PRE-UNIT TRIUMPH CASES......ON STEROIDS!

The world's strongest Triumph crankcases are being manufactured by Donny Coveney in Australia.

 CNC machined from aircraft grade "6 series" aluminum alloy, rather than cast like others, ensures accuracy and consistency of every pair. These cases are the ideal foundation if you fancy a Triumph that puts out double the power of any Twin that came out of Meriden. Capable of handling the horsepower from big bore cylinders, hot cams, nitro fuel, stroker cranks, and superchargers without coming apart at the seams.

Supplied with a timing cover set up for RH crank seal and RH ignition as used on unit Triumphs, but maintaining the ability to run the original rear mounted ignition, these cases have got most every option covered when putting a motor together.

Designer Donny, has used these cases in roadracers and dragracers that produce 90 plus horsepower, and are capable of taking much more. 

They come Complete with hardware, these cases incorporate many improvements over stock Triumph cases, and are definitely the way to go if building a Triumph to be reckoned with.

Allen bolts are stainless, base stud inserts are 4140 chromoly, and cases are supplied ready to accept 72mm Superblend crank bearings for the ultimate in reliability.

The World's Greatest Old Bike Mag.

The cover of this month's Vintage Bike Magazine, showing a piece of true Triumph exotica, the fabled pre-war Bronze Head adorning an early Tiger 100.

There is only two thing wrong with this magazine, firstly, it should be twice as thick and secondly, it should come out twice as often!

Written by men who are passionate about the subject with a lifetime in the industry, it goes to levels that other monthly classic comics fall lamentably short of.

Here's how they describe themselves;

Vintage Bike is written for those interested in British motorcycles in general and the Triumph in particular. The magazine includes how-to-do-it articles, stories by and about owners rebuilding and riding their bikes, and authoritative interviews with people who were there during the colorful history of the industry by such well-known authors as Kevin Cameron, Mick Duckworth, John Healy and many others.  Subscribe now. Articles and resources here on our website include an index of back issues.

Do yourself a favour if the description appeals to you, your life will be richer for subscribing to this magazine.

Todd Asin, Small City Cycles

'

Like one of the master chefs seen on the idiot's lantern Todd Asin can take the simplest of ingredients, available to everybody, yet somehow blend it into something very special. The frame has had a small stretch in the lower rails to straighten out the neck to rear axle line, other than that the running gear is pretty much stock other than the springer front end.

Trophy Bird

When Triumph introduced the 650 Trophy in 1956 it was called the Trophy- Bird, whether this was to cash in on the bikes that desert Racers had been putting together themselves while waiting for a 650 competition bike is unknown.

This is one of those bikes, an original conversion, shown here as bought by Bill in Oregon back in 1981. A 1950 6T Thunderbird motor fitted into a TR5 Trophy rigid frame. 

The early TR5 frame is noticeably smaller and lighter than the normal 500/650 rigid frame, constructed of smaller diameter tubing without some of the cast lugs at the frame joints. Notice the front engine plate arrangement with the dynamo sitting through where the normal front down tube extends to meet the front horns of the rear section.

Sadly Bill sold the bike on to make way for other exotica and it was disassembled, with the new owner restoring back to a normal TR5 Trophy, which is also a highly desirable and rare Triumph in it's own right but it would have been nice for this snippet of history to have survived.

You Want Salt On That?

Think salt and you either think of Fish 'n' Chips or the great white wasteland that is Bonneville Utah USA. Well it ain't always the case, John sent over these pics of his rigid Thunderbird at Lake Gairdner in Oz, Those boys down there in The Great Southern Land have got their own horizon to shoot for.

I'll take the lazy option here and let John tell y'all what's been done.

As you can see its a rigid based bike and I call it a 54 as that was the last year of the rigid frame and first year of the big bearing alt cases for the Thunderbird. I've tried to use as many pre unit bits as possible, though there is certainly a mixture with the frame being a 49, rear wheel, oil tank, guard, gearbox and triple clamps being early fifties, fork sliders are 57, front wheel is duplex type 8" hub. Tank is mid 60's T100? and the tacho bracket is 70's. All other bits are aftermarket or home made.

Engine has big bearing alt cases with a unit crank fitted balanced to 85%. Ball timing side and roller drive side main bearings. R&R billet conrods, 3134 cams with R cam followers. 9.8:1 comp pistons. Standard 5 fin Thunderbird head (58-60 type) with standard thunderbird valves. Lightened and polished rocker gear. Single 30mm Mk1 Concentric, K2FC maggy with manual advance and 1 1/2" pipes with reverse cone meggas.

Managed a best speed of 108 mph at Lake Gairdner earlier this year which I was really pleased with for a first time out on the salt.

Well over the ton on a single carb 650 iron Trumpet, outstanding achievement John, can't wait for further reports on what the twin carb head does for the top end performance.

Nice pic this one.

Bonneville T120 TT

Chris, the builder of that sweet but strangely unsold ( shame on y'all) has just finished his T120 TT rep at least I think it is, it may be pukkah. There's no style suits the big unit motor better that the flat track/desert racer format,

all bollocks and in yer face attitude, a proper British Bruiser!

Rep or not, you may depend Chris scoured the deepest depths of the darkest cellars over the pond to find the original bits.

Nice bike...............Cheers Chris.

Bobby Sir Kegian's Baby Mine

The story of young Bob still amazes me.

His daughter Ava has started a site in his honour. Check it out

HERE

Here's a taster, nice bike and nice guitar.

1954 T100R JoMo Replica

If inspiration is needed listen to this.

The guy is on YouTube as Velowfellow13, don't know how to contact him though, that's the problem.

Q-Bikes

Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, decoy vessels, special service ships, or mystery ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry, designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks. This gave Q-ships the chance to open fire and sink them. The basic ethos of every Q-ship was to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

That's what it says on Wikipedia any way, think about that when ya have a look at Martin's pre-waralike Trumpet.

There's a lot more to be said about this......................

Drag Artist's Delight

Peter has just released these pics of his finished T100 vintage drag bike. You may have noticed the engine detail photo at the top of the page and wondered what the relevance is, well this is it.

Peter, -  and I hope he doesn't mind me saying this - was mentored by The Baron of Speedshop fame during the build, and his exacting eye for detail and period correct parts shows.

Pictures by Gary Margerum

If you need more, and who can blame ya, it's featured in this month's BSH out today.

Primary Delight - Todd's Got It Covered

Spent a lot of time lately trawling the world trying to score a good pair of long primary cases, drop me a line if you have a pair excess to requirements.

Looking through the Jockey Journal for leads I came across this jaw dropping set up. Made by Todd at Small City Cycles and promised to be in production and on sale soon, needless to say.....can't wait.

Sweet Pre Unit From Yokohama

Pics are appearing from last Sunday's show in Yokohama, Louie posted this sweet rigid on the JJ.

Triumph in Japan

We all know that there's some great work coming out of Japan, without a doubt some of the best Hot Rod Triumphs in the world are originating there. Ironic ? Maybe so, but undeniable all the same.  Came across Sunao's blog whilst trawling for Tiger 100 RR stuff , (again) and was more than impressed with the work he's doing.............................and he's got an RR frame.

Check it out for yourself HERE The Google auto translate struggles a bit but it doesn't detract.

1953 Thunderbird

Looks pretty honest.......doncha think?

Word from Wes.

Photo from Four Aces

Following the mag poser yesterday, had to mail Wes to find out how it was done. 

Good man that he is, Wes answered el rapido, here's what he said;

"In the mid to late sixties, before the ARD Magneto guys made the mags that use the timing cover and divert the "mag" portion of the mag to the front of the cylinder, guys wanted to run magnetos in the desert because Energy Transfer ignitions were unreliable and the Joe Hunt and Morris Magnetos of the era stuck way out of the timing cover and could be fairly easily knocked off by a rock.  Not a good thing in an all out desert race. 

 

Some tricky welder guys, like Sam and Harlan Bast converted your unit cases to accept a pre-unit magneto.  This one was done by the Bast Brothers, who also made air cleaners and skid plates among other things for the desert racing market.  You basically took a pre-unit case, lopped off the magneto ear and welded to the unit cover, often not even splitting the cases to do it.  Line it up perfect and weld it up.  The reason that one looks so good is that even before our fancy tig technology, guys could make shit happen in aluminum."

There ya go then! ............... now, where's the hack-saw?

BRITISH LEGEND IN HOLLYWOOD MAKEOVER SHOCKER!!!!!!!

May well come over as a tad partisan here, but if this don't move ya in some way then get yerself to the Hospital and get 'em to search for a pulse.

Came across this beauty whilst dating engine numbers. The work of Franz & Grubb out of 

North Hollywood, this '59 Bonnie has got it all going on inside as well.

Sorry, ain't interested in any whining about a drop in the cooling efficiency of the head and cases, this is something to aspire to.

Thanks to Dan at F&G for use of the pics

Of course an all alloy Tiger 100 motor could be even shinier still.........................

UNOBTANIUM!!!!!!!

This has just appeared on the Bay, 7 day auction. 

A 1939 bronze head for a Tiger 100, things don't get much rarer or more desirable than this in the pre-unit world. It's reckoned that less than 300 were produced before the Germans turned up overhead in 1940 and stopped the party early

This is almost definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to become the proud owner of one of these. Read somewhere on the netscape that one dude has spent the last six years trying to find one and has never even got a sniff of one.

No idea what it will fetch, close to three grand I reckon, which is why this soldier ain't gonna get involved in the bidding war. However if you feel that you're up for the fight it can be found HERE

M21 Sooooo Nice

Although there was a good showing by Milwaukee's finest, a few Brits snook in under the radar. Russ strongly advised a look at this and he weren't far wrong!

The pix don't do the build quality justice, there's some inspired work gone into this build.

  Familiar view from behind the bars.

Sure there should be more shots of that front end but they ain't there now. Can't explain how they work 'cause I'm not sure! Springers at the bottom for sure, but the  springs are in tension and not compression. 

Steve's sweet Pre-Unit

Some people may remember Steve's interior design tip from February. I love this picture makes me strt reeling in the years.

Glad to see the Sprung Hub as been relegated Steve.............. the front wheel, on yje other hand is pure porn, I need a wheel like that in my life. 

Quintessential springs to mind, could have been built ......... just the same in 1955 

A nice pair indeed Steve.

All taxed and ticketted, ready for the Summer............. if it ever turns up over here!

Triumph Cast Parts Available From England!

Came across Jon's blog yesterday and was really impressed with what he is doing down in Devon. 

I served my apprenticeship in a steel foundry and have got a good idea what's involved. It's certainly not an enterprise to be taken lightly.

It's good to see someone from England giving it a go for a change, and BIW wishes him all the success he deserves.

Late unit stuff at the moment but Jon promises more in the future, finned timing covers I hope!

Nice one Jon