Tribute Triumph

Tribute Triumph

How to successfully squander an inheritance

David Edwards

Like many of your finer ideas, this one involved good friends and more than a few brews. Six months after my brother Kevin’s passing in 2004, I was invited to present a trophy in his memory at the North Texas Norton Owners Association’s annual Lake 0’ the Pines Rallye, one of Kevin’s favorite events.

After the awards ceremony, over lakeside steak ’n’ suds, I was asked what I planned to do with Kevin’s small collection of bikes. My little brother had eclectic tastes, owning everything from an MZ250 commie-bike to a Moto Morini Camel to a Laverda RGS 1000 Triple. I said I’d been thinking of restoring the Laverda, a non-runner during Kev’s ownership.

Silent nods all around, then someone piped up. “Ya know.. .he never even rode the Laverda. He really loved his old beater Triumph.”

That he did. A 1976 T140 Bonneville, it had been purchased as a rolling basketcase for $100 and brought back to life on a working man’s budget. I liked to give Kevin a hard time about its rattle-can paint job, especially the horrible high-temp matte powder blue he laid on the cylinders. What a good idea to re-do it with the best of everything, something he wasn’t able to do. A tribute bike.

The man for the job was in attendance at the rally. Keith Martin runs RPM Cycle in Dallas (www.rpm cycletx.com), one of the few new Triumph dealerships that also caters to the originals. An alumnus of Jack Wilson’s Big D Cycle, the famed speed shop, Keith has a racer’s heart, with numerous land-speed projects and an impressive résumé in classic roadracing, most of it with five-speed, oil-in-the-frame T140s.

Bonneville Hall of Famer Ed Mabry agreed to treat the frame to one of his fabled tweak jobs, bringing in the steering-head angle from the stock 30 degrees to a much more sporting 26.5. He’d also add reinforcing struts, brace the swingarm and clean up any unneeded tabs.

Frame done, Martin & Co. spent the next 18 months expertly massaging every inch of the Bonneville. Nothing-not the engine, carbs, wheels, tires, suspension, brakes, tinware, seat or instruments-was left untouched.

Crowning touch? Dallas pinstriping legend Alton Gillespie hand-painted a discreet mini-mural on the front portion of the rear fender. It depicts Kevin on the old T140 (including those damn powder-blue barrels!) happily motoring along a Texas farm-to-market backroad.

Of course, none of this came cheaply. But I had a little help. Never one to dogmatically adhere to any chosen career path, Kevin nonetheless provided well, primarily for our mother, but when the estate was settled I received a sum almost exactly equal to the T140’s restoration bill.

I took that as a sign of approval from on high, though I still may have to answer for not keeping those blue jugs...

For more on the Tribute Triumph, go to www.cycleworld.com