It’s hard to express just how much Mark Drury loves vintage Triumphs. In his own words, he’s a ?self-confessed Meriden groupie,? but his love for the marque is even more evident in the projects he takes on.
Based in Northampton in England, Mark runs the workshop Retrograde Mechanica as an after-hours endeavor. And more Triumphs pass through his doors than any other make… regardless of the condition they’re in. This 1967 Triumph Daytona 500, for example, was pretty trashed when Mark took on the rebuild.

?This little one all started in a straight swap with a mate of mine,? he tells us. ?I fancied another Daytona, and he wanted a 350 ‘Tri-Greeves’ that I had. The stock Triumph looked tidy enough, so a straight swap was done.? ?Of course things are never quite as they appear: my mate had obtained the bike in another deal and not really looked at it too much. It wasn?t a runner, the swingarm had seized, the subframe was as bent as a nine bob note and the tank was leaking from the usual spots.?

?The plan was hatched to build a tidy little desert sled-influenced bike for green-lane fun and the odd loony toons race, like the Malle events and Race the Waves.?
Surprisingly, when Mark tore into the motor, he discovered that there were new pistons, rings and rods inside, with a 60 cc over-bore. ?The reason it was sold as a non-runner seemed to be a broken cam follower and a bent push rod,? he explains.

?So the sludge trap was cleaned and eve...