Get a copy to see more.
Family heritage. Bitchin' photo of Jon's dad, Jim Rispante that the Horse failed to include in the feature.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Early 1950's Triumph 21" Spool Hub Racing Wheel
Believe it or not I found this mid-day at the Clubman's swap meet. Why it did not get snatched up early is probably because of the amount of parts there were to dig through. There was an estate sale from a collection of 1950's - 1960's Brit parts that took up six spaces. I ran back and forth from my spot to this area quite a few times that morning. Without this estate the swap really would not have been that good, but that's the way it always goes. The last thing you want to see at a once a year swap meet is all the same old faces! You don't even wanna know what I paid, the prices for most of the parts there ranged from fair to steals. This wheel is the real deal, dated to the early '50s by the painted rim center, 21" Avon Supreme tire and super neat alloy hub with internal bearing sleeve to fit early 1950's Triumph forks that has the tell tale grease fitting typical to early spool hubs. I sold the tire to Bobby SirKegian, will probably sell the rim separately and I have hopes to have the hub laced to a NOS 21" Borrani Record rim that I bought at the same spot. This hub is cast alloy and I have identified it in some 1950's era photos of pre-unit Triumph race bikes. I don't know who made it but would love to find out.
Factory Triumph Front Wheel Racing Hub
Same as the hub originally fitted to the 1955 T100R but laced to a 19" shouldered alloy rim with a super cool Beck TT Special tire. I actually found another wheel exactly like this one the same day at the Clubman's swap. There was a guy there that was trying to piece together a T100R replica that I sold the second wheel to for a fair price. Finding two Triumph spool hub racing wheels in one day gives you an idea of how good this swap was!
1955 T100R forks
From the above clip from the Oct. 1954 special parts list we see that the complete T100R fork assembly had the H788 part number, but the middle lug number listing has its numbers transposed, instead of H875 it should read H785 as seen on the genuine example below. 
This pic found by Shaggy clearly shows the modified fork covers that are missing from most all of the current restorations.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Van C. Kreaps Triumph 500 Chopper
Built in '75. Bolt-on hard tail and the neck raked about an inch and a half with 10" legs. 
The "before" pic.
Super Rare Webco Rocker Oil Manifold Find
As lined out in my previous POST on finned rocker oil manifolds for Triumph twins I identified this one from 1960 as what I believed to be the earliest type made by Webco.
San Jose Clubman's Show Bikes 2011
Here are my picks of the best at this years Clubman's Show. 
Unique Unit 650 Street Tracker. I'm a big fan of the pre-1957 Triumph front wheel hub on later models. 
A little funky but cool hardtailed BSA A10. 
Unique Unit 650 Street Tracker. I'm a big fan of the pre-1957 Triumph front wheel hub on later models. 
A little funky but cool hardtailed BSA A10. 
Super sweet BSA A65 custom. Nicely done!
Bill Sauer was back with his kick ass restored Show & Go T-bird that he debuted at the 2009 Clubman's show when the resto was not quite finished. Now it's all done with lights and the period license plate bracket that he made a batch of way back when. Of course I asked him if he had any more and unfortunately they have all been scattered to the wind.
On our way home we caught up with Bill by chance. What a cool combo!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Bill Lee's Custom Pre-unit Triumph
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Dick Howell / Bill Lee "Tinker Toy"
Of the thousand plus old magazines I've scoured through over the years looking for this stuff, the one and only time I remember seeing a picture of the "Tinker Toy" pre-unit Triumph dragbike is this one from the 1967 drags at the Stardust International Speedway, Las Vegas NV POST with its brute dual Dell'orto carbs, double row primary and 9-bolt Bonneville head. This partial pic of hot pre-unit power plant in swingarm frame left me begging for more... 
Mysteries revealed, below is the additional info I got from Bill Lee: Here is the Orig. Tinker Toy and the 2 guys who built it and raced it for 4 seasons. It started as a TR model, front forks are early BSA 250 Bantum 21" front spool,the frame is in Purple Metal Flake. I Bill Lee made the frame and metal parts, Dick Howell (seated) done all the perfect engine work, It was dyno'd at 82 HP, at std bore & stroke 40 CI this photo taken at Dicks Dads house in Fresno Ca. 1966, it turned 11:27 et at 127 mph, we lived in Brodrick CA when this was built, in 1968 we put it in the Sacramento autorama and took best of show for bikes and the Governors excelence award. 
Back in those days I didn't own a camara, this photo was taken by Dicks dad who was a professional and had a studio in Fresno, we did a lot of racing at Fremont raceway, I think their archives would have pic of the bike, we held track records at 8 Ca. tracks. he broke the worlds record in Fremont and it stood for a month, your pic was taken at Las Vagas at the worlds championship all bike meet, tinker toy won the DG Bike class, stepped into the DF class and took out 8 more bikes before being beat, to my knowledge it's the only bike ever to win the Gov. excelance award at the Sacto. autorama, Dick sold the motor to a guy in Sacto. and was put into a street bike, the rest stayed in Dicks garage for some time, I don't know what happened to it, If you talked to someone a few yrs, ago that claims he has the bike he might have the motor or the other part, they were split up in about 69 or 70, that bike had close to 150 throphys to it name, as you can tell, I'm very proud to have been part of that bike and it's history. I rode it 2 times when Dick hurt his knee and in those days it was awsome to cross the 1/4 mi traps at 125 mph on that bike, I don't have any english stuff left, but my 650 triumph is still my all time favorite, here is my 650 in 64 when we were racing the tinker toy, I painted the tinker toy and my bike at the same time in metal flake, mine red, tinker toy purple, the last paint job I did on tinker toy for the Autorama was in faded Candy Purple, it was pretty. I extened the swingarm 6" we were the first to my knowlage to do this, within a few there were many. The tinker toy was a '54 and thats what it started as Dick and I used to road ride together for a couple of yrs before he decided to make a dragracer. He built the motor and I stripped the frame and dug up the front forks, I built the tanks and oil tank and a few other items, we raced it one season as a 54 motor, then one day while working on it in Dicks garage a guy came by and ask if we wanted to buy a MC motor, it was a near new 63 Uni. YA it was hot, Dick did some mix and matching so I couldn't swear to the parts for sure as my memory serves, we were working on it in the garage one day and Dick's wife came out with drinks and said what are you guys tinkering with now, thus she name it tinker toy. The motor is made from 54 & 63 parts, all cases were hand lapped and there were NO gaskets in any cases or no head gasket. He kept it parked on a white sheet over a rug and never a drop of oil. That bike was prefection, it was raced four seasons and tore down every winter and nothing in that motor was ever replaced, you would marvel at Dick's motor work. He rebuilt my triumph motor and it turned a 13:93 in the 1/4. Tinker Toy had 2 slicks, one was a recaped soft rubber the other was a Avon drag slick. We prefered to cap. The 54 flywheel was chopped, lightened up, but they dropped the rpm too much on the launch, so he used the flywheels from the uni motor, also the head & barrels. He built the motor with his gears to red line at 10.5 and cross the line at 10.2. The Bannam forks dropped the front quite a bit, when I put the 6" in the swing arm I just used a shorted tube to get the drop we wanted, I drilled over 200 different size holes in the frame and cast connecting joints. then layed a sheet of fiberglass over the whole frame, worked it down to what you see, thats all the frame was changed, nobody ever knew about the holes in the frame. Walt Ross from San Jose had his Sportster frame done full of holes, him and Bob Lux with a 54? Triumph, both running Fuel was turning in the real low 10's 148mph, they grudge raced a few times at Fremont, not for sure, I thing I had the frame down to 18 to 20lbs??, lot of details to remember but I'm working on it, I think the whole bike was 212lbs, every time I study the pic I see another little detail, you can see I took out the lower tank bar. The chain guard was a strip of brass with the edges rolled. The top of the oil tank is the filler bung form the primary cover, the gas tank cap is the cap from a grease gun. The action in the forks was not Hyd, just a 5" spring like a valve spring. The tack was bought from Germany, it started a 5000 rpm. I hand formed the seat from alumium and it was drilled full of holes. Dick opened a Kawie dealership in west sacto, in the early 70's and when the first 3cyl 500 kawie came out Dick ordered one and done one of his speed tunes on it, took it to Bonnyville and set a new 500cc worlds record, a little more history, the guy had reactions like a cat, never beat of the line, Bill 
More pics of Bill's bike SOON!
Mysteries revealed, below is the additional info I got from Bill Lee: Here is the Orig. Tinker Toy and the 2 guys who built it and raced it for 4 seasons. It started as a TR model, front forks are early BSA 250 Bantum 21" front spool,the frame is in Purple Metal Flake. I Bill Lee made the frame and metal parts, Dick Howell (seated) done all the perfect engine work, It was dyno'd at 82 HP, at std bore & stroke 40 CI this photo taken at Dicks Dads house in Fresno Ca. 1966, it turned 11:27 et at 127 mph, we lived in Brodrick CA when this was built, in 1968 we put it in the Sacramento autorama and took best of show for bikes and the Governors excelence award. 
Back in those days I didn't own a camara, this photo was taken by Dicks dad who was a professional and had a studio in Fresno, we did a lot of racing at Fremont raceway, I think their archives would have pic of the bike, we held track records at 8 Ca. tracks. he broke the worlds record in Fremont and it stood for a month, your pic was taken at Las Vagas at the worlds championship all bike meet, tinker toy won the DG Bike class, stepped into the DF class and took out 8 more bikes before being beat, to my knowledge it's the only bike ever to win the Gov. excelance award at the Sacto. autorama, Dick sold the motor to a guy in Sacto. and was put into a street bike, the rest stayed in Dicks garage for some time, I don't know what happened to it, If you talked to someone a few yrs, ago that claims he has the bike he might have the motor or the other part, they were split up in about 69 or 70, that bike had close to 150 throphys to it name, as you can tell, I'm very proud to have been part of that bike and it's history. I rode it 2 times when Dick hurt his knee and in those days it was awsome to cross the 1/4 mi traps at 125 mph on that bike, I don't have any english stuff left, but my 650 triumph is still my all time favorite, here is my 650 in 64 when we were racing the tinker toy, I painted the tinker toy and my bike at the same time in metal flake, mine red, tinker toy purple, the last paint job I did on tinker toy for the Autorama was in faded Candy Purple, it was pretty. I extened the swingarm 6" we were the first to my knowlage to do this, within a few there were many. The tinker toy was a '54 and thats what it started as Dick and I used to road ride together for a couple of yrs before he decided to make a dragracer. He built the motor and I stripped the frame and dug up the front forks, I built the tanks and oil tank and a few other items, we raced it one season as a 54 motor, then one day while working on it in Dicks garage a guy came by and ask if we wanted to buy a MC motor, it was a near new 63 Uni. YA it was hot, Dick did some mix and matching so I couldn't swear to the parts for sure as my memory serves, we were working on it in the garage one day and Dick's wife came out with drinks and said what are you guys tinkering with now, thus she name it tinker toy. The motor is made from 54 & 63 parts, all cases were hand lapped and there were NO gaskets in any cases or no head gasket. He kept it parked on a white sheet over a rug and never a drop of oil. That bike was prefection, it was raced four seasons and tore down every winter and nothing in that motor was ever replaced, you would marvel at Dick's motor work. He rebuilt my triumph motor and it turned a 13:93 in the 1/4. Tinker Toy had 2 slicks, one was a recaped soft rubber the other was a Avon drag slick. We prefered to cap. The 54 flywheel was chopped, lightened up, but they dropped the rpm too much on the launch, so he used the flywheels from the uni motor, also the head & barrels. He built the motor with his gears to red line at 10.5 and cross the line at 10.2. The Bannam forks dropped the front quite a bit, when I put the 6" in the swing arm I just used a shorted tube to get the drop we wanted, I drilled over 200 different size holes in the frame and cast connecting joints. then layed a sheet of fiberglass over the whole frame, worked it down to what you see, thats all the frame was changed, nobody ever knew about the holes in the frame. Walt Ross from San Jose had his Sportster frame done full of holes, him and Bob Lux with a 54? Triumph, both running Fuel was turning in the real low 10's 148mph, they grudge raced a few times at Fremont, not for sure, I thing I had the frame down to 18 to 20lbs??, lot of details to remember but I'm working on it, I think the whole bike was 212lbs, every time I study the pic I see another little detail, you can see I took out the lower tank bar. The chain guard was a strip of brass with the edges rolled. The top of the oil tank is the filler bung form the primary cover, the gas tank cap is the cap from a grease gun. The action in the forks was not Hyd, just a 5" spring like a valve spring. The tack was bought from Germany, it started a 5000 rpm. I hand formed the seat from alumium and it was drilled full of holes. Dick opened a Kawie dealership in west sacto, in the early 70's and when the first 3cyl 500 kawie came out Dick ordered one and done one of his speed tunes on it, took it to Bonnyville and set a new 500cc worlds record, a little more history, the guy had reactions like a cat, never beat of the line, Bill 
More pics of Bill's bike SOON!
1953 Bill Martin "Big Bear Spring Frame"
The race that started Triumph's claim to fame in American Racing. The 1953 Big Bear race had 448 entries, with only 83 finishing. Four newly made Martin Spring Framed Triumphs were in the mix and Vern Robinson's came in first after the leader Bud Ekins took out his Matchless in a slide. Vern had only been racing for a year and only had one previous trophy on his mantle.
Being a large fellow, Vern had no advantage in the power to weight ratio area, and the suspension had its work cut out for it. I like the high California bars and plain control levers pointing towards the sky.
The story behind the 1953 race winner.
A year or two ago a guy had a complete Triumph twin Martin chassis including forks as seen in this article offered on ebay. An extremely rare find!
Unknown 1950's era Martin Swingframed rider.
First kid on the block to build one that I know of in the modern era, David Edwards Iron Tiger Martin Swingframe as featured in the March 2000 issue of Cycle World magazine.
For those that can appreciate the history and coolness of these swing frames I have an original 1953 example as mounted to a 1952 Thunderbird with matching numbers engine on ebay HERE.
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