Saturday, March 19, 2011

1953 Bill Martin "Big Bear Spring Frame"






The race that started Triumph's claim to fame in American Racing. The 1953 Big Bear race had 448 entries, with only 83 finishing. Four newly made Martin Spring Framed Triumphs were in the mix and Vern Robinson's came in first after the leader Bud Ekins took out his Matchless in a slide. Vern had only been racing for a year and only had one previous trophy on his mantle.









Being a large fellow, Vern had no advantage in the power to weight ratio area, and the suspension had its work cut out for it. I like the high California bars and plain control levers pointing towards the sky.







The story behind the 1953 race winner.



A year or two ago a guy had a complete Triumph twin Martin chassis including forks as seen in this article offered on ebay. An extremely rare find!













Unknown 1950's era Martin Swingframed rider.





First kid on the block to build one that I know of in the modern era, David Edwards Iron Tiger Martin Swingframe as featured in the March 2000 issue of Cycle World magazine.




For those that can appreciate the history and coolness of these swing frames I have an original 1953 example as mounted to a 1952 Thunderbird with matching numbers engine on ebay HERE.

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