Tim Martin was one of the 2.6 million people laid off last year. Though he loved the money of the big corporate machine lining his pockets, he cherished his autonomy much more. What better way to culminate your three-year career of being chained to a desk than to build yourself a two-wheeled freedom machine and cruise it up the California coast? The only problem was Tim had never built a bike before and didn't even have any parts to start with. After checking with friends and poking around online, he scored a basket-case '71 Triumph T100R. Tim knew he wanted a bobbed bike with a hardtail. Thanks to the experience he gained from building and prepping off-road trucks his fab skills were brimming. With almost around-the-clock dedication Tim quickly got the bike together and had it running in bare metal minus fender and exhaust. He was almost ready for his coastal cruise when he ran into a major hiccup. On the test run, while fitting the bike with a new carburetor, a piece of the inner casting of the carb broke off and got sucked into both cylinders. This of course seized the motor, and now Tim was over his head. He had never rebuilt any kind of motorcycle motor, much less a British-built one.
Enter Classic Cycles in Orange, California. Tim talked to the staff about rebuilding his motor and soon realized that, being out of work and broke, he had nowhere near the money it was going to take to have Classic Cycles build the motor. Tim decided this was a better time than any to learn how to do it himself. Somehow he conned the guys at Classic Cycles to guide him through the motor build in trade for doing fabrication work for them.
After cracking the cases Tim found out that the carb disaster was a blessing in disguise. The sludge tube was as clogged as a fat man's artery. If Tim put any more miles on the bike, it probably would have sent the rod through the case and grenaded the motor. As Tim started on the engine rebuild he decided to polish the cases to spruce things up a bit. This action led to painting the frame, upgrading the paint, and chroming or powdercoating everything else. With Tim's "quick rebuild" project taking the better part of five months he needed a goal to wrap it all up and get the bike running. What better way to end the obsession than to enter the bike in the Grand National Roadster Show? The final build culminated a huge late-night thrashing at Classic Cycles and Jimmy White's Circle City Hot Rods mere hours before the bike had to be checked in at the show. The dedication and help from friends paid off because Tim came home with trophies for Best Engine and a second in the Brit class. Not bad for an out-of-work guy who builds desert trucks in his spare time.