Triumph Tigress This is now
No matter how we look at it, the classic scooter scene, healthy as it may be at this moment, is living on borrowed time as the bulk of enthusiasts that love such old machinery are now well into their 50s.
It’s not a pleasant thought but, one day, our loved ones will have to dispose of the machinery that we have treasured, often for decades. Hopefully, some other fanatic will step in and look after what was so cherished; and that’s just what happened when VMSC member Fred Openshaw died. His fellow classic scooter enthusiast and clubmate Brian Crook took over the responsibility for Fred’s labour of love and vowed to complete Fred’s Tigress in his honour.
A restoration story
There’s no better person to tell this story than Brian himself so we’ll let him take up the story…
“This saga commences with an ‘off the cuff’ comment from my old friend Fred that he was desperately looking for a Triumph Tigress/BSA Sunbeam 250 crankshaft.
Previously, Fred – a retired school headteacher – had completely restored a
Lambretta LDA150 that he had owned since it was six months old.
He undertook 99% of the restoration work himself and produced a spectacular, multi-show winning example. He quickly realised that the LDA was not really suited to Vintage Motor Scooter Club (VMSC) rideouts due to its lack of power, and so he purchased a Triumph Tigress 250 TW2, which required a full restoration, from another VMSC member.
Once again, Fred took on the majority of the restoration tasks including spraying of the notoriously difficult ‘polychromatic blue’, but decided to farm out the engine rebuild to an ‘expert’. Once the ‘restored’ engine was placed in situ and the engine fired-up it became apparent there was a complete lack of oil being pumped to the head, a death knell to engines of this type. Fred then decided to do what he should have done in the first place, and that was to strip the engine himself. On inspection of the crankshaft, it became apparent that the bung for the ‘sludge trap’ had been butchered and that the sludge trap itself could not have been removed and cleaned.
No amount of work could remove the bung, hence the request from him for a replacement crank.
What do we do with our collections of old fashioned, two-wheeled transport when we are too old, too ill, or even sadly departed?’ This Tigress has the answer.
With a loud bang, it blew the rear mounted ‘turtle shell’ silencer off, but at least it had started.
As luck would have it, among my pile of various scooter bits I had a crank; I’ve no idea where it came from, but it was donated to the cause.
I am sure that Fred then got on in his meticulous way to complete the engine rebuild and was on the last lap of completion of the scooter when the shocking news came through that he had been taken ill, and the upshot of this was that his previous prostate cancer had returned with a vengeance; finding places to reside throughout his body. Sadly, and inevitably, he passed away soon after and I lost one of my dearest scootering friends.
Dispersing the collection
Fast forward a few months and Fred’s widow Judith asked me if I could deal with the disposal of his LDA and the Tigress, which I was honoured to do on her behalf.
Having recommissioned the LDA, it went to a nice enthusiast in the Midlands, and I’ve seen it at a number of events through the years.
The Tigress became mine, and I planned to complete the restoration in honour of my good friend.
A restoration story, part 2
The first question was where should I start on what was a 99% complete and immaculate-looking scooter, and with little or no knowledge of this model.
Getting it started seemed like a good idea, and the need to ‘tickle’ the carb took me back to earlier days messing about with British bikes. I struggled to get it started, but I prevailed and eventually, with a loud bang, it blew the rear mounted ‘turtle shell’ silencer off... but at least it had started.
Fuel was also pouring out of the fuel tap, which necessitated further investigation and general research, but there was something to build on. The tap issue was solved by replacing the old-fashioned cork with a set of Viton seals sourced from the US, but I was less than happy with the starting issues, which launched a chain of events which was to result in cries of anguish and ‘Triumph’ in equal measures.
Being a twin engine, there are two sets of points and coils, and the system uses a ‘lost spark’ method. This means that the plug sparks on both the power and exhaust stroke of both cylinders. However, setting the timing for one cylinder results in it almost being impossible to do the same for the other cylinder and a compromise has to be reached, sometimes varying the points gap on one or either of the sets ...are you still with this?
Again, by a slice of luck, a much more elegant solution came along via another scootering friend in the shape of a Pazon electronic ignition unit. This had originally been bought for use on a Velocette Viceroy, but it had proved unable to cope with the required advance/retard requirements of that model. The problem being that the Pazon is a 12v device, and as standard the Tigress is a measly 6v system. Being aware that the Tigress electric start model (TW2S) ran on 12v, I thought there must be a solution, and so there was; with only a minor modification to the generator. Unfortunately, when undertaking this work, it became apparent that some of the original wiring was well past its best, with the sheathing crumbling and the colours so washed out it was almost impossible to identify which wire was what, which resulted in a partial rewire in this area.
Having decided to go this way for the ignition I went the whole hog and replaced the very crude rectifier with a Boyer Bransden regulator/rectifier to improve management of the now-twin 6v batteries, and also installed a Boyer twin powercoil. All of these gave me a modern, albeit positive earth system.
The other ‘Achilles heel’ of these machines is the exhaust system, which runs the twin exhaust pipe very closely under the body sides to the rear-mounted silencer. In some cases this can even burn the paint off the panels, which gives an indication of the heat being generated. Triumph must have cottoned on to this and for later models installed a system with silencer under the footboards and far more air flow for cooling purposes. Through the magic of eBay, I managed to buy the required components for this revised system bit by bit, and also installed heat wrap on the exposed pipes. The bonus of this approach was I sold the complete earlier exhaust system for more than I paid for the collection of earlier parts.
A fitting tribute
I would say that ‘Fred’s Tigress’ is now 99.9% finished, with the last 0.1% being the replacement of the somewhat crude Zenith carburettor, hopefully with a bespoke Mikuni kit, when needles become available. I took on this project in memory of my good friend, and it’s been very much a love/hate relationship with the Tigress – with much swearing and cursing, and an almost vertical learning curve in what is a completely new area for me. But given all the positive comments and words of encouragement I have received when displaying the scooter these past 12 months or so, it has been worth it, and I got my crankshaft back! Whenever I show the scooter, I position a picture of Fred on the seat, so he is there to take the accolades. It still is, and will always be, a lasting tribute to his skills. I am just the humble custodian of Fred’s Tigress.”
This Tigress has a bittersweet tale, but thankfully there are folk out there like Brian to keep what we do and the memories of past friends alive. Long may that continue. Big Chris, Brian Crook
Brian Crook