Triumph belt driver project

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.

Looking forward to the updates occasional though they may be, great project.

Thanks.
Should have some updates for some recent work and more details, even if they get less frequent.

This is how a similar model would have looked in WW1 use.
This is slightly later model than mine - it has a clutch and 3 speed gears in the back wheel too,
like a heavy-duty bicycle type...


A well equipped civvy model - apparently you could volunteer as a dispatch rider, with your bike. !
Note the spare belt in the round carrycase on the back.
And the about 2 kg of nickel plate on everything shiny back then. !
Thats all going to be $$expensive$$.

Some of the minor technical points of interest.

Triumphs developed their own carburettor back then, there being no Amal or equivalent (yet) to do it for them.
A 2 barrel affair - one barrel for the air, and one for the fuel.
So the rider has to decide the appropriate throttle opening for the air supply, and move the fuel lever to match.
No twistgrips back then, not in the English world anyway, the fuel was controlled with a pair of little levers on the handlebars.
And the speed was largely controlled by the amount of ignition advance, by a bigger lever on the left side of the tank.
This carb is unashamedly brass, and must weigh a kilo+.
It also has much of its original nickel, and the threads in the throat of it are in fine condition (unusual ?),
which also limits which years of Trumpies it can be fitted to (some other years had plain clamp spigots to mount to).
There would be a pair of cables going into the top of each barrel upthere.
Thats the tickler in the top of the float chamber, all the way down there.
Yes, those series of little holes are the only entry point for the air...


The springs for the front suspension are volute springs, of rectangular section !
Heavily nickelled, as was everything shiny on this bike.
(and now a bit rusty. It is 100+ years old though)
And this one is broken. Not so easy to replace, or remake...
Triumph mucked around with the fork spring design a lot, over the years.
Triumph front girder forks worked by being pivotted near the middle, so the wheel pivots back,
and the fork top pivots forward against the spring.
Variable wheelbase, on the fly !!
Apparently it works, as long as the bumps are not too large.



The downside was that a broken spring meant that the front wheel could fold down under the bike,
with rather dire consequences for the rider.
The solution, which can just be seen in the military gent pic above, is to wrap a stout leather belt around the forks,
so if the spring breaks the front wheel cannot try to depart.

Next pic will be the internal track cams.
Nothing commonplace like a bumpstick in these engines, Triumphs method of valve actuation was more akin to a desmodromic system,
without the desmodromic !!

This is Triumph blowing their own trumpet about how reliable their motors are.
Note that this is from the 1911 Brochure.
Thanks to someone webpages for this scan/pic...

Detail pics of Triumphs cam system back then.
Internal track cams, with roller followers.
The bases of the valves (sidevalves) are just visible at the top of the pic.
The cams push them upwards, to open them in sequence.
Inlet at the back of course.





Don't know how you'd regrind these, or even know by looking how stock they were.
Fortunately, seem in good condition.

Headlamp detail - a rather battered P&H acetylene headlamp.
Is going to take some serious beating out to get it all flat and shiny again.
Brass with nickel plate, mostly all still good plating, don't know how much working it will take ?
No burner or reflector inside either, not sure how obtainable parts are these days.
Already started to dismantle it to tidy it up.
Headlamp glass is still intact, despite the battering...



Since such headlamps have to actually work if fitted, perhaps LED internals ??

This bike is so old it's only worthy of 'Motorcycle related' status.!? Hope it doesn't hold up the polychromatic blue project too much,lol. Inquiring minds and all that...

Its more like a bicycle-with-motor class. ?
Or is that big moped ??

Don't have a lot of spare room to store these things - so the one in the front of the stack gets the love !

Besides, a few things needed paint, and it hasn't been painting weather.
And things like leaky gutters also seemed more important...

The wheels need a bit of attention, now that I have something that belongs to it.




Paper thin on the rim in places...
Note how the rim for the belt drive just clamps onto the spokes,
rather than needing its own set of shorty little spokes, like some other makes do.

Just needs new rims, new spokes, new clincher tyres and new clincher tubes.
And new sets of bearings.
Not very expensive, if you say it all quickly enough.
At least they are available these days, although sometimes in limited supply.