Since we haven't seen too many of these here, thought I'd throw in one of my projects.
Not in the Classic Triumph section, since its a true Veteran, and not even faintly related really to Classic Trumpies...
As acquired. Apols for the pic quality, its a scan off a colour snap.
Don't expect to see it in action anytime soon, its a L-O-N-G term labour of love !
I bought this, quite some years ago now, off a friend who was moving, and had no space to store it.
It was also rather cheap - it came essentially for the price of the magneto rewind/rebuild it had just had.
If I'd been a discerning buyer then, I probably should have thrown it back !!
Everything was utterly knackered or worn out or just plain broken. And mostly all rusty, although not pitted.
Except that lovely early open magnet Bosch magneto, which throws a 1/4" fat blue spark with the slightest movement of the maggie spindle...
The Bike. Its a 1910 Roadster = belt drive 500cc single cylinder sidevalve , made by Triumph Motors of Coventry..
With belt drive directly to the back wheel = no clutch, no gearbox, no gears, bicycle type brake on the front wheel,
and friction block wedge brake on the back wheel. Pedals to pedal it to start it - lift the exhaust valve, pedal like crazy,
drop the exhaust valve and hope it chuffs into action.
The flywheels and iron piston combined must be about 30 lbs of pure momentum, so it reportedly will chuff down to countable revs,
and on full song are supposed to able to do near 60mph on full song.
Tyres are clincher type = need high pressure to hold them on the rims,
drop centre rims and wired-edge tyres are still in the future
Points of Triumph History.
Triumph in 1910 were the biggest seller of any of the English manufacturers. They sold +3000 bikes that year.
Jack Marshall (was it ?) on his reliable Triumph had won the singles class of the Isle of Man TT in 1908, which boosted sales somewhat - riders like to buy a proven product. And the technical press had reported that the 1910 models were about the first motorcycle that could take more punishment than the rider could, after some long distance epic rides. Prior to that, frame breakages and exhaust valves breaking were common problems with hard used motorcycles - not to mention the vast numbers of punctures to be expected from horseshoe nails littering the roads.
The frame seems to be stamped with an RFC number (Royal Flying Corp) so its possible it did military duty in WW1 - more research needed on this.
What prompted this thread is that I have acquired another basket case Trumpy, incomplete, with some better components, that hopefully will contribute to getting a complete bike together - and hopefully running.
Those of you who know these bikes can see that some components are wrong for the year,
some parts are missing and some aren't even Triumph !
Like I said, it was cheap, and I'm a sucker/patron saint for lost causes.
Still going to be a long term goal, so don't hold your breathe !!, but more details to come.
Not in the Classic Triumph section, since its a true Veteran, and not even faintly related really to Classic Trumpies...
As acquired. Apols for the pic quality, its a scan off a colour snap.
Don't expect to see it in action anytime soon, its a L-O-N-G term labour of love !
I bought this, quite some years ago now, off a friend who was moving, and had no space to store it.
It was also rather cheap - it came essentially for the price of the magneto rewind/rebuild it had just had.
If I'd been a discerning buyer then, I probably should have thrown it back !!
Everything was utterly knackered or worn out or just plain broken. And mostly all rusty, although not pitted.
Except that lovely early open magnet Bosch magneto, which throws a 1/4" fat blue spark with the slightest movement of the maggie spindle...
The Bike. Its a 1910 Roadster = belt drive 500cc single cylinder sidevalve , made by Triumph Motors of Coventry..
With belt drive directly to the back wheel = no clutch, no gearbox, no gears, bicycle type brake on the front wheel,
and friction block wedge brake on the back wheel. Pedals to pedal it to start it - lift the exhaust valve, pedal like crazy,
drop the exhaust valve and hope it chuffs into action.
The flywheels and iron piston combined must be about 30 lbs of pure momentum, so it reportedly will chuff down to countable revs,
and on full song are supposed to able to do near 60mph on full song.
Tyres are clincher type = need high pressure to hold them on the rims,
drop centre rims and wired-edge tyres are still in the future
Points of Triumph History.
Triumph in 1910 were the biggest seller of any of the English manufacturers. They sold +3000 bikes that year.
Jack Marshall (was it ?) on his reliable Triumph had won the singles class of the Isle of Man TT in 1908, which boosted sales somewhat - riders like to buy a proven product. And the technical press had reported that the 1910 models were about the first motorcycle that could take more punishment than the rider could, after some long distance epic rides. Prior to that, frame breakages and exhaust valves breaking were common problems with hard used motorcycles - not to mention the vast numbers of punctures to be expected from horseshoe nails littering the roads.
The frame seems to be stamped with an RFC number (Royal Flying Corp) so its possible it did military duty in WW1 - more research needed on this.
What prompted this thread is that I have acquired another basket case Trumpy, incomplete, with some better components, that hopefully will contribute to getting a complete bike together - and hopefully running.
Those of you who know these bikes can see that some components are wrong for the year,
some parts are missing and some aren't even Triumph !
Like I said, it was cheap, and I'm a sucker/patron saint for lost causes.
Still going to be a long term goal, so don't hold your breathe !!, but more details to come.