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.

Pre Unit Triumph Finned Timing Cover (Pt 1)

Missing Link Fink, a good friend of this site has recently obtained this piece of custom gold.

The problem being that nobody seems to have seen anything like it before!

Consensus of opinion has it that it was made here in England rather than over the pond in The Land Of The Free.

There is no method of fixing it to the timing cover, other than Duct Tape which is what's defying gravity at the moment, but that's not the final solution of course.

Personally I think I would dress the back side until the contour matches that of the timing cover and weld the two together. With a good weld and patient blending it should be a cool and rare head scratcher.

If anybody does recognise this part please get in contact or post in the comments.

Triumph Factory Custom.................

Whether the Cali dealers were trying to cash in on a fashion thing, or trying to clear old stock off of the showroom floor is not known, but somehow the bike in the picture falls somewhere short of the mark.
Be interesting to know how many were sold in this format.

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.

The Class Of 57

This month's CBG is worth picking up, for obvious reasons. Only thing missing is a T100RR  to make the full house of bikes that were produced when Triumph were on top of their game.

TR5R On The Rack At Big D

Keith at Big D Dallas sent some progress shots of his 1957 TR5R restoration, with only 178 of these built in total across a 3 year span, and only 17 in '57 it is a rare beast indeed.

Produced by Triumph at the request of JoMo and TriCor, who wanted a bike that was race ready straight from the crate, without resorting to taking a Tiger 100 and adding the race kit.

Fitted with the legendary Delta Head they were the first splyed head models produced by Triumph, a year before the Bonneville.

Never seen forks assembled in this order before, but it makes sense saving all the messing about trying to get the stabchions up through the yokes when shrouds are fitted.

Another piece of unobtanium, a Lucas racing mag, all made up out of exotic stuff like platinum tipped points, stainless steel armature and maybe silver plated windings but that could well be myth. I've never met anyone who has had an original one to bits.

Rare Trophy motors on that well known auction site

This '53 TR5 motor is on the Bay Stateside with a Buy Now of USD 3200  looks loosely assembled in places.

The same seller has this HERE, far more interesting proposition at USD 3,800. Delta Head, Trophy tacho drive timing cover and a K2FC 

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.

1957 Triumph Tiger 100 RS

 In Triumph terms they don't get much rarer than this T100 RS. Produced from 57 thru 59 this was the factory road racer for the States, bearing in mind that Meriden showed very little interest in Britain and Europe regarding road racing.  132 were produced in 1957, with numbers unavailable for the other two production years, although almost definitely fewer were built during those years.

Shown here fitted with the Delta head, the forerunner to the Bonneville head in 1958, it came equipped with 1" GP carburettors and a bracketted remote float chamber on the gearbox post. A Lucas K2FR provides the ignition, while no dynamo is fitted as expected the drive is utillised for the Smith's RC126 tachometer.

E3134 cams and competition shop preparation resulted in 42 bhp out of the crate with a potential of 45 with even more tuning. 

The gearbox carried a close ratio set of cogs, and a reversed lever to suit the factory rearset footrests.

The front brake is the Mk2 8" single leader as fitted to the contemporary T110, the back is the normal 7" SLS unit found across the twin range for much of the post war production period. A one gallon oil tank fitted with a froth tower was also used, possibly unique to this model.

Any additional information or corrections to this post or any subsequent entries will be gratefully received.

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.

1955 Triumph Rigid Frame Details

Triumph went to the swinging arm frame in 1954, putting and end to production road going rigid bikes. Not so for competition stuff in the US, Dave's 1955 T100R shows a later headstock casting with a larger top bearing and a larger bottom gusset between the frame tube and the bottom bearing cup.

Also the extra foot rest lugs for the rear set pegs, this is common to the T100R and T100C and possibly the GP500 frames. Not sure how pukkah the extra brake pedal forging just in front of the rear brake stay is though, more research needed on that. 

If somebody offers you a frame with these features, don't think it's been messed around with, just buy it!

Triumph Trophy TR5R

Pic from Show and Go Cycle Shop 

This motorcycle is the reason I bought the book below ............ bought yasself a copy yet? ..........

Last time we were up Toddy's a mate of his came in and said " I've got my TR5R in the back of the van, if you want a look" TR5...WHAT!!!! never heard of 'em at the time, and of course had to have a look, sure enough in the back of the van sat yer man's bike, had to find out more after that.

A search on the all seeing Google revealed very little, Paul at Show £ Go had posted a write up and then there was Jonnie Green's unrestored '56.

That's the way to find 'em.

It's no wonder that few people here in the UK had heard of them, certainly in the dark days before the interweb. Originally produced as a response to a request from the US distributors for a bike that was ready to race at Daytona straight out of the crate. Up until then a road going Tiger 100 or 500 Trophy had to be prepared using the fabled "T100 Race Kit" which was a fair bit of work.

The Gospel according to Harry states that 112 were built in 1956, (some sources say it was 104 complete bikes and 8 spare motors,) 17 in '57 and a further 49 the next year. That's a total of 170 or 178 bikes built in the space of 3 years, so a rare bird nowadays, even in the US.

Generally in appearance and running gear it was the same as a regular 500 Trophy, but as can be imagined the motor was where it counted. Each engine was hand built and these were known as Red Seal Engines, each one supplied with a test report giving the power figures and build details.The general motor spec was as follows;

• Compression Ratio.............................................. 9:1
• Cam Followers..................................................... 1 1/8" radius "R" Type
• Valve Guides ........................................................ Bronze
• Camshafts.............................................................. E3134
• Valve Springs........................................................ White Spot interference type
• Magneto................................................................. Lucas K2FC Racing Type
• Magneto Pinion.................................................... Steel
• Carburettors.......................................................... 2 off Amal type 276 with remote float
• Approximate BHP............................................... 40

A hot twin carb roadgoing Triumph a couple of years before the introduction of the Bonnie. No doubt this would have been a TR6R had it not been for the AMA's xenophobic rules that limited o.h.v. engine (foreign) bikes to 500 to give the old 750 home built flatties a chance,

Well I never knew that!

Watching an early front wheel on that well known auction site, and amongst the pictures was this. It's a 19" Dunlop rim, as fitted at Meriden, but the W351 stamp is the Triumph part number! So next time you're cutting a hub out of a wheel look for this mark, I reckon the resto boys would pay a premium for this extra bit of originality.

TriCor At Daytona 1952

Awesome stuff, footage that makes ya ........................ I dunno..............wish I suppose.

Check out the factory race kit hangin' on the wall about two minutes into the first film! Gallon oil tank, twin carb set up, all there  for sale, not NOS but NNS

Told ya!

1953 Thunderbird

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

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

1963 T120 Bonneville ............ A Few More Pics

An interesting shot, although the bike was registered in '63 and as such one of the first unit 650 twins, and therefore the start of the 9 stud heads, the number cast in the head shows the casting to be 1962. The pattern was obviously a modified eight stud number as the bosses have been drilled off centre to accommodate the wider pitch of the 9 stud barrels.

On the deck it looks more like a Tiger 90, possibly due to the 18" wheels, not sure but visually it is a small bike for a full 650.  The quality of the restoration is first class and if trophy hunting is the new owners bag this should bag a few.

Brake rod running external to the frame, again an early feature that only lasted a year (I think!)

The ugly and impractical Tach drive, correct for '63/4 but almost guaranteed to melt on the down pipe. It is possible to fit a later right angle drive box on there, but that reverses the direction of cable rotation which renders the rare, desirable and original Tacho useless.....not good.

1963 Bonneville..... Ya Live and Learn

Saw this '63 Bonnie up Geoff's a couple of days ago, one owner for very nearly all it's life it has never been messed with until the new owner decided to restore it!

Showing in excess of 83.000 on it's original Chronometric the motor certainly needed a freshen up. Sludge Trap so solid the guy didn't believe there was a hole in there!

I'll post full pics soon but the point of the post is, for the rivet counters, the pump slotted down alongside the gearbox back post.

Only fitted here in '63, the first year of the unit 650's along with the drop down tool roll holder seen just behind it. Not earth shattering information I'll grant you, but a handy snippet to drop into the conversation if you're checking out an early sixties Bonnie.

Rigid Triumph Air Filter

As a carry on from yesterday's post I've skanked these pictures off of the bay to illustrate the difference in the air filters. The one above is for the later frame '52 to '54 with the keyhole in the back post, and requires the battery holder with the straight back bracket.

This is for the earlier type of frame, '46 to '51  without the keyhole where the filter is sandwiched between the battery holder and the back post, meaning the battery tray support needs the crank in the bracket to clear it. It also uses the same frame lug for mounting.