A late 1960's Winter's Sunday in the Southern California Desert

"the leader arrived, and left again in a determined rush, his 650 Triumph heaving a roostertail of dirt in the air. Hot on the Triumph's heels was a Greeves, and then more Triumphs, and Husqvarnas, and more Triumphs, and Montesas, and more Triumphs, and Bultacos, and yet more Triumphs. Somewhere, with the leaders, a Triumph carrying Steve McQueen went by,"

If you dig the film "On Any Sunday" and love the thought of crashing through the wild southern California desert on a old sled. Find some time this weekend to give this short story a read.

Cycle 1967

Competition Components

Circa 1968

On the track in 1968

Sandy Kosman Street Racer Kit

British style cafe racer available to Americans in 1968 thanks to Sandy Kosman. The Street racer style didn't really take off in the States until the early to mid 1970's when some Triumph's were still used for the sport, but mostly Japanese fours.

Kosman made and distributed some very cool speed equipment during the '60s and '70s but just isn't a very well known name in the vintage speed equipment circles like Routt's, Webco etc. although he's still in business today making parts for modern motorcycle drag racing. Anyone have an old Kosman catalog they would sell me or let me borrow???

***** Dave Kirkland's Show Dragbike ***** ****** SHOW WINNER ******

From this unbelievably cool survivor find built in 1969 with family history.

To a pile of parts,

To finished restoration in less than four months! New paint, full polishing of every alloy piece, new chrome throughout and finishing touches that were never done at the time of the original build. He's made some small parts that you would never know were not originally done in the late '60's including a new seat that turned out exceptionally well. To do a full restorion of a period custom survivor and finish it while staying true to the original build and ending up with a bike that is better than when originally built is no easy task.

Completed about a week ago, just in time to put in the World of Wheels show in Kansas City. The bike did real well in the show. It beat out all of the fat tire Harley's, except the one for best bike. The drag bike did win Outstanding bike, Best Paint, Best Motor and 1st place drag bike.

CONGRADULATIONS DAVE. JOB WELL DONE !!!

MAIL BOX

The thought occured to me that maybe some of you have material that you'd like to share, but don't fiddle with digital cameras, scanners and such. I am a trustworthy guy, so if you want to contribute something, I WILL return it to you if you want the stuff back.

Also, any shops or companies out there that would like to send me anything (stickers, catalogs, shirts, drink tickets, whatever) I will do a post on your deal (almost free advertising).

Or maybe you've been wanting to tell me to go F-myself without leaving a digital trail.

Paul Gion

PO Box 367

Soulsbyville, CA 95372

Jim Orsillo's Sanitary Trump

Ed Roth's Choppers Magazine 1968 i think? By Tom "Wheels" McMullen

Mystery Bike & Satan

These pictures of this super cool swingarm framed Pre-unit custom Triumph were contributed by Jon Rispante. The style is so spot on it must have been originally built in the '60s. The only part that is out of place is the primered stock oil tank. It needs a Webco alloy round or wedge tank or even a earlier Triumph rigid frame type. Otherwise this bike is perfect. Owner unknown, pictures taken at a bike show years ago.

The fork fairing on the bike above reminded me of this pic posted by Freedom Machinery & Acc. a while back. Same type of fairing and windscreen although slightly different. This wickedly cool single engine Triumph Drag bike has a lot of neat details and great pinstripe work. Mustang gas tank, Factory racing spool front hub, custom dual carb manifolds, and possibly Pete's oil tank?

Ton-Up Classics

Jonnie Green has a new blog featuring bikes he's owned and restored and lotsa other neat stuff. In a world filled with more blogs than a person can keep track of this is one I'll be following. Check it out HERE.

BSA Double

Listed on ebay here. An unreal amount of machine work and design went into this thing, but there is still a lot of work to be done. There's good potential here though and the work needed is mostly engine set up and control details. I don't like the intakes the way they are. I think it needs a super charger like Max Kelley's double Triumph. It wouldn't take much to make this a 120+ H.P. machine. It would be fun to put a larger gas tank on it and run it on the street. I'd like to go hunting V-Rods with it.

J & M Enterprises

Recently found my way to J&M Enterprises through their Flickr photostream. Some top notch Triumph work going on there including full build up pics of the T100R recently featured in The Motor Cycle magazine, a 1940 bronze head T100, The Parasite single and dual engine dragbikes, a very trick Trials Cub and so forth. A must view for sure.

Sonny Routt's Single Engine Triumph Drag Bike

Sonny's 3rd place in the Top Fuel is pretty damn good considering he was running a 48 c.i. engine against 74's. A 10.28 e.t and 138 mph isn't too shabby either.

1968 Cycle World

Personal photos of the same Routt bike from the Cycle World article, unknown location. This time it looks like the big Sportster is going to get shut down.

No smoke = good traction. Avon Drag Slick hooking up. Not the best looking Triumph dragbike design ever, but neat because it was still the original factory frame and it got the job done with mostly all Triumph parts including wheels, forks, etc.

Sonny helped other drag bikers out with some of his innovations. Here is a set of Routt style engine plates from one of two drag bikes that K.C. Spillers had in the late 1960's early 70's that were almost identical to Routt's single engine dragbike pictured above.

Dick Rios Two Timer !!! FOR SALE !!!

Got the tip from Pete that the "Two Timer" was listed on ebay. Sure enough it's up for sale in amazing original condition complete with historic documents including original 1954 Title, Trophy's, Hand Tools, Helmet, Pit Jacket etc. "The ultimate addition to any high end collection" means out of reach for us poor boys, but this collection is worth every penny of the minimum bid and more. We'll have to wait and see if it meets reserve. I'm going to make a prediction that it will not, just because vintage drag bikes no matter how good tend to be a hard sell, probably because they are mostly collector bikes that just don't have the functionality of some of your other competition motorcycles. In other words, they are very expensive display pieces, but this lot is one of the best motorcycle display pieces on the planet and it's available to the highest bidder. The Two Timer belongs in a museum and I hope it finds its way to a good home. Check it out here .