Dick Rios' TWO-TIMER

What's up with three control levers? One's the hand shift! This article mentions the first ONE-TIMER that Rios built before the double. A 130 MPH, 10 second machine!

1964 Hot Rod

SHOW-WINNER

RACE-WINNER

1965 Cycle World

Below are a few pictures with comments from Borris Murray that were found at Dragbike.com

"The float bowls were mounted remotely not to keep the fuel from 'frothing',.but so that you could adjust the float level to the carb. If you look closely at Rios' engines, you'll see that the outlet from the float bowl is a bit lower than the carb inlet ! This caused the motors to lean out just a bit on the top end, ( a poor-mans lean-out). didn't work out all that great for Rios, but it sure did for me ! Lean thru' the traps made "some kind of power" !
Boris-

"I think Double Trouble was the bike that "Ewing & Seber" had early on.(spelling?) Dick Rios bought it and called it The Two Timer, he had a lot of help getting it to turn 150's from Don McEvoy. Perry & Scotts bike had no name... those pics were taken in England on our
"Drag Safari", Perry&Scott were there too. (neither ran for beans).. Alf Hagan was top dog on his JAP. I won my class,- 650 fueler. When I got home I immediately built my double, and made the other two retire...never saw them again!

-Perry&Scotts bike was built by a Max Kelly,and had a blower, ran it on gasoline. When Scott acquired it he threw away the blower in favor of running a 'normally aspirated' fueler. A beautiful alloy frame, the likes of Clems' Barn-Job, he just needed better motors and- tuning ! "
Boris-

THE TWO-TIMER WAS ACTUALLY "DUBBLE TRUBBLE? There's definitely a resemblance there, frames look very similar, and they both have a Harley transmission???

Dick Rios' ONE-TIMER Triumph Pre-unit Dragbike

Built in California and sent to Ohio. The factory rigids do look good with shortened forks and a stretched and lowered rear section. Put a headlight on it and you'd have one mean strip or street machine. More Dick Rios stuff tomorrow.

1966 Cycle World

1966 Lion's Drag Strip All Motorcycle Day

The second annual Lion's Drag Strip all motorcycle day hosting over 1000 motorcyclists. Looks light on the spectatorship but the display of lacquers, enamels, pearlescents, metalflake and chrome must have been amazing, with the smell of burning racing fuel, oil and tires filling the air. CAR GUYS GO HOME.

1966 Cycle World

1966 AHRA Drag Racing Rules

PURE HELL

This is the type of info to research when doing a serious dragster restoration or period correct drag bike build. The AMA did not want anything to do with Motorcycle Drag Racing in the 50's & 60's so rules varied from strip to strip around the country. This AHRA booklet is a neat little peice of the puzzle and probably close to what most strips were doing. I do not know if the NHRA had any Motorcycle Drag Racing Rules at this time or not. The AMDRA (American Motorcycle Drag Racing Association) was the first serious motorcycle drag racing sanctioning body and was founded in 1969 or '70. If anyone has any old literature on motorcycle drag racing rules please email: kustomhut13@yahoo.com

And the AHRA was keeping track of it's records as well. This clip pulled from a 1966 motorcycle magazine.

Chuck Adam's "Edgy One" Triumph Pre-Unit Drag Bike

Picture perfect early 1960's Drag Scene

The photos have made their rounds about the web, but here is the backround info from a 1966 issue of Cycle World. A early custom made big bore cyilinder block and some very trick engine building making for a 10 second machine!

The early version before the frame stretch and tube tanks. Show quality.

Need to stretch those legs! New tube tanks and blue frame.

The frame stretch is clearly visable here before paint. From blue back to silver.

Unintended destretch for sure...

1958 Championship T-Bird Hill Bike

Listed on ebay HERE. This thing is pretty amazing, not just the HISTORY, but the modifications to the frame, brakes, and suspension are really impressive as well. The front frame has been modified to put the engine as close to the front wheel as possible, and the rear section has been heavily modified as well. The plastic rear fender would have been a 1970's addition, the bike probably had some type of alloy blade when it was winning the early 1960's hill climb's.

I just read some jj squabbling recently about unit 500 heads being a close fit to pre-unit cylinders and presto, here's the real thing. I've never seen or heard of this conversion before. It's running iron head type pushrod tubes. Benefits? Anyone know anything about this conversion??? This listing says the engine is a 80 inch. Shows what they know. Or am I missing something?

Mechanical disc brake sprotor from the early days! Not sure how it shifts with the brake set up mounted right on the gearbox shifting shaft. Study this BEAST closely and you can find all kinds of neat mods.

New Parts from Webco circa 1966

For "Tank Huggers"

For Steet or Strip Use

This ad from 1966 is the earliest ad I've seen for the big ol' 800cc kits. With big cams and carbs they blew HD Sportsters right off the road. Anyone that has big bore cylinders that they don't want to mess with and would like to sell or trade let me know: kustomhut13@yahoo.com

Dave Kirkland Show Dragbike

Update:

"Hi Paul,
First off, thanks for the generous post on your blog about the drag bike. I dropped the bike off over at my dad's about a week ago (he is an incredible machinist-tool & dye maker). Since then, he has completely torn the bike down, fixed the issues with the forks, and sorted out everything for plating and polishing. We tore the motor down last weekend and it's definitely more show than go.

The first thing that I found surprising was, there were no rings. Part of the case around the push rod area is gone and the rods are trashed! The previous owner told me they had it running at one time. The original stickers on the MCM pipes lead me to believe that it's never been fired.

I purchased the bike from Engle Motors of Kansas City which has been a Triumph dealership since the 1950's. Norman Jones, the owner, purchased the bike in 1968. There are a ton of stories that surround this bike and I am still researching the details of.

I noticed your post on 57' TR5's, and it just so happens that I was at a BSA friends' this weekend and purchased a 57' TR6 along with a lot of aftermarket speed equipment. This looks like it could be a great candidate for a Frosted Pearl recreation. I've included some pictures. Thanks for the words of encouragement on the drag bike, I will keep you posted on it's progress. More pictures to come."

Thanks,
Dave

Ahh, the joys of Brit bike rebuilds. You never know what your going to find in there. Not too long ago I took apart a pre-unit engine for a friend of mine that was full of vintage speed components, and they were all in perfect condition. I rarely find anything exciting inside the engines that are mine and most of the time they are close to what Dave found here. Well the mystery is uncovered, she was all show and no go. That firms up Dave's decision to restore it in my book and I'm looking forward to seeing this old show go'er get prettied up and finally finished right after all those years.

Jonnie Green's 1956 TR5R & Jaye Strait Restorations

Got these pics in a email from Jonnie of his absolutely amazing 1956 TR5R that is #74 of 112 built that year. Looks to be unrestored and completely original. I didn't think any would have survived in this condition. To make it even better it has a TriCor Tachometer kit. Unbelievable.

Original cylinder head and 79 carb set unlike all the restored examples I've seen that have the 1957 Delta Splayed Port head. Green label Lucas Racing Magneto!

These are the first good pics I've seen of the rear set footpegs. Brilliant!

Jonnies bike also has the same handlebars as the factory brochure pics unlike the restored examples I've seen.



David Hernández contributed these two pics taken from "TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES TWINS AND TRIPLES" by Tim Remus, of a Jaye Strait restoration built up from frame and matching engine cases.



This TR5R was restored by Jaye Strait as well for Mike Whitney and now has the correct factory Megaphones added since this picture was taken.

1957 Triumph TR5/A & 1956 TR5R

So the 1956 TR5R has been stuck in my head for awhile now fueling the need to build a period correct Clubman racer based loosely on it's specifications, but with aftermarket speed equipment and a show-bike finish. I have a 1957 TR5 engine/gearbox/frame and a bunch of super neat-o period parts that are calling to me to do this. Above are some rare specification sheets for the TR5R that were emailed to me recently.

One of the interesting bits of information that I have found possibly relating to the TR5 I have is this mention of a 1957 TR5/A Sports model listed in this Cycle magazine feature on the Triumph line for 1957. I couldn't find any more information on this model so I coughed up the dough for the "Triumph Trophy Bible" by Harry Woolridge after being told it was the definitive resource. Well it is a helluva good Triumph book with lots of really cool ISDT bikes that I had not known about and a lot of new information including some more info on the '56 TR5R. It turns out that there were some TR5R's made in 1957 as well with varying specifications and the book lines those out pretty well. Unfortunately there is no information on the various /A and /B models described in the Cycle magazine article. As far as I know /A and /B models were something that was done by TriCor and JoMo as models were changed slightly for customers as well as the competition machines mentioned. So I don't think there are any Triumph factory records for these early /A and /B bikes and whatever info there might be would be in the States? If there are any records of the engine numbers of the TR5/A Sports model I would really like to see them. Anyone that has even a scrap of info on this subject or any parts and literature for sale or trade please email me: kustomhut13@yahoo.com