Howdy. Old guy with old bikes

[grandpaul]

Heard about this forum over on caferacer.net; that place doesn't have much for people who actually want to talk about bikes. (too much drama and too many anonymous people with zero credibility, regardless of how much they know from googling)

Anyway, I've been around the forum circuit with the same username for about 15 years, started on Delphi and have spread out to several Britbike forums, also moderate classic/vintage sections on TriumphRat & TriumphTalk.

I've been into bikes since I was a kid and got to ride on my older brother's bikes in the 60s, finally got my first "real" bike in 1971. I've owned 150 bikes in all that time, I currently have 30, mostly Britbikes including Triumph, Norton & BSA (a half dozen are only projects).

My wyfe and 2 youngest live with me here in Laredo, Texas on the Mexican border at the south end of I-35; I've basically lived here all my life except 4 years in the Navy where I was an Aviation Ground Support Electrician. I've air owned air conditioning and personal computers & networking businesses, done mechanical & electrical engineering (drafting & design), and energy auditing, managed commercial construction (Operations Manager & project scheduling), and presently in surveillance, access, wireless communications and structured cabling systems as a Project Manager.

We've also got 3 older kids and 8 grandkids. Both my older sons are riders, and have been since they were 5.

In between commercial construction and my current gig, I opened Born Again Bikes and did client overhauls, refurbs, restorations and custom builds for 8 years. 95% of that work was Britbikes. Many of you have seen my blue monoshock Norton made with some parts from the original Kenny Dreer new Norton prototype bike that debuted at the New York IMS.

I ride with the local chapter of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, and from time to time make a haul up to the hills with the Texas clan of the Brit Iron Rebels.

I don't use emoticons, and whatever I post, I actually DID.

 

[trek97]

Welcome bud!

How bout posting some pics of a few of those old bikes!

BTW you wouldnt happen to have a 62-63 BSA A10 Rocket for sale would ya? Looking for something unrestored yet as complete as one can get. Definitely not a basket case.

 

[grandpaul]

How bout posting some pics of a few of those old bikes! BTW you wouldnt happen to have a 62-63 BSA A10 Rocket for sale would ya?

I'll post plenty of pix soon enough.

Sorry, no BSA for sale.

 

[grandpaul]

By the way, in keeping with the name of this forum, I do the ton PLENTY. So does my wyfe, and so do my sons.

I've done the Mississippi river road south out of Baton Rouge on my ZRX 1100 with my oldest son on his ZX7, running 120-140 for miles, swapping positions with ZERO traffic in the early morning.

We do the Texas Hill Country "trinity", 55, 2222,620, Lime Creek, etc. The best is 55 between Camp Wood and Rocksprings where you can cruise at well over the ton. That's where I had my ZRX 1200R up to 145 indicated, my middle son following me on my '83 VF750F; my wyfe was keeping up for the most part on her 2002 Bonneville.

Anytime I've finished a major project, I go straight out 59 and after clearing the curve that turns East just past Lake CasaBlanca, I make sure the bike will do the ton with no hiccups, or it's straight back to the shop.

Just for the heck of it, I once had Sally on the back and decided to swap out and ride pillion over the ton. Spooky back there.

I once averaged 110MPH riding from Victoria, TX back to Laredo, TX (180+ miles) in the cold, at night. That was something.

I've done 140 on my middle son's Ducati Monster at the Texas World Speedway, and topped the ton at Grattan, Miller, Sandia & Barber's when I raced a friend's Kawasaki H1 in AHRMA Formula 500 (took 3rd in the championship in '08, raced only 1/3 of the season with 5 podiums). I've also done a ton-and-a-half on an LCR Suzuki GSX1000 Formula 1 sidecar in AHRMA at Willow Springs in 2010 (two 1st place finishes); Team Murray won the Championship that year.

Yeah, I do the ton.

 

[whynot]

Welcome from Georgia...................

Sounds interesting.................what a career.............wow.

Pics would really be nice....that's for sure.

 

[grandpaul]

This is what I consider to be the jewel of my collection. It's a scratch-built Norton 850 Commando, with bodywork, hand-bent pipes, monoshock swingarm, and "big bearing" e-start tranny cradle from the original Kenny Dreer New Norton prototype that was shown at the formal announcement in New York.

Kenny also sold me lots of other stuff including cases, crank, rods, pistons, tranny shell, Baisley ported & prepped head, valves, variable-timing cam sprocket, Spyke starter, cylinders and J&E lightweight pistons with Total Seal gapless rings that will eventually go into the 880 engine.

For now it's a standard 850 e-start lump with FCR35 carbs, so I've been riding it since I built it. When the time comes, I also have a Lytedrive belt primary that will go in the carbon fiber primary case set that Kenny sold me (one of only 3 ever made for KD).

I fitted up a ZX6 front end, with Excel wheels laced up by Buchanan's (front hub is a VR880 piece, rear is a standard MkIII). I converted the MkIII tranny back to right-foot shift, and custom fabricated all the fixin's for the left-foot brake master cylinder & pedal. The frame mods were unbelievably minimal, with only a pair of small tabs drilled and welded to the frame just aft of the web under the main tube; then I simply drilled a couple of holes in the tranny cradle and fabbed up some spacers to bolt up the anchor end of the rising-rate linkage. Hand-wired electrics with individually fused circuits, a humongous AGM battery under the seat hump, and Sparx EI & 3-phase alternator.

Yes, it will do the ton, and then some (without breathing too hard).

 

[grandpaul]

As for what is presently my OLDEST bike, that would be this '56 Triumph T-Bird 650. As of now, it's ALMOST running; I resurrected a totally locked up engine, and replaced an unbelievably cr@ppy set of Japanese forks (probably off a 125). Found a nice tank and swapped a guy a standard set up for the headlight / speedo nacelle unit. When it's done, it WILL do the ton.

...almost forgot, check out those rear struts!

 

[grandpaul]

As previously mentioned, I raced in AHRMA vintage roadracing in 2007 (Historic Production Heavyweight), 2008 (Prod/Hvy, Formula 500 and VMX Sportsman 250), and 2010 (Prod/Hvy & F1 Sidecar).

For Historic Production Heavywight class, I scratch built this 66/67/68/69 Triumph Bonneville 650. It's bone stock, down to the rims, air filters, seat & mufflers. .020" over on the pistons & electronic ignition (allowed in the rules). Otherwise it is as stock as stock gets. The fact that it's built from different years is totally insignificant; some Triumph big twin parts remained virtually identical for 50 years (Yes, FIFTY).

I've raced at the Sandia Classic in Albuquerque (twice), Barber's (3 times), Roebling Road (GA), Road America, Grattan MI, Miller Motorsports Park, Willow Springs, Bonneville BUB meet, and the Texas Mile (Goliad AND Beeville). Took 5th in the AHRMA Production/heavy championship in 2008, racing only half the season; set my class record at the inaugural BUB Bonneville meet in '08, and finally got a podium (2nd) at Willow Springs in 2010.

 

[grandpaul]

AHRMA Formula 500 in 2008 was a total fluke. I rented a garage at Grattan (the only place you can plug in a coffeepot), and had the whole place to myself with just the little Bonnie and a small folding table for the coffeepot.

So this dude cruises by the pits the evening I got there, and asks if I'd sub-rent the garage space. I agreed, and we proceeded to unload his Sprinter-load of REALLY nice Kawasakis. Turns out he had a 72 Kawasaki 500 triple that he "wasn't doing anything with", and did anyone want to ride it?

I don't know if he was joking, but I ran down to registration and paid for the slot, and then got the bike tech'ed. Next thing you know (well, after one good practice session), I'm on the grid with the Formula 500 guys.

The Kawasaki started out tuned just right, Jeff showed me how he could start it in the pits with just a shove with his bare hand on the kicker; indeed, it bumped off at about walking speed just as I dropped the clutch for the first round of practice. It was crispy and wild as I whacked the loud switch to roll off hot pit lane.

The first thing I found out entering turn one was that he wasn't kidding when he said it had no back brakes! Standing on the pedal resulted in an almost imperceptible reduction in speed; just touching the front brake lever, however, produced a VERY nice whoa-down.

As most everyone knows, the big Kawaski triples are famous for thier "light switch" power bands in stock trim; apparently the race bikes are similar, only with a more pronounced spike in the power curve which stretches much farther up the rev range. This fact gave no comfort heading into the approach to the off-camber downhill section. The bike needed to be wound up to a "scream" level to be anywhere near the power delivery, then wicked up beyond where you would lose your voice trying to imitate the sound, to get it to take off exiting the corners.

I did 4 practice laps with every pass over the "jump" feeling lighter and lighter as my speed increased; in the race, I fully lofted both tires several times with very eye-opening braking at the bottom which comes up almost immediately. In fact, on one lap, I couldn't haul it in fast enough and had my first off-pavement excursion just into the grass; if I'd have had ANY rear brake, it wouldn't have happened.

When it came time for the race, I was so excited, I forgot my gloves! As I approched my garage in the hot pit, it just occured to me, so I whistled as loud as I could to attract anyone's attention, the only person that could hear me was Doug Polen (former superbike world champion) 2 doors down. He came running over, and I flashed my bare hands at him and pointed to my garage; he grabbed the gloves and tossed them to me, off I went.

I was gridded on the 2nd row and timed the green flag, but was only revving about 7,000 RPM as I started to release the clutch; to the Kwakker, that was like a driveway take-off level, and it produced a driveway type roll-off. DOH! I slipped the clutch and it spun up, then caught and launched off with the arm-straightening speed I'd first expected. I had the 2nd wave nearly on my tail in just a few turns. However, as I got more comfortable, I got back around some of the slower guys and started making up time on the pack every lap on the front straightaway. The bike HAULED BUTT as long as I kept it wound right up.

David Cru$$ell, my garage-mate, dropped out due to a broken shifter linkage; I never saw him trackside but took the podium spot he vacated in race 1.

The second practice session was short, just a few practice launches in hot pit, then some practice with keeping it on the pipe around the track for 2 laps. Race 2 was totally different. I got an okay launch, and stayed with the fast guys for the first lap. Then, all heck broke loose and the race was Red-flagged. People were all over the track, and all over the grass trackside; I headed into hot pit and parked right next to my garage. The track was cleared relatively quickly, and we were signaled to start engines, which I did with just a bit of a bump from a track official (might've been Will Harding). We were directed to go straight back to grid, and the officials pointed us to our respective slots according to the last lap positions.

It took a while to re-set the grid, in the meantime, the plugs on the triple were loading up and it was getting blubbery, not a good sign. The flag waved and I attempted to launch, but was promptly passed by just about the entire field as I nursed it up past walking pace to a brisk run, then finally a clean break into turn 1. I slugged off the corner, blubbered and bogged at every apex, and generally barely made it home to a 5th place finish. Too bad I didn't have the presence of mind to keep it screaming on the grid, I just didn't want to fry a borrowed bike.

It also turned out that David cooked his ignition keeping HIS bike wound up on the grid, (he got 2nd), so he wanted to jump on Jeff's bike for his 3rd event, (Formula Vintage). Anyway, I informed him that it was bogging badly and he'd need to "clean it up" before even THINKING about it responding, he just nodded and continued dumping the fuel from his bike into the gas can, while I dumped out the fuel I had mixed that morning.

David's start was somewhat rushed because of the impending weather and so he JUST made it to his slot in the grid, mere seconds before the starting sequence began. The bike sounded like it was revving okay, but nearly stopped dead when he let off the clutch; he caught it, slipped it and continued on, but he may as well have been "walking" it to get it going faster. After a few seconds of feathering the clutch, it started off at about mo-ped pace, then slowly revved up and he was off. I could hear him bogging in the turns, just as I had, so I didn't feel quite so bad knowing my previous poor performance wasn't all rider-induced. He did manage to bring it home and I believe he may have clinched his championship with the points he earned.

Long story short, I ended up getting to race the bike the rest of the season, clinching 3rd place in the championship!

 

[teazer]

GP, you decided to move over here from CR.Net or just visiting? Some of us are on both you know. Quite a few actually - not always teh same screen names, but I'm lazy.....

 

[grandpaul]

Maybe the high point of my racing experience was being in the right place at the right time when Rick Murray, a perennial contender for the Formula 1 sidecar championship, needed a "monkey" at Willow Springs in 2010. I happened to be planning to race, as well as deliver a client bike and maybe sell a custom Norton cafe racer that I had built.

It's too long of a story for this intro thread, but we took two 1st place finishes, and Team Murray clinched the championship later that year (I like to think I helped).

2005 LCR Suzuki GSX1000, absolutely trick and VERY slick.

 

[grandpaul]

GP, you decided to move over here from CR.Net or just visiting?

I'm nationwide.

 

[grandpaul]

Currently in the collection (too long for a signature tag):

1956 TRIUMPH T-BIRD RAT ROD
1964 TRIUMPH T-BIRD STREET TRACKER PROJECT
1965 TRIUMPH BONNY RESTO PROJECT
1966 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1966 TRIUMPH MATCHUMPH PROJECT
1966 TRITON TRITON CAFÉ RACER
1966 TRITON TRITON CAFÉ RACER PROJECT
1967 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1967 BSA LIGHTNING
1968 BSA 441 VICTOR
1968 TRIUMPH BONNY RESTO PROJECT
1969 NORTON P11 RANGER
1969 TRIUMPH BONNY AHRMA RACER #142
1969 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1970 TRIUMPH TROPHYVILLE
1970 TRIUMPH TR6 AHRMA RACER #207 PROJECT
1971 TRIUMPH BONNY TRIKE PROJECT
1971 HONDA SL350 PROJECT
1972 NORTON DUNSTALL COMBAT COMMANDO
1972 MONTESA RICKMAN MOTOCROSS
1973 NORTON COMMANDO SPECIAL
1974 MOTO GUZZI ELDORADO / COZY HACK
1975 NORTON COMMANDO INTERSTATE
1975 NORTON 880 MONOSHOCK PROTOTYPE
1980 KAWASAKI KZ-1000
1983 HONDA V45 INTERCEPTOR VF750F
1983 TRIUMPH BONNIE TSS ELECTRO 8-VALVE
2000 TRIUMPH LEGEND 900TT
2003 KAWASAKI ZG1000 CONCOURS
2003 KAWASAKI ZRX1200

 

[irk miller]

Nice collection. I'd love to get my hands on a Rickman. Odd looking bikes, but beasts for sure.

 

[grandpaul]

Updates on my situation and bike collection-

I semi-retired as of the end of 2017, and stopped taking client work. I also started selling off bikes at that time. Since then, I sold over a dozen.

We sold our slice of the family property in Laredo, Texas moved north 285 miles to Leander, Tx; our first home with no wheels under it after 35 years of marriage!

I retired in September 2018 and now getting back a tiny fraction of what I paid Uncle Sam for almost 50 years.

After 13 years of restoring, refurbishing, salvaging, and overhauling bikes for clients, I completed-
28 Rolling projects from piles of parts
26 Major refurb projects
22 Overhauls (not connected to restorations, refurbs, or salvages)
21 Complete Restorations
16 Custom/scratch builds
8 "Make-Run" Resurrections
3 Salvage Restorations

In all of those projects, I never had a single engine failure; the worst warranty claim I had to pay out was to replace a set of spun rob bearings, which also involved replacing a badly blued exhaust pipe. I had one chassis-related warranty claim for loose swingarm spindle that I failed to catch before delivery (my first Norton with the cradle tube that gets loose); that one was repaired long-distance in trade for Buchanan's lacing up a set of wheels for the guy did did the fix for me. Not a bad warranty record, with 100% reported customer satisfaction.

I just bought a 4-acre ranch and I'm relocating my 2-bay steel building extended garage and expanding it to become a hangar with shop & storage. The hangar is for my two ultralight airplanes (although only one will fit inside). I will have a 500' runway at the ranch, once the bulldozer is finished working.

Sold bikes & projects-
1956 TRIUMPH T-BIRD RAT ROD
1964 TRIUMPH T-BIRD STREET TRACKER (finished project)
1965 TRIUMPH BONNY RESTO PROJECT (unfinished)
1966 TRIUMPH MATCHUMPH PROJECT (unfinished)
1966 TRITON TRITON CAFÉ RACER PROJECT (unfinished)
1967 BSA LIGHTNING
1968 BSA 441 VICTOR
1968 TRIUMPH BONNY RESTO PROJECT (unfinished)
1969 NORTON P11 RANGER
1969 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1970 TRIUMPH TROPHYVILLE
1970 TRIUMPH TR6 AHRMA RACER #207 PROJECT (unfinished)
1971 TRIUMPH BONNY TRIKE PROJECT (Unfinished, traded for '72 Norton Combat that I refurbished and sold)
1971 HONDA SL350 PROJECT (unfinished)
1972 NORTON DUNSTALL COMBAT COMMANDO (sold with all-alloy polished bodywork)
1973 NORTON COMMANDO SPECIAL
1974 MOTO GUZZI ELDORADO (Sold without Cozy sidecar)
1975 NORTON COMMANDO INTERSTATE (Sold with Roadster bodywork)
1980 KAWASAKI KZ-1000
1983 TRIUMPH BONNIE TSS ELECTRO 8-VALVE
2003 KAWASAKI ZG1000 CONCOURS

Still have, FOR SALE (PM if interested)
1966 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1966 TRITON TRITON CAFÉ RACER
1967 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1969 TRIUMPH BONNY AHRMA RACER #142
1972 MONTESA RICKMAN MOTOCROSS
1975 NORTON 880 MONOSHOCK PROTOTYPE
1983 HONDA V45 INTERCEPTOR VF750F
2000 TRIUMPH LEGEND 900TT
2003 KAWASAKI ZRX1200

Also, I have since purchased or built, but will consider selling-
1969 BSA LIGHTNING
1970 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE
1972 BMW R75/5 (I refurbished)
1974 NORTON COMMANDO CUSTOM CAFE RACER (I scratch built)
1981 HONDA CB650
1982 HONDA MB5 (I restored)
1992 YAMAHA TDM850
2000 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE (Was once my wyfe's bike, bought it back)

The thing is, I still have too many bikes! I need to sell at least a dozen, and as I'm pretty attached to these bikes, it's getting harder and harder to do...

 

[whynot]

Wow, what a career.......................

 

[SpaceTrucker]

What ultralights do you fly? I've been eyeing a Rans S-12 for a long time, but gotta get the kid in and out of college before I jump down that path.

 

[grandpaul]

I have a Quicksilver MX Sprint II (2-seat) project almost built, and a standard MX (RTF). I also have a pile of parts that almost makes another MX, just lacking nose gear and sails.