Triumph TR6C Trophy: Rejuvenation

Image Gallery What we know is wrong:Forks: Straight but leaking.Tires: Rock hard from years of sitting.Engine: Basically sound, mostly needs a good cleaning and new gaskets.Exhaust: Non-stock two-into-one is blued, dented and rusted.Wiring: Original loom is tired and frayed.Bodywork: Mostly good, but desperate for new paint.Carburetion: The old Amal is worn out.Shocks: Sagging and leaking, they have to go.Seat: Looks OK at first glance, but the metal pan is badly rusted. Photo by Richard Backus

If you’re under the impression that the staff at the opulent offices of One Motorcycle Classics Towers are just a bunch of ink-stained wretches, you should know that we’re always looking for an excuse to get away from our desks and into our shops. While associate editor Hall squeezes his way through his garage-full of Hondas, editor Backus is forever dinking on some oddball German or Italian motorcycle.

But we’ve found something we’re all interested in working on, and it’s this 1971 Triumph TR6C Trophy Special — our first in-house project.

Our TR6C, the first year of Triumph’s oil-in-frame design, is the spiritual successor to Triumph’s spectacular “Desert Sleds” of the late Fifties and Sixties. High pipes and raised fenders suggest offroad prowess, and Triumph’s legendary 650cc parallel twin provides (or will soon) plenty of oomph to move the bike’s roughly 400lb down the road. A clean, minimalist machine with barely a hint of plastic to be found, there’s simply no denying the bike’s classic British appeal.

Our TR6 is pretty typical of what’s available on the open market. Unridden for at least four years, it’s been buried in the back of a woodworking shop. It’s a bit ratty and mildly altered from stock with a two-into-one exhaust and Boyer ignition, but it’s otherwise complete. Wearing rock-hard tires and looking pretty tired in its present state, it appears to have good compression and ran the last time anyone tried. It is, in other words, a perfect candidate for rejuvenation.

Setting up

We use the word rejuvenation purposefully, because this won’t be a nut and bolt, perfect-to-the-last-detail restoration. Instead, we’re planning a sympathetic reawakening of this old sled, using readily available parts and deviating from stock when we want and where we want. Our goal is to end up with a clean, good-looking, rideable and reliable classic, a bike the average guy can buy and get on the road.

Helping us reach our goal are a number of the experienced restorers and parts providers who advertise in these pages and who many of you rely on to keep your classics on the road. To the last, the folks helping out are excited about the project and they’re giving us the benefit of their years of experience working with old Triumphs.

The outward changes will be pretty obvious, including a new dual exhaust system from Mac, a set of Coker tires, Hagon shocks from Dave Quinn Motorcycles, a complete seat assembly from Walridge Motors, a Mikuni carb from Sudco and a custom paint job from Precision Motorcycle Painting.

We know the wiring harness is baked, so we’re getting a headlamp harness from MAP Cycle and a main wiring harness from Klempf’s British Parts. M&S Cycle is supplying needed engine gaskets and a set of mirrors, Britech is helping us get down the road with a new final drive chain, and Baxter Cycle will help us stay safe with a new set of turn signals. All the old rubber is trashed, so we’re getting new shift and footpeg rubber from Countryside Cycle Shop and Baxter, and Countryside is also supplying the headlamp bracket we need. A new set of fuel petcocks courtesy of Job Cycle will make sure the fuel flows from the freshly-painted gas tank.