Laid baclc engine
Last year, I finished an expensive, concours rebuild on my 1972 four-speed Triumph Trident. Months later, a mate pointed out the engine appears to lean backwards in its frame. I know the machine's full history and it's never been crashed, so is this a case of making bikes with tired equipment? And do I need to strip the triple down to sort this problem?
Jim Neal, email, USA.
During an interview about 12 years ago with Roger Barlow - engineering draughtsman for BSA and Triumph, including at Umberslade Hall - he related the tale of the laid back Triumph
Triple engine. He explained:
"Design and development work on the BSA Rocket 3 and Triumph Trident TISO had beei completed, the machine styled ( with input from Ogle Design Letchworth, Herts), prototypes built and tested and the production lines were readied, when a boardroom director interfered. He was happy with the tilted forward engine fitted to the BSA Rocket 3 but not the upright engine in the Trident. He wanted it tipped slightly backwards of centre to give it a more rakish look.
"After heated discussion, said boardroom director had his way and the three cylinder engine was tilted backwards of centre by 1.5 degrees. This involved the drawing team, including me, undertaking a complete redraw of the main frame - more prototype frames were built and some rejigging for the assembly line was needed. 1 believe this set back the project by four months."
When we acquired our beat-up, five-speed Triumph Trident TISOfrom an auction in London a decade ago, we checked and, yes, the engine is laid back by about 1 to 2 degrees from central.
So rest easy Jim, enjoy your machine and think of the boardroom director's instruction. Roger's description of the chap isn't one for the pages ofTCM ...