I remember when TV looked like this ... I remember Triumph Motorcycles in the 70's ... I miss the times and the people in them, many family - all now gone. Glad they cannot see the world as it stands in 2020 ... nobody deserves that!
A gem of a video. I think the Trumpy in the beginning was either a T100, or T110 Tiger. I used to have a 1956 T110 Tiger with the same tank and nacelle headlight...Triumph engines back then were a thing of beauty, especially the timing cover, but also the rocker boxes and pushrod tubes.
I must be old but I can remember the days when workers were proud of their jobs and the work they did . Today , here in Australia , we don't even build cars anymore - manufacture has virtually ceased - the old factories have been torn down , apartment blocks in their place and home-ownership is becoming a dream (more money to the hands of the few). God help us
Yes, We give our most prolific manufacturing Jobs to foreign Countries, then with that massive capitol, they come back here and buy up all the land that becomes unaffordable to it's own citizens.
Bill Hardt In Australia it was the right wing conservative government who stopped supporting the car manufacturers. I’m a manufacturer in Australia an have always exported. Instead of whinging about it, get of your bottoms and do it yourselves.
Let's just qualify that a little: Those in power did the colonising and suppression using willing and unwilling people to do their bidding a.k.a the army and navy. Using the same rhetoric of today unspeakable acts were commited then as now - only we have more 'advanced' means of subjugation these days.
The Golden Age. If only people appreciated this type of craftsmanship again enough to pay for it. Decades ago, you saw this kind of skill in America, the UK, Japan, Italy and not many other places. Men could do so much with so little back then.
The "craftsmanship" only extended to COSMETIC FIT AND FINISH. The engines were built cheap as chips on tired equipment which was never updated until the British motorcycle industry collapsed. Triumph and Norton today are an old name with no other connection to the past, but they do nice work. "Craftsmanship" is not a substitute for PRECISION machining. That's why jet engines and modern motorcycles are CNC machined. Much love for the old lumps (I have a 1959 Thunderbird and two Norton Commandos) but we should never forget their shitty quality and awful lack of reliability killed Triumph, BSA and Norton deader than pickled herring.
You only saw this kind of “craftsmanship” in England and Italy. New bikes shouldn’t need their engines rebuilt after 1 year due to oil leaks that weren’t intended by design. The USA, Germany and Japan all built machines during that time that only leaked from where they were supposed to. Not to mention that these machines lasted for years, with some being on the road today. My 1973 BMW R75/5, 1969 Super Glide and a 1971 cb750. None of which have ever been rebuilt and all run fantastic. Just regular maintenance and in the Harley’s case a set of transmission output shaft bearings due to a lack of maintenance on the transmission.
@@ryanthompson2893 Fella; HD; are tractors; never had performance; out dated super big motors to try to go at 2800RPM to not break; however; are nice and was the definition of what a chopper should be. Regarding the old Japanese; the difference was that the block is horizontal not vertical and no pushrods tubes so you do not have leaks there (however, I have 2 79 Triumphs and no leaks; I put about 10000km per year. I rebuilt the engines. I have a 48 Triumph too. BMW? mate; nobody wanted a BMW; those not were a tuner or riders bikes; no way to tune it; heavy etc so meanwhile Triumph et all were in the hands of tuners; racers; riders; rock and rollers; BMW...where? due to that mot so much broke; no use no break HOWEVER; now travelers around American countries use a lot the GS series etc; many many break!. Ducati now; breaks a lot too. In the past; Most were crap; Triumph; etc was style and sporty; also fast bikes among the fastest of that era. Also the details in the design; compare with the details a la tractor of the HD; or a la cheap way of the Japanese copies. By the way; never ever could beat with 2 cylinders; needed to put a 4 cyl car engine and even that could not vs the tridents; but the electric starter etc convinced the young guys that not wanted to wrench but spin to the park with the girlfriend but not the riders..they needed even bigger engines etc in late 70s and early 80 s to beat the industry around the World (think in HD fella) included KTM; Ducati; Husqvarna (saved by the moto cross glory) and a long etc
I had several friends who were apprentices at Triumph Meriden site back in the 70s. We all had belts and buckles made out of the metal tank badges and triplex timing chain ;-)
Think how much time went into each machine! When you bought a machine back then you really were paying those guys wages. Now the robots are in their places.
My Dad Sonny and His Cousin Minno Had the Triumph Bikes in St.Louis in the early 1960's , Love to Look at them . Thank You , Thumbs Up and Shared :) QC
in my opinion, the ingegnieure of this time were BETTER than today: they were more honest they had a lot more fun they were proud of the created work they lived for their work ......
The British motor cycle industry was let down by management refusal to invest in more modern manufacturing machinery. Refusal to look at what Japan, Italy and Germany was turning out as regards quality. Triumph is now making a first class machine again, better quality than the ones we bought then. I bought, rode, sold, repaired many makes of British bikes over the years 1955 to about 1970. Then moved to Japanese makes, I know which gave me less problems. I also sold MZ machines as a ride to work bike, they were quite basic but reliable, oil tight, no electrical problems and quite lively too. My personal bikes were invariably BSA machines from GoldStars to Super Rockets and eventually the Clubmans Rocket Gold Star . Good Memories.
I was a old school triumph tech for many years but they started to fall out of grace to the HDs and the metrics had to widen my scope then I retired now they making a comeback to the young guys still get requests now and then what a wonderful machine
Excellent movie. An Ealing Classic. I have a biker mate who worked for the G.P.O. decades ago. he said it was exactly the same when a union dispute broke out with three people of varying size marching to meet The Brass!
It must be a great comfort to realize choices made early in life were correct. Rewards greater than the price, etc. "What good is wealth and fame if you ain't got love?" - Dolly Parton
Not the longest tenured rider with 50 years but long to have prospective. There many more good years than bad with the old Triumph company. Since 1990 the new Triumph company has been steadily improving their bikes to be some of the best in terms of quality and performance. The Japanese brands are still regarded to have the best quality of build and performance but the Triumphs are very close and generally are considered more desirable in terms of style. In the almost 30 years the new Triumph company has been back their percentage of market share has steadily increased.
Yeah jerry, that's right! The Asian factories are doing a great job building Triumphs...Asian worker, Asian jobs, Asian part!!!..WHAT? don't tell me you thought they were build in britain?,,ahahah
@@spottydog4477 I have owned nine Triumphs six from Hinckley and three from Thailand so no I am not surprised. There are two Triumph factories in the UK, three in Chonburi Thailand and one in Brazil. Pieces and parts for Triumphs come from the UK and Thailand. Final assembly of some models are based on the customer location.
I think the parts shown at 3:27 are the 'sprunghub' housings that contain the springs, axle and spokes for my 1951 Thunderbird 6T rear wheel suspension on a hard tail frame.
Great video for any pre-unit Triumph owner! The charcoal forge brazing obviously worked, but even Harley used oxy-acetylene in that era. Many today forget how poor the UK was after WWII.
Old Triumph's had one major construction error. Brake drum and rear sprocket was one piece, and the final drive chain was lubricated by the oil from the clutch, so with oil on the sprocket its not hard to guess where that oil would end up
Highly skilled men slow by todays standards must have served long apprenticeship to get to.this level of skill well.done now Triumphs mainly built in Thailand!
Many years ago, I saw this film : we can see french policemen riding Triumph in Paris. Where could I find the finish of this film ? I don't find it anymore ! Help !
At 8:35 the Narrator says, "and bored to a tolerance of one tenth of a thou.." Meaning 1/10 000th of an inch. We then watch the boring machine cutting into the cylinder without lubrication. This heats the metal causing it to expand. It will certainly expand more than 100/10 000th of an inch. So the previous statement can NOT be true. A few seconds later they show the bore being honed with lots of water. Provided they do that long enough, and well enough, they could bring the cylinder to 1/10 000th of an inch.
Cast iron doesn't need oil for one thing...also there's no way that cylinder is going to get hot from boring. The heat is in the cutting tool and the chips, not the part.
We have a technician at work that makes about 80,000 a year and he walks around and picks up cigarette butts and smokes them because he scared his wife will find out that he smokes LOL
One of an untold number of great machine works that rallied early to wipe the nazi scum out of Germany. I that was old man Lucas after retirement in the opening bits of the film.
Yes, would you be willing to share it with me , say by a one-way Dropbox link? I can't seem to reply privately but if you are willing, we can figure something out.
Liam O'Tierney: you are the 110th commentator citing the missing torque wrench, roughly speaking. Is that so remarkable? I find torque wrenches precise and worthwhile having. This sentimental yearning for the "good old days" and its production methods is ridiculous.
If you"re going to shadetree shit anyway why torque torque-to-yield "stretch bolts" correctly when there's an excellent chance you fucked up something deeper inside anyway? May as well half-ass the disposable expensive bolts and torque the standard hardware correctly.
No, but mine's still buzzing from 1952 off and the original concept kept untill well in the '80s (1983 to be exact with the development of a 900cc version, as you see with dinosaurs extinction here also a last final exorbitant growth..) And, Edward Turner's original 500cc twin version being the Hayabusa of the late 30's!
Oh ! Happy days. Where the fuck did we go wrong. Computer-iPhone - internet - social media. ALL FUCKED UP These were low paid workers in a low priced world. Sports men were paid a little bit better then a plumber Not $$$$$$ millions
Don't want to pee in anyone's cheerios but these were horrible motorcycles. I bought a new 1967 650 everything that could go wrong did go wrong but I looked cool.
Your not, you actually had to maintain your machine back in the day... A safety wire here and there. Don't miss shifts. I must have put 50k miles on mine...
Ciao, Gianfranco: Actually, no. According to current surveys, and a couple of older ones, the list is as follows: 1. Honda CX500, 2. Moto-Guzzi V7 (scusami) 3. Kawasaki H1 500, 4. Husqvarna '70 250 MX, 5. H-D '81 Sportster, 6. Greeves, any, 7. Suzuki GT 380/550/750, 8. Kawasaki 750 IV Triple, 9. Honda C50/70/90/110, 10. Ariel Arrow (finally a Brit entry). Credit: Motor Digest, unknown date - but most of the other lists cite the same bikes. The newer list is completely different (2000 - present) but still no Triumphs. I repudiate your baseless accusation for the honour of my beloved '61 6T Thunderbird, original, running and still impressing younger generations.
