In a casual conversation with a friend a couple of years ago he mentioned he had a couple of 1968 Triumphs in the back of his shop. One of them was a “Daytona”. I didn’t know anything about 500cc Triumphs. I did a little research on the twin carb 500 and it looked like a neat little bike. A couple weeks later I hooked the trailer up and headed for Napa. I was pleasantly surprised with the condition of the “Daytona” when I picked it up. The second bike a T100C was missing some tin but the rest looked complete. Rusty, corroded, and rode hard but complete. 

 

I sat in my shop for a week and looking at both bikes finally I decided to build the T100C first. Kind of a put a little lipstick on the pig, get it running and sell it and use the money to fix up the Daytona. Well, putting a little lipstick on the pig turned into the ground up restoration you see in this story. 

 

Oh, the “Daytona”, well it’s history. After many visits to the shop of a questionable individual who accompanied by his wife (the pair are right out of the 50’s Brando hit movie, “The Wild Ones”) supplies vintage British motorcycle parts on a back street in Sparks, I was persuaded to purchase a 1970’s something Bonneville. The Daytona went away to pay for the Bonneville.