Featured The Good Old Day's Of Triumph Motorcycles.

Not sure any of my Meriden Triumphs or BSA's could truthfully be described as ' built to last.'
Maybe ' built to be repaired so frequently that every part will soon be a new one' would be more accurate.

 

My pre unit 6T had a remarkable total loss system...the rocker caps unscrewed themselves regularly...on one trip from South London to Cornwall all 4 caps came off on the M3/A303 section....my jeans were oil soaked by the time I noticed....still, looking on the bright side, I supposed they were at least now waterproof.

 

From (Not very good) memory we used to drill the square, or was it hexagon bit on top of the covers then wire two together as the do with aircraft bits they don’t want unscrewing themselves.
Ken.

 

Brit. engineers were still working to thousandths of an inch, whereas the Japanese had a ruler that measured in Microns and they used it to good effect when building engines.
They had damn good eyesight
Ken.

 

And a lot of the model range had cast iron heads and barrels

 

So where’s the weight come from then on our newer lighter bikes? It’s bizarre

 

They also thought outside of the box when it came to design.

 

Possibly because there’s a lot more materials in modern day bikes.

Cast wheels with twin discs up front,chunkier front forks etc.

Wheels and therefore tyres are bigger so needing more air to fill them

 

@Tiglet its an interesting thought as to where and why the extra weight appeared. We’ve more plastic therefore lighter, have engines got heavier? They must have with extra gears and more cams etc. I suppose calliper and disc weigh more than drum brake? I know forks are heavier for a fact.

 

Yes it’s a interesting subject Eric.

I would have thought that a four cylinder crank would be heavier than a single or twin also.

 

More efficient engines make far more power these days so they dont worry about weight anymore...even a lardy old touring bike will do 160 without running out of breath.

 

As evidenced by their racing motorcycle engines...5 cylinder 125!
Ken.

 

Yes I saw RC149 raced by Irishman Ralph Bryan in 1967?
If I remember correctly it had white exhaust system when I saw it.

There were some truly exotic machines raced in those days,,,the RC166 Honda 250cc 6 cylinder, RC174 297cc (350) 6 cylinder and from Yamaha the RA31A V4 125 and the RD 05/A V4 250 to name just a few.

 

Had to do something similar with a 650 Triton in ‘67.
The sweptback down pipes would blow off the cylinder head when giving it the berries so I drilled a hole in a fin on the finned clamps and a hole in a fin on the cylinder head and lock wired them in position.
It worked

 

Tiglet,
I feel privileged to have visited the TT races from ‘62 to ‘69 and I think that was the best era to have been there.
I always had more interest in the 50s, and125s than anything bigger. Amazing engineering neverto be seen again.
Ken.

 

250 cc six

 

Aw that’s such a shame
From 1970 onwards it’s been Feckin brilliant

 

The good old British bike is still king. I hear lots of people say how much better the Jap bikes of the sixties and seventies were. So where are they now. If i remember right i used to get a benley 125 or 160 i think rode them till they exploded then scrapped them as they were either to expensive to repair or just not worth it. Sure the old Brits would leak vibrate break down but they are still out there and still going.
Regards
Joe.

 

I had a Honda CB160 as a sixteen year old and it got thrashed everywhere and never let me down once yet alone exploded.
In fact most of my mates that had Jap bikes in the 1960’s and they were reliable.

The only bike that I had of that time that went bang was a Triumph

Where are they now Joe, here mate, in fact I could tell you were there’s plenty and still being used regularly.

 

One of 1300 TT's built in 66 the highest production year for TT's before there demise in 67. Just over 50BHP and 158 KG's