John`s Retro Street Tracker - Triumph Classic Motorcycles

A DIFFEREIUTTRIUNilPH
You Soy the BonnevilleWeighsTooMuch? Well . . .
by ChuckJohnston
with a 1965liame and cut off all unnecesas John describesit. a fun bike to ride on
I f u rider spent years campalgnrng a
sary lugs and brackets before it was sent
Sundaymornings and occasionallyride to
I Triumph TT bike on southernCalifornia tracks,its easyto imagine his view /lunch if the skiesare clear.The fact that it's out to be nickel-plated.John used Dunlop
I
a rolling test bed almost seemsincidental K-70son alloy Slingerrims that were laced
of a street Triumph might be quite difup to Barnescompetition hubs. Hurst disc
to John and actually the bike shown in our
ferent from the current offering from Merare fitted front and rear. Ceriani
identical
bikes
brakes
i
n
d
i
v
i
d
u
a
l
is
only
of
several
photos
one
a
p
r
i
v
a
t
e
iden. In addition,
would be exempt from most of the govern- that John has built and kept around for the .flattrack-typeforks are used in combinatesting of his products. A few have been t i o n w i t h G i r l i n g r e a r u n i t s . J o h n e x mental regulationsthat so often hamper a
plained that while they put Koni or Boge
built and sold to special customers but
factory effort. John Calicchio is a young
John seemsso fond of his yellow beauties on the race bikes, the shorter Girling rear
man from Costa Mesa, California who fills
shockis usedbecauseit cuts the seatheight
that it's hard for him to let them out of his
both of the roles described above. Aldown to a low 29 in. The fork legs are
sight for more than a few hours.
though he owns JRC Engineering,a comdropped in the top clamp to keep the bike
Knowing we would treat the bike as one
pany that designsand builds replacement
level.
of our own. John agreedto loan us one to
and competition/perfbrmance parts for
The fiberglasstank holds only 2.2 gal.
test alongside our 1978 Bonneville. We
Triumph Twins. he has years of dirt track
but John admits you're ready for a reststop
didn't seriouslywant to directly compare
experiencebehind him. And John's idea of
'78
the
factory bike with a custom-built, after the 100 miles or so that this allows.
a street bike, as you can see from the
JRC Engineeringmakesthe seatAs well as
photos, is clearly influenced by his racing semi-legalprivate effort but as you might
'78
the alumrnum oil tank underneath.A
guess,it was hard not to get off the
expenence.
'Bates
a c c e s s o r yh e a d l i g h t a n d t a i l l i g h t
It certainlycouldn't be ridden in the rain Triumph and on John's special Triumph
meet the California requirement,with the
and it's a long way from the ideal touring without comparing the bikes.More on this
dintmer switch located on the headlight
shortly.
bike-even freeway commuting looks unln the caseof our test bike. John started s h el l .
comfortableon this spartan rnachine.It is,
A P R I L1 9 7 8 / 5 7
I he brke we borrowed
had
a nearly
stock650ccenginethat had been balanced
and usedone of John's Mikuni kits. On the
singlecarburetorkits, John suppliesa
34mm Mikuni. There are two 32mm
Mikunis for the Bonneville models. TT
pipes and a Mity Max solid-stateignition
are the only other modifications to the
powerplant. John uses Kenny Harman's
# l 5 c a m si n t h e m o r e s e r i o u se n g i n e sa n d
head work is usually specified.Our test
bike had a stock cam and stock heads.
J o h n ' so w n a i r c l e a n e r s b
. uilt by K&N.
finish off the carburetion with Barnett
cables and controls used throushout the
bike. Barnettalso suppliesthe cJmpetition
clutch installed in all of John's bikes.
Testing the two Triumphs together was
interestingbecauseour test crew was able
to commute betweenwhat amounted to a
pair of different Twins. The seating position on John's bike and the K&N flattrack
bars left no doubt in our minds that this
machine was sired by a dirttracker and if
there are any doubts. the exhaust note
quickly dispelsthem. It would have to be
described as barely legal.
The feel of the clutch lever is stiff and
about what you would expect on a competition machine. Once warmed up it was
trouble free for the remainder of the day:
'78
something we couldn't say about the
Bonneville.Tech Ed. Len Vucci was sur'prised at the effort necessaryto stop the
bike with the lront brake but then dirt
trackersseldom have front brakesthat will
lock when applied hard. Don't misunderstand; the bike stoppedwell-it just took a
bit more effort than we are used to on street
bikes.
Our testingon the drag strip proved less
than satisfying.Seemsone of John's well
meaning employeeshad used Armor-All
o n t h e s e a t .W h i l e A r m o r - A l l i s c e r t a i n l y
popular for many uses. it should not be
usedon seats-especiallywhen you will be
wearing leathers.On the first acceleration
test.Vuici let out the clutch and promptly
ended up with his crotch over the taillight
and the bike in a 200-ft. wheelie. As Len
"lt was
describedit.
a bit difficult to set
Nearly stock 650cc engine is, er, at /east
adequate for the 312-lb. roadster and has
received/ots of elbow,greaseand polish.
s8/CYCLE WORLD
forward and roll ofl the throttle." Just
another thrill in the life of a test rider.
SinceI was wearing Levi's,I was elected
to give it a try but fared little better. Our
besttimes for the quarter mile were 13.7
s e c .a n d 9 3 . 8 4 m p h . S l i e h t l v b e t t e r . t h a n
the new Bonneviile bui then we had a
l00cc smaller engine and a very slippery
seat.
Severalof us took turns ridins John's
bike on the road racing course.Tf,e bike's
light weight became apparent.as it could
be thrown from side to side almost like a
motocrosser.Even with the old-style K70s, the bike held an easy line in hard
cornering and only the flattrack bars kept
us from feeling like road racers. We all
speculatedon the weight of the bike but
evenJohn admitted he had neverweighed
it. Late that afternoon we rolled it on the
CW scaleand much to evervone'ssurorise
the bike '.r'eighedonly 3 12-lb. Len dldn't
quite believeit so we checkedthe calibration on the scaleand weighed it again for
a n o t h e r3 1 2 l b . J o h n j u s t s m i l e d a n d s a i d .
"lt
m u s t b e t h o s el i g h t w e i g h tw h e e l sa n d
hubs." Anyone who c'verpicked up a stock
m i d d l e - S i x t i e sT r i u m p h f r o n t - w h e e la s sembly would agree. I'm sure the front
wheel on my old Trophy weighedthe same
as my daughter'sHonda Z-50. An interesting side note wasthe front/rear weight bias
wasexactlythe sameas the Husqvarna250
'78
CR that we tested in our February
issue.John would be the first to admit the
bike would be out of place on a motocross
coursebut then the Husky might look a bit
odd at Ascot park.
As mentioned earlier. we don't mean
this as a definitivecomparisonbetweenthe
1 9 7 8 B o n n e v i l l ea n d J o h n ' s s p e c i a l T T l
Street bike but rather as a look at two
totally different concepts in design and
styling.John's bikeswould neverappeal to
anyoneexceptan enthusiastwho has come
under the spell of dirt track racing-either
as a competitor or a spectator.But then,
even riders of the 1978 Bonneville might
admit a certain fondnessfor the soundsof
a racing Triumph on a dirt track and the
s m e l lo f c a s t o ro i l m i x e d w i t h d a m o e a r t h .
Shorf Girling shock lowers stock frame, seat
and center of gravity.
SPECIFICATIONS
List price
.$2500
S u s p e n s i o nf r, o n t. . . . . . . . C e r i af nl ai t t r a : k
S u s p e n s i o nr ,e a r
.....Girling
T i r e ,f r o n t. . . . . . . . : . . . . . 3 590D
- 1u n l o pK - 7 0
Ti re,rear
.....400-' 18
Dunlop K- 70
Engine
. . 1 9 6 5T R - 6T r i u m p h
B orex stroke.
.. 71x 82m m
Pistondisplacement... ........649cc
C o m p r e s s i orna t i o
..........9:1
C l a i m e dp o w e r
. . . . . . . . 4b3h p
C l a i m e dt o r q u e
.......na
C a r b u r e t i o n . . . .( 1 ) 3 4 m mJ R C M i k u n i
lgnition
. . . . . . . . . s o |si d
t a t eM i t yM a x
Lubricationsystem
.
dry sump
O i l c a p a c i t y( t r a n s m i s s i o n ) . . . . . . . . . . 5 0 0 c c
Fuefcapaci ty
... . . . . . 2. gal.
2
R e c o m m e n d efdu e l .
......premium
.Startingsystem
.. folding kick
A i r f i l t r a t i o n . . . . . . . . . . .J R C b y K & N
POWERTRANSMISSION
Clutch
. . . . . . . . . . m u | t i - p lw
ae
t et
w /B a r net t discs
P ri marydri ve
du plexchain
Finaldrive
. # 530 ReynoldsChain
Gear Ratios
D IME N S ION S
Wheelbase.. .
. . 5 5i n .
S e a th e i g h t . . .
. . . . 2 9i n .
Seatwidth
.9 in.
H a n d l e b aw
r idth
. . . . . . . . 3i6n .
F o o t p e gh e i g h t
. . . . . .1 1 . 5i n .
Groundcl earance
. . . . 4. 75in.
Frontfork rakeangl e
. . . . . . 27deg.
Trail
......rra
C urb w ei ght
(w/half-tankfuel)...
Weightbias,front/rear,
percent
. 45. 5/54. 5
One disc brake is plenty. lt does take a
healthy squeeze, though.
FOR
PROFESSIOW
OIULY
Johnston
A TT Triumphfor Show ond Go by Chuck
e s e t o u t t o d o a s h o r t a r t i c l eo n
t h e s p e c i a ls t r e e t / T T T r i u m p h
which John Calicchio puts togetherin iimited numbers and we no
soonerfinishedthe piece when John let us
havea look at a newer-than-newcompetit i o n - o n l ym a c h i n et h a t w i l l b e r a c e do n t h e
N a t i o n a lT T c i r c u i t i n 1 9 7 8 .B e s i d e sb e i n g
the state-of-the-artin TT machinery. the
m a c h i n ei m p r e s s e du s w i t h J o h n ' s a l m o s t
u n c a n n ya t t e n t i o nt o d e t a i l a n d e s t h e t i c s .
As evidencedby the streetTT bike detailed
elsewherein this issue. his bikes look as
good as they run. The bikes drew crowds
"ls
whereverwe rode them. Questionslike,
it a racing bike? I thought flattrack bikes
d i d n ' t u s e b r a k e s .W h a t k i n d o f p a i n t i s
that? Do they still race Triumphs?"
The last question was heard more than
once and rve found ourselvesrecalling the
of the British TWinsin last year's
successes
fT season.No one wants to be pinned
d o w n o n w h y a n e n g i n e d e s i g n e di n 1 9 3 8
can still be competitive but whatever the
reasons.the 650ccenginesreboredto 750cc
are enjoying renewedinterestand activity.
John started with a Trackmaster TT
lrame. identicalto Trackmaster'shalf'-mile
model. According to John, different footpegsare supplied if you will use the frame
for half-mile becausethe current trend is
to put both the gear change leyer and the
brakepedal on the right side. We weighed
a new Tiackmasterlrame and noted that at
3l lb. it was only 12 lb. lighter than the
stock Tiiumph frame-we all expected a
great difference.Another surprising com-
parison was head angles.The factory
fiame measuredat 27 deg. and the Trackmaster at 26 deg. Again we expected a
greaterdifferencebut John feels the factory lrames \,\'erenot far from right for dirt
tracks.One other variation is that the
Trackmasterframe carries the oil in the
b a c k b o n eo f t h e f r a m e , e l i m i n a t i n g t h e
need lirr an extra aluminum tank under
the seat.
As on his street/TT'bikes.John uses
S l i n g e rr i n r s f r o n t a n d r e a r b u t i n s t e a do f
t h e l 8 i n . r , r h e e lo n t h e s t r e e t b i k e . t h e
c o m p e t i t i o nT T b i k e u s e sl 9 i n . w h e e l so n
both ends.The wheelsare laced to Barnes
c o m p e t i t i o nh u b s w h i c h a t t a c h t o H u r s t /
Airheart discs-double in the fiont and a
single at the rear.
Afler looking at Pirellisand Dunlops for
more years than we care to remember.
we're seeingthe new Goodyear DT-2 tires
gain popularity on the dirttracks. John
u s e sa 3 5 0 - 1 9a t t h e f r o n t a n d a 4 0 0 - 1 9a t
the rear.As you can see in the photos, the
profile on the rear tire offers a much wider
contactarea and accordingto John, much
lesswheel spin is evident.
The Ceriani flattrack fork is used up
front but incorporates slightly different
spring ratesand damping than the model
which John uses in his street specials.
Mulholland-lnterpart rear shocksare used
and early tests indicate that running the
units in the rear-most position on the
swing arm offers the best combination of
handling and wheel travel.
FlandersTT handlebarsare used. Most
of us weresurprisedat the narrow feel with
only a 32 in. width but John tells us the
rather crowdedcornering conditions fiir,'or
the narrow bars. Both the 2.2 gal. gas tank
and the seat/rear fender combination are
fiberglass.Betweenthe narrow tank, seat,
and handlebars. the feel of the bike is
a l m o s tt h a t o f a t r i a l s m a c h i n e .
The engineleft the factory as a 1966'fR6 but has been bored to 76mm from the
s t o c k7 l m m , w h i c h i n c r e a s etsh e d i s p l a c e ment to 744cc.Hepolite pistons are used
for a conservativecompression ratio of
9.5:1. John explained that pistons with
high domes tend to detract from overall
power output becauseof a ciisruption of
the flame front as it travels ercrossthe
c o m b u s t . i o cnh a m b e r
continuedon page167
SPECIFICATIONS
.$4800
List price
flattrack
Suspension,front
. Boge
Suspension,rear
Ti re,front ...
.350-19GoodyearDT2
.400-19GoodyearDT2
. 1 9 6 6T R - 6T r i u m p h
. . . 7 6x 8 2 m m
P i stondi spl acement...
.. . ..744 cc
rati o
......9. 5: 1
C ompressi on
. . . . . . . 6b
3h p
C l a i m e dp o w e r
.......na
C l a i m e dt o r q u e
(2) D el l orto34m m
C arbureti on
......
P umper s
lgnition
Lubricationsystem. . dry sump-o il
in frame
O i l c a p a c i t y( t r a n s m i s s i o n ) . . . . . . . . . . 5 0 0 c c
F u e lc a p a c i t y. . . . . . . .
Recommendedfuel
S tarti ngsystem.....
A i r f i l t r a t i o n. . . . . . . .
POWERTRANSMISSION
wet
..mul ti -pl ate
w /B arnett di scs
Primarydrive
. . . . . d u p l ecxh a i n
F i n a ld r i v e . . . . .
R eynol dscha in
Gear Ratios
. ..1.1
4th.
1.19:1
3rd
1.69:1
2nd
2.44:1
1st
D IME N S ION S
Wheelbase....
Seat height ..
Seat width
H andl ebarw i dth
Footpeghei ght ......
Groundcl earance...
Frontfork rake angle
. 5 5i n .
(w /hal f-tankfuel ) ......
Weightbias,front/rear,
percent
.301.0
A P R r L1 9 7 8 / 5 9
continuedfrom page 59
The connectingrods are built by John's
own JRC Engineering and are forged aluminum. John bolts these to the heaviest
flywheels he can find to further reduce
wheelspin. Then the entire assembly is
balanced and bolted into Triumph cases
that have been modified for improved oil
circulation.
The heads have been modified by conventional porting and polishing and the
installationof 42.5mm valves.The exhaust
valves are stock diameter and both valves
haveS&W springs.Kenny Harman's K&H
# l5 cams are used for a total duration of
288 deg. on both the intake and exhaust.
The cams are, accordingto John, identical
to the Jomo # 15 cams used with such Ceriani competition forks carry Slinger rim,
Barneshub and a pair of Hurst-Airheart disc
successon the factory entries of the late
brakes.
Fifties and early Sixties.
The carburetion consists of two 34mm
Italian carburetors.The spark is provided
Dellorto pumper units that provide an by a Gilmer belt-driven ARD magneto.
impressive throttle response.As much as Unlike the magneto used for years on the
John hatesto abandon his beloved MikuTriumph racing bikes, the new model
nis, he admits a power increasewith the provides a rotor and cap that allows the
plugs to fire only at TDC compression
rather than firing twice for each four
strokes-once at TDC compression and
once during the exhauststroke.
It's dimcult not to compare this bike
with Jay Springsteen's
XR750 we looked at
a few months back. The bikes are both
built to compete professionally on dirt
tracks but the differencein appearanceis
incredible. While Jay's Harley appeared
all businessand almost brutal, John's Triumph looks more delicate and has a certain refinement.Of courseJohn's bike will
soon bear some of the scarsseen on Jay's
Harley.We can't help but feel it's a shame
Trackmasterswing arm has choice of shock to push sucha pleasingpieceof machinery
mounts, but the bike seemsto work best with out on the track.Couldn't John just hang it
the Mulholland shocks set to the rear. Note on the wall in his office and keep it in,its
detailwork on the hub, brake and swing arm. presentcondition?
o
Enginebegan life as a 1966TR-6.lt's bored to 744cc and hasbig valves,
flywheels,carbs and a magneto. lt's a work of art and it works.