Featured Anybody Racing An Old Triumph?

or a newer one?

i race a 65 bonneville in the land speed events in maine, USA. this machine is currently the fastest meriden bonneville running a production frame in the world, at 135mph.



not a lot of competition, but some people are in there with me







these are LSR machines, top speed only, straight line only, very specialized. you don't slow down or turn until you're coming back on the return road.



anybody race any of their machines lately? if you're in the UK, i believe they still do it on the pendine sands, but i'm not sure.

cheers

kevin

 

i admit that it's something of an arcane class. but the current 1960s triumph 650s . . .production frame . . . gasoline . . . no fairings . . . are all running 134-136 mph. this is faster than the fully-enclosed factory thruxton road racers at the isle of man in 1968-1969, so i at least am interested in moving ahead with development.

the old TTs were beautiful machines, but owning one of those is way out of my price range. i've looked at the pictures here of your machine, beautiful thing. very much a high point in design.

 

money is a serious issue in any kind of racing. i refuse to add it up.

but i m building a machine right now zpecifically for trackdays around here. id frankly just like to be better at riding in general and im running out of years.

the machine im building will be legal for clubman-ztyle classes, which means essentially it will be TT style with a fibreglas seat, ace bars, and rear sets. a nice combination but cyrrently stalled because im waiting for motor parts.

 

well, i actually hadn't intended to build anything. but i accumulated a big pile of extra parts from the LSR project, stuff that I scrounged because ithought i would use it and then didn't. after a while i looked at it and said, shoot, if i find a frame somewhere i have most of another motorcycle here ready to go. so i found a 1966 TR6 front section, bolted on a 63 rear i had already, and then started putting it together.



















i have the entire machine in parts, less assembling the motor. that's a project, because the cases are 1967 with CEI and BSF threads, and the crankshaft, gearbox, and primary drive are 1970 with SAE. can't use the fasteners from the 1970 motor in the 1967 cases, so it will be an amusing assembly. the head is a 69, so the rocker box threads should be UNF. maybe.

i just wanted a bike to squid around on on local trackdays, but since i'm building it from scratch i'm conformning it the american classic sixties class, which is essentially just a clubman class-- more or less stock, less lights. a friend of mine runs one in that class, so it will look a bit like his when it's completed

 

a couple of years ago i got a ride as monkey on a full kneeler a guy had brought to the landspeed racez. he came looking for advice the kill switch the rules required so i gave him a spare kill switch i had and he put me in the chair for about ten minutes. just the open platform with grab rails.

fantastic. if i was younger and maybe fifty pounds lighter id love to race sidecar . the driver and the monkey have to coordinate perfectly or the rig goes belly up, and hanging off the chair at 60mph or better with your face six inches from the tarmac iz a trip.

 

a classic is just a motorcycle that's been around longer than usual. some of them are pinnacles of development., some are time capsules, some are better forgotten.

a stock motorcycle is a starting point, designed to market to a certain audience. if you are not quite who that audience is but like the machine anyway, it's always open to tailoring to your own interests.

my 1972 bonneville is ugly and non-original, but i've been messing with it that way for four decades, changing this or that as i change myself with time. currently it starts whenever i want, goes like stink for what it is, and wears number plates when i want to race it.

motorcycles are a means to an end, and everybody is looking for something different. knowing what ends you want to achieve determines your path forward.