Pre-unit Triumph at Newlands Corner this morning

[Manky Monkey]

Taz & I live about a mile from Newlands Corner, a well known Surrey beauty spot & popular Sunday morning meeting place for bikers & drivers of unusual cars. Always something interesting in the carpark. Taz is working today so I wandered up there for a burger & a mooch about.
Came across this. At first glance just a nicely preserved old pre-unit Trumpet.

[Manky Monkey]

Didn't look quite right but I couldn't put my finger on why. So I sought out the owner. Turns out it's a real mix n match bike, with the front frame half from one model & the back from another, (early Triumph frames bolt together in the middle), the tank from one bike & seat from another etc.
I was interested in the engine though. 500 pre-unit, (seperate engine & gearbox), but the head looked the wrong shape. 

[Manky Monkey]

Turned out to be a generator head. Triumph built various industrial units during the War, including generators. The head's cross-flowed & produces more power than the original bike one, though it's still 500cc. The cylinder under the seat's a remote oil filter.
Interesting. I love stuff like this. I thrust one of our cards into the owner's hand & hopefully he'll send us in some words & piccies for the Motors section of the main site.

[Manky Monkey]

The owner was the guy in the blue jacket.
Nice old Beeza Rocket 3 too.

[Manky Monkey]

Well, whad'ya know. Had a very nice email this evening from one Andrew Forward, the owner & builder of the silver Triumph. With a little luck we'll add a write-up on it to the Motors section of the main site soon.
In the meantime, what do you think of his other bike? 

[Manky Monkey]

.

[brock]

   Ooooh, don't loose that man. That is the bike I photographed at Wroughton last year alongside the other smart little Triumph, the red one. Both photos have been on Dave's fridge ever since and were instrumental in his buying the bits to build his own. The tube should be with us next week and I have said that we will make a start on it as soon as he tracks down a Commando gearbox and clutch. Got any shots of the rear axle adjusters ?

[Manky Monkey]

 
That's all the pics I've got, but I'll send him your email address so you can talk directly.
He lives in Woking, Surrey by the way -our home town. 

[morrag]

What your looking at is effectively a Grand Prix Triumph motor as used by Ernie Lyons to win the '48( I think!) Manx Grand Prix, and like this one, consisted of the sand cast alloy barrel and head off a WW2 generator, mated to pre-war Speed Twin crank cases.and using the conventional seperate Triumph gear box. As far as I recall it was a longer stroke motor than the later, pre-unit alloy Tiger 100 motors,, and the Lyons bike used a protype "Sprung hub" that the factory were developing for their road bikes,Ernie Lyons was a factory "Test" rider at that time so had access to such bits. as it happens I still have a set of those barrels on my workshop shelf! Morrag

[Manky Monkey]

Impressive info Morrag. 
Andrew emailed me this:

The Triumph is a collection of bits assembled from parts I either had on the shelf or swapped. The idea was to build an interesting but primarily fun bike for as little as possible. The crankcases are 1947 T100. head and barrels are from a wartime Triumph generator unit built for the war effort and used for auxiliary power on heavy bombers. It was found after the war that the design was producing more power over standard so the factory decided to produce a few works race bikes which were only moderately successful as the Triumph management did not invest or believe in the power of race wins. They did, however, produce 'race kits' for the privateer to upgrade their road T100 into a racer. The engine came my way some 15 years ago and sat on the shelf waiting time and cash. The front frame is 1951 T100. The rear sub-frame is Triumph TRW. I modified this to fit as it reduces the wheelbase thus improving handling. The forks, wheels and tank are from 1960's 650 Triumphs. The hubs were fitted with 18" rims to give better tyre choice and, due to the miss matched frame parts, to reduce the fork rake to quicken the steering. All have been adapted, machined or persuaded to fit. All the work was done by me over a 12 month period. It uses 3134 cams and R followers. 9.5 - 1 pistons and twin 28mm Mk1 concentric.

[BikerGran]

Interesting stuff!

Is this something common to Triumph people?  My mate Bob has a Triumph outfit he does trials on - I once asked him what year it was and he said "Which bit?"

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

it is,because so many parts are interchangeable,or are easily made to fit,i've had loads,a couple of which,were built up from stuff lying about the workshopshop when i was in the trade.

[Firery Fred]

AAAh the Rocket 3, I remember reading a write up in Bike magazine when they first came out and seem to think the great Giacomo Agustini test rode it, but then again my memory's not what it used to be

[Manky Monkey]

Mine never was. 
The Beeza sounded gorgeous -a lovely deep throated roar.

[panthershaun]

A real Rocket 3 not one of those car engined wannbee's you can get now






runs as a owners starts throwing things at me


Not just Triumph owners BG, most brit bikers have or had access to piles of parts and it usually starts with a mug of tea and I wonder if this will fit onto that or wouldn't it be fun if that engine fitted in that frame etc etc used to spend hours in my mates barn doing just that most are still there as he never ever finishes anything