$8,950
Essex Junction, Vermont
Category
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Engine
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Posted Over 1 Month
This is a repost as a Buy It Now. A buyer from NH ended up bailing on us. This is a neat write up about a special bike. ***************************************************************************** For you Classic Bike fans in general, and vintage Triumph enthusiasts in particular, my partner Nick is parting with his one-owner TR6 S/C. This is a quintessential 650 Triumph in desert sled guise as a "Sport" / "Competition". These are rare bikes - yes, more rare than a Bonnie. The story of how he put this bike together out of a crate while working at a local Triumph dealer in the 60's and the journey they have both been on since then is worth the read. Nick and I own The Classic Bike Experience here in Essex, VT, and he is the Triumph subject matter expert in our group. A bad back and a desire to see the bike used has led him to the decision to part with it. Only to a good home folks. If you can't appreciate what you are looking at, then best to find something else. The bike will be listed on eBay shortly, so if you are keen to check it out, call or better yet, drop by the shop and see it for yourself. Jack **************************************************************************** 1965 Triumph TR6S/C Vin # DU19654 Owners statementJuly 6, 2015 I bought this motorcycle in late Fall of 1964. I was working as a Toolmaker's Apprentice for General Electric and the Toolmaker I was working under was Frank Pelkey, the owner of Frank's Motorcycle Sales in Essex Center VT. He offered me a job nights and weekends assembling motorcycles from the crates and "commissioning" them. When this model was announced, only (2) units were allocated to new England and I spoke up for one of them. I had become partial to the TR6's as they were less finicky about carb settings and not significantly different in output power. The bike was originally fitted with a single speedometer by VDO, center mounted above the headlight. This unit was prone to collecting water and becoming hard to turn to the point that the cable would break after several years. I replaced the cable regularly and had the speedo rebuilt by VDO twice. As a result, the total mileage became very unclear. Several times I would run the bike for a month or two without the speedo , as I was on a limited budget. (who has extra money when they are 20 years old?) In the summer of 1965 I rode it every day rain or shine as it was my only transportation and my girlfriend at the time had taken a job in Hartford CT after graduating from college, so my routine became simple; ride back and forth to work every day, 4;30 Friday night, hammer down the road from Burlington to Hartford and hammer back Sunday afternoon. Lots of miles, never a break-down on the road. I was very faithful to the oil change routine, 1000 miles or less between changes used Quaker State exclusively, bought it by the case. I also did motor work while at Frank's and saw first-hand what happened to engines that didn't get regular oil changes. I couldn't afford new parts so I was very careful to not need them. One weekend I didn't go to Hartford as the dragstrip in Milton VT having a "run what you brung" event that I couldn't resist. I managed to match Cycle World's road test results exactly with an ET of 15.88 @ 88mph through the ¼ mile. This was the only time I dragged it against the timer, all other contests were impromptu and based on circumstance.. I will say that a properly tuned TR6 will whip ass on a poorly tuned Bonneville everytime. Timing settings and technique on 4CA points plate bikesare true separators of skilled mechanics from hackers. The later points plates with individually adjustable and timeable points are much to be desired if points are your thing. I got married to my girlfriend in 1966, so the long rides came to an end and I also had access to a car now and then so the bike became a little less used but still regularly ridden to work and on weekends. In 1967, BSA came out with the 650 vertical twins in a grey painted frame. I thought this was the greatest look in motorcycles so I blew my bike apart one lost weekend and painted everything on it that was black a lovely Kelly green courtesy of Rustoleum spray cans. One of the dumber things I did while in my 20's, but certainly not the only one. (Getting married ranks right up there) Being Dinks during the mid 60's led to a lot of different activities not all of which resulted in the motorcycle being the center of my world. I rode on a bob sled team one winter, (1966 I think) and rode over on the bike in the spring to Mt. Van Hoevenberg to show my wife the bobsled run when it wasn't quite so cold. During that ride I was shoved off the access road by a station wagon intent on using the whole road . The resulting dump in the ditch bent the handlebars slightly and scraped the rim of the headlight. The bars have been replaced but the headlight ring still shows the scar from that episode. 1967 became a year of change for me and the bike. The Vietnam War was going strong and my graduation from the GE Toolmakers Apprentice program meant my draft exemption was up for review. Once I was re-classified, the handwriting was "Writ Large" on my wall, so I enlisted 24 hours before I was drafted in to the US Army. A very good friend agreed to keep the bike for me and ride it regularly while I was in service to my uncle and he was as anal a person as I was about oil changes and maintenance, so I felt it was in good hands. This proved to be the case as I returned 2 years, 11 months and 22 days later to a motorcycle running as good as I had left it and undamaged by its time in another shed. In 1970, I rode it regularly back to work and anywhere that my interests lay including Sunday morning breakfast rides by the local BMW contingent. No discrimination, any two wheeled vehicle was welcomed. 1971 was the year I began serious dirt riding, Suzuki 185's then Cam Am 175's, so the Triumph took a back seat to those interests, although I did brush-bash the Crown Point Military Road for about 30 miles before realizing it wasn't the desert and a 'Western desert sled" wasn't a good "Northeast Stump Jumper" This was the year that the Dunlop Trials Universals went away in favor of K70's and then a K81 for the rear. Replacing the stock sidecar gearing setup with one tooth higher countershaft sprocket pushed the TR6 into highway only territory from then on. Riding it regularly until 1977 when the world fell apart, getting divorced and selling almost everything I owned of value. At that time British motorcycles were relatively worthless due to the Japanese takeover of the motorcycle world. I couldn't get $300 for it. I was determined not to give it away, so I used my military training and preserved it with cosmoline and other materials to ensure it would endure many years in storage without serious detrimental effect. Moving into skuzzy apartments and having little cash for any pursuits other than life support led to a long dry spell in motorcycling. That spell ended in 2009 when I entered into a Classic Bike Cooperative, the forerunner of the Classic Bike Experience. I started restoration and re-commissioning the TR6 in 2009, letting it slide while starting up the business end of CBE and finished the restoration in 2014. It is now complete and needs completion of the initial break-in period, having been run about 65 miles in test and fettling. Details of engine rebuild: New rings, valves, guides, intake seals added, cylinder honed for new rings, taper =.0005 or less. Bore is standard. Cam reground by WEBCAM, lifters refaced. 6CA points plate fitted. (4CA available) New shell bearings, new ball and roller mains. Sludge trap cleaned. Gearbox; This is the W/R option (Wide Ratio) All new ball and needle bearings and thrust rings. New correct ratio speedometer drive gears. (Sidecar gears originally fitted available) Chassis and Body: New paint by Bob Myers Cycle Colors, Burnished Gold with White with the correct pin striping. New control cables and speedo cable. New rubbers on footpegs, K/S & gearshifter. New chain and sprockets. The bike has all original parts either on it or in boxes waiting to be re-used by a future owner. List of changes from original condition" Visible: Dunlop K70 & K81 tires in lieu of Trials Universal. Stainless rims replaced the rusted Dunlop items. Folding foot-pegs, an option added in 1967. (originals available) Later model (1966) rear brake drum with bolt-on sprocket Weber oil rocker feed manifold LED taillight (6V) Pillion peg extensions Single Smiths Speedometer fitted (original VDO and bracket available) Battery tender lead Invisible: Battery cut-off switch added under seat with removable key Spin-on type oil filter added in return line, located above center stand behind engine. Speedo drive gears to match sprocket configuration (originals available) Engine has "lightened" cam drive gears per John Healy design. (originals available) Engine is internally updated to latest ball and roller crankshaft mains and location scheme Engine is prepared internally for Jay Straits venting scheme. Forward mount area is drilled for venting and drainback and filled with stainless steel mesh pack for baffling. External vent location is not drilled. Comment: Purists may say that the all black seat is not original, but it is and was fitted from the crate by me. The seat has not been re-covered. One of my conditions of purchase was that no one except me uncrated it and did the assembly. Also the small tail-light was fitted originally as the larger "bullet" style was being introduced in 1965 on the Bonnevilles, The TR6's were the "poor relations" as far as production priority was concerned as the Bonneville was the star seller. The headlight brackets do not look correct, as the holes in them were added in the late 60's to accommodate a set of Honda directional lights, long since scrapped. Nick Woodbury Owner.
Trim TR6S C
