Saw this in an e-mail from Iron & Air magazine - bobber that started life as a '68 Triumph Daytona 500. Many moons ago, buying one of these was my fondest wish. My Harley Sprint had been stolen and I was looking for a replacement. The local Triumph dealer had a 500 on the showroom floor but I didn't have enough money to swing it. I talked to my dad and he made it quite clear I needed to buy a car rather than another motorcycle.
While I really dig the look of the bobber, this is what a stock '69 Daytona looked like. Most people in this day and age would think of a 500cc bike as a beginner's or a chick bike, the biggest bike Triumph ever made up to that time was a 650. A couple of years later they brought out a 750 Bonneville and the 750 Trident. Most of the other British bikes - Enfield, Norton, Matchless, BSA - were 750cc or under as well. I'd love to have that lovely green one, even 50 years later.
About the same time I was drooling over the Daytona 500, there was Linda Vaughn appearing in all the car mags. 39-26-37 was just the thing to command a young man's attention. Miss Hurst Golden Shifter is being honored at the Daytona Motorsports Hall of Fame, according to an e-mail I received from Vintage Motorsport magazine. They had a photo of her in the e-mail and she doesn't look too bad yet to this day. Especially considering she's 80 years old. While Farah Fawcett posters were on the wall of a lot of young men's bedrooms, the young hot rodders all had photos of Linda Vaughn hanging in the garage.
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Looked at the logistics of picking up the quick-change on the way home from the Grand Canyon if we decide to go. It wouldn't be much of a detour, actually. Maybe only 3-4 hours added on to the trip. Unfortunately, nothing in stock, and no telling when they'll be getting one in. Because of that, I think I'm going to make up a mock-up rear so I can set the location of the spring and radius rods. I'll be able to get the tires under it and check the ride height and the rake towards the front, as well as be able to roll it around. I can use a piece of pipe running inside a couple of bored out pipe couplings placed where the spring hanger and radius rods should go, then weld a plate on each end of the pipe to bolt the wheels up to. Even though the pipe I've got is smaller than the quick-change tubes, if everything is where it should be, all I'll have to do later on is just open up the radius on the brackets to suit.
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