1952 Triumph Thunderbird Survivor (Part One)

Just when you come to the conclusion that the well must now be drawn dry, they float to the top again. Pete discovered this 6T in his native Portland Oregon area.

Here's what he says about his stroke of good fortune 

Just unloaded this matching numbers 1952 Triumph Thunderbird 650. It was bobbed back in the 50’s, and sports a PK Lamp taillight, Flanders #26 bars, Bates seat, and a small custom headlight. Interestingly, it still has the large stock tank. The bike spent many years in the Portland area, and allegedly has local drag racing history, but the verdict is still out. It’s got good compression, spark, shifts through all the gears, and all the cables are free, so it SHOULD run. It’s got a Connolly Cam badge on the timing cover, so I’m excited to see what’s in the motor.

Tom's Born Free 11Triumph

 Tom was an Invited Builder at the year's Born Free Show and credit where credit is due, the folks in charge of handing out the invites were right on the money contacting Tom.

This 650 Trumpet oozes Sixties show bike style and panache all the way from the axle plates of the chromed frame, right through to the rockers of the original 1930 H-D Peashooter springer front end.

The frame is a '53 with the classic light stretch in the lower rear rails to straighten out the line from the head stock to the rear axle. The motor consists of a set of T110 cases, restraining a heavily massaged crank that saw action in a Hill Climber back in the day. This is topped off with a set of 8 stud barrels carrying an early T120 head.

Although it was declared a winner at BF11, in the valley of the V Twins, it rightly caught the attention of the head honchos at Mooneyes as Tom received an invite to attend Yokohama 2019 and that's a validation of quality in anybody's book.

Thanks Tom. 

Scandinavian Strychnine With An Italian Flair (Part 1)

There's been a unit Triumph that has been causing a stir, and ticking all the right boxes since it's debut at the Verona show last month, and it belongs to Luca. A well travelled Italian fellah that now resides in Sweden, knocking out some knockout bikes.

Luca has kindly sent some pics of the build up, so we can all get an insight into how a bike of this caliber is created

This is the bike as found, an ex-police 1966 650 Trophy found in, of all places, Karachi, Pakistan. Not in the best of condition but all there and in need of love and personal intention.

The start of the build was carried out in his garage in Naples, Italy. Originally fitted with a David Bird hardtail, but this was later changed for a one off rear section made by Frankie at Chopworks

There was some more work carried out on the front half to give the bike some more of the individuality that goes to make show winners. The lower top tube was remodelled to give the finished frame the full custom look. The tank was originally fitted to some type of sixties Italian moped and after reworking seems quite at home in it's new job of feeding the big Triumph motor.

The motor had had a hard life carrying around the Karachi boys in blue and was shipped off to Grin Triumph in Fife Scotland for a full head to toe overhaul, including the fitting of a belt drive primary from Lytedrive in Australia. As you can see the international connections of this build go on and on, crossing continents in a single bound. 

Part 2 to follow when more pics come in from Luca.

Triumph Of Mystery Lost To History

Scored this great little book from Franz and Grubb a week or so ago, it's full of really useful information that is as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 1968.

This picture appears on page 72 with no more information than that seen in this scan. Searching Google reveals nothing other than one other picture that is shown below.

It seems amazing that such a major piece of modification and ingenuity has somehow been lost to the mists of time, unless anybody out there knows any more.

Pre Unit Triumph Hot Rod Up Fer Grabs

Geoff is selling this sweet 750 pre unit Hot Rod. 

T140 crank and barrels with a V type splayed head, and all the benefits of an alternator.

The tank is a repro of a one year only '49 3T.

He's looking for offers around 7 grand, all taxed, ticketted and ride away goodness.

E-mail me for any more details.

Addy at left hand top of this page.

Greasy Kulture 35

Issue 35 of GKM has just dropped on the mat, as ever well worth the read.

A real bonus is the first real English article that I've seen on Mark Drews' legendary T110 show bike featured below;

It amazes me that in the article it says that it's a bit of a Marmite bike, that people either love it or hate it. Now I don't like Marmite, but I can't  honestly understand anyone not liking this.

If you don't know the bike, or you do and want to see quality pics of it, hit Guy up for a copy

HERE

Hinckley Triumph.....................CRIKEY!!!!!

Haven't really got to grips with the new bike that is Triumph yet, there are a lot about and by all accounts they are good at what they do, and they are British, but....well......you know.

Came across this and the specs are somewhat eye opening

Specifications:

Engine: 1200 cc 270 degree crank 101 mm bore 74.3 mm stroke

104 rear wheel HP 91 ft. lbs. torque @ 4700 rpm

Frame and swing arm 4130 Chrome molly

Gearing 520 chain 17 front 45 rear

Wheel base 55.5 inches - adjustable to 57.5 inches

Steering head angle 24.5 degrees

Front suspension modified (lengthened) Yamaha R6 43 mm 3 way adjustable cartridge forks Billet triple clamps with 1 mm to 7 mm offsets

Rear suspension Penske 3 way adjustable mono-shock

Ground clearance 10.5 inches

Seat height 31.5 inches

Front wheel Performance Machine forged aluminum 19 x 3.00 Maxxis DTR 130

Rear wheel Performance Machine forged aluminum 19 x 3.50 Maxxis DTR 150

Front brakes - 2 - Beringer 6 piston Aerotec calipers with Suzuki K4 298 mm rotors

Rear brake - Beringer 2 piston floating Caliper A&A Racing 10.5 inch rotor

Wet weight (2.4 gallons gas, oil and battery) 351 lbs.

As I said in the header Crikey! over 100 brake from any British twin however big is a rare beast.

Mystery Triumph Revealed

This is the bike that appears on page 37 of Harry Woolridge's Speed Twin and Thunderbird Bible. It looks like it was built in 1949 as they talk about "the new Triumph Spring Hubs",  and it's still got the iron top end, capable of an easy! 120, with a bit more tweaking the man says.

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.

Got Those Ol' Heiwa Blues Again .....................

This almost slid by, the pictures on the HEIWA are dated December last year.

Not a lot to say really, that ain't been said before about the state of play over in Japan.

Frame looks standard to me, all the gaps look right.

Work this out!

Plumbing looks ............... interesting.

Martin's Tiger Ton Forty

Martin's build looks to be on schedule, almost ready for the three days of unbroken dry weather that we all may bask in sometime this year.

It was on here some weeks ago, have a close look at the pictures, all is not as it seems.

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.

JoMoCo 1947/ '48 ????

This enigmatic picture appears in Harry Woolridge's book on the history of the Speed Twin and Thunderbird range. It is in amongst pictures of 1947 and 1948 models, with a simple side note that reads " Two views of what Johnson Motors USA thought the Speed Twin should look like. Note the twin carburettor setup" and that's it, no other reference to it anywhere else!

Love to know more about this bike and a more definitive date would be a bonus.

Possibly The Nicest Unit 500 Ever?

I'm not the world's greatest fan of unit 500 Triumphs, sorry if that offends but there ya go, the early pre-66 examples that have been hardtailed always look like a standard bike but with no back suspension. An inherent problem with that dumb idea of taking out the top tube and replacing it with a stiffening bar.............why ????

Then along comes Cush with the exception that breaks the rule.

This is a 67 with the benefit of a normal front section with a real top tube. 

This is a bike where the whole is more than a sum of the parts, it all fits together and just looks so right.

Great detail work and a daring choice of colour that makes it sweat class, certainly a credit to Cush for both his taste and talent.

UNICORN HORN PORN

It don't get much rarer than this in the world of pre-unit Trumpets, well possibly a TR5R but that's debatable. This Ladies and Gentlemen is a gen - u - wine '57 T100R  motor, supplied as a factory built flat tracker in that year. 

Big D Cycle in Dallas has just committed it to the Bay of Doom

Fully rebuilt and pretty much good to go.

No idea what it will fetch, just know I would love to have it, although it should go into a racer of some description to justify it's pedigree.

53 Thunderbird, Finnish Stylee

Magnus from across The North Sea in Finland, sent a couple of shots of his '53 T'bird in front of the log pile. 

He says this is the fifth incarnation in the eight years he's had it. Still running the original barrels, albeit at + 0.060, the iron head sports  twin 928 Concentrics through a manifold conversion. E3134s and a Lucas K2FC take care of getting the bangs in the right place.

The front end is Husqvarna with inverted Tomaselli clip-ons, and a '71 - '72  Conical front wheel.

Gotta love those flanged rims.  as well.

Nice One Magnus