Triumph Tops 10,000 Miles

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

If you’re a regular reader of the RIDE-CT motorcycle column in “The Republican-American,”  you’ll likely recall the continuing soap opera back in 2008 when a wreck of a 1969 Triumph T100R Daytona was dragged from Greg Bidou’s barn in Falls Village and put back on the road. The rebuild process took something like eight months and was filled rookie errors on my part – bent handlebars that got sent out to be chromed, for instance. Last summer, the bike didn’t get used much because of a leaky gas tank that had to be sent out repeatedly to get rewelded. While the gas tank held tight this year, new clutch springs were needed, the valves had to be adjusted and the Zener diode had to be replaced. At the moment, the T100R is running smoothly, albeit with a tank that needs to be repainted. I mention all this because yesterday afternoon – 41 years and 10 months after the bike came off the assembly line in England – the odometer rolled over from 9,999 to 10,000 miles. That means the bike has been ridden less than 240 miles per year. Actually, the bike went unregistered from 1971 to 2008. It had 8,715 miles on it when the rebuild began, meaning that 1,285 miles have been added in the past two years. And almost every one has been enjoyable. If you’re thinking of finding a basket case or project bike to work on over the winter, my advice is this: Don’t hesitate, do it.