"I attended the Oregon Vintage Motorcycle meet again this past May, and again saw some great machines. Unfortunately I forgot my camera! This year they were honoring Norton, so there were more Nortons than usual, along with many other marques. I met an interesting guy there, from Portland, who had a booth where he sold parts and also a couple of nice restored Triumphs. Check out his website: www.classicvmb.com and click on "Our Bikes" at the top to see some of the machines his shop has restored and the pretty decent prices he asks
When I first bought my 500cc Tiger twin, I used to frequent a
shop on Sandy Blvd in Portland, for parts and machining services. It was
run by a REAL character, named Cliff, but who was nicknamed the Sandy Bandit,
because a lot of people felt his prices were high. But he had any and
every part you might have been looking for. When you entered the shop, you
walked past ten or fifteen classic British bikes, just a small part of his
collection, which included an Ariel square four, BSA Gold Star, Matchless and
AJS large displacement singles, all for sale. The rest of his enormous
collection was stored in a warehouse in dry eastern Oregon, near Bend, including
a huge stash of parts, gaskets, etc. When he died, his estate must have
been worth quite a bit, as he bought all these things at low prices when Triumph
was on the decline (losing out to Japanese bikes on the rise) so Triumphs and
BSAs were available for a dollar a cc (I paid $450 for my Tiger on
1973).
Anyway, this fellow with the website, Cornell by name,
somehow acquired the Sandy Bandit's old shop and has a few guys working for him
restoring old machines there. Next time you are in Portland you ought to
stop by and check it out."
