True East M/C

Sixth St. Racing tearing up Oakland Valley Speedway, NY

All photos by the amazing Becky Kosch

I'll post race photos soon.

Today was truly like Christmas at Sixth St Specials. UPS delivered the boxes from Fritz and needless to say I was foaming at the mouth to put the bike back together.

Words fail me so I'll let Fritz's magic speak for itself.

Francis: Today's my birthday and my father says I can have anything I want.
Pee-wee: Good for you and your father.
Francis: So guess what I want.
Pee-wee: A new brain?
Francis: No. Your bike!

I turned 36 today (YIKES!) and I'm truly fortunate to be surrounded by people who care about me. Clearly, they also know I have a one track mind.



My girlfriend, with the help of the Scottish master of subterfuge Hugh, located and picked up this rarest of the rare Tachometer for my pre-unit Triumph project. There's a great little page of info on The Velobanjogent



If the tach wasn't enough she also dropped this Morgo gear drive oil pump in my lap. I'm pretty sure she's gunning for a ring. Either way, its working. I've been dying to get one of these bad boys for the pre-unit as I've bumped the motor up to a short rod 750 and it will be needing all the oil it can get.



Peter whipped up this cnc machined cover for the ARD magneto on my race bike. I needed to take photos of it before the bike went around the track a few times.



Fumi welded up these super strong exhaust brackets for my champion Triumph 500 flat tracker. The original brackets were total crap and I've broken a few pairs. Notice the tags are in Japanese. Left in Japanese is "Hi da ri" and right is "Mi gi".

It's getting up to 70 degrees today and we're hittin' the road! My manager Janni and I both refuse to take the train all the way out to Bumblefuck, NJ for our quarterly meetings.

I scored this suh-weeet cover for my pre-unit project. Who says Mondays suck? (and after the news I received on Friday I needed something good)

After a season of racing my Champion framed Triumph 500 flat tracker with a rattle can paint job, my friend Fritz Schenck took my tank & tail (almost by force) to give it a proper paint job. To be honest, the bike didn't quite look right next to the metal flake cobalt and silver of my Trackmaster framed Triumph 750.

Fritz is most famous for his restorations of several of Ed Roth's cars such as the Megacycle, The Druid Princess as well as clones of the Mysterion and The Outlaw. If that wasn't impressive enough, Fritz has reiceved high acclaim for his own creation, The Roswell Rod, and served as the go to guy for incredible paint jobs for some of Indian Larry's most famous bikes as well as the Indian Larry Legacy Biker Build-Off Bikes.

I told Fritz he was crazy to want to paint a race bike, considering how much abuse they take. I should note calling Fritz crazy is pretty much stating the obvious. Fritz's response was "So? I'll just repaint it! Besides, there's going to be a million coats of clear on it."





I told Fritz I wanted to keep the look of the bike somewhat traditional to how Champion framers looked back in the 70's.







I knew Fritz would add his own style to the paint job but I was amazed when I saw the following photos. A heavily flaked crimson paint that fades from dark on the bottom to brighter red on top. If that wasn't enough it's covered in tons of variegated gold leaf!





He still needs to do the pinstriping and even more clear, but I'm already blown away.

You can check out some of Fritz's work here but stay tuned...I'm building him a new website. (I figure if he can make my work look incredible, I can do the same for him)

The stock clutch pushrod found in most 650/750 Triumphs is made out of 1010 case hardened mild steel. Case hardening is only a few thousandths thick and can easily wear away. The result is a pushrod with a mushroomed out end which throws alignment off as well as deflecting and causing drag in the main shaft.

Nick over at Trumpnut Cycle Parts solved this by manufacturing a clutch pushrod out of much harder tool steel which he then ground and polished. He added a ball bearing which runs inline to prevent mushrooming of the rod against the adjuster which he also improved by replacing the slotted adjuster with an allen.



A comparison of the two clutch pushrods. The top is stock while the bottom is Nick's new and improved setup.




The business end of Nick's Pushrod. Shown here are the ball bearing as well as the new adjuster. The ball bearing is inline rather than at the end to prevent it from falling out when the clutch is disengaged.

I felt my pre-spring tune up would be the perfect opportunity to try out Nick's clutch pushrod. The conversion is extremely simple and took only a few minutes followed by a clutch adjustment.

First I disconnected the clutch cable from the clutch lever on the handlebar. You can just slacken the cable up rather than disconnect it but I like to run some 3-in-ONE oil down the cable to lubricate it. I then loosened up the cable at the gearbox by loosening the 9/16" Nut and 3/8" adjuster. After removing the inspection plug on the primary cover, I backed off the lock nut with a 9/16" socket and then removed the stock adjuster. You might need to use a magnet to pull out the stock clutch pushrod.

The pushrod was then replaced with the new one included in the kit followed by the ball bearing and adjuster. I should note that on early pressure plates you will have to tap the adjuster hole to 3/8"-24 from the 3/8"-26 that they used from the factor in the early years. Use a liberal amount of grease on the parts before putting them into the bike. This will not only keep things well lubricated in the gearbox, but also help keep the ball bearing on the adjuster during assembly. Using an allen wrench, the adjuster is tightened up until tension is felt, then backed off half a turn. The lock nut is then shocked back on (exactly as you would adjust using the stock parts). With the inspection plugs replaced, the clutch cable is then hooked up to the clutch lever and adjusted.

The end result was immediately noticeable. The clutch felt much smoother and easier to pull. I've put over a hundred miles on the bike since installation and so far I couldn't be happier.

The kit is produced by Nick over at Trumpnut Cycle Parts and also available at Lowbrow Customs.

My new Trackmaster framed 1973 Triumph 750 race bike. Some of the go fast goodies include:

• Trackmaster flat track frame
• Balanced and lightened crank assembly
• Ceriani Fork w/ Betor trees
• Redline primary
• ARD Magneto Cover w/Joe Hunt Mag
• Harmon & Collins race cams
• Black diamond valves
• High compression pistons
• Quick change alloy wheels
• Mikuni Carburetors w/ K&N filters
• Vortex Bars
• Grimeca brake

Go Fast, Turn Left!!!!