Convenient city ride now nostalgic
When Tony Knapp’s parents discouraged the newly turned 16-year-old driver from purchasing a car (figuring public transportation would suffice), he turned to the world of two wheels and purchased a raggedy secondhand 1966 Triumph Mountain Cub.
Then seen only as a simple means to an end, Tony enjoyed buzzing around town but eventually sold it, never thinking the memory would reappear several decades later.
Growing up on the North side of Chicago, young Tony spent several years riding his diminutive British runabout after obtaining it for the paltry price of $50.
“My parents didn’t see the need for a car as living in the city we could get anywhere by bus. But they agreed to let me buy the Triumph, probably because it was such a basket case they never thought I would be able to get it running!” the Hawthorn Woods resident laughs. But mend, reconstruct and fabricate he did and the teen was able to happily motor around, albeit in a style that only a young gear head could love.
“That old bike was a rusty mess. By the time I was done with it, I had painted it purple and added high handlebars, making a tiny chopper out of it. This was the 60s after all!”
His high school years came and went, as did the bike, as Knapp moved on to more capable four-wheeled machines. That first motorized two-wheeler became nothing more than a distant memory of his youth. Yet all that changed in 2007 when a friend phoned him after making an unexpected discovery while cleaning out an abandoned Wheaton barn.
“He called to say he had found an early Triumph motorcycle and remembered that I had once owned one,” Knapp said. That call promptly brought back those childhood memories and Tony was eager to take ownership of the rusty hulk.
When he arrived to pick up the jumble of metal, he discovered that what his friend had stumbled upon was a stock ’66 Mountain Cub. “It was simply unbelievable that it was the same model I’d ridden all those years ago! Ironically, my buddy said I could have it for $50 – the same price I paid for the first one!”
After discovering that salvaged Triumph bikes are impervious to inflation, Knapp hauled the junker back to his garage to conduct a proper full frame-off restoration. The four-stroke ‘cistern’ was taken apart, allowing the putrid water and debris stored inside to drain out before everything was cleaned, polished or replaced and then reassembled to factory specifications. While Knapp completed all of the mechanical work himself, he does credit the chaps at a vintage motorcycle sales and repair depot, Morrie’s Place in Ringwood, in serving as the go-to guys for hard to find parts and the “shop that made the restoration possible.”
When it came time to repaint, Knapp wanted to stay original and utilized a special process to decipher what modern hue would most closely resemble the 50-year old colors.
“While most of the factory paint had worn off or was coated with something else, there were some spots of the original coat, buried under years of grime and rust. I cleaned up a couple of sections and brought it to Paint Works in Loves Park, where by using a laser scan we were able to match the color to something readily available today.”
What they found was that a reproduction ’56 Ford orange color would match just fine, complemented by an ivory color for the fenders and underside of the tank.
While the odometer rarely rolls on the Triumph, Knapp sees plenty of two-wheeled action, carving up back roads with the Norton Owners Club on one of the other twelve motorcycles he owns.
“Several years ago I got back into riding. One bike led to another, but everything all started with that worn out Mountain Cub.”
While it may have been small and insignificant, it was that ragtag Triumph that sparked Knapp’s passion for the experience on two wheels and with this fully restored bike, it looks like the memory of it will be safely preserved for years to come.