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[Les H]

I found this set of 3 vids quite entertaining....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-ABelgF ... ......Note no torque wrenches.....clever way they break the bike in with special oil and without starting them.

[Alan R]

Hi LES H-----------thanks very much for posting those vids. Certainly a veritable Blast-from-the-past indeed and quite a world away from the modern set-up at Hinkley to-day. It also goes to show how design, apart from the "Looks" of a machine, also plays an important part in helping to make mass-production viable. Those vertically-split engines & the nacelle, bath tub etc. were never going to make the transition. Through the good people on the Triumph Owners Club stand at Stafford a few years ago I, along with others were able to view the only known prototype of the proposed Triumph 4-cyl., their response to the then new Honda 750/4. Alas-- just more of the same--only this time with 3 vertical splits instead of the one. If only they had put ALL their development time/money etc into a horizontally-split 3-cyl. machine base on the then Trident/Rocket-3 with a common crank-case ???? IF ONLY ---------------------

[Les H]

Hi Alan. I’m pleased you enjoyed the films. BTW there is a very similar set made by BSA although the quality is much more blurred but in colour. There is a set of four. The factory shots start quite late in the first video:…..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll2gBdB3 ... u……The crankshaft forging amazes me, in that the crankshaft is virtually to finished dimensions when it comes out from being thumped out of a semi molten lump that a bloke is holding with a pair of tongs. The Triumph T110 in my opinion is one of the most beautiful bikes ever made. Back in the late sixties I had a friend who was given his brothers near immaculate T110 but ditched all the tin ware and swapped it for plastic racing style stuff, because he thought it looked old fashioned and shortly sold it for next to nothing. That memory nearly makes me pass out…if only I had bought it off him at the time and put all the original parts back on. As far as engine design goes there was a lot more wrong with British engines than vertically split engines, but today there is a multi billion pound industry (yes billion) by men all around this world that just can’t get enough of all that “rubbish” engineering.