Triumph Desert Sled

They’re called Desert Sleds, and for good reason; those hefty, somewhat bastardized motorcycles were built to carry their riders quickly and efficiently across portions of what constitute the Great American Desert.

Desert Sleds came to be during the 1950s and early 1960s when motorcyclists realized they could race their motorcycles practically unimpeded over vast stretches of California’s Mojave Desert, much of which is located within AMA District 37’s boundaries. Up to then few people, motorcyclists included, cared much about that big, unsupervised sandbox. When District 37 desert racing got underway shortly after World War II ended, who cared that hundreds of motorcycle racers at a time were plowing across the sand at breakneck speeds?

Oh, to be fair, select indigenous Americans had, for eons, occupied the desert with little disruption from outsiders, plus prospectors and miners searching for precious metals spent a fair amount of their time scurrying about in that hot wasteland. And not to be overlooked, pioneers striking out for new beginnings in California and Oregon had to venture into that vast unknown before reaching their new Promised Land that stretched along America’s bountiful western coastline.

Eventually, though, motorcycle racers realized they could race practically unabated on the desert floor, and the racing boomed.

The beginning of the Triumph Desert Sled

Most early racers based their Desert Sled conversions on street-going British bikes powered by the most modern vertical twin- or single-cylinder engines of the time. As happened, most of the Sleds were Triumph twins, although all brands and models were acceptable. As time passed and the Sleds became more sophisticated in their composition, a properly prepped Sled in capable hands could steamroll across wide open stretches of barren Southern California desert with surprising efficiency.

Two major factors accounted for a Sled’s performance over rough terrain. Foremost, even though based on ordinary street bike platforms, a Sleds’ modifications included a mixture of make-do and can-do engineering that readied them for 100-plus miles of constant pounding served up during typical desert races, scrambles and hare-and-hound events.

Factor number two focused on the human factor itself — the Desert Sled’s rider. It took a forceful and strong-willed person to pilot a 375-pound motorcycle supported by only a few inches of suspension travel to navigate around, over and through pucker bushes, abandoned mine shafts and sand washes so deep they seemingly could swallow an ordinary motorcycle whole. Yes indeed those early Sleds were ridden by real men (and women!), and after we examine the Desert Sled featured here — a 1954 Triumph T100 powered by a T110 Tiger 650cc engine that was built, owned and ridden by Bill Getty who’s a “long-time motorcycle nut” (his words) — you’ll understand why those Sleds were so capable of taming the desert as well as they did.

Mojave Desert’s T-Wrecks

As if ordained by the Divine Creator himself, the Desert Sled motorcycle species evolved within the confines of America’s Southwest deserts shortly after World War II. For a bit of history that celebrates the days of the Desert Sleds we can refer to the March 1974 issue of Cycle magazine where Gordon Jennings wrote a metaphorical passage that “as late as 1965, the motorcyclist’s desert was ruled by a dinosaur, the classic and now almost totally-extinct Desert Sled.” Jennings went on to explain how survival of the fittest favored “the 650cc Triumph twin over all other motorcycles of the time.” The Triumph twin, he explained, “was a lightweight by the standards [of the day].” Jennings could have added to that last statement, proclaiming Triumph’s TR6 the ultimate model with a DNA strand pattern that weaved its way back to several Triumph twin models before it. The TR6 proved to be the bike to beat in desert racing. The TR6’s lineage included the T100 (first model with a rear swing arm), the Trophy (its 650cc single-carb engine producing a wide power band congenial for slogging through thick, deep sand) and others. In the end the TR6 proved to be the most successful of all those desert dinosaurs, regardless of brand. In reality, though, none of those mechanized giant lizards compare to the motorcycles available for desert duty today, but that’s another story for another time.

Truth is, there was some careful, even scientific, thought in how Sleds evolved into those magnificent creatures that plied the deserts well into the 1970s. Steering geometry was important, and many racers settled on about 32 degrees of rake. Wrote Jennings: “it was common to have Buchanan’s frame shop crank an extra 4 or 5 degrees of rake into the steering, and maybe add a couple inches to the swingarms,” which set wheelbase at about 60 inches, creating “a high level of stability and an equally high level of resistance to steering inputs.”

Most Sleds rode on 4.00-section Dunlop tires, a 19-inch Trials Universal up front and an 18-inch Dunlop Sports on the rear. Raise the exhaust pipes up and out of the way, and weld a skid plate beneath the engine so that rocks the size of a desert tortoise won’t spoil the ride and you had the makings of a worthy Sled. Of course, the bike’s lights, mirrors, and horn were stripped off for weight savings, and mufflers were replaced with megaphone or straight-through pipes.

Bates often got the call when it was time to find a place for the rider to sit, and foot pegs (preferably folding type) usually got a reinforcement weld seam. Interestingly, air cleaners were looked upon as optional equipment; few companies offered suitable filters in those early years. In his magazine article Jennings quoted established desert racer Mike Patrick (who often rode Nortons) that “dust would really get to your engine. I tried everything, including Brillo pads to stop the stuff and nothing worked. Eventually K&N began selling air cleaners that worked pretty well, and then Filtron came along, but before that you always had worn out engines and sticking throttle slides,” continued Patrick. His explanation was further proof that Necessity truly is the Mother of Invention, and thank you, K&N.

Perhaps one of the most significant strides made by the Sledders was when Ted Lapadakis, an enterprising Triumph dealer in Los Angeles, modified standard TR6C models for desert racing, selling them as complete racers to aspiring competitors who, in the process, helped the sport grow. Oddly, Triumph distributor Johnson Motors, operating out of nearby Duarte, never pursued a similar course of action, leaving many racers to patronize Lapadakis’s dealership, or to rely on their own devices in preparing their bikes for battle.

Wild Bill’s Triumph desert sled dionsaur

And through it all, dinosaurs, er, Desert Sleds, thrived. That is, they thrived until the advent of 2-stroke off-road race bikes proved to be better at conquering the desert. It was as if an unexpected asteroid plummeted smack dab into the middle of the racers’ beloved Mojave Desert, the only survivors being lightweight and agile 2-stroke motorcycles.

But among the human survivors is a man who remains loyal to the Desert Sled, and that’s Bill Getty, owner of our featured bike. Moreover, his T100/110 hybrid is still capable of roaming the Mojave Desert as if it were its natural habitat (which, in truth, it is). In fact, Bill makes sure the old gal gets to stretch her legs and sink her toes deep into the warm, sunbaked sand at least once a year during Thanksgiving weekend. That’s when dual-sport riders who harbor a sense of loyalty to one of the most famous desert races of all time — the Barstow to Vegas — gather to pay homage to its history, and to ride through the desert in the process.

In the interest of preserving the desert’s environment, the Barstow to Vegas Race, first run in 1964, is now celebrated only as a non-competitive dual-sport ride. Participants gather for a two-day jaunt starting in Palmdale, California, arriving in Barstow to overnight before resuming the chase the next day to finish in Las Vegas, Nevada, itself. The original B-to-V lasted from 1964 through 1974 before, in the interest of preserving the habitat for the endangered desert tortoise, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) shut down the racing, only to reinstate it before shutting down again after 1989’s race. The on-again/off-again debate led to much controversy and legal squabble that eventually spawned the heavily monitored annual dual-sport trail bike ride that remains today. The ride emerged, in large part, through the efforts of a shadow figure known as the Phantom Duck of the Desert who spearheaded a movement that challenged the BLM.

Today the dual-sport ride remains a favorite among Southern California off-road fans, and among its loyal followers are people like Bill and his buddies, many who ride Desert Sleds. This past year Bill teamed up with friend Dominqic Froech, Jr., both on Triumph twins of their own makings for the ride. Unfortunately, Dominiqic DNF’ed after he did the unthinkable, loaning (!) his bike for one stretch of the ride to a friend who crashed (unhurt), disabling the bike enough that it rode into Sin City on the chase truck.

Bill and his Triumph finished the 2022 ride, and he picks up the story: “I’ve finished more than 20 of the B-to-V rides with this bike,” says Bill, proud that the old bird still has some flap in its wings, because even the dual-sport rides account for about 500 miles, mostly off road, if you’re to finish both legs. And as a diehard enthusiast (Bill is also a member of the BSA Owner’s Club and he writes and edits the monthly online newsletter for the Trailblazers organization) his goal is to first finish whatever event he signs up for.

But before his 1954 Triumph could fly in the first of many B-to-V gatherings, it had to learn how to walk again, and that alone represents a colorful chapter with the bike’s past. Its origins date back to the days when desert racer Larry Benton owned it. It turns out that Benton had removed its engine for use in another desert racer project, and that transplant relegated the 1954 T100 to undeclared “T50” status; the bike sat for years leaning against a shed wall. That changed when Bill acquired the dusty and rusty bike to reactivate it for desert service. First order of business was to shoehorn a rebuilt T110 engine into the chassis to get the Triumph rolling again.

The hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone …

“I traded a wrecked BMW 1000 for it in ’92,” recalls Bill. “I installed a 1954 engine into the rolling chassis. I’ve retained the bike’s patina, but I replaced all the worn components with fresher parts.” The following year Bill, aged 40 at the time, entered it in the 1993 B-to-V dual-sport ride, the first of more than 20 he’s entered since, finishing all but a few of them aboard the revived Triumph.

More than just a happy-go-lucky racer, Bill also happens to be the quintessential environmentalist who’s always prepared to recycle as many old parts as possible into his “restoration” projects. That translates to creating his own upgrades for each project, and among them for this T100/T110 hybrid was replacing the suspension, placing a vintage Ceriani fork up front to make full use of its 6 inches of travel. And that’s twice the travel offered by the two vintage (used) coil/over rear shocks. He settled on a (used) 19-tooth countershaft sprocket, matching it with a (used) 47-tooth rear sprocket, with standard Triumph gears still churning away within the pre-unit transmission cases. “Third gear could be a bit lower,” confesses Bill, “but the engine makes remarkable torque down low and it will climb amazingly well.” He also sourced (that is, recycled) the exhaust system (two well-worn upswept pipes, one on either side) from a friend, Johnny Green, paying full list price of $25 for the pair.

Clearly, Bill takes pride is recycling as many old parts into the “new” bike as he can. For instance, while the Amal 930 carb shows signs of being “pretty won out,” the Lucas magneto that he pirated off a blown-up Norton 600, coupled with alternator primary cases from a 1962 650 means that when the desert sun dips menacingly below the horizon, Bill has 12-volt lighting to help guide the way to the finish. So much for the Prince of Darkness disrupting this ride.

The bike shows up occasionally at other events, too. Every now and then Bill takes it to nearby Glen Helen Park for some on-track exercise. And at about the time this article reaches the sticky fingers of our dedicated readers, the bike will be shown at the annual Tom White Memorial Bike Show that’s held leading up to the annual Trailblazers Banquet. And, just as the bike appears in the photos on these pages, Bill’s old Sled will proudly wear its coat of Mojave mud that’s been caked on it since finishing the 2022 Barstow-to-Vegas Dual-Sport Ride at the Tom White bike show. Clearly this bike lives up to the motto of this magazine — “Ride ‘Em, Don’t Hide ‘Em.”

Finally, this: The Popeye caricature on the gas tank’s left side is there for a reason. “What purpose is that?” I asked Bill during our photo session.

“I yam what I yam,” Bill replied.

But most of all, like Popeye himself, this old Desert Sled is strong to the finish. MC

Originally published in the March/April 2023 issue of Motorcycle Classics.