Steve McQueen

[groily]

Yep, I am still not completely over my just over a year old 750 T140v Bonneville blowing a head gasket on the M1 near Watford nearly 50 years ago.

I know others from back then who are also still in recovery after spending money they barely had on Meriden builds that didn't work. Terrible reputational damage! (Actually, and irrationally of course, it's partly why I have never had a Trihard myself, regardless of their many excellent qualities  . . .)

[berger]

an old friend of mine bought a brand new T160 trident and stored it at his mothers for years while he was at uni, he put 10,000 miles on it and i bought it in 1985, the chrome on the forks was not rusty anywhere but it peeled off ln strips. it also took half a day to get to the ton and burnt way too much oil. i took the head off and my dad made some longer valve guides that reduced the oil use but i could rock the pistons a LOT and think it was a cock up on the boring and quality control had gone out the window if there ever was any. i had a couple of years fun on it getting  blown away by many japanese bikes , one race with a 400 nsr honda two up left me like i was not in motion! i didn't know at the time that the honda was sort of a race tuned engine, the trident was weeping oil from everywhere!  so i sold it and bought a 750 honda 4. hence why i bought another a few years ago. i often wonder where VGT 9R is nowadays, my mate said it stood for very good triumph

[Topdad]

I feel I need to qualify what I posted earlier I was talking up 69 triumphs where they were still 650 and pretty much sorted cheers bob

[groily]

an old friend of mine bought a brand new T160 trident   . . . getting  blown away by many japanese bikes  . . . weeping oil from everywhere  . . . bought a 750 honda 4. hence why i bought another a few years ago. i often wonder where VGT 9R is nowadays, my mate said it stood for very good triumph

One of my brothers-in-law had a (new) Rocket 3 like that bergs.
Tolerated it for about 9 months and umpteen warranty problems - and then went for japanese 4s for ever after. Couldn't be persuaded to try a Commando even - the visceral distaste for what we were churning out at that period ran too deep.
Luckily for me maybe, I could only afford old and cheap, like an A10, various Ariel and BSA pre-unit singles etc - but at least they worked. The bro-in-law, though, he expected his expensive new Brit beast to keep up with his younger bro's Suzy Hustler and other mates on smaller capacity rice burners and was indignant that - up through the gears - he couldn't. And that they didn't break down either.
'Twas a tricky old time  . . . . and while a few mates were getting on OK with T140s and Notruns in the later 70s, I went for a CB900F. Which, er, didn't break down either, although it was under-tyred and the infamous primary chain was a bit noisy at 50K miles when I passed it on.

Not sure I wanted to be reminded of all that actually - it was before the rose-tints I wear these days became a thing  . . . which I suppose kicked in when Classic Bike started up in '78. Omigawd, that's almost half a century of this madness  . . . Will it end well  ? ? ? ?

[KiwiGF]

However, in general the fine chrome plating soon tarnished, steel work rusted

The Meriden Co-op did manage to match that standard of finish.

Yep, I am still not completely over my just over a year old 750 T140v Bonneville blowing a head gasket on the M1 near Watford nearly 50 years ago.

The root cause was they had used studding and nuts (all thread for the yanks) instead of proper head bolts. I guess it was a “use whatever fits” when parts ran short at Meridan, the studding wasn’t even the right thread spec and was just cross threaded into the barrel 🤬

The head gasket blew just after the gearbox self destructed, and fixed at considerable cost for an impoverished student, as Meridan “forgot” to install the mainshaft lock washer and two gears engaged at once 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

I sold the Bonnie and bought a honda 500-4.

Pics from my past, I wonder if the bonnie is still alive……the way things worked for me back then was I used my student grant to pay for the repairs then sold the bonnie to pay the money back for me to pay rent etc. Leaving just enough to buy a high mileage (ex police!) 500-4. The special paint job on the tank resulted from a crash in Scotland on the same trip when it seized.

The 500-4 had a rattly primary “hy vo” drive chain, no mechanic would open up a honda 4 back then so I did the jib myself myself and rapidly sold it, and bought a rusty ‘66 mgb. I didnt know it was rusty 🤬.

I guess we are way off topic here, but didn’t Steve Mcqueen ride triumphs? 😏

[limeyrob]

Anyway, back to Steve McQueen, for those who haven't seen it I strongly recommend "On Any Sunday", its only £6:50 for the DVD on e-bay and worth every penny.  I saw it when it came out and had wait 30 years for a decent DVD.  Get the letter of off the Santa now and you could still get it in time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Any_Sunday

[muskrat]

G'day Rob.
I saw that at the movies when it came out, I was 10 and racing motocross.
There's 4 more On Any Sunday II (1981), On Any Sunday Revisited (2000), On Any Sunday: Motorcross, Malcolm, & More (2001) and  On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter (2014)
All worth watching especially if you like doing it in the dirt or fast.
Cheers

[limeyrob]

You've reminded me I watched a TV documentary about Steve McQueen a while ago and it had quite an extensive section on his ISDT entry.  I'm looking for that photo of Steve McQueen outside Small Heath, I have a feeling its in BSA Competition History or Giants of Small Heath.  Anyone know off hand?