Work on motorcycles long enough, and you’ll amass two things: a pile of leftover parts, and the wisdom to know which of those parts go best together. Hayden Roberts has hit that level, and this candy-coated vintage Triumph dirt tracker is the result.
Hayden restores and repairs vintage British machines under the moniker ‘Hello Engine.’ Originally from Birmingham, England, he escaped to the Californian coast in the early 2000s; ?about 40 years too late,? he says.

?I quit my real job to start rescuing old British bikes a fair few years ago and currently work out of Ventura County, CA. I put this bike together an hour at a time between customer jobs over the past three months.?
So what is it, exactly" ?The goal was to make a mid-60s TT bike,? Hayden explains, ?something you’d see racing at Ascot. But with the late 750 five-speed, which was the best motor Triumph made.?
Hayden started with a 1965 Triumph competition frame, ?because the head angle was steeper than the later bikes, and it had the best geometry for that kind of racing.?
As for the motor, he specifically wanted the torquey parallel port 750cc Bonneville power plant from the late 70s. ?I stumbled across one of these motors on Craigslist,? he says, ?while getting a sandwich in a town a couple hours north of us.?

The 750 came with a left side shifter, since Triumph switched their well-known right side shifter over to the left in 1975. ?But all proper bikes shift on the right,? says...