Barn Find Long Bike... BSA Rocket 3

Hoosier Daddy

Hoosier Daddy

Earache my eye...
"OH JEEZUS He Is Back!"

Been a long time for me to be on DTT... am liking the new digs.
For the older members here you may remember me.... To the newer ones... HEY!
So here is what brings me back. A total culture shift for me from my previous Cafe' builds is my first long bike.
I have known this bike for 45 years, When the 77 year young owner called me and offered it I could not pass it up.
Disassembled and stored in the rafters of his shop for 4 decades and the price was right... FREE!
Unloaded it an hour ago and am just starting to do some research.
Thought I remembered it was a Triumph Trident, but turns out to be a BSA Rocket III.
RIGHT SMACK DAB in my wheel house.
'67 441 victor Roadster (single)
'67 A65 Spitfire (twin)
and now this A75 Triple... 1-2-3
Last registered in 1977.

Anyhow, I thought I would crawl back out of the bottle and see what I can do with it.
 

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That was about the time I ran one on the street. They are a PIA to get right but run really nicely and remarkably fast when set up right.

I hope they didn't mess the frame up to make it into a chopper. If so, a Miles replica might be nice. Needs a different front brake and might be an idea to fit say an R6 set of forks and brakes on a spool disk braked spoke wheel to match the stock "comical" rear hub.

A single, twin and triple would be a nice set.
 
Good to see you back. Oddly enough I have built 4 other GT750s and that one is still unfinished..... Only three more to go.

Blue sympathetic restoration - Sold
Red mild updates - Sold
Burned Orange street tracker - for sale
Yellow Dunstall lots of mods - Sold

To be completed:
Black cafe racer with modern suspension and wheels and other upgrades
Drag bike with custom everything
And that one in the avatar that started this.

Will be nice to clear some more space..:)
 
Welcome back. Cool bike to jump back into the pool with. Funny to remember it as a Triumph Trident. Makes me think of the X-75 story for some reason. That X-75 side swept exhaust is one of the craziest exhausts.
 
Nice. One of my buddies just resurrected a '69 Rocket III barn find from the dead. His was mostly complete, he got it running and cleaned the shit out of it. And sold it to a guy in the U.K. I got to ride it a bit and it ran great and had really good power and was really smooth. These are worth real money restored. But you only have enough of it that you can do whatever the heck you want. I came an ace of picking up a basket case Trident a month or so ago to do a chop. Can't wait to see what you do with this one.
 
Irk,

Good call. X75 was a BSA Rocket 3 with inclined cylinders and the later T160 Trident changed from upright to inclined. Have you read the story of the X75 which was designed by Craig Vetter
 
The X-75 Hurricane is a wonderful bike. A local friend has one that's mint. He rides into our yearly Meltdown Vintage festival in Henderson, NC on that bike every spring.
 
irk miller said:
The X-75 Hurricane is a wonderful bike. A local friend has one that's mint. He rides into our yearly Meltdown Vintage festival in Henderson, NC on that bike every spring.
Click to expand...
I have 2 friends in my riding group that own perfect condition X-75s. One guy owns two that he bought new and a second has one has a great restoration.

If anyone is after one of these reasonably, Morrie's Place in Ringwood, IL has one under 9k that is in nice original condition, it's got a weird but valid VIN Stamp.
 
Yep... just as I thought... Another "Bitsa"! :rolleyes:
Frame code is JG00131 August '72 (one of the last made)
Engine is AC01227 January '69

Nothing valuable here.... might as well make it my own.
 
Just as an aside, when I lived in the suburbs of Sydney and was rebuilding my R3, a guy a few blocks away was rebuilding an X75.

Changes from 69 to 72 were not many - rayguns replaced with megas, slightly different seat, brakes and different tank badges IIRC, but I am thinking of non-US bikes, so US ones might be different. US had small tanks IIRC . Since this one is a Bitza, might as well do something original with it. Have at it.
 
Seems like a good thing it's a bitsa, right? Not that I need an excuse to chop them up, it's never bad to have one.
 
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