The Lucas Years

Three sets of DIFFERENT Spanners (Whitworth, BA, AF) to work on my Commando and Trident.
Wiring made out of spaghetti that broke as soon as you looked at it funny, switch gear made out of re-cycled snuff boxes.
Bugger-all quality control, on my Commando, new from the factory, porous cylinder head, camshaft made out of chocolate, mind you the tyres worked, TT 100's anyone ?.

 

Just seen this thread.
I thought I was the only one who had a US spec Bonnie in those colours, I loved them but they werent too popular. Bronze and gold, hand painted pinstripes on the tank, think I paid about 1100 quid for it in March 78, traded in my 1966 A65 Rocket for it. Took it over to the TT in 1979 with my 7 yr old daughter on the back in her Bell helmet and red white and blue waterproofs which I bought from Percy Taits shop in Hay Mills, Birmingham, she still has both items tho as a mother of a 20 yr old and 17 yr old they no longer fit her.
My mrs was on the back of my best mate Johnnie's CB500T, Gordon was on his Yam XS250 coz he hadnt passed his test and his Royal Enfield Continental GT had too many false neutrals, finally Kev was there in his little blue invalid car with an 800cc flat twin engine ( we called em spaz cars in those days)
Glad to say my bike was the only vehicle between us that didnt have a problem in the 10 days we were there, tho we fixed em all by the side of the road or outside the hotel just off the prom.
Happy days.

 

Ah, yes - but do you also remember contemperaneous horrors such as cheap Japanese chrome on metal so thin and nasty it would rust whilst you sat out a rainshower because the Japanese tyres the 'bike was on were fundamentally lethal in the wet? Do you recall those big Jap fours that had three way suspension - front, back and the flex in the frame that vastly improved ride quality on Britain's Godawful roads? And what about bearings that wouldn't last through a summer let alone the salt strewn (I mean REAL, old fashioned road salt, heavily fortified with metal piercing stone and laced with some unknown corrosive additive - probably glycol-ethylene or something!) winters when men were tough and the weather was tougher? Oh, and how about lacquered ally? Hell, that sh*t would peel at the mere sight of a gold and black Autosol tube .....

Yep, we've got an awful lot to thank the Japanese motorcycle industry for - not least the rose tinted nostalgia that sometimes seems to suggest that everything British built in the sixties and seventies was bad!

Remember TT100's? Hell, yeah. In the early seventies the best way to double the value of a Jap bike was to have TT100's fitted!

Oh, and I haven't even got started on 70's Italian stuff ........

A

 

Still run TT100's on the Triton the right look and pretty good too

 

I think you mean they started putting them on the wrong side as before they were correct giving a balanced diagonal braking effect, I believe Triumph changed it to the modern set up due to the American market

 

Heathen

 

When I was a young un. All the Jap bikes had,

Stickers on the fork leg warning of Braking application may change in the wet. Your arse used to whistle Dixie every time in the wet.
Nylon Bridgestone tyres.
Rear suspension, non existent, the springs were only there to stop the frame from touching the rear tyre.
Metal covered plug caps that shorted out at the first sign of rain.
Lacquered engine covers that grew their own fur coat.
Glowworm headlights. etc. etc.
Red Stag "jointing compound". Brits only.
Mind you the Brits never rusted due to the bikes being liberally coated with their lifeblood.
Rose tinted googles ?, more like a welding visor.

All jokes aside, look how far we have come.
My fathers Moggy Minor. 15 thou gap on the crappy mechanical voltage regulator, its burned into my brain.The British did have some of the best looking cars and bikes in the world, but the FU attitude of the unions sent it all down hill. Remember British Leyland and that abortion of NVT. (Norton Villiers Triumph) for all the youngsters under age. Mind you I spent many a happy hour on my Commando lapping in every single joint to stop it leaking, it worked and I covered over 80.000 Mile on that motor.