Jay sent us this letter: Thought I would send a picture of my works in progress '73 Tiger. This is how the bike looked when I bought it. Right now it's in pieces undergoing a complete restoration. I will include a little history in case you do a restoration or works in progress section on the website. Since I was a kid and fell in love with a buddies older brother's Daytona 500, I have wanted a Triumph, preferring a Bonnie or maybe a '73 Trident. I looked at a couple of bikes over the years but not getting serious til a couple years ago. I came across an ad for a ''73 Triumph 750 single carb in the swap sheet for $600. I called thinking it was worth looking at. Drivng into Syracuse one June evening I was optimistic. Until I saw the bike, that is! She had been sitting in a barn for 16 years and believe me every year showed. Giving the bike a good look over I decided it was really more work than I wanted to get into. I had just finished restoring a Plymouth Roadrunner the year before and had no desire to do another complete restoration on anything! The guy was nice enough but at that point I wanted to get the heck out of Meriden so to speak. I low-balled the guy offering him $400 thinking there was no way he'd take it. Sure enough he counter offered $450, I told him "No, I would have to walk away from it". I started to shuffle my son toward the truck when the guy said "Wait, $425 and I'll help you load it. At this point there wasn't anything left to do, I shrugged my shoulders at my son and became the proud owner of my own British bike. The restoration is coming along nicely but is expensive, and finding time to work on her can be a challenge, but the good Lord willing we'll be on the road this year. Jay Lamb.
July 16, 2002 Update: Well as I stated last time I became the proud owner of my own British bike. Once home I started to look over the bike closely, sit on it, go varoom varoom, you know the drill. The bike upon disassembly was as bad as I feared. The motor was set up, the rims shot, and after sanding the gas tank the bottom looked like Swiss cheese. I decided to strip the bike completely, change the swingarm bushings, steering head bearings, etc. I purchased a good used gas tank after some searching on eBay, plus several other parts. If you are lokking for parts eBay can be a great source. Just be wary of the bid price as I have seen used parts sell for more than new parts. The motor went out to the rebuilder while the cases went to my long suffering brother to be buffed, (and believe me he does suffer having me as a little brother!). Seriously Chuck, you've been great helping me with this thing. Also I ordered several items from Riverside Motosports our friendly Triumph dealer. Thanks Damon for your help looking up all those parts! I came to the conclusion that this bike would be a driver so I bought a Boyer electronic ignition and upgraded the suspension with Progressive springs and shocks. I have also painted the frame and cycle parts as you see in the photos. I used POR 15 on the frame. An excellent product that is the only thing on the market that truly does stop rust.
Well,folks its been awhile since I updated the page,unfortunately I got side tracked putting up a house which ate up a couple of years.When I got the motor back it was 2004,wow how time flies,I have been actually been gathering parts since I owned the bike,so now it was time to start putting everything together.But as what happenes with these projects I ran into a roadblock all of the diagrams and pictures I had taken during the disassembly of the bike got lost in the move,now if you had been working on the these bikes for years no big deal.Guess what I hadn’t but then a strange twist of fate,at my wifes families Fathers day celebration I got talking to my wife’s cousin,he told me that a guy he worked with at the phone company had just bought a Triumph,Iasked him the color and he told me it was blue and white.Hmmm,the wheels started turning my head “Rob”,Iasked,”Could you find out if the bike is a 73 Tiger 750?”Turned out not only was it the same bike as mine,but the owner Matt was more than happy to let me photograph and diagram the whole thing.I can’t tell you how much aggravation this saved me,So I started the reassembly and the old girl slowly came back to life,I did run into some hiccups Jim knoll at the British Bike Connection was a big help on some my questions as well as Mark Zimmerman tech advisor for Walnecks Classic Cycle Trader.Finally the summer of 2005 was on us.Hooked up the wire harness and Boyer ignition,using a bottle with gasoline tickled the carb and kicked sputtered the first kick another 2 kicks and the Tiger ran on its own for the first time since 1984.Afew days later I put the gas tank on and road around the yard,with a big grin on my face I was channeling Steve Mcqueen.Shortly after that she saw the road for the first time since license plates were yellow and blue and Reagan was in the White House.Had a bad oil leak which I tracked down to the sealing washer on the pushrod tube.Also I found out in heavy traffic the stock alternator didn’t have enough output to run the halogen headlight and the electronic ignition.But the more I rode the bike the better it seemed to go.I also found out all the stuff I read about these bikes handling so well over the years,its all true even thow it was a pain to learn to shift with my right foot.There you have it folks end of resto,and as proud as Iam how this bike turned out and all that I have learned about Triumphs I will NEVER DO ANOTHER COMPLETE RESTO ON ANYTHING!Gee I think I made that same statement after I finished my Road Runner,oh well ride safe and God Bless
Now my thank you list,all the people that helped me with this bike, Chuck Lamb, Barry Dunham, Mike Ingles, Damon Dardaris, Jim Knoll, Mark Zimmerman, Rob Patrick and Matt his coworker, My son D.J. and daughters Marikate and Sarah, My wife Cate, Rich Munski, and of course Ron Salgado and Al Eckstadt
