Closer look – Triple development part two
Getting the triples into production proved difficult for the BSA Group. On the road, the P2 prototypes clocked up the mileage and input from the testers helped development, but another machine caught fire, owing to an air cleaner schemed for the US market. Then the group board involved itself... Management
Behind the scenes in 1964, MD of Churchill Machine Tool Co Ltd (part of the BSA Group of companies) Harry Sturgeon, moved from the precision grinding machine maker’s plant, Atlantic Street, Broadheath, Altrincham, to take over as chief executive of the group’s BSA Motorcycles Division, whose major players included Ariel Motors Ltd (Selly Oak), BSA Motor Cycles Ltd (Small Heath), the Spares and Service Department (Birmingham 10), Motoplas Company Ltd (Birmingham 10) and the Triumph Engineering Company Ltd (Meriden).
Sturgeon needed to streamline and modernise the motorcycle division and increase production. As a motorcycling outsider, he hit resistance from brand loyalists, who considered he knew nothing about the intricacies of manufacturing and marketing motorcycles. But he also met with enthusiasm, including from the threecylinder project’s small team.
Closing the Selly Oak factory was unpopular, the huge retooling and equipping project at Small Heath was met with both enthusiasm and resistance, while the replanning of
Stateside sales was well received.
The Bert Hopwood and Doug Heleconceived 750cc triple was a breath of fresh air to Sturgeon, who realised the BSA Group needed a more powerful motorcycle to keep ahead in the power stakes. Hard-working MD Harry often arrived at plants early, chatting to staff as they started their day, and he regularly visited the experimental department, keen to keep up with development work.
Tragically, Sturgeon developed a terminal illness in 1966, dying in April 1967. Some observers consider his ever-longer absences from the works slowed factory updates and the triples project. Sturgeon appeared able to manipulate the board, who then interfered when he was away ill.
For example, Roger Barlow, employed as a design draughtsman, related one such incident in a long ago conversation. As the BSA Rocket 3 had its engine sloped forwards, one board member decided the Trident would look better with its engine tilted slightly backwards. Bad news, as with Trident assembly systems being readied for production, final drawings were complete and jigs readied for frame manufacture.
Barlow considered the redraw by himself and colleagues, frame jig alterations and the need for new crankcase patterns set the project back by four months, and all to tilt the engine back by 1.5 degrees from its designed vertical stance… Valuable time lost, while Japan was full steam ahead getting their big models into production.
Had Sturgeon lived, would the BSA Group motorcycle division have survived? Who knows. He certainly was a man of vision and despite the unpopularity of some of his streamlining, his hard-working style and approachable manner endeared him to many of his tough Brummie staff.
In early 1967, the MD of Sperry Gyroscope, Lionel Jofeh, took over as Surgeon’s replacement – and many blame Jofeh for the BSA Group’s motorcycle division failure. Viewed from the outside, Jofeh’s appointment
seemed bizarre; he had no interest in motorcycles or motorcyclists, had an aloof manner in the presence of staff, rarely visited plants or the experimental department, alienated the Small Heath employees by describing it variously as a ‘slag heap’ or worse, while one senior sales manager remembered: “He’d rummage through my desk while I was alongside on the phone to trade customers.”
History confirms Jofeh’s expense account extravagances and the vast cost he incurred, assisted by a few ex aero industry colleagues, as he established the Umberslade Hall research, design and development centre located in an expensively rented stately home with extensive manicured grounds complete with resident peacocks. By this time, the BSA Group motorcycle division needed to up its game and perhaps Jofeh thought Umberslade Hall would improve the company’s world standing. As a plan it could have worked had the triples project enjoyed a faster trip into production, to ensure better sales.
On the road
By summer 1966, Dunlop was developing suitable tyres and the revised triples, coded the P2, were ready for high mileage road testing. As expected, hiccups occurred and another machine burned out. Developments for the US market included revising the air filter to reduce intake roar under power to satisfy their progressive noise pollution requirements. Traces of blow back fuel absorbed into the air filter’s plastic foam was ignited by a backfire… Luckily, tester Fred Swift was unhurt.
P2 proving progressed, rider input led to more developments and reluctantly (due to high cost) the Mini Cooper oil cooler was chosen over others tried. The road test team included Percy Tait*, a Triumph employee since 1950/1 and successful racer. Many thought if machines withstood Percy’s hard riding, they were sound. And for the most part, the triples did.
The P2s’ revised 67x70mm bore and stroke dimensions made the engines slightly wider than the earlier long stroke prototypes, but they were more responsive to the throttle and a compromise of power output versus reliability saw the standard production model delivering 58bhp@7250rpm. Critics both inside and outside the works questioned – and still question – the triples’ crankshaft, with some cruelly describing it as ‘a skipping rope.’ As the group hadn’t the facility to cast the crankshaft with 120 degree throws, it was (as some catalogues stated) cast at 180 degrees then ‘mechanically manipulated to give the desired 120 degree throws…’
Branding
Harry Sturgeon’s mission to craft a cohesive unit out of the BSA Group’s disjointed operations met with resistance and the animosity between BSA and Triumph bubbled away. It was accepted the new triple would be marketed by both BSA and Triumph, with many parts shared – but brand identity was also vital.
Whoever dreamed up the name Triumph Trident (or, correctly, ‘T150 Trident’) hit the spot as it separates the new triple from anything that went before and describes the model perfectly.
Naming the BSA version proved slightly harder. Initially, A75 Tri-Star was chosen, which cleverly leaned on BSA’s successful Gold Star, Star Twin, Shooting Star etc, but was then dropped. Some suggest it was less punchy than Triumph’s Trident, while others claim confusion with the Lockheed/RollsRoyce TriStar aircraft development. The next try, A75 Rocket 3, proved acceptable and again alluded to Small Heath’s affectionately regarded past: Road Rocket, Super Rocket and Rocket Gold Star.
Trident and Rocket 3 appeared equally strong names and factory rivalry could be put to bed… Well, at least for the night!
Style wars
From the moment Edward Turner (ET) took over as Triumph’s boss in 1936, style was all important – again and again, ET proved himself a man of style. First, he restyled the Val Page designed 250, 350 and 500cc singles to give the sporting Tiger 70, 80 and 90, plus the understated but attractive touring 2H, 3H and 5H. Next came his masterstroke, the late 1937 launched Speed Twin in Amaranth Red – love them or hate them, there is no denying they are stunning.
After the Second World War, Turner, often aided and abetted by designer Jack Wickes, continued to shape attractive motorcycles, although some (see Triumph 21) may seem odd to our eyes in 2021, they were in keeping with their period. Throughout the postwar years and into the 1960s, Tiger 100s, Speed Twins, Thunderbirds, Tiger 110s, Cubs and Bonnevilles cut the mustard on the motorcycling catwalk.
BSA, on the other hand, traditionally built distinctive tough motorcycles, but at times styling could be kindly described as understated and some critics (not me!) consider some models ‘dull.’ However,
BSA designers did have their moments of brilliance especially, with the Gold Star range which is arguably the world’s first cafe racer. The above and more left the BSA Group with a major problem – how to style the new triple? So the thinking went, designers from both factories would want to do this for both models, there would be no middle ground and the
process had the potential to be costly and get nowhere.
The Ogle influence
Those spotting the P2 prototypes on the Midlands, and beyond, roads in 1966 would have recognised the machines as Triumph Bonnevilles, with strange exhaust notes. And this was the problem faced by the BSA Group. The new triple had to look like a new machine, not an update of either Triumph or BSA’s past successes. With ET in retirement, the decision to hire Letchworth-based Ogle Design to style both the Trident and Rocket 3 as identifiable brands broke with tradition and upset designers on both sides of the group’s divide.
Sadly, and despite Ogle’s best efforts, factions of the Meriden/Small Heath development teams made no real effort to build a working relationship with the design company. What could have been a businesssaving moment descended into acrimony. Many Meriden and Small Heath design and experimental department staff (including Doug Hele) disliked the Ogle designs; the tank and bodywork were too square, the three pipe silencers were too triangular or too flared, the concept was too Japanese etc. Again, progress slowed, with much factory indecision and feet dragging. Perhaps some staff hoped Ogle, the triple project and the need to compete with imported products would simply go away…
In spite of all that, mock-ups were made and finally accepted and Ogle’s Jim English’s clever play with the three stubby outlet pipes to the flared silencers morphed into the Ray Guns we either love or hate… Me? I love them, which is why they are fitted to our Trident, though shouldn’t be!
Into metal
Although triple development happened largely at Meriden and towards the end at Umberslade Hall, much of the triple’s in-house component manufacture and machine assembly would take place at Small Heath, with long-time, loyal BSA employee Alistair Cave overseeing the road into production. One imagines Meriden would have been Jofeh’s choice, but they were still stretched with Triumph twin production. As a result, when teething problems occurred, Jofeh slated Small Heath and Cave strongly rebuffed this, laying the blame at the door of the Meriden Experimental Shop and insufficient road testing.
From the outset, entering the production stage was going to be more costly than need be and the group missed many tricks in terms of economies of manufacture. Apart from badges, logos, finish and engine outer covers, brand identity involved sloping the Rocket 3 engine forwards by 15 degrees (perhaps a nod to BSA’s famous Sloper range from the
late 1920s and early 1930s?). This not only involved frame design differences, but also doubled the engine castings required and likewise patterns.
Frame making wasn’t simple either. BSA had the facility to accurately bend frame tube, enabling them to MIG weld frames, while Triumph could only use forged lugs, tube lengths and hearth brazing to build Trident frames. Staff recollect a 600 ton flat press was installed at Small Heath to make the pressings for the Ray Gun silencers (one can only ask why pattern parts makers today don’t use such..) and the finish on the engine covers wasn’t as good as achieved by major Japanese motorcycle makers, which employed pressure die casting, whereas the BSA Group’s outer casings were by gravity die casting.
By design, the vertically split complex crankcase castings would prove problematic on engine building as oil sealing was difficult. The solution was simple and easy to achieve, as far as Cave was concerned – redesign the crankcases with a horizontal split which would not only make achieving an oil-tight seal easier, but aid engine building too. It was the exact procedure the Japanese makers used and it makes assembly straightforward as components can be precisely positioned in the bottom half and then the top half is lowered onto it. Those of us who’ve rebuilt Japanese engines will appreciate this advantage.
That Cave got the assembly lines, as such, ready for production to start after the August 1968 factory summer holiday shutdown, despite all of the above, is a tribute to his skill and tenacity. And his problems were made worse by the fact that the promised new assembly line for the triples wouldn't be installed at Small Heath until summer 1969.
Unveiling
The Rocket 3 and Trident were unveiled to the public in September 1968 and soon the press road testers were at work. The launch machines weighed 485lbs, hit 130mph at MIRA and the mid 40s, 60s and 90s through the gears of its four-speed gearbox (fivespeeds weren’t available until July 1972). The fall of the BSA Group is outside this feature, but it must be noted NVT started
T160 development (with sloping engine like the Rocket 3) in late 1974. The T160 was launched alongside a new Norton Commando model in March 1975.
Some observers tarnish the triples with horror stories of endless problems, which are more myth than fact. What is fact is that for a few summers they outperformed more specialist machinery on the racetrack with what were in effect roadster engines and some owners enjoyed big mileages before laying a spanner on them other than servicing – a friend’s early BSA A75 covered 75,000 miles before needing a top end overhaul. That’s not bad going at all.
Production figures:
These are marginally misleading as they include spare engines for racing and rely on precise ledger recording. However, the following figures are well known, accepted and derived from factory records.
To put this into perspective, between 1925 and 1927, BSA sold over 45,000 side-valve 250cc Model B lightweights, one of nine models they often offered in this period.
Percy Tait *The CV of Percy Tait, whose twin passions (family aside) were motorcycles and farming, particularly sheep breeding, would baffle modern day human resources managers.
Post Second World War military serviceman, Royal Corps of Signals White Helmet Motorcycle Display Team rider, Triumph (Meriden) production line worker, experimental shop assistant, experimental shop development engineer, top level motorcycle racer, road tester with over 1,000,000 logged, prankster, Suzuki car dealership proprietor and Suzuki motorcycle race team engineer, farmer, animal lover and, perhaps most importantly to him and his family, many times a show champion with his sheep.
Although many volumes state Tait took to farming after he left Triumph, or even after he retired from his Suzuki dealership, as early as the mid1950s he listed his hobby as ‘farmer.’
For much of his racing career, Percy raced as a privateer or with limited factory or dealer race team support. More than once, Triumph made him pay for his race bikes, then revelled in the glory he brought them. However, this had its advantages as for much of his time with Triumph he was not restricted to racing just Triumphs.
His Isle of Man career began in 1954 with a sixth place in the Senior Clubman’s TT riding a BSA Gold Star, while he also raced Norton, AJS, Ducati, Royal Enfield, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki on the Mountain Circuit in addition to six IoM outings on Triumphs, with a best result of second in the 1974 Classic TT, aboard a Yamaha.
As well as racing on almost every British short circuit of note, he was a member of the British team for the Transatlantic Trophy, partnered Ray Pickrell to victory in the 1971 Bol d’Or 24 hour endurance race aboard a Triumph Trident, and lapped the ultra-fast SpaFrancorchamps circuit at over 116mph astride a 500cc Triumph twin (with its engine developed from a 500cc Triumph Daytona roadster) to finish second to Giacomo Agostini’s works MV, giving Triumph its best 500cc GP result. He also won the NW200 and the Ulster GP…
Many stories of Percy’s pranks abound. My favourite (and one which has done the rounds) starts with a greenhorn Triumph road tester who proudly boasts within Mr Tait’s earshot that he couldn’t understand all the fuss about this legend, as he could out brake him on every bend.
Quietly, Triumph’s ‘legend’ wheeled his day’s road test Trumpet out of sight to remove the rear light bulb, then led the young blood across nearby Birmingham with enthusiasm.
Without the leading machine’s brake light indicating where to brake, the new tester was in all sorts of trouble, but equally couldn’t afford to lose Percy as he didn’t know Birmingham.
According to the late Peter Glover, who first related this tale to me, the youngster spent some time in the gents on return to Meriden!
Percy Tait died, aged 90, in November 2019.