1970 Triumph TR6 Trophy | ME & MY BIKE

This is my third bike. I had a Harley-Davidson Sportster when I started riding at age 17, back in 1994. Then I got a Ducati 749. I still have the Ducati, but I ride this Triumph just as much as the 749. There's no odometer, but I've put thousands of miles on the bike since it was built.

I’ve had it for six years. A friend’s father passed away in a house fire, and he had a couple bikes in the garage. This was one of those bikes. The paint was all melted down, but when I put fuel to it the bike started right up. I cleaned it up a little bit, put new points in it, but that’s it. The motor is in the same condition as when it was pulled out of the fire.

The chassis was stock but wrecked by the fire, so I figured it was a good candidate for a bobber build. I went to Moore’s Cycle Center in Anaheim and bought the hardtail rear end then took it to Classic Cycles in Orange, and they made it pretty. We started with the springer seat, built using a leaf spring from a ’31 Ford. Once I saw how they solved that problem, I knew they were the right guys for the project and let them finish the bike.

I kept the front hub and put a 21-inch rim on it. The fork is stock, but I took the guards off. It’s really minimalist. It’s stick shift on the throttle side, which seems crazy but actually makes sense. The clutch is on the left, after all. And it runs great. Usually it’s a one-kick bike, but, ya know, when I say that it’ll take two kicks to start!

It’s so dirty right now because I ride it all the time. I mostly ride it on the weekends, but sometimes I’ll ride it to work. I’m a math teacher—algebra and geometry—and the kids at school really like seeing the bike.