tech25

Recently my friend Alan Fraser approached me with the comment that he
wanted a Triumph TR5T Trophy Trail just like mine. If you ride the
club events you know Alan. He usually comes with me and brings his
Honda XL250 for the dual sport rides and his Yamaha 650 twin for the
street rides. Alan was born in England so he has a link to British
bikes. In his college days he owned a BSA Hornet but for the most part
has not been a British bike owner. It seems he has decided to play a
more active club role by joining the Brit bike ownership and rider
group. He had decided that the Trophy Trail would be perfect as it
could be used for both on an off road events, had plenty of power for
his rather slender build, and had lusted after this particular model
since its’ introduction in the early 1970’s, when he was a struggling
student and a recent college graduate. Alan knows how much my complete
restorations cost so when he offered a $5000 budget, I about fell down
as Alan spent a few years in Scotland as a youth and a lot of their
thriftiness more than just wore off onto him, it literally stuck hard.
Knowing Alan since he was in high school as the younger brother of my
classmate and friend Scotty Fraser, I knew what he really wanted was a
Trophy Trail that was presentable, very reliable, and a lot more
affordable than his proposed budget. In a conversation with him we
decided to look for a TR5T in any condition from just above a basket
case to a well kept low mileage original. The better the bike the more
we would pay and the less that would have to be done to get to a nice
looking utilitarian bike.

One of our first offers was an “original, low mileage” one reported to
have 26 miles on the speedometer. Unfortunately that bike and a
rebuildable core bike were in Oregon, part of a collection being sold
off at first by auction and latter by straight offers. I warned Alan
that without seeing it, you could never be sure if it was the bike or
the speedometer that had the 26 miles on it. And Oregon is too far to
go to buy a stinkin’ Brit bike, anyway. Alan had gotten the bug so he
searched the online Internet service, the Cycle Trader. The next call
to me from Alan was concerning one that he had found there: 1974 TR5T,
rebuilt engine, clean, etc., etc..

Alan says “I found the bike from Paradise”. I replied “You mean it is
that good?”. “No,” he says “from Paradise.... Paradise!”. I replied “
It can not be that good and not cost a fortune”. He replies “No, no,
it is in Paradise California!”. That’s up north isn’t it, I thought.
He follows “It is about 75 miles north of Sacramento.” Reluctantly I
told him to call them and gave him a list of thing to ask. Literally
minutes later he calls back and all the answers were correct:
condition, level of restoration, phone numbers of shops that did the
work, and a price half of Alan’s budget. I warned Alan again that the
bike may still need additional work to get it up to his reliability
requirements. He was determined to at least look at the bike. So on a
beautiful sunny early winter desert day we planned our trip to
“Paradise” for the next week.

Then came the massive weather change. As we left his house to start
the trip the rain started. and it rained and rained and rained some
more for most of the 500 miles to “Paradise”. The whole time all I can
imagine is a Triumph hulk, stored in a wet cellar for 30 years on
which the guy’s dog ate the seat, the electrical wiring, and was
working on the tires. This was of course after the great motorcycle
wreak in which the frame was wrapped around a tree and the engine
cases were split end to end. When we arrived in a downpour we
immediately went to the bike shop in “Paradise”, which was closed this
day and peered into the window to try to get a glimpse of the
candidate TR5T. Lo and behold it was there as advertised and looked
pretty good from 20 feet through two other bikes and a dirty and wet
store front window. Well that made for a giant sigh of relief for both
of us. Now what else could be wrong: T100 engine replacement rather
than the correct TR5T motor that can not be serviced easily due to
frame interferences, motor noises, bad transmission, etc., etc..
Tomorrow we would find out.

As we retired to our motel the clerk announced that she had been
petrified in fear the night before when a huge oak tree near her home
began swaying in the extremely high winds and that nearly 1800 homes
in “Paradise” lost their power, some not yet re-powered. It rained all
night long but no wind.

When we arrived the next morning in another downpour (“Paradise”, huh)
The seller’s friend was at the shop ready to talk Triumph. Initial
inspection showed replacement forks, front wheel, and rear wheel (all
off various mid 1970’s Yamaha’s). The builder had used the swing arm
pivot bolt lightening hole as a cross over tube to get the left hand
brake lever’s action to the Yamaha’s right hand brake arm...nice job.
The fenders were brightly polished as were the engine side cover
cases. It had a few flaws, all easily correctable and included some
later apparently longer travel front fork legs that were loose and
part of the deal. It also had a set of $350 Works Performance rear
shocks installed. Alan later made up a list of changes which actually
were not necessary but were to be done only for added reliability:
Boyer ignition and rectifier/regulator with new wiring, new
TerryCables, perhaps a new Amal carb, quieter muffler, and new control
levers. That’s not too bad, actually. Next was the ride. Another
downpour started Alan’s ride around the block to test the engine and
transmission. Except for the wetness, that went well with the bike
performing well after a two kick start. Moneys were exchanged and it
was time to leave “Paradise” in the rain.

Except for the nearly constant rain the drive went well until we got
to Bakersfield. On the road between Bakersfield and Tehachapi we
encounter heavy rain then a little hail, then a lot of hail. The next
problem came when the freeway slowed to 20 MPH due to limited
visibility in the hail. Now, for those of you who don’t know this
road, the elevation goes up from here. All we could think about was
the possibility of Hiway 58 being closed due to snow and having to
stay in Bakersfield for the night and driving hundreds of miles around
the snowy road. Then we came upon a CalTrans mobile information sign
board proclaiming “Heavy snow ahead, drive slowly!”, but we continued
on anyway. We got to Tehachapi and no snow at our altitude. Whew! The
rest of the trip was not so bad as we entered the high desert leaving
the rain behind but gaining the wind. After arriving at Alan’s home it
started to hail. It seems it had snowed earlier in the day. Winter
apparently arrived during our trip.

Well, our trip to “Paradise” did reap a Trophy Trail in very good
condition with some good modifications appropriate to Alan’s intended
usage and in very good condition mechanically. I don’t think I’ll be
so willing to go to “Paradise” next time; “Hell” maybe, but not “Paradise”.