Big D Cycle Blog

Some pictures the owner of the Cheney Norton sent us. Steve did quite a bit of work on the motor and the owner did the chassis. The bike looks excellent, and did well on the track.

I found this bike on craigslist in Memphis recently. I contacted the owner to inquire about lending a hand in finding a good resting place for this piece of Texas Triumph history. This is a real deal Jack 900cc Trident. It has a Vesco ignition, custom Big D Cycle 3 into 1 exhaust, and various other trick and period parts. The guy that has it now is the second owner. The bike runs, but I have not seen the bike in person. We have seen too may Jack bikes fall into the wrong hands before, and get mutilated by people who don’t know any better. Riding this bike regularly could end in agony and heartbreak since the pistons and other internals for stokers are no longer available. Jack was well known for building them to go fast until they wouldn’t go anymore, so it would be best to just let this one retire some place nice. The bike looks like it has the petina and aging to make it stink of authenticity. I would consider this a un-restorable bike since it just looks the part so well. We are hoping to find someone who would like to have this special Triumph on display at their place. Link to the ad is below, perhaps you would like to rescue this one? It would be tragic to see someone bob it or worse. Asking price is $6000.

http://memphis.craigslist.org/mcy/1857668882.html

Some shots of projects going on around the shop. The Gulf Norton is now back on our radar and progress is being made. Everything is in final mock up stages, before the motors are pulled and finalized. Many repairs and modifications were necessary to get the body work to fit on the chassis again. The Gulf was sold to a Dutch drag racer after Norton collapsed. When it was in his hands it must have been involved in a crash, because the frame need bending to get all the mounts for the body work to align properly. When we found the Gulf in Germany, the body work was loosely fitted for this reason. M4 has done an excellent job recreating the exhaust for us, and soon the body will go off to the painter. This will be the third streamliner restoration that Jason Small has painted for us. We recently purchased a trackmaster Yamaha 360, pictured in this post. We plan to try our hand on the flat track soon. We also have a new project arrival for sale, a 1977 TR7 UK model. This is a very cool bike with the touring tank and other UK model accents. This bike was brought over from the UK sometime in the past decade. This is a unique Triumph, and an excellent project. We ran out of time trying to prepare the team Texas triple we recently pulled from Ed Mabry’s attic for Bonneville. so instead we have decided to do a quick overhaul on another Bonneville triple we took to the salt a couple of years ago. The chassis is rolling and ready to accept the motor that Steve is working away on. Also pictured once again is the fabulous Dean Baker collection.

Mid-O this year was an interesting mix of events. The dirt Track races were rained out on Friday night, and we had to scrounge the swap meet for a valve adjuster after the yellow bike ate one. The 275 sportsmen bike destroyed a piston, rod, and rocker arm when it decided it did not want to continue anymore in Saturday morning practice. We then had to share the one yellow bike for the rest of the weekend. Ryan ended up with two first places, and Jerrett placed with two thirds and a second. Ryan did score enough points to retain the sportsmen 750 number one plate. The dirt tracking pictures are from a practice session we went to before leaving for Ohio.