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Do Miracles Still Happen????

10K views 43 replies 42 participants last post by  haring 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Gang…
Just got back from vacation… I spent 2 weeks in Northwestern, PA, at my Camp on the Allegheny River, up in the Mtns.…Lotsa rain, but good thinking and chilling out time.

As some of you know, I used to work for Dwain Taylor, in Albany Georgia, at his Triumph shop. I was in the Air Force, and got shipped out in '63 to Korea. All the mechanics had nice custom Triumphs, with better than average engines. Unfortunately I had to sell mine. I sold it to one of the other mechanics. In March of this year, we had a reunion, and most of us hadn't seen each other for about 45 years. We had a lot of good memories and catching up to do…

One thing I haven't mentioned is that there was a rumor that my old Triumph was still alive and well in Alabama. I have been working on a deal ever since then, and never was sure how things were going to go down, so I have never mentioned it.. I was supposed to go over there in May to check up on it. In fact I was going to meet up with Chuck at one of his races in Alabama, and then go check on the bike rumor. But things weren't working out. The Guy that had it was going to give it to his son to build a chopper out of, and of course he had had it all these years, why get rid of it now, and yadda, da, yadda da, yadda….You get the picture. Well I went to see it last week in Piedmont, Alabama, and When I saw it I almost lost it right there...I had to take several deep breaths before I got out of the car….and when it fired up, I thought I was going to piss all over myself.

When I left albany, I sold it to one of the mechanics in the shop, and he retired back to Piedmont, his home town in Dec,1969, and sold it in 1972. The same Guy has had it all this time….

But here is the best part, it is still just like I sold it……Except it has about 500miles added to it…Yep just about 500 miles, And here's something else that is almost unbelievable, it still has the 1963 Ga. tag on it. It is a little rough, but it still runs, and everything is still there except the generator is gone. The guy took it off because he couldn't keep the generator bracket tight on it, so he just took it off. Two years ago he had new tires put on it because the old ones were getting dry rotted….Hell I guess so, after all, it's been 45 plus, years. He did have a little oversize front tire put on it, I think I had a 2.75 Pirelli, and he put on a 3.25 Dunlop. Also, the front fender got a bad vibration crack in it so he took it off, and lost it, but hell that's 45 years on the tires and fender. Pretty good.

The T&M decal is still on the tank, the Lucas Racing Mag is still on it and still fires. The 32 mm Del'Orto carbs are still there, a light flywheel, 9-6 cams on needles, light rockers and tappets, 1&9/16" intake valves. It even still has the same bathtub drain stoppers/carb plugs that I rigged up on it in 1962....He did have to replace a piston, so he changed both pistons and rings, and installed a head gasket which brought the Comp Ratio down to about 11 ½ to 1. He figured he wasn't racing so he didn't need the high compression. We use to lap the jugs and head and seal the head to the jugs with aluminum paint paste. He wasn't familiar with that so he just put a head gasket in it. It has the Smith tack, and speedo, however he said the speedo quite about 10 years ago after he put the new pistons in it. He set the tripmeter and it shows how many miles he put on it after the piston change until it broke . When I sold it, it had about 1900 miles on it. I went last week and picked it up.

Some folks claim that there are no more miracles…

Well look at the pictures, and you tell me….Are there????

HELL YES!!!!!

That's me on the right, with the other 2 owners. The Guy in the middle has had it for the last 30 years or so...



Theres the T&M decal just like it was in 1963



Here's the speedo and tack just out of sightr to the right...Amazing



Over all shot....



Carbs and mag showing underneath...





Can you believe this.....1963





Am I grinnin, or what.....



Life is good....Dusty
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The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese!!!
 
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#12 ·
Do miracles still happen... FUCKING RIGHT THEY DO!!!! That's a GREAT story.

If you love something so much set it free
If it doesn't come back it wasn't meant to be
But if it does
Ride that baby till the wheels fall off!!!!
 
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