Reborn Daytona

DANIEL XUEREB explains his love affair with a 1968 T100R Triumph. “This bike belonged to my father-in-law, Robbi. It was the first time I rode a motorcycle of this sort of age and the first time I rode it, I didn’t want to stop. When I got back they were worried I’d run out of fuel because I was gone for so long. So after when Robbi hinted that he was looking at buying something a bit later model and was going to sell it, I said ‘Great I’ll buy it’! I rode it for a while before making the decision to rebuild it. I thought this will only take a few months, but with two kids and four years later she is finally finished.

“Robbi bought the bike from his friend Ralph Briotti, who brought the bike from America in parts and rebuilt it. Ralph was a very experienced bike builder and Renowned Historic racer, I was fortunate to meet Ralph and see his beautiful collection of motorcycles in his humble little shed in Cervantes WA. Ralph passed away in 2014 and I dedicate this build to him and his family. I started disassembling, which was a hard decision because I knew I wouldn’t be able to ride it for quite a while. At this stage we were living in WA so I sorted the frame and parts for powder coat and chrome, got the rims re-spoked and powder coated black. It was difficult to picture the bike in my mind in how it would look. I decided to move away from original paint colours which wasn’t easy but on the tank and fenders and I went with the sapphire candy blue with old school black tram lines. I felt it needed less chrome, so I decided to delete the chrome on the bars, headlight, forks and rear shocks. When I picked them up– from Stevo at Hellboy Restorations they were perfect, just as I had pictured in my head. I ended up sending him the cast aluminum front brake cover and he did it in black, also the rear tail light. By this stage we were living in Ballarat so while we moved across the country very little happened while we settled in our new home. Once I got my new shed set up it was time to pull the motor apart. The crankcases were in much need of a freshen up so I completely disassembled the engine and hydro blasted the cases and fitted new bearings. Internally the motor was in good condition, so I just cleaned the pistons and put in new rings. I sent the barrel to Stevo and he suggested the black with polished fins type look, and I am glad he suggested. Overall the motor came together quite well. There wasn’t a great deal of spare time with raising to boys but slowly the parts came off the shelf and she started to take shape.”