t ingermanson
VIP MEMBER
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2018
- Messages
- 584
Thought I'd pump up the postings on the Triton board as it's felt a bit neglected and everyone loves/hates a Triton!
This project really started circa 1999, when the campervan I was traveling around New Zealand with broke down in Dunedin. As the timing belt broke, we coasted into the only garage in town open on a Sunday. The mechanic was an older fellow named Sandy, who helped us out greatly. While waiting for our campervan to get fixed, we (my better half, Jen, and I) struck up a conversation with a friend of Sandy's named Martin, who happened by the shop. We both were very much into Honda K4s at some point in our lives, so we got along great. Longer story short-ish, we ended up hitting it off with Martin, who we've visited several times more in NZ over the years and hosted at our place in California.
Upon parting for the first time, I mentioned to Martin if he ever stumbled across a Dominator for sale, to let me know, and I might just buy it and ship it back to the states, as the exchange rate was very much in our favor at the time. About six months later, Martin called with the news that something had turned up in Chch that I might be interested in and I phoned. Sure enough, a Model 88 was for sale and with shipping (the fellow had "mates on the dock") it came to $1500US. Deal.
It showed up in a crate much smaller than I imagined any portion of any motorcycle could fit in and I took it home. Opened it up and it was mostly there. Sort of. '53 Bolt up frame, iron head Model 7 motor, most of a gearbox, a couple of mismatched wheels, a shell of a mag, a few Lucas rotors, a heavily dented primary case, some rusty forks, and an ice cream bin, half full of bolts. It was my first Norton.
Fast forward ions, and I finally forced the time to start work on it, after years of friends asking about the Norton in the box. I had owned and rebuilt many Hondas and BMWs, but the Norton was intimidating.
To start, I took my dusty prize to Raber's in San Jose and it quickly became clear what I was up against. It also became clear that Bob Raber was a Triumph guy, so I decided to swim with the current a tiny bit and build it into a Triton, instead of trying to turn that iron head turd into something it was not. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it really was jumping into the deep end.
By trade, I am a metal fabricator; self employed with a shop at home. I am not a machinist, but I can get along ok with manual machines. Patience is my super power.
The bike was "finished" in 2014-2015-ish, with what I thought would be a dry build, ride it for a few months, and do a quick rebuild working the bugs out. Yea right...
To follow are some pics I took as I was building it the first time. Some details managed to survive to this day, others were changed. Overall the bike has been quite reliable, after a couple major bugs were worked out.
Please enjoy and feel free to knock me about as needed.
This project really started circa 1999, when the campervan I was traveling around New Zealand with broke down in Dunedin. As the timing belt broke, we coasted into the only garage in town open on a Sunday. The mechanic was an older fellow named Sandy, who helped us out greatly. While waiting for our campervan to get fixed, we (my better half, Jen, and I) struck up a conversation with a friend of Sandy's named Martin, who happened by the shop. We both were very much into Honda K4s at some point in our lives, so we got along great. Longer story short-ish, we ended up hitting it off with Martin, who we've visited several times more in NZ over the years and hosted at our place in California.
Upon parting for the first time, I mentioned to Martin if he ever stumbled across a Dominator for sale, to let me know, and I might just buy it and ship it back to the states, as the exchange rate was very much in our favor at the time. About six months later, Martin called with the news that something had turned up in Chch that I might be interested in and I phoned. Sure enough, a Model 88 was for sale and with shipping (the fellow had "mates on the dock") it came to $1500US. Deal.
It showed up in a crate much smaller than I imagined any portion of any motorcycle could fit in and I took it home. Opened it up and it was mostly there. Sort of. '53 Bolt up frame, iron head Model 7 motor, most of a gearbox, a couple of mismatched wheels, a shell of a mag, a few Lucas rotors, a heavily dented primary case, some rusty forks, and an ice cream bin, half full of bolts. It was my first Norton.
Fast forward ions, and I finally forced the time to start work on it, after years of friends asking about the Norton in the box. I had owned and rebuilt many Hondas and BMWs, but the Norton was intimidating.
To start, I took my dusty prize to Raber's in San Jose and it quickly became clear what I was up against. It also became clear that Bob Raber was a Triumph guy, so I decided to swim with the current a tiny bit and build it into a Triton, instead of trying to turn that iron head turd into something it was not. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it really was jumping into the deep end.
By trade, I am a metal fabricator; self employed with a shop at home. I am not a machinist, but I can get along ok with manual machines. Patience is my super power.
The bike was "finished" in 2014-2015-ish, with what I thought would be a dry build, ride it for a few months, and do a quick rebuild working the bugs out. Yea right...
To follow are some pics I took as I was building it the first time. Some details managed to survive to this day, others were changed. Overall the bike has been quite reliable, after a couple major bugs were worked out.
Please enjoy and feel free to knock me about as needed.
