So I’m calling up TT Cycle’s Dennis Harrold and Steve Blaufeder for an interview about this cool copper metalflake ’76 Triumph and this is what I get after I try to say hello . . .

Screeeeeeeeeech ― Screeeeeeeeeech!

. . . followed by the two of them just babbling to each other like I wasn’t there.

Dennis: Why are we getting this feedback? It’s not us. I’m not moving the phone, it’s him. At least I don’t think it’s us.

Steve: You probably had this over here, I had it over here.

Dennis: It was feeding back and forth at both locations. Is it still? I know nothing beyond that.

Steve: Okay

Dennis: Talk to Buck.

Buck: Somebody talk to me.

Total silence ensues.

Steve: Sorry, I just went to wash my hands and now Dennis is going to wash his.

Buck: This conversation is pretty stupid so far, so I’m going to make it the lead.

Steve: Oh wonderful. We’re not good with this phone stuff, but we’re okay with motorcycles.

Buck: You’ve gotta wash your hands to talk to me?

Steve: No, we don’t want to get the phone dirty.

Buck: You’re on speakerphone . . .

Dennis: Okay, we’re all here now. What do you want to know? You wanted to talk about the ’76?

Yes I did and things got a lot better with the TT boys from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, (www.ttcycles.net) as they were now in their element talking about vintage Triumphs, Triumphs customs, and Triumph knowledge they’ve accumulated from twenty years of exclusively working on, restoring, and customizing Meriden’s finest.

If you’re into Triumphs and Triumph lore, you probably already know that a lot of people (purists actually) think the only real Triumphs are those made until 1970 (or before 1972 depending on how pure you are) when it was taken over and later became Norton-Villiers-Triumph which ultimately failed, too, in 1977. Anyway, this is a long way round to get to the subject matter at hand which is the somewhat scorned (by purists especially) later model oil-in-frame Triumphs which now featured things like 750cc engines, a 5-speed tranny, and eventually little things like those new fangled disc brakes (the purists say this will never catch on). The good part about this scorning is that later oil-in-frame bikes are still reasonably priced and include all the lovely things that made the Brit twin a staple of custom builders back in the ‘60s and ‘70s. The only problem has been how to make an O-I-F Triumph look good with the huge oil-filled backbone. Leave it to the nice lads at TT to come up with not only a solution, but a whole new take on making a O-I-F Triumph bobber possibly look even better than a pre-’70 bike.

Dennis: Steve was of the opinion that people wanted to see the space behind the frame tube―

Steve: That’s right. It’s all about featuring nothing, it’s all about space.

Dennis: ―and it’s a very clean look. Minimalist vintage motorcycles.

Steve: It is the frame, but it also is the oil tank. When people try and do these oil-in-frame bikes, they’ll put a dummy oil tank or some kind of box where the oil tank would be. When we went into this one, we said, ‘You know what? We’re going to put nothing there, we’re just going to leave it open.’ A lot of people seemed to have liked it.

Dennis: Plus the fact we came up with a design for a dance floor to hold the battery tray and it’s got a very sparse, but almost kind of a throwback look to it with the leather strap going across the battery. In order to put a hardtail on you have to effectively destroy any chance of restoring this bike back to stock ‘cause you have to cut of the front frame section all off and leave the rear motor mounts intact. The frame loop, all the mounts, everything is welded onto the frame and it really can’t be put back to stock.

Steve: I think we’re going to be building some more of these.

Dennis: Yeah, we’re setting up three or four oil-in-frames that we have and having a certified welder weld up the hardtails just so we have them.

All of this work was done as TT Cycles is known not only for their high quality work on Triumph restorations and customs, but for their affordability for the common man.

Dennis: Yeah, we’ve been trying to put out a line of bikes that are more affordable. There’s a lot of guys out there who’d really like to have a custom and they don’t have $15,000 to $20,000. As long as we can build a bike that’s safe, rideable, and we can still make some money off of, we’re going to be putting bikes like that out there. You were asking about price on that bike, that bike sold on eBay for $7,900. People have called us and asked if we can build another bike like that and we say, ‘Absolutely!’

Just to muck things up a bit more for diehard Trump fans, the 650 engine in this bike is from a ’67 Triumph.

Steve: We have no idea what happened to the original engine, just had the frame pretty much.

Dennis: Was the 650 engine one we had in stock?

Steve: Yeah.

Glad that was settled. Anyway, unlike many refurbished Triumphs (and most other Brit twins), this one doesn’t wear a Mikuni carb conversion. The 30mm Amal sits properly in place as if saying there’ll always be an England. It was updated with a Boyer Bransden electronic ignition for reliability and easy (and consistent) kick starting.

Steve: Some people want Mikunis on there, but for the most part as long as the pilot circuit is clean inside the body, we can rebuild and salvage them. The pilot circuit is a precision drilled piece of brass inside the carb body. And there’s no way to actually get to it to clean it. If there’s residue in there and you can dissolve it out, you’re good to go.

Dennis: Once you get the points out of there and set the timing on the electronic ignition, it’s usually about one or two kicks to start it, that’s about it.

Steve: As long as your valves are in adjustment and you have gas flowing through the carb, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t light off in one or two kicks.

By now you’ve probably noticed there isn’t a disc and caliper anywhere in sight. We’ve all heard drum brake horror stories, but the guys at TT say no problem. The kinda cool looking and oddly shaped brake on the front will probably make most of the uninitiated scratch their heads and wonder what the hell the fuss all about, something that cool has to work, and if it doesn’t, well, it still looks kinda cool.

Dennis: That copper bike has a ’71 or ’72 conical front brake, the only years they made them. In ’73 they went to a disc brake.

Steve: We’ve never had anybody complain about the drum brakes. The Ferodo shoes we use have never been a problem, they’re pretty nice. You also have to remember you’re dealing with a sub-400 pound bike. It doesn’t take a lot to stop it. This isn’t a drum brake Ironhead Sportster ― on those you might as well drag your feet.

The really nice part about this bike besides its affordability and its sure-to-stop- ‘em-in-their-tracks-good-looks is that it’s really honest and truly rideable. No, it’s not a cross country luxo-barge, but the mechanical DNA that made an early Triumph a good handling and fun bike to screw around on is still there. It’s not raked out, or fitted with a silly fat tire, or stylistically bloated beyond all recognition until it’s carry a couple hundred extra pounds of weight.

Dennis: The first thing we tell people is we build a bike to ride. If you want us to build a show bike, that’s fine ― we’ll do it, but by and large, our reputation is that we build motorcycles you can actually ride. I don’t know how many bikes we’ve built in the last 20 years, but we’ve never built the same bike twice. We might build something similar, but I don’t want to clone a bike.

Buck: Well I think I’ve had enough and now I’m going to wash my hands of this. Thanks and may you always shift on the right.

Click. And just like that they were back to splitting vertical cases and looking for clogged pilot jets.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, Steve and Dennis are two really, really nice guys who just happen to be extremely knowledgeable, and talented about anything Triumph related. Their good reputation precedes them, so if you’ve got a hankering for something different, something affordable, and especially something fun to ride, they’re your guys.

Perhaps this bit of Triumph tomfoolery with Dennis and Steve has piqued your inner Brit, then you have to click on the link below and check out their Triumph Coffee Bike that was featured in issue #61 of Barnett’s Magazine.