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A few months back, while stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire, I mentioned to my dad that I wanted to get my motorcycle licence and build a bike. I mentioned building a bobber or a cafe, something a bit custom. What I haven't mentioned is that my dad's been riding bikes since way before I was born and has collected a lot of cool stuff, mostly Triumphs. We tossed around the idea of using a 1968 650 and turning it into a rigid frame... but then my dad said, "hey what about the 53? it's already hard tailed"
This bike sat in the basement of our old house for at least 20 years, and prior to that it was a farm bike. I knew it as "the orange bike"
So with the moderately interesting background out of the way, here it is. It is a 1953 Triumph Speed Twin, otherwise known as a 5T. It has a 500cc engine, which produces a whopping 27hp. It is among the last of the Triumphs to use an iron head. It also has a sprung rear hub, which incorporates some travel into it to make the ride from the factory rigid frame a little less harsh. As I mentioned earlier it has been sitting, in my dad's possession for over 20 years and an unknown amount of years prior to that. His friend bought it off a guy who used it as a farm bike and when he fell into hard times and wanted to flip it my dad bought it for... well.. not much.
Before work could start though, the garage had to be cleaned out and after two major renovations at the cottage and moving from a house to a town-house meant that it was seriously neglected aka a disaster. So.. after two days we cleaned it up and pulled out the bike.
What you can't really tell from photos is that the whole bike was painted with a brush and some orangy-red Tremclad, nuts welded on to the frame, all sorts of ghetto shit. When we rolled it out of the garage, I couldn't believe it - the rear brake still worked great and the tires held air!
Anyways, got it back inside, found the factory tank, slapped it on and took off the seat to get an idea of what a single saddle might look like...
Then.. a couple hours later..... a bunch of 60 year old parts came off...
So end of day one that's what it's looking it.. Next on the docket is to pull the rest of it out and see what sort of shape it's in and go from there..
But for now here's a pic of my dad's Triumph, one owner since new.
Dad's bike by christopher.johnston, on Flickr
This bike sat in the basement of our old house for at least 20 years, and prior to that it was a farm bike. I knew it as "the orange bike"
So with the moderately interesting background out of the way, here it is. It is a 1953 Triumph Speed Twin, otherwise known as a 5T. It has a 500cc engine, which produces a whopping 27hp. It is among the last of the Triumphs to use an iron head. It also has a sprung rear hub, which incorporates some travel into it to make the ride from the factory rigid frame a little less harsh. As I mentioned earlier it has been sitting, in my dad's possession for over 20 years and an unknown amount of years prior to that. His friend bought it off a guy who used it as a farm bike and when he fell into hard times and wanted to flip it my dad bought it for... well.. not much.
Before work could start though, the garage had to be cleaned out and after two major renovations at the cottage and moving from a house to a town-house meant that it was seriously neglected aka a disaster. So.. after two days we cleaned it up and pulled out the bike.
What you can't really tell from photos is that the whole bike was painted with a brush and some orangy-red Tremclad, nuts welded on to the frame, all sorts of ghetto shit. When we rolled it out of the garage, I couldn't believe it - the rear brake still worked great and the tires held air!
Anyways, got it back inside, found the factory tank, slapped it on and took off the seat to get an idea of what a single saddle might look like...
Then.. a couple hours later..... a bunch of 60 year old parts came off...
So end of day one that's what it's looking it.. Next on the docket is to pull the rest of it out and see what sort of shape it's in and go from there..
But for now here's a pic of my dad's Triumph, one owner since new.
Dad's bike by christopher.johnston, on Flickr
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