Triumph Tiger Cub

[Ray]

Is it my imagination or is there a member or members who mentioned an interest in these bikes?

Just in case I thought I'd mention that a local seller on Facebook is offering an old Triumph tiger cub workshop instruction manual for £5.

It seems a slim volume rather than a full workshop manual as we would normally think of them but of course it could be very interesting to an enthusiast.

Screenshot below, seller is in Gt Yarmouth

 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I`d love to get an old Tiger Cub, but do some substantial upgrades to the rolling chassis and bodywork, so it keeps the original frame, swinging arm and engine, but with more modern front end and tank / seat / side panels. I think it would be a fun excersise to see what it would look like. Also tune it up to race spec so it would go like a more modern bike.

[Ray]

It must have been you I was thinking of ST. Sounds like quite a project, sadly I never got into motor bikes, much to my late dad's disappointment! I have an idea he was a Triumph owner... about 1950 I should think.

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1 minute ago, Ray said:

It must have been you I was thinking of ST. Sounds like quite a project, sadly I never got into motor bikes, much to my late dad's disappointment! I have an idea he was a Triumph owner... about 1950 I should think.

Yes, I`m a dedicated Triumph owner, but on modern ones, though i do love some of the early stuff, and would like to have some and do some upgrades to make them more reliable like the bikes of today.

[quo vadis]

Griff owner of broad ambition has a triumph tiger I believe 

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Just now, quo vadis said:

Griff owner of broad ambition has a triumph tiger I believe 

He does, but it`s a modern 1050 Tiger, not one of the old generation Tigers or Tiger Cub, which was only 200cc.

[StillCruising]

In the 80's I restored to Tiger Cubs, one with all the fairing and the other was the sport version. With the asking price of them now I wish I Still had them !

[SteveO]

My first motorbike was a cub. It was difficult to start, slow, leaked oil, broke down frequently and was generally unreliable. Nostagia can be wonderfully selective.

[ChrisB]

There is a chap in East Ruston who has an immaculate, built for America, Triumph Bonneville (small Tank), 1965 I believe with very low mileage.

British bikes sold big in The States back then helped by Mcqueen on Triumphs and Orbison on BSA.

[stumpy]

I passed my test on a Cub, cost something like £75. The old man came to sign the HP papers when he discovered he went to school with the owner of the shop - the transaction took longer than I expected! One exchange I'll not forget  - Dad: "How come none of your bikes have an oil puddle under them?" Bob Nicholls: " 'Cos I don't put any oil in the buggers 'til they're sold!" After my test I got £50 trade in on it for a T100 Speed Twin and that was me launched on the slippery slope.

[Smoggy]

7 hours ago, ChrisB said:

British bikes sold big in The States back then helped by Mcqueen on Triumphs and Orbison on BSA.

More likely because they piddled all over the harleys, the whole chop scene started because the only way the harleys could get near the brit stuff was to strip them down as much as possible to lose weight, then along came the japs and piddled over them all without the need for drip trays.

[eddybear]

I just had to jump in on this discussion, I bought a Triumph Tiger Cub together with a Francis Barnett in bits both in the same boxes got the Francis  running but never ever got the triumph running looked a nice bike when I'd completed it but for the life of me couldn't get the  bastard to run,I personally prefer Norton's happy days

[ChrisB]

Or a spanner roll! My cousin had a Tiger Cub but one day turned up with a nearly new Honda of similar cc. We could not believe the indicators and electric start button which when pressed fired first time and ran as quiet as a sewing machine.

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4 hours ago, stumpy said:

 " After my test I got £50 trade in on it for a T100 Speed Twin and that was me launched on the slippery slope.

This is the Speed Twin you should buy now.

 

 

This is the NEW Speed Twin, the one in the background being a mid 90s Daytona 1200. The new Speed Twin developes 97 bhp, and the Daytona behind were rated at 147 bhp. Although both 1200 cc, the Daytona is a 4, and the Twin says it all. I`ve also got one of the original Hinckley built Daytona 1000 4s, mine being chassis no 0000538, so the 538th bike built byt the regenerated Triumph brand.

 

[SANTED]

2 hours ago, eddybear said:

I just had to jump in on this discussion, I bought a Triumph Tiger Cub together with a Francis Barnett in bits both in the same boxes got the Francis  running but never ever got the triumph running looked a nice bike when I'd completed it but for the life of me couldn't get the  bastard to run,I personally prefer Norton's happy days

My first bike was a Francis Barnett Cruiser, popular local nicknames were Fanny B or Frantic Barnett. I then graduated to a Triumph Thunderbird and then finished up with the mighty Vincent

Ted

[SteveO]

I don't think that many of the old British bikes were particularly well built or even well-engineered. I once read an article about the Triumph Meriden factory where they described the process by which crank-case castings were carefully moulded, fettled and mating surfaces ground flat. They were then chucked into a metal-wheeled hand-truck and trundled 1/4 mile over a cobbled surface to the assembly shop.  I graduated to an Ariel Red Hunter which was a nice enough bike but plagued with gearbox trouble. When I took it apart I found that a selector shaft had broken. Looking at the shaft, which was about half an inch in diameter, it had two 1/4 inch cross-drilled holes in it at 90 degrees to each other and a about quarter of an inch apart. Guess where it broke?  Other British bikes I had were a James, with a Villiers 197 engine - bomb proof but heavy as hell. An Ariel Leader - went like stink on the odd occasion when you could actually get both cylinders firing and a BSA Bantam - great bike, Fortunately the engine was designed by the Germans and the design taken by the Allies as part of the WW2 reparations.  The same engine also went into the Yamaha 125 and a 2 stroke Harley Davidson amongst others.

[Bedslad]

I wouldn't hear a word against triumph.

i had a bonneville t140v and apart from the trade Mark oil leak it never let me down.

the old Brits bikes were excellent engineering back in the day, along with norton, bsa, royal enfield and Vincent to name but a few.

god showing my age now aren't I 😂

[Smoggy]

As devils advocate I have to say I've just sold my yamaha fazer thou and the guy that bought it had one before and had both a vfr800 and triumph strint 1050 to replace it and reconed they were both complete cr@p in comparison, I've never had such a keen buyer for a bike before so would probably now never even think triumph.

I have bought a yamaha TDM850 and absolutely love it, a real b road blaster, any hint of patriotism now gone.

2 minutes ago, Bedslad said:

the old Brits bikes were excellent engineering back in the day

Back in the day is the trouble, the world moves on and they didn't, I seem to recall the dinosaurs did quite well but you don't see many now. (other than at the wooden boat show)

[ChrisB]

What about the Ariel Square Four 1000cc that had a long production run but could suffer cooling problems with the rear 2 cylinders in very hot weather.

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9 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

 the guy that bought it had one before and had both a vfr800 and triumph strint 1050 to replace it and reconed they were both complete cr@p in comparison, I've never had such a keen buyer for a bike before so would probably now never even think triumph.

Hi Smog,

It`s all very well making a decision because of what a total stranger says, but did you ever test one or own one. The 1050 Sprint ST was always rated by the biking press as an excellent machine, for its comfort, handling, and superb engine characteritics due to its 3 cylinder configuration, something i`ve had experience with. What that guy obviously did`nt tell you is how he used (or abused) it, or whether he had it properly serviced at a Proper Triumph dealer. 

I don`t know whether you read MCN or not, but every week, they have a page about horror stories of bikes that are in some cases, lethal to ride, and how they were (or were not) serviced and looked after (or again not). 

Back in the 90s, when Triumph built the ground breaking T595, the popular press twisted a story about frames snapping at the headstock. When investigated, it turned out both bikes were involved in a couple of heavy frontal impacts, and were "economically" repaired by backstreet bike shops, who DID`NT have the frames checked.  As a result, customers were put off buying the bikes because of the unwarranted bad press. As a result, Triumph did a recall and replaced all the frames on bikes sold, yet did`nt modify the production ones. That recall took its financial toll on Triumph, who were at that time still a fledgeling and developing company, which meant delays in the developement of the TT600, which made the bike 2 years late coming into production, meaning it was then behind the Japanese opposition by "2 years". The press then slated that machine because it was underpowered in comparison, but its saving grace was its class leading chassis and brakes, meaning it could still be ridden faster than its Japanese opposition.

All that was because people slated a product, without ever either riding or owning them.

[Victoryv]

The beauty of owning an old Triumph is, they keep you fit, pushing them home !

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On 11/08/2019 at 19:00, SteveO said:

I don't think that many of the old British bikes were particularly well built or even well-engineered. I once read an article about the Triumph Meriden factory where they described the process by which crank-case castings were carefully moulded, fettled and mating surfaces ground flat. They were then chucked into a metal-wheeled hand-truck and trundled 1/4 mile over a cobbled surface to the assembly shop.  

They WERE well engineered for their time. Unfortunately, quality control was poor, and manufacturing methods were pretty much antiquated, and the management would`nt update the designs. They believed the Japanese things would fall apart and would be a flash in the pan. They DID fall apart, but the Japanese carried out continual refinement on them, and the rest is history. 

Triumph then came up with the T160 which was a great bike, but used an outdated overhead valve engine, the Japs were overhead cams. Then BSA / Triumph came up with a real gem in the Triumph 350 Bandit / BSA 350 Fury, but sadly, when the workforce went back to work on the Monday they were due to put them into production, the Bosses stripped out all the manufacturing tools, and installed the tools for the outdated Bonneville, because the Labour government of the day, re-direct a £4 million  rescue grant, and wasted it on the disasterous and illfated "workers co-operative" at Meriden.   And what a disaster that was.

British bikes of the 60s and 70s were great bikes if built properly, a fact bourn out by enthusiasts who have stripped engines to the bone, had them properly engineered with properly balanced and finely re-machined engine components, which when assembled have provided faster more powerful smoother and much more reliable machines.

[SteveO]

I am sure that, if you strip an  old British bike down, re-machine the critical components and re-assemble it carefully adding refinements such as electronic ignition and 12 volt electrics, you would be left with something that worked way better than it did in the old days. But much of the kit available at the time was so woefully poor that if you wanted a bike that was a practical proposition, you had to go Japanese or German.  So much of our industry of the 1950's and 60's was killed by a toxic combination of poor labour relations, misguided and inappropriate government interference and management who were firm in their collective  belief that you can make chicken soup out of chicken sh*t - hence the many, many years of under-investment in design, tooling and manufacturing process development. Where we have managed to break out of this mind-set, we have achieved great things but it is telling for me that manufacturing now forms only 10-11% of our  GDP and much of this is controlled and managed by overseas companies.

[VetChugger]

My Old Man, god rest his soul, bought a Cossack which was the "Lada" of motorbikes in that it was the Russian version of the older BMW R71  and sidecar which was a German military bike. To say it made a throaty racket was an understatement! It served its purpose admirably as I recall and didn't seem to break down as such although it was regularly in bits in the kitchen and garden. Used to love going out on it mostly in the sidecar with my brother but occasionally on the pillion for a treat.

 

[Victoryv]

I was never a big fan of british bikes when I was growing up, they were things you rode around the fields on. We used to look in neighbours back gardens for the telltale tarpaulin covering something motorbike shape, then knock on the door and ask if they had any old motorbikes they wanted rid of.Looking back we were given some nice bikes, but usually in poor condition, from memory we had a square four, a G50 Matchless, numerous BSA and Triumphs and my present old bike a 500 AJS, imagine about a dozen 10 year olds trying to bump start a G50 down a field track!

I bought this AJS before christmas from a photograph, it is a complete joy to ride, 40 is the new 80 (mph that is)