Ed Roth's Mega Cycle

The frame is painted after being sand blasted.

The body recently flaked. A spot of the original flake was found and used to find the correct color

The Triumph restored back to its first version by Fritz

The restored version of the Mega Cycle as it appeared in September 2009

The Mega Cycle is a show car built by Ed Roth. With the Mega Cycle, Ed wanted to take a crack at predicting what El Caminos of the 21st century would look like. The first sketches for the car was drawn by Ed Newton in 1966. The car was originally intended for hauling Ed's Harley XLCH until he purchased a show winning Triumph.

The original name for the creation was Captain Pepi's Motorcycle & Zeppelin Repair. Robert Williams gave the car its first name. After a strong suggestion from car show promoters the name of the car was changed to the Mega Cycle. The car was powered by a Buick V6 engine.

After touring the show circuit for one year, Ed traded the car for a V-Dub rear clip. A local junk dealer got to use the car in front of his junkyard for publicity for one year. After one year, when Ed came to pick it up, the car had been turned into a house for the junkyard dogs. The dogs had ripped the seats. Ed went on and sold the car to Jim Brucker in 1969. Jim traded it to Harrah's. When Bill Harrah died the Mega Cycle and several other cars in Bill's collection was auctioned off. Ed's son Darryl Roth ended up buying the Mega Cycle and the Druid Princess at the auction. Ed and Darryl restored the Mega Cycle and the Druid Princess with assist from Pete Santini. After the cars had been restored, they were both sold to Jay Ohberg, and once again sent on the show circuit.

Today the Mega Cycle and Triumph is currently being restored again by Fritz Schenck. It was difficult finding info about the Mega Cycle in books and magazines. But after a lot of research he was able to find a good color photo of the left side of the bike on the back of a truck at a California auto show from around 1967-1968. The chopper has been the hardest part of the vehicle to restore, missing many hard to find specialty parts.

After 7 months of hard work Fritz completed the restoration in September of, 2009, 5 days before the bike is getting auctioned away at the Icons of Speed & Style auction in Los Angeles, California. Mark Moriarity was the lucky bidder at the auction that bought the mega Cycle for $ 60,500 USD. According to Mark, it's the 4th time he has owned the Mega Cycle.

Sources

Hot Rods by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth
RM Auctions