About these T20s:
The black one is the elder. I believe it to have been made in 65-66 as many of the parts meet the criteria for an early example - the title says 67. It has had 2 or 3 previous owners, but only 11000 original miles. It has no turn signals or other extraneous items on it to drag it down and prevent it from doing wheelies. When I got it, it had a luggage rack and engine guards on it - obviously not original equipment. It also came with a dented fuel tank, dented headlamp bracket. and considerably more rust on the right side than on the left side of the bike.

The red one is very similar to the black one except that it cost me $450 and had apehangers (now who's idea was that?) and a couple of broken cylinder fins. I believe it to have been made around 67 although the title says 69 (impossible!). I have no idea how many owners it has had, but I do know that it was last ridden regularly around 1978 in Pennsylvania by a college student. Interestingly, all of the parts that I want for the other bike are in good shape!

• In its day, the T20 was the fastest 250cc production bike ever made. It was capable of speeds of around 95MPH although the company literature claimed 100MPH.
  
• It used such high-tech materials as aluminum for the cylinders and the pistons to aid in cooling, reduce weight, and to prevent the engine from seizing.
• As a two-stroke, it had a very sophisticated 'Posi-Force' oil delivery system that varied the amount of oil to the engine with the position of throttle - Oil did not have to be pre-mixed with the gas anymore. This system also seemed to reduce the amount of smoke seen at the tailpipe.
• It was a popular model in its day and it was often raced or rode hard due to its good handling and light weight - it is now difficult to find an excellent unrestored example because of this.
• Some mistakenly believe that the T20 is based on the T10. The T20 has very little in common with the T10. The T500 Titan/Cobra however was a very direct descendant of the T20 with everything having been made essentially larger. The T500 was also a popular bike and enjoyed a ten year production run.
• The T20 was made as a trail version called the TC250 (X6 Scrambler) for a short time.

As of this writing (June 9, 1998) some of the plan has changed. I wanted to perform the painting myself, but the housing inspectors (I live in an apartment) discovered the 68 T20 in my basement, which meant that I had to move everything outside. I had planned to photograph the stripped frame, swingarm, side covers and fuel tank before and after preparation, but decided that it would be wiser to whisk the aforementioned pieces to the local body shop to have them prepped and painted rather than let them rust until I found a place to work on them. Now the various parts are scattered about the house and it's a little more difficult to work on the major things. It now looks like I will only partially reach my goal this year. At least the up-side is that I get a professional paint job.......

June 29, 1998 - Well, I got the painted parts back.......I must say that I'm somewhat less than happy at spending the amount of money that I did on a less than Ideal job. I really wish that I could have done it myself.......grrrrrrr....Oh well, time to send stuff to be re-chromed.

October 15, 1998 - Oops......Never did get around to rechroming - oh well, I just ran out of money because I spent it on my Mac SE/30. The bike is back in the basement (don't tell the landlord) and is slowly coming together 'cos I really want to ride it. It certainly looks better with the new paint. The revised plan is to polish up the aluminum, get new engine gaskets and put 'er back together until I get a place with a proper workspace.