Biking the way it used to be

[T.W.R]

Yeah when my oldman was in the ChCh city council MOT they had a mix of BSA twins (think 650 lightning) Matchless twins, couple of Nortons & triumph Saints (which apparently were real pigs of things & none of the cops liked them).
The BSAs, Nortons, & Matchless were used more in out of town application & the Triumphs were used more around town.

here's an old paper cutting from the ChCh press when the City council got allocated bikes

[MD]

This was taken circa 1963. It's my Uncle's bike who's standing over it watching my older brother bashing it and me with the ball.
Uncle was a bike cop but I doubt that was his 'work' bike. Somewhere I have a much better close up of the bike with my bro and me sitting on it. Try and find it tomorrow. This is the first time I've used the scanner for a photo, comes out OK.

Edit: found another picture. it's an Ariel ..something

[T.W.R]

Edit: found another picture. it's an Ariel ..something

Looks like it may be either a 350 or 500 Red Hunter pretty damn good bikes

[Drum]

Those pictures are awesome and capture a time long since gone.

We cant relive the past, but I'd like to think we can keep the spirit of those guys (and gals if ther were any) alive, and this website is one of the modern ways of doing so. Lets get more of these heritage photos posted I say!!

[sugilite:Me]

Thanks for posting those TWR
The 4 th one along with the group behind is a truly priceless gift.

[Paul in NZ]

Looks like it may be either a 350 or 500 Red Hunter pretty damn good bikes

Looks like an early 50's model but too hard to tell if it's a 350 or 500. Red Hunters were quite rare so it could just be a plain old 'cooking' model but still very nice bikes.

[Paul in NZ]

Great photos guys,they are real treasures....I have nothing like that.My father used to develope his own photos,but they are just of silly boats.

It's interesting to see so many BSA twins in there,I didn't think they were so popular - it has been a great media hoodwink to make the public think the Triumph Twin was the bike of the '50's and 60's.My foreman when I was an apprentice used to say they never rode Triumphs,they were considered cheap and nasty....and were the Cop bike too.They prefered something better and faster.

Yes but the twins you see are all pre units. I don't think there is much doubt that the pre unit BSA's were probably the best bikes made in the 50's and that there were lots of them about. Generally they had a much better frme than the triumphs (and as good as Nortons Featherbed IMHO) and were pretty robust. In my own experience, by the 70's in ChCh they were getting harder to find though. Once they got old they all seemed to disappear but the early semi unit A10 / A7's were still plentiful but not popular. Of my mates that owned them, both blew motors by fracturing the thin cylinder base at the rear of the block (probably never checked the base nuts for tightness) and eventually gave up on them as bits got harder and harder to find. My own A7SS was a bloody good bike but not for me (kept falling off it).

Triumphs were easier to get parts for however but pre unit 650 stuff was always a lot harder to find than 5T stuff and IMHO the 5T was a nicer bike.

The critical difference was that the unit construction Triumph's were a better bike than the unit BSA's at first. Eventually BSA sorted it all out but they since they were all made by the same group I often wondered if the BSA was aimed at the more 'utillitarian' rider while the Triumph was aimed squarely at the yanks with wilder colours and flasher styling?

The lack of a decent timing side bearing never helped either as I suppose it made rebuilding harder?

Oh well - either way, happy days!

Paul N

[Motu]

The plain timing side bush was the curse of the BSA,and they kept it right to the very end with the A65.Crazy,when they made the Triumph 650 unit construction all they did was put the same components into unit cases,but the A65 was a complete redesign with all the faults of the A10 rectified...and still the bush timing side bearing.The barrels ripping off at the flange went right through all models too - I remember a 1972 Lightning with the top end ripped off and the barrel flange still on the cases.When getting parts for an A10 you always looked for a ''thick flange'' barrel - early ones were only 3/8,later ones 1/2in,but I think there were other sizes too.

So the A10 (and A7) were limited in performance modifications by the bush and barrel flange - you just couldn't run them with high compression.But also the cast in single carb manifold was very limiting.Twin carb heads were very,very rare,only on the Rocket Gold Star I think,even the later alloy heads were still a cast in single manifold.If you couldn't get a Bonnie head for your Triumph,you could make your own twin carb manifolds for the Trophy head.Nortons were even easier - the head ports were carb flange size,all you did was bolt on extentions.

The early semi unit A10 with plunger frame seemed to be more common than early sprung hub Triumphs,but by the mid fifties Triumph seemed to gain ground,the duplex BSA framed A10 was not as common.I had a swing arm BSA for many years,they handled great,almost as good as a featherbed,but over a wider range of conditions (not many featherbed scramblers) The A10 always ran sweet,had a nice idle and more bottom end grunt than a Triumph.

[T.W.R]

Think a lot of it boiled down to what you could afford back then. Dad said he always wanted a Norton but they were just that bit more expensive to get, thats why when the M50 came up he nabbed it, he clocked up plenty of miles on it.
here's a few more pics

[Motu]

Wow,real scrambles,just layed out on a farm.We used to go to them with our father,and when we were teenagers my brother and I would go to scrambles.Even in the early '70's they had them on Mangere Mountain,and a little further away at Ihumato,in the '80's I used to ride trials at the same farm in Ihumato.

Check out the bike in my avatar,those guys could only dream of owning a 1964 Rickman Metisse - one dream I was able to fulfill.

Actualy it's possible that bike going through the puddle is a Rickman,that is a Rickman front guard - but Rickman's also had a fibreglass tail piece,where that bike just has a plain guard.And the high left pipe was Rickman too,most triumph scramblers just ran them both down one side.

[T.W.R]

Thought you'd enjoy those pics Motu, I'd noticed the Metisse a while ago, plus that hybrid thing in the wideline Featherbed frame also. Pretty sure that photo is a Rickman, there's actually a couple in those pics

I've been keeping the size down on the photos but here's a larger shot of the Rickman plus a couple of a Victor & possibly another rickman & the victor.

Think those pictures were taken at Ogg's Farm out behind Halswell on the outskirts of ChCh either there or over at Teddington or Stuart's Gully.

The Triumph Trophy Sport TR6 had the twin highpipes, the T100c had 2-1 highpipe, Bonneville TT spec had twin stumpys.

[Motu]

Actuly we are looking at two very similar bikes there - No 2,and No 3.They have different coloured front guards and different front brakes,No2 has an alloy tank,possibly a Cheney?.Pudding basins would put it too early for a Cheney....but pudding basins were used up to the early '70's,so it is possible.

Would you believe I also had a Cheney as well as the Rickman? Like letting the Crown Jewels slip through your hands.....

[T.W.R]

Things we do huh be nice to have kept all the machines we'd ever had, but time & place dictates what we do.

At that time weren't Rickmans sold just as a rolling chassis kit that the owner fitted the engine of their choice ? you brought the chassis & purchased the appropriate engine mounting kit?

[Motu]

Yes,and you still can! If I had the money,that's the dream bike I would get.You could fit practicaly anything in the pre unit Rickman - but both my Cheney and Rickman were made for the unit 500 Triumph,I think they only had a front engine plate...rear and lower engine mounts were already welded in place,they were made specificaly for those motors,although I suspect the same frame was used for B40,B44,B50,and Rickman's own 500 BSA conversion.I loved it with the T100C (Daytona) motor - it was pretty close to a what a modern single performs like....instant punch off the bottom,but really able to rev as well.They made max HP at 7500rpm,but they would rev to 10,500rpm no worries - so you just kept them nailed and changed gear when you had the time....

[T.W.R]

Not sure if I'd want to take something like that off road these days, but it would be bloody nice to have for special occasions though.

Something like this pic would be a treat to have a road version snapped this at a one off attempted bi-annual Roadrace meeting at New Brighton ChCh back in the early 90s (shame it never got enough backing).