Triumph Hurricane X75, sold on Trademe...

[toycollector10]

I went to the Jokers bike show in Ashburton earlier this year. There were four (I think) Hurricanes there. All stock, all looking very sweet.

All imports, I am guessing, too. They looked fantastic.

[toycollector10]

Talking of the Jokers' motorcycle show....I sent in an application and my cheque for $40 or whatever is was. I wanted to show my Japanese bike, it's sort of a relevant bike historically and I thought there might be people out there interested...Anyway, I recieved a letter back from them with my cheque included and a note saying something like, "sorry, we have no room for Japanese motorcycles". Ha, ha, they only make up about 50 percent of the current market. But they (the show organisers) seemed to be mostly into HD and Buells and the British makers and the odd Italian, so to me it was a bit of a shame. Their show, they call the shots, but for goodness sake, it was like some sort of time warp down there and Japan never made a motorcycle worth mentioning??

[What?]

I went to the Jokers bike show in Ashburton earlier this year. There were four (I think) Hurricanes there. All stock, all looking very sweet.

All imports, I am guessing, too. They looked fantastic.

Not saying that those bikes are not the real thing, but there are alot of replicas out there... A bit like BSA Rocket Gold Stars. And JPS Commandos. Some of them are very well done, too.

Looks like we were both wrong about the pipes Paul...but I too remember them being smaller and closer together.

I think you were right - the pipes are too far apart, and missing the balance tubes. I'd put a Moro bar on them being non-original.

[xknuts]

I went to the Jokers bike show in Ashburton earlier this year. There were four (I think) Hurricanes there. All stock, all looking very sweet.

All imports, I am guessing, too. They looked fantastic.

Two Hurricanes at that show. Mine and one from CHCH. Both imports, mine from 1986 as a complete basket case. I organised that British display, and it was recieved very well.

[toycollector10]

Yes, that was nice work. A nice display.

[What?]

Two Hurricanes at that show. Mine and one from CHCH..

Nice work, and nice bike. Of all the customs ever built, I have always thought the Hurricane to be the best looking.

xknuts, I have sent you a PM.

[Paul in NZ]

Nice work, and nice bike. Of all the customs ever built, I have always thought the Hurricane to be the best looking.
.

Now thats something we can all agree on...

I have a magazine article on Vetter someplace which features an earlier twin based bike - more a TT look and i can't help but wonder what would have happened if Triumph / BSA had got Vetter to do the styling of the Trident / Rocket 3 instead of Ogle.. Mind you - the windjammer fairing was no oil painting..

[Eurodave]

Paul,who was it that restyled the 'breadbox' T150 into the T160 with that gorgeous tank?

[Paul in NZ]

Paul,who was it that restyled the 'breadbox' T150 into the T160 with that gorgeous tank?

I'm not sure about that without checking in a book (not really a Trident guy). Possibly Triumph took the work back inhouse? Outsourcing the original design to Ogle was a disaster. The US dealers genuinely thought Triumph was pulling a gag stunt when it was unveiled to the US dealers at a conference.... As one book mentioned, there was never anything wrong with the Triumphs 'looks', it was the engine that needed updating to compete...

I've seen a few of the 'beauty kit' Tridents and IMHO they look way better than the breadbox aqua ones. (Triumph had to release a kit to alter the look of the un sold tridents in the USA and it was called the beauty kit)

My personal fave Trident (apart from slippery sam types) is the last US spec T150V with disk front... Nice!

Cheers

[avgas]

yeh they were a nice bike, i still would rather have a T120 though. Been my fav triumph since way back

[Paul in NZ]

yeh they were a nice bike, i still would rather have a T120 though. Been my fav triumph since way back

Still the 'C' bikes for me I'm afraid or early trophy / tiger... nice....

[Motu]

The T160 was based on the Rocket III as Meridan had the Trident tooling and wouldn't give it up....that's why the T160 has sloping barrels.I really liked the last Rocket III,with the small chrome Lightning style tank - that was beautiful compared to the big Raygun bike.Love Tridents - the noise,the handling,the ''coming on cam'' at 4500rpm....like all Triumphs,but it's special with the triple.

[Motig]

Just had a look at 'Triumph and BSA Triples' and the T160 fuel tank was based on the Vetter designed TT Boneville. The TT was never produced apart from 1 prototype due to problems (money I presume) that NVT had at the time, in fact if it hadn't been for the workers sit in the factory would have closed altogether.

[PeeJay]

The T160 was based on the Rocket III as Meridan had the Trident tooling and wouldn't give it up....that's why the T160 has sloping barrels.I really liked the last Rocket III,with the small chrome Lightning style tank - that was beautiful compared to the big Raygun bike.Love Tridents - the noise,the handling,the ''coming on cam'' at 4500rpm....like all Triumphs,but it's special with the triple.

Got it a bit ass about face. All triple engines were manufactured at Small Heath. Tridents were assembled at Meridan where the chassis and running gear were manufactured. During the lockout it was the lack of a chassis that was the problem. The T160 wasnt "based" on the R3, it was a T150 with the barrels angled to give room for the electric start and a bigger airbox.
Personally I think if BSA had designed the triple rather than Triumph we may have had a better bike. Single cam, pushrod tunnels, rockerbox intergrated with the head, all mean less places for oil to leak from, twin downtubes allowing a nice clean exhaust system. But if I had foresight I would have bought a couple of Hurricanes and popped them in a safe for 30yrs. mate of mine still has a 73 T150V he bought new from Whites. I thought he was nuts paying $1999.00 when a new 750 bonny was $1699 (thats what I bought)
cheers

[peasea]

I went to the Jokers bike show in Ashburton earlier this year. There were four (I think) Hurricanes there. All stock, all looking very sweet.

All imports, I am guessing, too. They looked fantastic.

I went to the Jokers show and I could have sworn it was in November last year. Maybe I've lost the plot. However, there were four at the Magogs show over Easter and I have a mate who owns a Hurricane with delivery miles on it. It's great to have an absolutely stock/standard one as a reference. Story goes; it was exported to the US and had a couple of faults, a porous carb body and a sticking slide in another. As far as I'm aware those faults are still there. It sat on a turntable for ages, didn't sell and was simply stashed. Twas at the City of Cycles show.

Gotta love them triples!