LIFE IS GOOD
Make no mistake: kids are impressionable.
When Tom TeRonde was 11 years old, his dad bought him a Honda CB160 to tear around the family property on the outskirts of Oostburg, Wisconsin, where they had a few horses and grew Christmas trees. His four sisters were into the horses, leaving Tom as the only one in the family curious about internal combustion engines.
“Boys would often come around to hang out with my sisters,” Tom says of his young family life. “And I clearly remember one day when three guys pulled up on two Triumphs and a BSA. That made quite an imprint on me. I hoped that one day I could get something like one of those Triumphs — it was the sight and the sound, and I thought it was a very cool way to get around.”
Better than the small-bore Honda, at least, but Tom had to wait until he was 19 before an opportunity to acquire a Triumph presented itself. In 1977, Tom had just finished his first year of school at the University of Wisconsin. He went to visit a high school friend who happened to be selling a 1966 Triumph TR6SR.
The sidestand lug was broken off the frame, so it could only be parked on its centerstand. The speedometer didn’t work, and there was no air filter. The distinctive Triumph badges and knee pads had been stripped off the tank, and it was painted white
