1959 Triumph Twenty One

[Voyager]

That's a nice job, I'm looking forward to seeing it progress.

It gives me inspiration to get on with my project - a 'basket case' 1930/31 P&M Panther - but at the moment I'm spending time on the Internet researching the history & looking for parts. Its also freezing out in the workshop .

I must 'man-up' and get on with it instead of eating mince pies .

Keep up the good work Devon .

Bob.

 

[Devon]

About three weeks ago I was at a local bike meet and a Woman in the cafe was telling biker Yvonne (who knows me) about the first ever bike her deceased husband bought in 1959 from Godfrey Samsons in Bideford, it was a blue Triumph and she still remembered the reg number; 621 BOD and she would love to know where the bike was now. She nearly fell off her chair when Yvonne told her that I had recently bought the bike to restore and I was sat having a coffee on another table She came over and told me all about her husband and the bike, she also has some pictures of the bike from when it was new. Funny how these things happen sometimes.

Nothing to do with tidying the bike up but Liz emailed some pictures of her late husband Pete, along with some details:

Hi Andy, some pics of my 'late' Pete with his Triumph 21 he bought new from Godfrey Sampson in summer 1959.
I first met met Pete in spring 1965, at the time I had my 150 lambretta, me and friends used to meet at what was Divitos' coffee bar at Sticklepath ( now the Pelican fish restaurant ), on Sunday evenings some '' orrible rocker types '' would take over 'our' café, little did I know then that I would end up marrying one of them, turned out to be Pete. His 21 by then had the half fairing and looked good. In early 1967 he p/x it at Godfrey's for a new Triumph Thunderbird, black and chrome, reg. GDV 32D, we saw it for a few years in some bike shows, a lovely bike. We married in 1968 and he sold the bike to ''buy a 3 piece suite'', AAAARRH !!
Good luck with the 21, it's nice to know the bike is still cared for.

 

[Micky]

Wonderful ...

 

[Edward]

I'd like that knee knocker AJS 650 CSR.

 

[mcinlb]

Looking at these pics of the 60s , motorcycling seemed to be a lot simpler then. Now the clothing / boots / gloves and bikes are a lot more 'technical'.....

 

[Nice 'n' Fat]

I love those 'Wild One' export bars

 

[Devon]

I sent some of the nuts and bolts off to be Zinc coated and they have come up really well. I used a smooth file to tidy the heads on some of them up before they went off.



The wheels came back form the local wheel man last week



My mate finished painting the tinware



And Mike came over and we put the top end of the engine back together.



Now I have many of the bits back I hope to find the time to get a load more done.

 

[David Lee]

That's going to look lovely,

Great job

 

[paramart]

brill thread love triumphs, i had the 500 version of this engine but used it to build a chopper not a purist by the way, but i kept the dizzy as it looked and worked great, used a 350 head hand scraped to fit under the watchfull eye of mick at two wheels in farnborough, with flat top pistons, only thing i found was the crank has a bronze bush that is prone to wearing, after 2 bushes i took it to have the crank ground and a needle bearing fitted, it fixed it and i was told they can crack by the bush housing, i don,t know if the 350 wears as quick, nice to see a bit of history in the photo,s well done

 

[Devon]

Haven't done much lately but now handlebars, forks, shocks and wheels are fitted it's starting to look like a M/C again

 

[Paul Rochdale]

I once owned a 1959 Triumph 5TA Speed Twin, fairly non-standard without it's bath tub. I rode her to Northern Ireland from Kent once as saw my first (indicated) ton. She leaked a lot after that run. I sold her for peanuts as you did in those day but then I only paid about £100 for her. The big ends failed once whilst I was home on leave so Cyril Medgett (of M&M Motorcycles at West Malling) rebuilt the engine in double quick time so I could get back to my unit. It was never particularly oil tight. She was the last bike I could get my heals down on the ground ;-)

 

[Timolgra]

So sorry to hear that Dave ....

How long ago?

The Tiger 90 was the sporting version 350 ... lovely bike's indeed.

1965/1966 I was a copper at Hoyland, Barnsley, and one of the other lads had a Tiger 90, I had the BSA A65 Lightning. We often had to go to Barnsley Magistrates Court to give evidence, and would take it in turn. Sometime he on the back of my BSA and sometimes me on the pillion of his Tiger

And here's Micky on his .....no wonder you rave about the XC

Good job Andy, look forward to seeing it complete

 

[Paul Rochdale]

I'd like that knee knocker AJS 650 CSR.

AJS CSR = Coffee Shop Racer