Frame and forks now in hand it was off to uncle Petes again to pick up some wheels. This time from a BSA he had in. 19" front wheel with Avon tyre will require some machining to fit but I have an oldtimer lined up locally to help me with that. 16" back wheel looks mint with vintage style Michelin tyre.
Next up was the tank. My friend Paul Grocock - brother of fabled airbrush artist 'Beej Curtis' gave me this. It's a BSA tank from a scrambler apparently... think it may need a cut and shut job though to make it a little narrower... prehaps a peanut tank instead? Any thoughts?
Fast forward another few weeks and the 500cc engine was sourced from Aaron at Dyslexsickle - story was it had been bought from Pete and sat unused in his garage for a couple of years. The engine had been built not too long before that and only covered around 2000 miles.
This weekend hailed a pre-unit rigid gearbox after a couple of close misses on ebay... I'd been told about an auto jumble at Murton just this side of York i'd not previously heard about where a guy with loads of pre-unit stuff hung out. So off I went - cash in hand. Spotted Steve who worked for Don Law Vintage Motorcycles in Hull - we used to pop in there and see Don every so often and hand once been invited to view Don's private stash a his home - a rare treat indeed!
Anyways - I arrived at the auto jumble but no sign of the Triumph guy. 30 mins later he showed up with a trailer full of stuff. As I made my way over I spotted Steve from Dons, "What you looking for" he said. "Just a pre-unit gearbox really Steve" I said. "Dipped out on a couple recently". With that he spun on his heel, grabbed a gearbox out of the guys trailer and asked him what he had on it. "£60" in a flash the cash was out and Steve stood there looking smug. "Is that the one i'm after Steve?" "Yeah, I bought this to put in stock though" he said. Fu*king idiot I though - what kind of kn*b would do that! "Want to sell it?" I said - "yeah, but it will have to be £150" he said. I wanted to tell him to shove it up his arse but figured as I was prepared to pay more on ebay plus it would save me postage fees it wasn't too expensive. He wandered over to his van, obviously not wanting to 'do the deal' in front of the guy he just bought it from and we settled on £140.
"What else you looking for" he said later on. "I'm not fu*king telling you!" I said. Lesson learn't the hard way - don't trust people. 'Cu*ts trick that' my commented. Trust me - I won't be bothering him again.
On a more positive not I also picked up a nice rear mudguard needing a little work and mudguard stays for £7.00 from the Triumph guy. The stays where the type that had the cast end and had been sleeved like the frames are. When offered up they look as though they will fit nicely!
So - not necessarily in order are a few extra pics. Headlamp was bought at the local carbooty a few months back for a couple of quid, there's a pic of the BSA the wheels where fitted too and a pic of the bike i'm using as inspiration...
