Black, Red and the one I built earlier...

Black or Red?


That is my question this week in regards to the Matchless project.  I have had the frame cleaned up and powder coated, secured a nice Lycett seat and acquired a new wiring harness.  The cylinder is in the shop and I have secured a replacement fork tube.

I also spent a painstaking amount of time sorting out all the nuts, bolts and washers and studs.  Of course I had to clean the really rough stuff, making my tumbler and invaluable tool!

The workbench has since been cleaned up.....substantially!

So what colour do I make the tanks and tool box?  

Or

I will reveal my choice soon...

The one I built earlier...

While cleaning my garage I found a plethora of old photographs;  I was very pleased to find this one.  To the best of  my knowledge, this is the only surviving photo of my 1969 Triumph Daytona, made entirely from a big pile of parts (sound Familiar?)

This would have been circa 1998,  about three years before I sold it.   I never did get it to run properly and only really rode it a handful of times.  If I had it now, the story would be much different.  

I had been after a British bike for a few years, in earnest since 1994.  I didn't know much about them other than what I read in this excellent series of books at the school library a few years before that. 

These are a fantastic resource that I still see at swap meets...pick them up if you have the opportunity!

For me, nothing else would suffice.  My poor old Yamaha Maxim seemed sad and ugly by comparison,  with it's cast wheels and plastic accouterments.  In all fairness, that $50.00 motorcycle served me well and I was lucky to have it.  I gained a taste for the two wheeled life that was never going to let me go.

There seemed to be a lot of basket cases around back then for a few hundred dollars.  I missed out on a Matchless (what model I don't know now)  for $350.00 by one day.  I missed out on a '59 Tiger Cub (for $600.00 Running!)  by an hour.  Luck seemed to be against me.   Another year passed,  I briefly owned a Vespa 100 which was fun but not for me.  I had heard about a shop on Sorauren Avenue in Toronto called the Rocker Box that repaired old British bikes and may have some for sale.   The first part was true enough  however the latter wasn't.  

The owner (Doug?) was polite enough and answered my questions about the bikes in the shop.  There were Triumph's, BSA's,  AMC products, even an Ariel or two.  I was certainly in heaven, to him however I was probably just some young guy burgling his time. 

He was kind enough to give me the phone number of a friend who had 'a few' projects lying around.  

That is a story for another day....