1964 Triumph 650. This is the only photo I could find of it and it is not a good representation. Not only is the photo quality an issue but the picture was taken right after the bike was registered but not done. The rear fender will be replaced with a wider fender as will the rear tire, The “Sissy-bar” and back pad will be changed along with the seat. The tail lamp will be replaced by a tombstone tail lamp. The exhaust seen on the bike was bolted on for inspection, notice the crappy aluminum bracket holding it. The pipes it will have are straight drag pipes down each side of the bike. The front fender is missing but I’ll explain that in a minute. When finished the bike will be painted gloss black with red pin stripe along the rear fender edge and along the frame up to and along the lower lip of the fuel tank. The bottom of the fuel tank and inside the rear fender will be painted gloss red.
The second bike in the photo is Gerry Miners, the girl will be his wife…later. That bike is a Harley Sportster.
The dude wearing red, is me, in a much younger, thinner, bearded, with hair version.
Anyone registering a motorcycle in New London in the late 70’s should remember a Asian gentleman who was a little shall I say prejudice towards Japanese bikes. I brought my Honda 550four chopped with hardtail and raked for inspection and it passed with flying colors, I knew people with Harleys where the guy looked them over like they may be carrying bubonic plague. So We bolted on the baffled exhaust and went for inspection. The first thing the inspector commented on was the loudness of the exhaust. Then he determined that the front fender was illegal and failed the bike, punching exhaust and fender failure on the inspectors ticket. The fender I could understand, it was about 6 inches long, chrome, with chrome spikes, it couldn't have stopped anything from flying off the tire.
What to do? Me and my brother went to the Toyota Dealership in New London and took a fender off a 20" bicycle that had been abandoned at the rear of the garage. We put it in a vise and pounded it flat with a 3/4 lb sledge then used hose clamps to clamp the brackets to the springer. this done we headed back to inspection.
Now we had a different inspector, he took the failure ticket out to the bike and had me start it, at this point he commented that it was probably the quietest chopper he had ever heard. (after all that work we didn't do to correct it). He took a look at this banged up paint chipped piece of tin crap attached to the springer and said "Yup, fenders legal length" then proceded to punch the inspection card as passing all sections, about halfway through the punches the bike decided to give a little demonstration of what it held for me in the future. The headlight assy, just fell off the bike and was hanging by the wires. Sort of a "tink" then "clunk" sound as it hit the springer, the bracket had snapped off. The inspector, still punching the ticket as passed , glanced at the dangling headlight, continuing to punch looked back at the slip and without raising his head to look at me said "You will fix that, right?" and handed me the approved inspection ticket.
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