Do Miracles Still Happen?????

[Dusty]

This is just a little off topic, but most of us are interested in performance vehicles, and happy endings...
I did this write-up for another web site that I communicate on that is mostly Triumph owners, past and present...
I thought you guys might be interested too....
I picked it up yesterday.  My brogher that you guys me last year at the Salt Flats went with me in his pickup, as Lillies Honda Pilot didn't have a big enough Roof Rack...So I'm a Triumph owner again.  Back in its day this was one of the baddest street bikes around.  I'm not necessarily mentioning mine, just that this engine is the type we built for street bikes and they were bad.  And we built quite a few and sent them all over the country...Some even were exported....I'm gonna look it over for quite a while...It should be fairly easy to bring it back to the way it was.  First thing I'm gonna do is change that big fat front tire...


Benny


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Hi Gang...
Just got back from vacation... I spent 2 weeks in Northwestern, PA, at my Camp on the Allegheny River, up in the Mtns....Lotsa rain, but good thinking and chilling out time.

As most of you know, I used to work for Dwain Taylor, in Albany GA., in his Triumph shop. Known as the T&M Triumph shop...I was in the Air Force, and got shipped out in '63 to Korea. All the mechanics had nice custom Triumphs, with better than average engines. Unfortunately I had to sell mine. I sold it to one of the other mechanics. In March of this year, we had a reunion, and most of us hadn't seen each other for about 45 years. We had a lot of good memories and catching up to do...

One thing I haven't mentioned is that there was a rumor that my old Triumph was still alive and well in Alabama. I have been working on a deal ever since then, and never was sure how things were going to go down, so I have never mentioned it.. I was supposed to go over there in May to check up on it. In fact I was going to meet up with Chuck at one of his races in Alabama, and then go check on the bike rumor. But things weren't working out. The Guy that has it was going to give it to his son to build a chopper out of, and of course he had had it all these years, why get rid of it now, and yadda, da, yadda da, yadda....You get the picture. Well I went to see it yesterday in Piedmont, Alabama, and guess what...It's mine again....Yep it's hard to believe. I sold it to one of the mechanics in the shop, and he retired to Piedmont in Dec,1963, and sold it in 1972. The same Guy has had it all this time....

But here is the best part, it is still just like I sold it......Except it has about 500miles added to it...Yep just about 500 miles, And here's something else that is almost unbelievable, it still has the 1963 Ga. tag on it. It is a little rough, but it still runs, and everything is still there except the generator is gone. The guy took it off because he couldn't keep the generator bracket tight on it, so he just took it off. Two years ago he had new tires put on it because the old ones were getting dry rotted....Hell I guess so, after all, it's been 45 plus, years. He did have a little oversize front tire put on it, I think I had a 2.75 Pirelli, and he put on a 3.25 Dunlop. Also, the front fender got a bad vibration crack in it so he took it off, and lost it, but hell that's 45 years on the tires and fender. Pretty good.

The T&M decal is still on the tank, the Joe Hunt, prepped racing mag is still on it and still fires, the 32 mm Del Orto carbs are still there, a light flywheel, 9-6 cams on needles, light rockers and tappets, 1 ¼ intake valves. It even still has the same bathtub drain stopper/carb plugs that I rigged up on it in 1963....He did have to replace a piston, so he changed both pistons and rings, and installed a head gasket which brought the Comp Ratio down to 11 ½ to 1. He figured he wasn't racing so he didn't need the high compression. We use to lap the jugs and head and seal the head to the jugs with aluminum paint paste. He wasn't familiar with that so he just put a head gasket in it. It has the Smith tack, and speedo, however he said the speedo quite about 10 years ago after he put the new pistons in it. He set the tripmeter and it shows how many miles he put on it after the piston change until it broke . When I sold it, it had about 1900 miles on it. I'm back in Texas now, but I'm leaving Monday to go get it. Some folks claim that there are no more miracles...


Well look at the pictures, and you tell me....Are there? HELL YES!!!!!

[Crosley.In.AZ]

kool story and photos.

this is not something you hear of often.

have fun !

[1FATGMC]

Hey Benny that is great.  I'm really happy for you.  I'm sure you will get a kick out of having it again.

c ya,

Sum

[purplepickup]

Wow Benny, that truly is amazing!  I'm really happy for you too.

[river1]

SWEET!!

not off topic at all and a good story to boot.

you probably sold that before i was born

congratulations benny

later jim

[chimp koose]

That is WAY cool !

[phat46]

That bike is too cool!!! But the story is even more amazing!