A little work on my 67 Triumph Land Speed Bike

I spent a little time in the shop today working to get my bike ready for the Bonneville World Finals, we leave in just over a week so it's crunch time again! I am switching classes to special construction/partially streamlined pushrod gas. The record is actually a bit softer but I had to do a bunch of modifications to put me into the proper class. These changes should help me go faster too! I will finish the mods and mounting my fairing tomorrow. Special thanks to Glass From the Past for getting me a fairing out on such short notice! Cheers, Kyle

I broke the Ton on the salt!

We had some drizzles and high winds on the salt this morning and a lot of delays up until 11am but finally the weather cleared up and racing resumed. I had a solid run good shifts through all gears and tried to keep tucked in as possible and ran 105. 762 at the 2 mile!!! I lost a mile at the 2 1/4 mile biut it looks as though I was running rich, so I went over everything on the bike and prepped it for a run I am already staged in line for tomorrow morning. I can't wait to see what she'll do on the last day of Speed Week! Cheers, Kyle

Finally sorted my issues out and got to run again!

After days of mechanical issues now and huge frustrations I finally got my parts in and got my bike running right! I got out onto the line with Tyler when he made his qualifying record run and got to see what my machine can do. I took off, the bike ran great I shifted at 7000rpms, not pushing it too much and it pulled through the first three gears great, and then I didn't get a positive shift into 4th gear and lost about a thousand rpms before it engaged. Big bummer but I just hunkered down and held it wide open. I got picked up and taken to timing and even with the issues and not running since last weekend I ran 97.317mph! Almost the ton! Pretty respectable for a vintage 650 on the salt.
I went to impound with Tyler and got to work going over everything on my bike, checking plugs, making adjustments, cutting a few inched off of my clip-ons to bring them in tighter. I also found that my throttle had slipped and rotated back and I don't even know if I was wide open during my run! It is amazing what can and will shake loose in such a quick short run. Tyler makes his record run in the morning and then I will be making a run and really wind my bike out and make sure I have clean shifts and see what it can really do! Two days left to see how fast she can go. We'll keep you posted! Cheers, Kyle

Airstrip Tests, Second Go

We loaded our bikes up early this morning and headed back to the airstrip for some more test runs just days before we hit the road to Bonneville. It was a perfect morning weather-wise for it, we unloaded the bikes and set up to run. I started my bike and did a first run as a baseline for some fine tuning, and it went pretty well, just a little break-up in my mid-range, but the bike handled great and no issues.
I got back and started to make adjustments while Tyler fired his bike up...slight problem, it was kicking back pretty bad. He realized that in doing some work on his bike yesterday the timing probably got thrown off and since we didn't have the proper tools or time this morning he wouldn't get to run. A pretty big bummer for him but better here than the first day on the Salt.



I got to run my bike a half a dozen more times in between the planes taking off and landing before we had to clear out. Back to the shop, get some work done then any last minute adjustments on our bikes before they go into the trailer. Tomorrow we will load the trailer up and then off to Utah! Cheers, Kyle

More Pictures From Yesterdays Airstrip Test Runs

I sorted through more pictures from our Airstrip test runs yesterday, some really cool pics came out of this. We had some video too but unfortunately a bunch was real shaky and with the position you couldn't make a lot of it out. A huge thanks again to the staff who let us do these runs, it saved us at least a day of dealing with gremlins on the salt.
Both the bikes fired right up with no issues and ran great, a couple small oil leaks but they have already been fixed. Anyway what British bike doesn't leak a little?

My first run went fairly smooth but found I had some linkage issues and also had to adjust the position of my rearsets as when I upshifted it ground the tip of my boot off! I have a reversed shift pattern, right hand shift, first gear up, 3 gears down. Have to make sure to remember that one come raceday!

Other than the few small issues and some normal tuning the runs just got better but we still kept them around 4000rpm, letting the rings seat and breaking the new motors in. I arranged a few more hours of track time Monday morning so we should be able to just go and run them again, this time a little more aggressively and really get a feel for the bikes. Just 6 more days until we hit the road for Bonneville!

Hey Mythbusters, help settle an argument!

Work continues on my 67 Triumph LSR and time keeps getting shorter! I did get my rear axles drilled, chain aligned and mounted my chain guard.I also lettered my number plates, which makes things seem a bit more official to me. I was trying to explain to my sister in law that the fact my bike has official racing numbers now makes it at least a couple MPH faster than it was this morning. (Fact. ) She seems to think it's a ridiculous idea. I think I'll submit it to Mythbusters and we will see who's right.

Transmission Rebuild Redux.

Well my transmission seemed to lock up the other day. Didn't exactly make me happy, I have been days away from starting this bike for a week and a half now! I pulled it apart, sorted out the issue and got it dialed in, smooth crisp shifts everytime now. Needless to say I am even more familiar with this transmission than I was before, could be a handy skill to have on the salt.
I also finished making my shift and brake linkages I am pretty stoked with the way they turned out, and most importantly they works great!
I also took a bit of time to drill, tap, and vent my rockerbox caps. Just another item to check off the To Do list. Tomorrow static time the engine, and install my special built Hunt magneto! Cheers, Kyle

Getting Closer!

Down to the detail work now! Had one small issue so I need a part before I can add the fluids, install and time my Hunt Magneto and fire this up! Thanks again to Tom from TNT Custom Paint for doing an amazing job on my tins!

PUSHING FORWARD

I got some work done on my 67 T120 Bonneville (the T100 Tuesday was a typo!) yesterday and today but it was like pulling teeth. I was short hardware, had the wrong hardware, was missing some small parts, and the chain I bought didn't work. Ends up a Pingel 530 drag chain is so heavy duty it is too thick to clear the cases without clearancing them! On the up side I got my exhaust pretty much mounted as well as my rocker oil feed. Check out the slick rectangular exhaust clamps too! Alot of trick parts are coming out of Tyler and my land speed bikes and will be making it onto the website!
I got my oil tank mounted, saftey wired and my braided stainless oil lines run and my dead man switch mounted.
I'm pretty happy with the progress and have parts showing up tomorrow and Saturday so I can get this buttoned up! Thanks from all of us here at Lowbrow Customs to everyone for all the support and the feedback! Cheers, Kyle

Fast standing still.....

My friend Tom from over at TNT Custom Paint brought the tank and fender for m '67 T100 over today and I couldn't be happier! He did exactly what I wanted but even better than I imagined! Of course I had to drop it right on the frame and get a look at the big picture. This is the first time I have seen this project this together ever, the tank went out to paint before the engine was ever in the frame, and before the front end was ever assembled.
I am stoked to say the least! I can't wait to get crackin' the next couple evenings and get this thing buttoned up! I want to hear it run this weekend! Cheers, Kyle

Final assembly begins!

I decided to just paint my 67 T120 frame due mostly to the fact that we are down to about 4 weeks till we hit the road for Bonneville. So after letting the paint cure for the weekend and catching up on emails and orders today it is time for final assembly! I'm pretty damn excited so I am forcing myself to take my time and do it right.
Some grade 8 holding the frame together and my rearsets in their new home.
The engine in its place, fit like a glove and just a couple little touch-ups. Not bad for putting it in alone! I also finished sorting out my bearing setup for my NOS Ceriani front end.

The goal for tomorrow: get the front end fully assembled, clip-ons and throttle installed, steering damper bolted up, and install the rear wheel and brake set-up (who needs front brakes?) and mount the oil tank. I am excited to see this take shape, I never had all the parts together at once so seeing it come together fully is a first even for me. Cheers, Kyle

Heading into the home stretch.....

I disassembled my bike and began the paint prep yesterday, and sprayed the frame again this morning and then set my sights on the engine. Fully installed the Bob Newby belt drive, sorted through all my parts to finish the top end assembly, and took care of a bunch of detail assembly. I am excited to get to it after the weekend and begin final assembley on my frame once the paint is cured. All these parts will start looking like a motorcycle! Rumor is my tins will be back from paint next week also.
Funny thing about a build like this in such a short timeframe is that every day you can alternate between confidence of finishing with plenty of time to tune and test, then later that afternoon feel overwhelmed at how many details are left! Evidently some of us even talk about motorcycle parts in our sleep. Like the Man in Black said, one piece at a time......
Cheers, Kyle

If it's not cool....drill a ton of holes in it!

I thought I had finished all the fabrication work on my 67 Triumph landspeed bike and Tyler reminded me to pass tech I need a chainguard! A bit of a downer as I was ready to get the bike torn down and start the paint and final assembly, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So I grabbed a sheet of steel and got to it. I have to say this is the first time I ever made a chain guard, I am usually throwing them in the scrap pile!

A bit of cutting, knee bending and some welding and I had a chain guard that worked. I was definitely a bit bummed though, feeling it broke up the lines of the bike. So I decided to go with the old stand-by, "speed holes". If it doesn't look cool make it look fast at least! I am pretty sure the drilling took alot longer than the fab work, but I am pretty stoked with how my first ever chain guard turned out. Cheers, Kyle

Aluminum seat pan?

We got our first batch of these cast aluminum seat pans in, and of course I had to snag the first one for my race bike. Someone had to mount one for some good pictures right?! We will be adding these this week to our website, but act quick if you want one, these are made in low run batches of ten!
The bosses on the bottom of the pan come un-drilled so you can drill and tap them to whatever spacing you need for mounting.
I used a polished stainless steel Biltwell seat pivot and a set of our 4" seat springs , I would have liked to use some shorter springs but I needed to build to the tech requirements for Bonneville Speed Week. I spent a bit of time making some cool little aluminum spring retainers to mount them. I swiped the idea from Jay Roche over at Special 79, hope you don't mind man, worked great!
I decided to take this little project a bit further since it's for my land speed bike and drill some lightening holes in it. Every ounce counts right? And it looks killer!
I think this is getting sanded down and sent off to the polisher! A good days work I'd say. Let me know what you think! Cheers, Kyle

Engine progress- My 67 T120 LSR

I got my cases and parts back from Wes over at Four Aces Cycle and got to work the last couple evenings. He took care of degreeing my racing cams and lightened timing wheels for me as well as all the machine work: head work, balancing the crankshaft, relieving the high compression pistons, tumbling the cases and polishing the covers for me. I went through the transmission and got it right, you have to love a rebuilt transmission, solid shifts through all four gears!
I had to modify my case a bit to allow a larger than stock drive gear to fit in there. And I couldn't help myself I had to jump ahead a tad and test fit the Bob Newby racing belt drive. It should perform as good as it looks!

Some work done, and a lot more to go! I can't wait to see this take shape and find its home in the frame I have going as well!