitt home on long island on a slab,the bike was a 1950 Thunderbird iron head 650. That evening news paper on the table the top end all apart beer cans every where all his pals hanging out till one A.M. They all rode english machines,AJS,Matchless,ARIELS and one american bike an Indian scout 440. My dad thought he had gotten way with the bike repair but my mom knew, two weeks on the center stand had broken the linoleum.

    ReplyDelete