1953 Triumph T6 Thunderbird

I graduated to my first Triumph in the Spring of 1965: sprung-hub, non-unit construction, cast iron cylinder head, and magneto ignition.

What a lovely tail light that is, and such a comfy saddle! Wouldn't I like to have it back again! It had a nacalle when I bought it - same bike Marlon Brando used for The Wild One.

Once that bike was hot it had to be jump started - usually took about a quarter mile! Much later I learned that was a magneto problem, but no one at Free State Cycle could figure it out at the time. Eventually I tired of pushing and traded it against the $1,165 sticker price of a brand-new 1966 Bonneville.

The Wild Thing

This was the '66 Triumph Bonneville T120R that I bought from Bob Myers at Free State Cycle in the Fall of 1965.

That winter I sent out much of the tin work for chroming and put on the peanut tank (which gave me a crusing range of about 60 miles) and Bates (ouch!) seat.

Today I would never apply so much chrome to a Triumph, they don't need it!

In particular I would avoid chroming the oil bottle. This bike developed a piston slap, proably because it ran so hot in the searing Washington DC summer - too many traffic lights, not enough cooling.

2 September 1966

Saying goodbye to family and Wild Thing on the morning I was inducted into active duty in the US Air Force. At the time Greg was my little brother, but somewhere around 1973 he turned into my big brother.

I sold the Wild Thing and gave away most of my belongs thinking that having volunteered for Viet Nam... well, you know, as Country Joe and the Fish put it, "Whoopie we're all going to die!".

Flower Power!

Later, stationed at the 773rd Radar Squadron at Montauk Point, Long Island, I realized that I might not die in Viet Nam after all and so decided to get another Triumph.

I found a '66 Bonneville with only a thousand miles on it for sale out on Long Island.

Here it is, outside the barracks, with Margaret Nicholson's flower-power paint-job.

Hawk to Hippie
... in just four years.

Here saying goodbye to Flower Power, having repainted the tank and put it up for sale to finance my quest to the West in the Spring of 1971.

Thirty-two years went by before I once again found myself looking at life across the handlebars of another Triumph.