TRIUMPH TIGER

TRIUMPH TIGER

TRIUMPH TIGER

 

The Tiger 100 was the bike on which Triumph's reputation for performance was built in the years following the Second World War. Powered by a 500cc parallel twin engine and named after its claimed top speed of 1 OOmph (161km/h), the Triumph matched its speed with stylish looks and good handling to become one of the most desirable bikes of its day. It remained popular long after Triumph had introduced more powerful 650cc machines in the 1950s.

Like all British parallel twins, the Triumph Tiger owed its inspiration to Edward Turner, as it was based on the Speed Twin with which the Triumph designer had revolutionized the industry in 1938. In fact the Tiger 100 was also introduced just before war broke out in the following year, only for production to be halted until Triumph restarted building motorcycles at Meriden in 1946. In that year, racer Ernie Lyons won the 500cc Manx Grand Prix on Triumph's GP racing version of the T100, which was fitted with a lightweight cylinder head and barrel for extra performance.

The standard Tiger 100 was essentially the sports version of the T5 Speed Twin, differing mainly in styling and engine tune, and for several years was the fastest and most popular 500cc twin on the roads. Its paintwork was silver instead of the 5T's red, its compression ratio was listed at 7.8:1 instead of 7:1, and its output was a claimed 30bhp at 6500rpm, compared to the Speed Twin's 27bhp at 6300rpm. Triumph's catalogue also boasted of polished engine internals, although by no means all production bikes were fitted with such parts.

Triumph did at least provide the Tiger with an alloy top end in 1951, by which time its chassis had also been uprated with telescopic forks in place of the original girders. By the mid-1950s Triumph had improved the chassis again, this time at the rear with a twin-shock swingarm suspension system in place of the original sprung hub design.

TRIUMPH TIGER

Those updates kept the T100 competitive in the bends as well as on the straights, even if Triumph's sportsters of the 19rivals when it came to handling. Shutting the throttle in mid-corner could strain the single- downtube cradle frame enough to induce a wobble, but Motor Cycling's 1957 test reported that 'handling and steering, one or two-up, was as good as ever'.50s were generally not quite up to the standard of Norton's Featherbed-framed 



 

TRIUMPH TIGER

Clubman's TT success

By this time further racing success had boosted the Triumph's appeal, both in America and also on the Isle of Man, where a T100 had won the Clubman's TT in 1952. The following year Triumph produced a race-ready replacement for the discontinued GP model. The T100C, complete with race-kit parts including hot cams, twin-carb conversion and megaphone pipes, put out a healthy 40bhp.

In standard form the twin did not initially quite live up to Triumph's 1OOmph (161km/h) claim without the help of hill or tail-wind, but it wasn't far off. Motor Cycling magazine timed a T100 roadster at 96mph (154km/h) ill 1951, when a race- kitted version was good for almost 1 lOmph (177km/h). And by 1957, when the basic Tiger had gained a twin-carb head and sportier cams, it managed a genuine 105mph (169km/h).

TRIUMPH TIGER

In 1960 the Tiger was replaced by an all-new model of the same name, complete with unit- construction engine and revised chassis with bathtub rear enclosure. By now the 500cc sportster had been put in the shade by the arrival of the 650cc Bonneville, but the smaller twin continued right through the 1960s, and formed the basis of the twin-carb T100T Daytona in 1967. Triumph's 500cc bikes had come a long way from the original Tiger 100 of almost 30 years before.