I started off with a 1959 Triumph Tiger Cub. It looked spot on, all silver with the half type rear wheel enclosure and 10000 miles on the clock. A little later I fluffed the gear change and jammed the selectors - I pushed it the 16 miles home. At 6’1" I was a little tall for the bike, had to sit on the back of the seat, making the front end go light; at 70mph there was an amusing weave.
I soon began to thrash the balls off the Cub but didn’t realise in those days that it couldn’t take it. She seized up once and on a run the needle broke off in the dinky Zenith carb and went straight through the engine but did no damage. Used sensibly around town she did 120mpg and on one 40mph tour returned 143mpg! But everyone overtook me and it seemed to take forever to reach my destination. After a year I decided it had to go.
Next came a 1960 Speed Twin 5TA, all maroon with excellent paint, a nice unit, soft motor and full bath tubs. It churned out 27hp - who could ask for more? She would cruise two-up at 70mph all day and didn’t leak any oil. 85 -90mph was top whack, but 70mpg was quite normal. I soon became used to the extra 17hp and felt I could do with a bit more. A mate with a 1958 T100 stopped laughing when in a straight drag my 5TA left his sports model gasping.
The 5TA did everything quite well, but was not outstanding in any one area. The rear end was the first to protest if pushed hard, with a slight wallow resulting but nothing too dangerous or frightening. For a change I decided to Tiger 100-ise her. So I removed the bath tubs and fitted pukka T100 guards, etc. I also painted the bottom of the petrol tank cream to break up the maroon which was beginning to get on my wick. I then added a full Avonaire fairing and had just finished off the customising work when a drunken A35 driver knocked me off.
A year later and out of hospital, the bike nicely rebuilt was in better nick than I was. She had been rebuilt to virtually as new and I should have kept her. I realise that now, but the search for cubes was on and I decided to trade her in. My next bike was a 650cc T110 of '59 vintage, then four years old and with 12000 miles on the clock. The richer members of the Triumph Owners Club were wheeling out their new duplex frame, blue and silver, T120s, but at £285 they were too expensive for me. Still, I rode back to Huddersfield well pleased with my new steed and slightly respectful of its extra 13hp.
7340UA was the last of the 50's style Trumpets - nacelle headlamp, pre-unit engine, single monobloc carb, separate dynamo and mag (with manual advance and retard) and slick shift gearbox. For a year she ran well with little in the way of maintenance save for polishing the paintwork. Then, following a run down to Mallory Park, the gremlins struck, she started to run on one pot then back onto two then back to one, and so on. A 325cc single’s a bit flat on acceleration but it makes life interesting when suddenly you find yourself back on two. Still, only 120 miles to go. I’d been so busy keeping the bike going that I forgot to fill up with gas - pulled up next to a Goldie suffering from a dropped valve. The one good thing about Goldies is their QD tank, I was able to buy a gallon of petrol.
The Triumph refused to start until I was forced to bump her. Three miles from home there was an almighty bang and the bike stops dead. I had to push the beast home with it stuck in gear and the clutch pulled in - I was still young and silly and had muscles in those days. The following day the whole engine was on the lounge carpet - one holed piston, one bent exhaust valve, one eight stud cylinder head with every spigot cracked as only Triumphs can, and one bent pushrod.
A trip to Mecca (Alan Jeffreys at Shipley) and about six weeks wages changed hands for a T120 twin carb head (£20 instead of £12 for the T110 version), 9:1 pistons, E3134 cams plus twin carbs. The paint was changed to red and black, ace bars and a DMD full dustbin fairing rounded off the transformation. It was as quick as anything bar a Vincent and stayed reliable over the next couple of years. A mate fixed the front brake by manufacturing a TLS conversion, long before Triumph got around to it - which made the brake rather lethal in the wet with its excess stopping ability.
I must confess that I rather liked the slick shift gearbox. I had a heel/toe lever fitted and I normally noted no difference in operation of the gearbox. But it was very handy if the clutch lever broke. With my weight I never had any trouble kicking the Triumph over, but leave the mag setting on advance and it’d kick you over the handlebars. The battery could be abused and neglected because the magneto generated its own power and would start the bike with a dead battery.
I’d been brought up by my father on his Tiger 100s and Thunderbirds, and Triumphs were supposed to be smoother than others, and I believed all that stuff - god, we must have known no better in those days. 7340UA would give you a good massage on a long run at speeds above 70mph, but nothing ever broke or dropped off (they knew how to make proper mudguards and stays in those days). I could get 110mph on the clock and over 60mpg with ease.
Still, the writing was on the wall when returning from Cadwell Park up the Doncaster bypass a couple of lads on some newfangled Yam 250s were still with me at 90mph (C15s, Arrows, etc knew their proper place) - but we thought we’d be safe as the Japs. only made tiddlers, didn't they... 1966 saw the bike traded for a sensible family car and ten years were to pass before I was to feel the thrill of a soggy glove or a wet crotch.
P Toybe