Pete’s Blog?

So I bought a motorcycle (2004 Triumph Daytona 600) off a co-worker 9 or so months ago. He got the bike, put about 850 miles on it and dumped it. It looked pretty bad but I had hope. I ended up buying it for cheap and stripping it down. I sold all the plastic body work on ebay for a pretty penny which put the purchase of the bike at about $400! This was great!

Since I was planning to use it as a race bike I wasn’t worried about the stock body work. You have to have a race version of the body work anyway to compete legally. No headlights and a bellypan (plastic that wraps under the bike) was manditory. The bellypan is there to catch any oil leaks from dripping onto the track.

I got the bike started but it was only running on 3 of 4 cylinders. Just what I didn’t want. Pulling the motor I found that the #4 exhaust valve was bent and wouldn’t create a good enough seal to cause the fuel to burn.

But… as luck may have it. I found a guy in Atlanta with a whole bike (minus the frame) for sale. For $1000 I got it all, wiring harness, engine, computer, gauges, forks, swing arm more body work etc…

I sold many of the spares on ebay again. This now got me to the $500 mark on the engine. Now for crossing my fingers - I put the new motor in and wha-la! It started right up!!! YaaaHooo! At this point I was about $1000 into the bike… don’t ask about the time including ebay, post office runs and just working on the bike…eeek!

Now I needed the body work. www.sharkskinz.com had just the bits I need. $500 later I had the bike together and ready for a trackday to blow out the cobwebs, dust and any gremlins that the bike may have.

So after a few trackdays on the bike at Laguna Seca, Searspoint and Thunder Hill. All I had left were some suspension tweaks and rider acclamation. I’m finally ready to use the bike for the AFM 2006 season. 600 Production here I come…