VICTORY AT LAST

Back to the TT timeline, however, and it was Bernard Hargreaves who secured the hitherto elusive win for Triumph in 1952. All four of his laps were in the 27-minute bracket and he won comfortably at a speed of 82.45mph, more than half a minute ahead of the second man. Incidentally, that 1952 race saw the racing debut of one Frank Perris, who finished 18th on a Tiger 100. Frank, of course, went on to star as a works rider for the Suzuki Grand Prix team and to become manager of the John Player Norton team after his retirement from racing. The success of Bernard Hargreaves led to the introduction of the Tiger 100C model for 1953 which was a fully race-kitted motorcycle, ready to wheel out to the start line at the Clubman’s TT. Only 560 of those models were made and it was discontinued as a catalogue listing after that single year, although all race-kitted Tiger 100s are generally referred to these days as a Tiger 100C. Possibly the reason for the removal of the complete T100C Clubman racer from the Triumph model line-up, though we shall never know, was because Norton had easily bested the previously successful Triumphs to win the 1953 Clubman’s TT. Their old plunger suspension frames, affectionately known as the ‘garden gate’ had been replaced by a road-going version of the famous Manx frame. The nickname for that one, of course, was the ‘featherbed’ and into that masterpiece was installed the same single-overhead camshaft, single-cylinder engine which, although a midThirties design, had already proved that it had the necessary speed. That bike was the final incarnation of the Norton International. The best Triumph T100C in 1953 placed fourth, with another one in seventh. The rest of the top 10 were all on the new Nortons, so Triumph apparently read the writing on the wall and quietly dropped its complete ‘clubman racer’ from the 1954 catalogue. The performance parts of the T100C were still available from Triumph dealers, however, and the factory continued to develop the Tiger 100, including the introduction of a new cylinder head with separate induction manifolds for twin carburettors. That new ‘splayed ports’ cylinder head design came later in the Fifties, however, and for 1954, it was Triumph’s rear suspension that got the most attention from the development team at Meriden. The handling capabilities of the new Norton frame, however, had definitely pointed up the deficiencies of Triumph’s ‘sprung hub’ rear suspension. A complete sprung hub rear wheel was offered as an optional extra on new machines or could be bought separately from Triumph dealers to ‘upgrade’ rigid frames. But judging by contemporary photographs, many racers preferred to stay with the rigid frame. The sprung hub relied on coil springs within the hub to provide about two inches of suspension movement and appeared to have had little or nothing in the way of rebound damping. Anyway, it had become obvious to Triumph that a swingarm system was badly needed and that’s the way it went with the 1954 Tiger 100 road bikes as well as for the bikes allegedly prepared at the factory for that year’s Clubman’s TT. Otherwise, engine and gearbox were as per the previous year’s T100C.

“THE SUCCESS OF BERNARD HARGREAVES LED TO THE INTRODUCTION OF THE TIGER 100C MODEL FOR 1953 WHICH WAS A FULLY RACEKITTED MOTORCYCLE.”

Unfortunately for Triumph, 1954 was the year that the legendary single-cylinder BSA Gold Star began its eventual total domination of the Clubman’s class and the best that a Triumph twin could do was the fourth place achieved by Tony Ovens. Gold Star specialist, Eddie Dow, was one of the BSA riders that year but was still getting over extremely serious injuries incurred in a very bad crash at Laurel Bank while he had been leading the 1953 Clubman’s on a Gold Star. Many years later, Eddie still remembered the Ovens’ Triumph well. He rode a ‘Goldie’ to 10th place in that 1954 race and told John White some years later that Ovens on the Triumph went by him as though he were standing still. Eddie came back to the Island again on a Gold Star in 1955 – when the Clubman’s TT was switched from the Mountain Circuit to the shorter, seven-mile Clypse circuit. This time he won the race, with Ian Atkinson and Raymond Kelly filling the other podium places for Triumph. Power was never really the issue for the Tiger 100C. Journalist John Griffith rode one in that 1955 Clubman’s race as part of a road test for Motor Cycling magazine. He finished 13th and later on during the course of the test he recorded 120mph at the MIRA test track and a zero-to-60mph acceleration time of just less than five seconds. Handling rather than horsepower was where the Gold Stars really had the advantage. By 1956, however, it was plain to see that the great-looking BSA singles had a stranglehold on both the 350 and 500cc classes of the Clubman’s TT. Seventh place for John Hurlstone was the best a Triumph could do that year, although Mike Brookes had got as high as fifth before his twin succumbed to clutch trouble. With only a solitary Velocette Viper among 68 BSA Gold Stars in the 350cc race and half a dozen Triumphs and a single Norton against 35 Goldies in the 500cc class, the 1956 Clubman’s TT proved that the original concept of the race as a way of comparing the sports bikes available to the clubmen riders of the Fifties had obviously run its course. The organisers did not see the point of creating a BSA benefit and the event was dropped from the Isle of Man calendar.