600 – 1000cc
1969 BSA A65
1969 BSA A65 1969 BSA A65 Lightning 1969 BSA A65 LIGHTNING The 650 Lightning was BSA’s top-line bike, and meant to do battle with the market-dominating Triumph Bonneville and had twin carbs just like the Bonnie. The ’69 Lightning was certainly fast enough and handled well. It just never had the styling to compete with …
1969 Triumph TR6
1969 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS For the first time ever, a Triumph TR6 was called a “Tiger”. In fact the entire 1969 Triumph TR6 model lineup were all Triumph Tigers & would remain so for the rest of its life. Interestingly however, Triumph workers at the Meriden factory continued to refer to the TR6 …
1963 BSA Gold Star Spitfire Scrambler
Check out these BSA BOOKS BSA Motorcycles: The Final Evolution The BSA Gold Star: Motorcycle History Illustrated Bsa Buyer’s Guide (Motorbooks International Illustrated Buyer’s Guide) Bsa Twin Restoration BSA Unit Singles: The Complete Story including the Triumph Derivatives Bsa Motor Cycles: Since 1950 (British Motor cycles since 1950) BSA Unit Twins BSA 500 & 650 …
1979 Triumph Bonneville Special
I’m 52 years old, and I’ve been riding since I was 16. I bought the Triumph Bonneville Special brand new in 1979 at Brooks Cyclery, in San Jose, CA. It has just a little over 24,000 original miles. It’s 99% original. I had to change the fuel petcocks because the originals were made of teflon …
1960 Triumph Thunderbird
1960 Triumph Thunderbird The 1960 Triumph Thunderbird was similar in appearance to this 1960 Triumph T110 Tiger. Both had ‘bathtub’ bodywork, full fenders and the trademark headlight nacelle. But the Tiger was the higher-performance version, with bigger carb, higher compression & wilder cams. Note that this bike has a 1968-70 TLS from brake. 1960 TRIUMPH …
1950 Triumph Thunderbird
1950 Triumph Thunderbird 1950 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD – BIRTH OF THE THUNDERBIRD The 1950 Triumph Thunderbird was not only the first Thunderbird, it was the first Triumph 650 & it began a long legacy that lasted until the demise of Triumph Motorcycles in 1983. It is said that Edward Turner got the idea for the name …
1952 BSA A7
1952 BSA A7 Pre-Unit 500 Twin 1952 BSA A7 BACKGROUND Like everyone else in the British motorcycle industry, BSA was caught flat-footed when Triumph introduced its game-changing 500 Speed Twin in 1938. And like virtually everyone else, BSA was relying heavily on single-cylinder designs for its bread and butter. But the new twins had arrived …
1958 Triumph T110 Tiger
1958 Triumph T110 Tiger 1958 TRIUMPH T110 TIGER – WHAT’S IN A NAME? Triumph’s naming convention followed a couple paths. But the one the Tiger was on always starts with a “T” for Triumph, then the next set of digits were supposed to reflect the bike’s top speed. The first in the Tiger lineup was …
1969 Triumph Trident
1969 Triumph Trident T150 1969 TRIUMPH TRIDENT: BRITAIN’S SUPERBIKE! At a time when Honda started building 50,000 750s a year, Triumph & BSA launched their star-crossed twins…er, triples, the BSA Rocket 3 and the Triumph Trident which combined would struggle to produce 5,000 in a good year. They were expensive to make, hard to build, …
1969 BSA Rocket 3
1969 BSA Rocket 3 1969 BSA ROCKET 3 BREAKS NEW GROUND The irony here is that the mad scientists in the back room at sister-brand Triumph had 3-cylinder prototypes running around since 1965, a full 4 years ahead of Honda. But parent-company BSA dithered. It wasn’t until word leaked out of the mighty 4-cylinder from …
1970 Triumph Trident
1970 Triumph Trident T150 1970 TRIUMPH TRIDENT – A NEW LOOK After the horrible styling experiment of the 1969 Triumph Trident in it’s introductory year, Triumph wisely decided to bring its big 750 Triple in line with the look people had come to expect from a Triumph, as typified by the Bonneville. Gone were the …
1972 Triumph Trident
1972 Triumph Trident T150 1972 TRIUMPH TRIDENT BACKGROUND The Trident benefitted majorly from the 1971-and-later redux of the Oil-in-Frame 650 twins. While the Trident didn’t get the oil-bearing frame, it got just about everything else. Most notably, these included the new front forks sans rubber ‘gators’, the new headlight, turn signals and gauge package, the …
1975 Triumph Trident
1975 Triumph Trident T160 1975 TRIUMPH TRIDENT AIMS HIGH It’s amazing to think about how much of a leap the ’75 T160 Trident was over the ’74 T150, especially considering that the newly-formed, worker-owned Meriden Co-op was also woefully underfunded. In other words, they had almost no money for R&D. And yet they produced this …
1970 Rickman-Triumph
1970 Rickman-Triumph 1970 Rickman-Triumph Background This 1970 Rickman-Triumph is typical of many of the Rickman desert racers of the era, and represents years of development of an excellent design. After years of racing motocross in the 1950s in England and Europe, brothers Don and Derek Rickman decided to design their own frame. At the time, …
1963 Triumph Thunderbird
1963 Triumph Thunderbird 1963 TRIUMPH THUNDERBIRD GOES UNIT CONSTRUCTION Along with the rest of the Triumph 650 line, the 1963 6T Thunderbird converted over to Triumph’s incredible new unit-construction powerplant, frame and cycle gear. It was a major transition, with nearly every component replaced. But what a change! Unit Construction incorporated the engine, the primary …
2010 Triumph Bonneville
2010 Triumph Bonneville 2010 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE BACKGROUND Of course, the original Triumph Bonneville was introduced to the world in 1959, and had a good run until the old Triumph company went belly-up in 1983. The name was revived by British billionaire-developer John Bloor, who reintroduced a new line of thoroughly modern Triumphs starting in 1990. …
1955 Triumph Thunderbird
1955 Triumph Thunderbird ABOVE: The 1955 Triumph Thunderbird 6T is very similar to this 1956 Triumph Thunderbird. They share essentially the same frame, suspension, cycle gear and body work. Only paint colors & minor trim differences vary in the general appearance. Although many mechanical changes were made on an ongoing basis on all Triumph Motorcycles, …
1973 Triumph Trident
1973 Triumph Trident 1973 Triumph Trident T150V THE 1973 TRIUMPH TRIDENT IS A TURNING POINT 1973 was a very important year for Triumph, and in particular for its star player, the Bonneville. Because that year, the legendary 650 “Bonnie” got punched out to a 750, got a much-need and long-overdue 5-speed gearbox, and a front …
1958 Ariel Cyclone
1958 Ariel Cyclone 650 OHV Vertical Twin 1958 ARIEL CYCLONE A VERY RARE BIRD Ariel was early to the vertical twin party started by Triumph with the 1938 500cc Speed Twin. Their first entry was the model KH 500cc parallel twin launched in the first year of civilian production following World War 2, 1945. The …
1968 BSA A65
1968 BSA A65 1968 BSA A65 Spitfire Royal Star ABOVE: Starting with the 1968 BSA A65, the Spitfire Royal Star joined the lineup, as BSA’s premium offering, at least until the arrival of the Rocket 3 a year later. 1968 BSA A65 Firebird Scrambler BSA’S DESERT SLED The A65 Firebird Scrambler was intended as a …
1939 Ariel Square Four
1939 Ariel Square Four 1939 ARIEL SQUARE FOUR BACKGROUND The original Square Four was conceived by legendary motorcycle designer, Edward Turner, who later created the game-changing Triumph parallel twin. His original design for the Square Four was an OHC (Overhead Cam) design with a displacement of 500cc when it debuted in 1931. However, constant overheating …
1964 BSA A65
1964 BSA A65 NEW MODELS The 1964 BSA A65 was, of course, the third model year of the new unit construction BSA twins, the 500cc A50, and the 650cc A65, which had replaced the very successful pre-unit A7 (500) & A10 (650) in 1962. BSA was very conservative in the new machine’s configuration, as was …
1951 Vincent Rapide
1951 Vincent Rapide Series B 1951 VINCENT RAPIDE BACKGROUND Vincent built its reputation on it’s robust 499cc Comet single. Prior to the war, they figured out that if they doubled it, they could create a 998cc V-twin and the series A Vincent Rapide was born. Few were built prior to World War 2, which curtailed …
1957 BSA A10
1957 BSA A10 Pre-Unit 650 Twin 1957 BSA A10 BACKGROUND BSA’s A10 was the 650 version in it’s twin cylinder heavyweight line. The 500cc version was called the A7. Following Triumph‘s success with its seminal 500 Speed Twin, after the war, BSA and most of the rest of the British motorcycle industry followed with their …
1955 Vincent Black Prince
1955 Vincent Black Prince 1955 VINCENT BLACK PRINCE BACKGROUND By the early 1950s, Vincent the company was struggling. Founder Phil Vincent, always the innovator, the risk-taker and creative genius, had been steadily improving the Vincent line through several successive ‘series’. The Series C, 1951-1953, had failed to spark much-needed sales, so for the Series D, …
1966 BSA A65
1966 BSA A65 1966 BSA A65 Spitfire Special 1966 BSA A65 SPITFIRE SPECIAL This was the hot rod version of the A65, just behind the A65 Lightning. Like the Lightning, the Spitfire had twin Amal carbs (Amal Monoblocs would be standard for 1966; Amal Concentrics didn’t arrive until 1967.) A65 MECHANICALS The unit construction 650 …
1957 Triumph Thunderbird T6 650cc
Thunderbird 6T, 649cc 4-speed gearbox, single Amal Monobloc carburettor, rated at 34hp ex-South Australian Police motorcycle was used for general traffic duties in Adelaide. The bike belongs to a friend who is an ex-police officer now living in Adelaide. I’m working on a book for New Holland Publishers in Sydney. While I was doing research …
1977 Triumph Bonneville
ABOVE & BELOW: 1977 Triumph Bonneville T140V was essentially carried over from ’76, as would be the practice from now on. Budget constraints were choking the company and it’s products. This one is in the Polychromatic Blue and Cold White paint scheme. FOCUSING ON ONE MODEL As the 1977 model year opened, the Meriden Co-op …
1974 Triumph Bonneville
SHORT MODEL YEAR The 1974 Triumph Bonneville was built in very low numbers. It was a very odd year in Triumph Bonneville history. Angry workers hearing of the impending shutdown of the Triumph Motorcycles plant at Meriden, shut it down themselves in protest, in October 1973 just as production was being switched from 1973 models …
1976 Triumph Bonneville
ABOVE: The 1976 Triumph Bonneville is the first to adopt left-side shift. Note shifter coming out of primary case. SPANISH AMALS? Engine mods were few. A new muffler set were now almost cylindrical reverse-cones (very little taper) & noise reduction revisions. The twin 30mm Amal Concentric carburetors were now being produced by the company’s Spanish …
1969 Norton Commando
1969 Norton Commando Fastback ABOVE: 1969 Norton Commando Fastback MODEL DESIGNATIONS The 1969 Norton Commando came in one additional model for 1969, its second model year in production. The 1968 Norton Commando was available in one model only, and so was simply called ‘Norton Commando’, even though it had what was to become known as …
1954 Vincent Black Shadow
1954 VINCENT BLACK SHADOW-ONE OF THE LAST The Vincent Motorcycle Co. closed its doors in 1955, so this 1954-model was built one year before the end. Vincent was a low-volume producer of high-quality motorcycles, and high-priced for the time. From the end of WWII until their demise in 1955, they barely produced 11,000 bikes total, …
1952 Vincent Black Shadow
1952 VINCENT BLACK SHADOW BACKGROUND Brilliantly designed by doubling up the 499cc Vincent Comet single-cylinder engine into a 50-degree V-twin, the Vincent Black Shadow was introduced in 1949. It followed on the heals of the Vincent Rapide, which was more of a touring bike. The buying public wanted more power, more “sport” and so the …
1953 Vincent Black Shadow
1953 VINCENT BLACK SHADOW BACKGROUND Brilliantly designed by doubling up the 499cc Vincent Comet single-cylinder engine into a 50-degree V-twin, the Vincent Black Shadow was introduced in 1949. It followed on the heals of the Vincent Rapide, which was more of a touring bike. The buying public wanted more power, more “sport” and so the …
1950 Vincent Black Shadow
1950 VINCENT BLACK SHADOW BACKGROUND Brilliantly designed by doubling up the 499cc Vincent Comet single-cylinder engine into a 50-degree V-twin, the Vincent Black Shadow was introduced in 1949. It followed on the heals of the Vincent Rapide, which was more of a touring bike. The buying public wanted more power, more “sport” and so the …
BSA A65
BSA A65: THE MOVE TO UNIT CONSTRUCTION The BSA A65-A50 twins, the A65 being a 650 twin & it’s smaller sister-bike the BSA A10 500 twin, were the natural result of the trend, then sweeping the British motorcycle industry, to unitize engine construction. Prior, most engine packages were made up of separate crankcase, primary case …
Les Harris Bonnevilles
Les Harris Bonnevilles Rise from the Ashes The story of the Les Harris Bonnevilles is one of the more fascinating in all of Classic British Motorcycles lore. Such was the reputation of the Triumph name & the enthusiasm & optimism of its most devoted followers that after the 1983 collapse of the Meriden Co-operative-owned Triumph …
Norton Atlas
EVOLUTION OF THE ATLAS The Norton Atlas evolved from the Norton Dominator line, which had grown since its inception in 1949 from 500 cc to 600cc then again to 650cc with the fire-breathing twin-carb Dominator 650SS. The Norton Atlas was the next logical step. The venerable Bert Hopwood-designed vertical twin that had started out life …
Vincent Rapide
VINCENT RAPIDE BACKGROUND Vincent head engineer Phil Irving was working on some tracings of the firm’s 499cc single cylinder engine in 1936. As things got moved around, two of the tracings lined up roughly in the shape of a V-twin. With a little cajoling, he quickly lined it up enough to see that it would …
1973 Triumph X75 Hurricane
THE 1973 TRIUMPH X75 HURRICANE As an interesting aside to the Triumph Trident / BSA Rocket 3 story is the X75 Hurricane. Having insisted on a slightly different 3-cylinder engine from the Triumph’s, BSA wanted to make an impression and show their dealers something exciting for a change, and something that Triumph couldn’t match. There …
