Sammy Miller was/is a legend. Many time British and world trials champion, world class road 
racer, and currently, owner of one of the world's great motorcycle museums. In the 1970's, 
at the height of his trials career, Miller built a series of special frames for use with Bultaco and later, Honda TL 125, components. Known as "High-Boys", Miller's Reynolds 531 frames were stronger and lighter than the factories' production models.

I found this one on eBay only a couple hundred miles down the road. As the auction was winding down, we were dining out with our friends  Jerry and Darlene Sira. There were no bids on the bike, Jerry said buy, Darlene said no, my wife Terri knew better than to opine either way. Smartphone in hand, I went for it.

It's an interesting and quite rare piece. There are, I believe, only three in the US, though many more in the UK. The frame incorporates a bolt-on skid plate that replaces the lower frame tubes, allowing some extra ground clearance (thus "High-Boy"). This particular bike uses Bultaco M151 components; they are also fairly rare as this 325cc model was produced for only about five months. There are also other Sammy Miller and Renthal components as well. The tank/seat unit is alloy in place of the usual Bultaco fiberglass, manufactured in the UK by Homerlite.

SM552 remained with the original owner for 30 years, it's complete but fairly rough having  competed in competitive trials both in the UK, and later, here  with AHRMA. It does seem to run OK, with a fairly recent top end job, so I'll be concentrating on cosmetics and the other mechanicals. 

I have my work cut out for me. I have about nine months to get it ready for a debut at the 2016 edition of Riding Into History.

Update: See below for photos of the project and the first photo of the completed renovation.
A couple of pictures, taken the day I picked it up. The homemade fenders have to go. I'll mount up a pair of period correct Bultaco M199 units on Sammy Miller brackets. The tank is heavily varnished inside and dented outside, work needed here. Wheels will be rebuilt and torn seat will be replaced.

Work in progress: (L) Down to bare frame, engine out, lots of polishing done, (M) engine and suspension back together, (R) nearing completion.
The finished project, seen here at its first outing, Riding Into History May, 2015, where it won the Competition Off Road Class.

In 2015 I wrote an article for SMOG's La Voz newsletter, but the newsletter vanished before publishing it. I subsequently offered it to Britain's Classic Dirt Bike. After a couple of years lost in the mail stacks, it was finally published in the January, 2022 issue with some new photos. You can read it here.

Spurred on by the recent restorations of vintage dirt bikes by the usual suspects, we refreshed the Sammy Miller with newly painted fenders (and an autographed Sammy Miller hat).

We then entered it in the 2023 2-Stroke Show in Fort Myers.

It is such an unusual motorcycle, we displayed it with a copy of the Classic Dirt Bike article which helped to explain the what, where and why.

We were pleased to win the Competition Class over a strong group of MX and road racing machines.