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.

Temptation On The Bay

This is sitting on the Bay at the moment.

1950 Speed Twin, matching numbers with buff log book (original registration document) it's attracting a lot of interest, unsurprisingly enough. What a cracking start, all the right bits, the front hub, has had a dual brake conversion, that's a nice idea

At this moment it's at two and a half grand with 4 days to go.

I reckon on £3650, have a look HERE and place your bets in the comment box.

Forlorn Hope

This frame came up on the bay of fools a week ago, looking like it was dug out a garden or dredged from the bottom of a river and then shot blasted. It is, what shall we say, beyond viable repair, in fact this is how the seller described it;

"This frame has been exposed to the elements for some time and is in need of some careful repairs. As can be seen in the pictures some of the tubing has completely corroded away and will require new pieces to be brazed in.  The cast lugs are quite badly pitted.  This frame could be salvaged -but only by a skilled person .  However ,it is a very rare item and is worthy of the time and effort to repair it."

So there was obviously no attempt at deception and interestingly enough it was the seller's first foray on the bay.

Now generally I'm a glass half full kinda guy, and can usually see potential in most bike related stuff, but this really would be a project too far.

There's barely a section on it that has escaped the ravages of time, and even those bits that are seemingly in one piece are very likely wafer thin due to internal corrosion. But it has been bought, whether for the castings, the frame number or some kind of modern sculpture it's unknown. If it's going to be restored I'd love to see a blog published detailing progress.

If by the one in a few million chance the new owner is reading this please get in touch, for anybody else have a guess what it sold for in the comments bit.

No spring action required!!!!!

Following an earlier post pointing out the mortal dangers of getting too deep and intimate with Edward Turner's attempt at a rudimentary rear suspension system, it is still possible and indeed necessary to get so far into it without risking life and limb. 

Getting the brake plate off was a bit of a puzzler, having the Triumph instructions on servicing a Mk. 2 Sprung Hub is not the best thing to have when you're stripping a Mk 1. No mention of the fact that the brake plate is actually screwed onto the center spring box, that's probably because it's not on the later improved version. More luck than judgement revealed the big thread in the middle as we were spinning the brake plate trying to figure what was holding it and realised the gap betwixt plate and drum was increasing. This is a lesson well learned as it's easy to imagine increasingly rare parts like this being destroyed by trying to lever the plate off in the assumption it was a normal floating set up.

This is the state of play beneath the brake plate, this picture was taken immediately after removal with no clean up whatsoever! This bike has not been on the road for half a century and  probably exposed to the elements for a large proportion of that time, check out the state of the spokes. A testimony to the build quality and engineering that originally went into this old British iron, and the fact that it had luckily escaped that attentions of the spotty faced youths in the sixties and seventies. As can be seen the main spring box and associated parts are still packed with grease , preserving the internals and bearings, so there is nothing more than a new sprocket, brake shoes and a bit of a cosmetic uplift and it'll be good to go. A definite result as the bearings are something like £400 each nowadays!!!!!!

Rare Rigid Triumph Parts

Johnny has just about got to the bottom of stripping out the '49 Speed Twin. There's always been a strong suspicion that this bike had a sidecar attached when it left Meriden in December 1949. This has been confirmed now the forks are out.

Back in the seventies these yokes were few and far between and highly desirable as they were made specifically for sidecar work and had (if my memory serves me well) 10 degrees of additional rake built in to reduce the trail of the front end, chopper heaven back then.

It does raise a couple of points though, firstly what a bastard if you scored the top yoke for this set up thinking it was standard and then couldn't figure out why the forks wouldn't go together using a solo bottom yoke. Secondly, we feel that the sheet metal components of the lower nacelle must be different as well to maintain the headlight on the horizontal, and compensate for the extra angle. If that is the case, then there can't be many kicking about nowadays and it's very doubtful they're being repopped.

A pleasant surprise

Johnny is still playing the patience game with the Speed Twin and it's getting results. The gearbox is out and now the head is off as well, no broken bolts, stripped threads or drama, result!

This is the state of the bores in the picture are as they appeared after the head was lifted, nothing has been done to clean anything down since. There is no wear lip around the top and it is easy to fool yourself that there are still visible honing marks.

Turning the head over revealed this!, again no extra cleaning has been carried out. After over half a century of laying about the inlet valves are still shiny! The speedo reads 4774, that can't be right............can it?

MC Hammer was right............

........... You can't touch this!

The eternal mysteries of Mr Turner's attempts at not paying out to develop a proper rear suspension, Ladies and Gentlemen I present the Triumph Sprung Hub (if anybody wondered where the name of Rowan's great blog comes from, this is the beast)

An expensive option when new, folklore has always been that they are best avoided, and if not avoided, then not taken apart due partly to the explosive nature of the springs and also because if the stripping down doesn't cause extreme pain and disfigurement, you can't get 'em back together again without the factory jig

Triumph were so sure of this fact they underlined it in their factory literature. Can't see much gain in trying to return it to Meriden for overhaul though.

So what to do, fill it with grease, polish the outside of the hub and then hope it hasn't covered the "very considerable mileage" they talk about, or find someone with the fabled jig and separate it?

Survivor or Retro New Build?

Saw this at a little local gig yesterday, genuine period piece or a modern homage to the style? Or more likely a 70's survivor overhauled and repainted, the motor sounded really happy when it turned up and as oil tight as any pre-unit Trumpet you'll see about nowadays.

The forwards and the oil tank look raging 70's and it wouldn't be a surprise to learn that it once had 100 lbs of twisted leg springer hanging out the front in a previous life.

FREE!! Triumph Lube Chart

This pic opens up and prints out on A4 real nice.

I know the new banner above is a long shot, but if you don't ask and all that............

Johnny's '53 Triumph Speed Twin

Johnny has started in on the Trumpet, using loads of WD40 type penetrating spray, which he has loads of, and a lot of patience, which he usually ain't got much of. For something that was last taxed in 1959 and would appear to have been sitting about unloved and unwanted in the intervening half century it's coming apart amazingly well.

The reason it was taken off the road originally may never be known, but whatever the cause it has not been stripped for any sort of inspection. All the outer cover screws are still tight, and because of this the covers have protected their contents, well if the primary is anything to go by that is. The clutch still works , and has a light smooth action, promising to say the least.