I sought the same freedom and pleasure I had as a 14-year-old on my 200cc Triumph Cub. I wanted a bike that met only my standards and not those of the collectors’ market.
Classic Cycles was helping maintain a fully restored ’69 Triumph Bonneville I already owned. And it takes a lot of attention to maintain factory-spec condition. The more I was around the shop, the more the choppers in for service began looking good to me. They were leaner and lacked nearly all the parts that tended to loosen, fall off or break on a vibrating stock Triumph. They looked more fun. So we began looking for a donor bike in January of 2008, and while we kept finding prospects they came with parts we didn’t want but that we’d have to pay for and then sell. It seemed inefficient.
In February, I started scouring eBay and Craigslist, searching for a suitable full-lump motor. Then, making a cold call, one turned up in the San Fernando Valley, along with a nice Triumph TR6C tank. The timing-side piston was rusted to the cylinder wall. But it broke free pretty easily, and we could freely rotate the crank. However, the bottom section of the drive-side case where the chain tension adjuster should have been was completely torn away. A piece of wood was wedged against the tension blade to take slack out of the primary chain. I was assured this was the most worn and stretched chain to ever come through the shop. The bottom end looked as though the oil had never been changed. Foul water poured out when the covers came off. Andy Dunn of Classic Cycles said it looked like it had been dredged from the bottom of Long Beach Harbor. From this dark beginning the bike would be built piecemeal.