1936 Triumph 6/1

Humbug

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I have a friend who's been hankering after a pre war bike for a while now.

He went to an auction in Cambridge yesterday and came back with this beauty.

It's a rare 1936 Triumph - only 200 were ever made. Three owners from new and totally unrestored. Lovely!

1936 650cc Triumph 6/1

In July 1933 a brand new, modern Triumph made its bow in the shape of two prototype machines. This exciting machine, coded 6/1, was to enter limited production for the 1934 season but was only to be listed for two seasons. Not only did it have an advanced specification but it only sold in extremely small numbers, a few hundred only ever being built and today extremely rare. Designed by Val Page, the 647cc vertical twin cylinder engine bore no relationship to the Edward Turner Speed-Twin which debuted in 1937 and was subsequently mass produced in many guises and capacities. The 6/1’s valves are operated by a single gear driven camshaft mounted at the rear of the crankcases. The Mag-Dyno is gear driven from the camshaft with the dry sump lubrication featuring an oil container in the crankcase. A flywheel is carried on the nearside of the 360 degree crankshaft and, outboard of it, is the primary drive which is by double helical gears, an expensive feature and, because of this, the engine has to run backwards! To celebrate the arrival of the 6/1 an example was hitched to a sidecar and, after circling Brooklands for 500 miles at 60mph, was put through the gruelling ISDT winning the coveted Maudes Trophy. The vendor relates that the bike was purchased in 1936 and sold the same year to a brother in law, Mr Alen Oven, who kept the machine until approximately 1998 when the current custodian purchased it. In the approximate 5,000 miles covered in the next 10 years the Brooklands banking and famous Test Hill have again been ridden. The urge to restore has been resisted and the 6/1 is presented in running, original, unmolested order and complete with V5C, SORN and some hoarded spares which include a front hub, rear wheel and seat covers. A unique opportunity to purchase one of the very rarest of all historic British Motorcycles.


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Exposed valve gear.

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Triumph 6/1

Hello, Lovely Triumph your friend purchased in actual fact i was the underbidder at the auction! However hoping it doesnt sound like sour grapes there are quite a few 'issues' with the bike that your friend may or may not want to know about. I have restored one of these bikes in the recent past and doing this it was nessesary to research the model and in doing this i know a bit about them! One thing is without a doubt this bike has been restored and in parts badly! One thing that really must be done is the wiring to the tank panel as the previous owner has wired it from the seat up the tank when it should be wired from the front of the tank and go under the little tin cover there for that purpose.I would be happy to discuss details of the bikes spec with the owner should he want to know.either which way a lovely bike! regards David
 
Hello everyone. This is my first post here. I was reading the discussion. I own this bike and I´m restoring nowadays. My fuel tank is not original (5/1) and I´m looking for an original one (6/1). Could anybody help me? Thank you.
 
Hello! I'm the proud (new) owner of the Triumph and rustyrex was right- there were a few issues. Some still to be sorted. However, rewired, T&T'd, we've covered over 500 miles this summer. Valve guides are worn, the fork bushes need doing and the front brake drum needs skimming- winter jobs I reckon. I have some brochures and an instruction manual reprint but not much detail. Any info or advice would be appreciated. It's a lovely old bike to ride. Lucky me!
 
I was the proud owner of a model 61 in 1957.it had a Cooper type sidecar made at lagonda factory. Great machine that served me well in my younger married days.
The only problem I had with it was, the holding nut on the helical gear drive from crankshaft, kept working loose and I had to stop in the most unfortunate places to remove cover and tighten it up again lol, apart from that. a lovely machine. I wish I still owned it, would be great for travelling around Spain where I now live in my retirement
 


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