It was a hot summer afternoon. I was almost asleep on my desk when I saw an old guy coming through the door, walking slowly, a cane in his hand. I would say he was on his seventies.
He passed by the Harleys and didn’t pay attention to the Ducatis either, but the Triumphs caught his eyes.
I got up, walked over to him and shook his hand, and even before I could introduce myself he asked:
“Do they till make Triumphs?”
“Yes, they still do. Brand new if you want”.
He laughed, tapped gently on the gas tank of a used “675” that was between us and said:
“Oh no!!! I don’t ride anymore”
“But I had quite a few Triumphs, long time ago. I think my first one was back in 1960.
Then he started telling me about a time when paved roads were rare and the broken bikes had to be fixed in backyards. Parts had to be adapted from other bikes or even built from the scratch.
He also told me about details of the machine that only who tore them apart and put everything back together could possibly know.
He was the kind of guy who rode Triumphs not to show off, but because he loved them.
Even told that he and his pals used to race on the back roads outside of town.
“ We wore no helmets, no gloves… Just a bunch of reckless kids”
I tried to convince him that the bikes have changed a lot, but the kids… They are still the same.
– “Perhaps…” he said. “Perhaps…”
Sometimes he would stare at the Triumph logo and be quiet. Maybe he was trying to remember more histories.
I would gladly listen to all of them.
I accompanied him to the door and before we parted, he looked at my left boot, with the leather worn out by the bike shifter.
“A biker yourself ?”
“Sure”
He smiled, shook my hand as strong as he could, wished me luck and left.
No, I never had a Triumph and most likely that I’ll never have. But it does not matter; we are all bikers.
That handshake is record of a brotherhood. We can find our “brothers” anywhere in the world, in different situations.
We are bikers and we’ll always be; even after the weariness of time forbids us to keep on riding.
Really nicely written. I’m no biker but the term over here in oz has been utterly corrupted by patch gangs.
Patch club violence has been fairly rare in the UK thankfully.I was in a bar when several Outlaws came in and they behaved like gentlemen.
Most people don’t realize that your average 1% is as rational and real as any mundane citizen – unless you try to get between them and their club. You don’t have to be a psychotic idiot to fly a patch. I rode in three patch holding clubs (none 1%, but my second club was an Outlaws support club that patched over after I moved to VA) over a twenty year period, and the last time I was in a fight and physically hit somebody . . . . . . . . . . was in the eighth grade, back in 1963.
The reality is a bit different over here. The most prominent patches are one of the main sources and distributors of hard drugs. That’s not an over generalisation or resorting to cliche; the various state governments over here have tried producing legislation to deal with it, but its too hard to define and these laws are being shot down in our highest courts. With the Mongols having recently entered oz, things have just ramped up.
You’ve got a foot in both cultures Syke and I really appreciate your perspective because its so reasonable, but the patch situation over here is just getting worse. These guys have now discovered the low hanging fruit of dealing ice in the country towns and they are unstoppable. One reason is that margins over here are so high even the Mexicans are making their way over here. But the bikers control local manufacture and distribution.
I completely understand that these guys are a minority of motorcycle riders, but they tar anyone who comes across a bit outlaw with the same brush.
With delinquent English bikers, I think of the film “Psychomania” (aka “The Death Wheelers” in the States).
That’s one I’ve forgotten about,I enjoy a classic 70s horror film now and again.A few years ago I spent a very spooky winter afternoon at Oakley Court site of the Hammer film studios
When I used to ride, we changed gear with the right foot. Don’t think I ever rode a Triumph though.
Never understood why sequential gears never caught on for cars.
Triumphs had a left foot shift(as did everyone else) from the mid 70s.CC effect strikes again as I was watching the Legacy(AKA the Legacy of Maggie Walsh),classic 70s horror film with Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross on a Triumph.
I spent a lot of time on the back of Triumphs as an ex and brother were owners before they got into Harley Sportsters.
In the 60s I think only Jap bikes had left foot shifters.
no
jap bikes and big twin Harleys were left shift. Harley sportsters and everything else was right shift.
Credit the left foot shifter to US safety standards. By that time the Japanese had everybody else on the ropes, so the government insisted that everybody copy the Japanese setup if they wanted to sell bikes in the US.
hogwash
US safety standards were tailored to Harley.
Nope. Syke has it right imo. Had a number of bikes that shifted with the right foot (up for low, then sequentially down) but they all fell into line. That includes aeromacchi, ducati, and jawa. I never claim to know the reason for our government doing things but this had to revolve around safety. Jump on a bike after a few beers and it is easy to get it backwards. The big dog in the yard had become the Japanese and they all wound up changing. Left side and down for low, then sequentially up.
Lee, you are not comprehending the facts.
I am saying the government did NOT insist that the Japanese were copied. I am saying the Japanese were already copying Harley and the government was insisting everyone copy Harley just as the Japanese were already doing.
Harley went to left side shifter in 75. The Japanese were there, for sure, when I was riding small japanese bikes in 70. Harley certainly got some favors like racing 750 flatheads against every else with a 500 ohv. Don’t think this was one of them.
Facts become confused the older you get so you might be right. This is how I remember it but the shift to the left in 75 is per Wikipedia.
Lee ;
Both my 1937 and 1965 Harleys had right hand brakes and left hand shifting .
Looks like wiki is wrong yet again .
-Nate
Nate; Harley’s didn’t become available with an optional (left side) foot shifter until 1952.
Here’s the confusion: The Big Harleys always had their optiona//standard foot shifter on the left. But the Sportster had a right side foot shifter, which had to be moved to the left in 1975 due to the fed regulations.
The reason the Sportster probably had it on the right is because it was essentially necessary for dirt track racing, as one couldn’t shift with one’s left foot out in the dirt. Or possibly because the Sportster was designed to compete with the Brit bikes, which all had right side shift until everyone had to go left.
Thanx Paul ;
MY KnuckleHead had a tank shifter .
I know bupkis about Sportsters .
-Nate
So like I said in the beginning…
US federal mandatory standards were tailored to HARLEY
These standards came into being in the 70s and they were obviously formulated to conform to the Harley Electraglide…which was considered the absolute pinnacle of two wheeled motor vehicles at that time.
John ;
Clearly you’re a Harley Davidson Fanboi and that’s o.K. but in 70 AMF was killing Harley with it’s shoddily made products .
Don’t make wild and completely silly comments like that if you know absolutely _nothing_ about the subject .
I was riding a Harley Pan Head back then and it really upset us how AMF was running that company so badly .
The Company nearly went under some years later , it wasn’t like it is now with the poseurs and their henna tattoos trucking their Harleys to Sturgis because they don’t really like to ride they just like the B.S. ‘ bad boy ‘ image .
I rode and restored a ’65 FL PanHead and a ’37 EL KnuckleHead and helped set a worlds record in 976 so bring it on .
-Nate
A nice story .
I had a 1967 Trumpet C100 (IIRC) it had been assembled out of spare bits & bobs making it a ” BITSA ” ~ it ran sweet and was fun to ride .
-Nate
Thought I was the only one who knew what a bitsa was….
I had bits of Triumph (front forks and tank) and bits of Matchless, but the rest was dross.
I still occasionally build them , I have a yard full of vintage Hinda Tiddlers I hope to build & sell off when I retire .
My 1967 Moto Guzzi V7 Sport had a right shifter .
I can’t make this photo flip up right .
-Nate
Some of those bitzas had actual titles like my mates Norstar(Norton featherbed frame BSA goldie motor and Norvin, Triton and others.
Need to get my old ’85 700 Maxim fired up and put fresh tires and battery on her before the big 60 arrives. Only have a few month’s to get it done. Time passes quickly.
Ive never owned a bike but have always appreciated them. I tend to like custom Harleys but there’s just something about these old Triumphs that makes me want one.
Really good read, short and to the point.
This nice essay provided some sweet nostalgia. I was custodian of my brother’s 1970 Daytona while he was in Vietnam. Given the chances I took, and inattentive driving I did, it’s miraculous that I’m here reminiscing about it in 2015. I still remember the Triumph T100 shop manual, which looked ancient even then, and the Whitworth thread standards and other uniquely-British things.
“he looked at my left boot, with the leather worn out by the bike shifter.”
He was probably snickering about the shifter being on the wrong side.
Some would say the Indian Chief, or the Indian Four, or the Brough Superior, or the Vincent black Shadow are the most attractive motorcycles ever made. I disagree. The most attractive motorcycle ever made, in my opinion, is the ’68-’70 Bonneville.
The second most attractive motorcycle is one of these(a sprint tank superglide):
+1 on the Triumph with the Moto Guzzi Mk1 Le Mans a close runner up.The best looking Harley still has to be a late 50s/early 60s(I think) Sportster with the high level silencer.The featured Superglide is a lot better looking than today’s big twins which look lardy and fat.
Agreed. There is something about the Bonnies of that vintage that is just absolute perfection. I saw it back at the time, when I couldn’t stop looking at them, and I still feel that way. The essence of what a motorcycle is.
Guys these days are from a different mould, mostly. Coffee shop posers, who have no idea how to fix a flat or change a light globe.
In the old days you knew how to pull the bike down to the last bolt or an older mate would help.
You have different relationship when you know it like your hand?
Money doesn’t buy “Street Cred’.”
” Money doesn’t buy “Street Cred’.”
~ really ? all these decades I thought I was just too poor/stubborn/cheap/whatever to buy a new Moto…..
-Nate
Reminds me of the Indianapolis MotoGP in 2008 – Patti and I have Pidge, my ’69 Bonneville cafe racer (Norman Hyde rearsets, clubman bars, a few other minor mods but basically stock and original) rolling into downtown Indianapolis and the club district where the Friday night festivities are going on.
Coming thru the last traffic light, my clutch cable snaps. No problems, I grab the spare cable from under the seat (I’ve never owned a Meriden Triumph without keeping a spare clutch cable under the seat), slightly unbolt the tank so I can remove the broken one and thread the new cable thru the tank tunnel, and in about half an hour replace the damned thing.
And I’ve got a crowd of 80-100 people standing around watching with their collective jaws on the pavement, amazed that somebody can do that. Most rueful comment was from a BMW owner, “I wish I could do that on my bike.” My advice to him was dump his oilhead (modern opposed twin) and replace it with a airhead (the original version), where you could field strip the bike along the side of the road with the tool kit provided my BMW.
The look on his face was priceless.
But the REAL fun is going thru the starting drill with riders of modern electric-start bikes watching. And when you bring it off with one kick – that is a smug feeling that can only be experienced, not described.
Nice vignette. In all my years of biking I’ve never had a Triumph, bikes to me are more like tools, I’m more concerned about what they can do than what brand they are or all the BS that goes with being a biker these days.
Still, a Triumph. British bikes speak to me in a way that no others do
I’m trying to find photos of full size Motos , this is a 1968 Honda CL90 I rescued way the hell and gone out in the Palm Desert , I dumped over $1,500.00 worth of N.O.S. parts into it , it runs & rides great now , current tags & title but now what the hell to do with it ?! .
-Nate
brings back memories
I learned to ride on a 1964 Honda sport 50. Very similar to the above pic. At that time I really really wanted something with 2 cylinders and a “normal” telescopic front fork and tube frame… a CB160
You ride it. You enjoy it. And you don’t worry about what its market value says.
Back in high school, my dream bike was a Honda Super 90 street. Thirty years later I finally got one, which I kept for about the next twenty years until I sold off my vintage collection. And that was a neat, fun bike. Didn’t get me a heck of a lot of money when I sold it, and I also had dumped a fair bit in cleaning out Honda of America’s parts stocks replacing the battered bits, but it was worth it. At 45 years old, a 16 year old dream finally came true.
Syke , you don’t understand ;
I have 20 + old Honda Tiddlers in my back yard , once I fix one up it’s useless to me .
Here’s a Christmas photo of one of my three Ural Solos , I’ve been fooling with the iPod but can’t find any edit button to turn them right side up .
You’re right about old BMW AirHead Motos , I’ve had quite a few , /2’s , lots and lots of /5’s , they were damn near unkillable .
-Nate
Pre-unit construction Thunderbird 6T (1959?) what a sweet old machine for the day.. lovely Turner-designed engine (he also designed the Daimler 2.5 V8) ..however the Norton was the bike that handled back then (the ‘Featherbed’ frame) but the Norton engines were ghastly vibrating out-of balance oil burning things .. however ..when you combined the two into one the bike you had a magic recipe ..the Triton 650 !! Beautiful!!!
I was surprise that took this long for someone talk about the “Tritons”
There is more on Tritons, Norvins etc here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/two-wheelers/sunday-salon-cooper-and-norton-an-unlikely-marriage/
Seems it started happening because of economics as much as engineering. At least thats one story.
Very nice essay. As someone who’s currently living without a Triumph for the first time in 23 years (and the second time in 35), there is something about the story that’s giving me the “get this house buying and selling crap done and start looking for another Triumph – now!” feeling.
Do they still make Triumphs? Boy, twenty years ago, when I bought my Hinckley built Trident, I could have bought a second bike if I could have only gotten a dollar for every person that asked me that damned question. And once that was answered, then came the long evening convincing that person that no, this wasn’t a re-pop of a motorcycle done by somebody who had bought the morbund Triumph name, like Indian, Norton (please, let that brand die already – I’m tired of seeing constant re-births at the hands of someone who’s idea of mass production is a couple of work stations, and bikes being built one at a time) and Henderson-Excelsior (boy, was that a cock-up).
The current Triumph is the latest iteration of the original company which made its first motorcycle in 1902 (the company has been sold and reorganized seven times in its history, as opposed to three times for Harley); and built its motorcycles in Coventry (1902-1940 until the Luftwaffe bombed it flat), Meriden (1940-1984 although 1983’s were the last bikes offered to the public), Devon (1985-1988 built under license for the guy who had bought the company while the new models were developed from scratch), and Hinckley (1991 bikes released in 1990 thru today). Which means that, other than the war years, Triumph has only missed three model years: 1984 (pre-production prototypes only), 1989 and 1990.
And there IS something special about a Triumph. Like a Harley, or Moto Guzzi, or a Ducati, they have their own characteristics, their own personality; something the Japanese have pretty much taken out of their four brands. Twins are triples are their way to go, the only failures that Hinckley has turned out was the short lived attempt of doing a 600cc supersport-class four cylinder bikes that just couldn’t compete with the Japanese. So they trashed it and came out with a 675cc triple that completely overshadowed anything that any Japanese company had on the showroom floor and suddenly within two years all four Japanese manufacturers had redesigned their bikes heavily.
They still make Triumphs. And if you ride motorcycles and don’t consider one for your next purchase, you’re only cheating yourself.
+1 on that. The Hinckley Triumph revival is a motor industry success that overshadows anything on the 4 wheel side. Not just great bikes but a solid business success as well.
I’m saving my dimes to buy a 883 Sportster, but the Harley Davidson community here in Brazil got so full of BS… I’m seriously considering a Bonneville instead.
My first street bike, acquired in 1978, was a ’68 Triumph 650 Tiger. The best all-around bike I ever had, light and nimble, with a perfect sound, I felt right at home in the saddle the moment I first sat on it, even if it did shift on the wrong side. The bike I’m still sorry I let go after 5 years of ownership. A bike you could park amidst a group of Harleys and not be disparaged, unlike if you were riding a Japanese bike at that time. Which reminds me of a Harley bar north of Daytona Beach that had a sign out front that said “Visit our Japanese Hanging Gardens.” Out back in their outdoor party area were multiple charred Japanese bikes hanging by chains from some old shade trees. Different times.
Triumphs were one of the cool bikes of the late 60s early 70s. Nelson Bros. Triumph/ Honda shop in east Oakland was a place that I would hang around looking for parts for my 65. C110 and later CB160 and CB77 Hondas. Actually it just gave me an excuse to ogle the big Triumph Twins. I never had a Triumph but I later had a Kawasaki 650 twin. This mid 60s model was basically a copy of a pre-unit construction BSA. It combined a similar mix of high torque output with relatively low weight. It was a lot of fun to ride and I can see the attraction of the real thing.
Some of my old BMW/5’s :
Had a 68 Triumph more than 25 years ago and always regretted letting it go – so recently I just bought a 70 Daytona in the same color. Needs work – but for a Triumph that is the joy of ownership – beautifully designed machines. I didn’t say well designed – just beautiful, from the engine castings to the tank and badges – true classics. And the sound . . .
Always wanted a 650 Triumph but never found one in the 60s-70s in good shape that was cheap enough that I could afford it. But had lots of Honda’s over the years, most fixers-uppers, till the 90s when I found my real dream bike: a 1968 305 Honda Dream, low miles, but ruff cosmetically. It ran too good to take apart so for 15years it was my CC of two wheels. then in the 2000s I restored it. And then found a black one, you never have too many. I have been around many bikers of the Harley type and they always thought my Dreams were cool “like a miniature 50s Harley”. Here is a picture of the black one.
*Very* pretty ! .
In the early 1970’s these were a dime a dozen , the CB350 twin has made them worthless .
I had a whole bunch of them , good Motos , I toured much of America on a CA77 .
In the 1960’s Honda Motos were designed to be run all day long with the throttle pinned , in top gear ~ not terribly fast but they ate up the miles smoothly and economically .
Trumpets were *so* beautiful , I liked the post war ” bathtub ” models that were a hard sell . Triumph U.S.A. used to be in Duarte , Ca,. on Foothill Blvd. , they had a big pile of taken off tubs no one wanted .
-Nate
You can imagine what a non-rusty tub goes for nowadays for anyone trying to restore a 60’s Speed Twin.
Interestingly Syke ;
I occasionally see a bathtub Trumpet for sale at the various British Moto Events / Rides I go to , usually in good shape for $4K +/- ~ I know they’re old & slow but that strikes me as pretty good Dollar value….
What the hell do I know , right =8-) .
-Nate
Those were sweet bikes. I have childhood memories of a neighbor (a Welsh ex-patriot psychiatrist) who’d jump the stream in front of his house on his rather than take the long way around on the driveway.
Thanks. I had several 350’S CB, CL, SL, last one in the 90s; they were much more popular then the Dream; at least up here on the Oregon coast; and it took me a couple years to find a nice one, The 350 although faster; had more of a high speed tingle vibration, that would put your hands and feet to sleep, cause of it’s 180 degree crank. While the Dream’s 360 degree crank gave it more mellow exhaust sound and lower frequency vibes; so I was more likely to throw a leg over it to go on a spontaneous ride.
Ya, I think cause there still are so many out there the price has not gone up as much as other old bikes, like the Triumph; but a nice restored one will go for $5-6k; altho I have over $3000 in just paint and chrome; if I had to have the engine done, I would have $5k into it easily.
Looks like you got quite the collection there, at one time I had 27 Hondas, but sold most off; you can ride only so many in a month.