Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127164
or at least .a Britis ness, rather th an to quarter-mile tim es and top speed. We never saw a n y Les Harris Triumphs on thi s side of the ocea n . No Bonnevilles for the land o f its nam esak e, th e Bonnevill e Sa lt Fla ts. No t th at th er e is any lack o f Triumphs in thi s cou n try. U no ffic ia l so u rces es ti ma te that some 250,000 Triumphs a re still lo itering in th e United States, abo u t 25 percent being o n th e road , the rest gathe ring du st a nd ru st in barn a nd ba ckya rd . All you hav e to do is find one, con tac t an y o f th e many, many shops cat- • ering to th e Brit-bike enth usias ts, and get it running. Triumph (Co ventry), th e co mpany that owns the Triumph name and rights th ereto, was bought in th e ea r ly 80s by a businessman a nd motorcycle enth usiast named J ohn Bloor. There was no Triumph facto ry involved in th e deal , just th e name a nd good will. Not bein~ ready to plunge into th e co m p lica tio ns o f actual production wh en he bought Triumph, Bloor arranged th e tem porary li censing agreement with LF. Harris Ldt., but he had every intentio n of man ufacturing his own lin e o f Triumphs at some point. Alon g with th e Triumph nam e, Bloor al so ac q u ired J ohn Ro sa mund , a 'T riu m p h hand from way ba ck. Bloor ha s a g rea t many bu sin ess interests scattered arou nd th e worl d, a nd Ro samund is in cha rge o f th e motorcycle end of things. Wh en I spoke with Rosamund, it did not beh oove him 10 talk about th e plan s that Triumph (Co ve n try) might have. Understandably; this is a sensitive a rea. Bu t wo uld th ey co nt in ue th e traditional Bonneville? New models? Ro samund sa id th e com pa ny would talk on ly wh en th ey have a ma chine co m ing off th e p rod uc tion lin e. T h at' s a g o od marketing stra tegy. Ap petites ca n on ly stay wh etted for so long, befor e they lose their edge. The not-too -secret ru mors say that a la rge fa ctory is presently go ing up in Leicestersh ire, and th a t wi thin a year some wonderful surprise will be sp ru ng on us. Do not ho ld your breath, b ut so me thi ng is coming wi th the T riumph logo on the tank. About Bloor, it has been said that h e has never p u t a wro ng foot forward, that everything he to uc hes turns to go ld. Good lu ck. Obviously Triumph does not have to stic k with th e a ir-coo led engine th at we ha ve kn own a nd loved for half a cen tu ry, an y more th an BMW co u ldn' t co me out with th e Kvser ies, or 'Ford could dr op th e flathead V8. Pro gress is c ha nge. Triumph will ch a nge. Just how , we don 't kn ow ye t. It ' s th e Triumph nam e th at is important. Sho uld th e twin live on, . it will undoubtedl y have siblings o f a sli gh tly different var iety. If th e aircooled verti cal twin is put o u t to pastu re, o ther models will ca rry the "Triumph " name o n th e gas tank. Speaking of names, le t us retu rn to Les H a rr is a nd h is p ro jects. Two years ago Ha rr is bought the Matchless name, lock, s to c k and flying " M" from Den nis Poore. T here were no Matchboxes, j us t a name. But a good nam e, rem emb ered by many for the u til itarian 350cc G3 · a nd racey 500cc OH C G50 sing les, th e sq ua t cyli nders o f the 500cc G9 a nd 650cc GI 2 twins, and th e many varia tio ns o f th e 500cc G80 thumper. H arris co ntrac ted with th e Ro ta x p eople in Au st ri a to p rovi de him with th eir 494cc, a ircoo led, si n g le -cycl i nder , SOHC four-val ve engine, with integrated five-sp eed transmission. He popped this iru o a do uble-cradle chassis o f h is design, p u t on wire wheels (19in ch o n th e front, 18 o n th e rear), du al shocks, a dru m brake on th e rear, a di sc up front (dua l di scs a re op tional), a nd Lucas (for th ose wh o beli eve th at you can' t have a true Brit -b ik e withou t J oe Lucas o n board) turn -signal s. " G8 0" is ste nciled on the sidecovers, the flyi ng " M" on the tank. T his adds up to a dry weight o f around 330 po u nds for th e kic k-s ta rt model ; electric sta rt ing is another op tio n . And it all belongs to H arri s. The Mat ch less na me, that is. H e can 'do wha tever he lik es wi t h it. H e showed hi s G80 a t th e big Cincinnati tra de sho w in 1987 a n d ge ne ra te d , a good deal o f interest from Ameri can d eal ers. H e h as handled ins urance a n d E P A p rob lem s, so th e new Mat chless can be impo rted int o the U.S . The o n ly hin d rance is the price, wh ich is high: 4900 wit h d u a l discs ' a nd e lec tri c starter. He has an Ame rican d istribu to r, Sla ter Bro th ers, that wants to find dealers who have clients (the nice word for customers ) who won 't m ind parting with five gra nd to purch ase the G80. T he inten tio n is to find bu yers who rem ember th e fun o f the o ld bik es, and p ro m ise the same fu n in modern guise. ' H arr is also has p lans for a sportier G50 version, a nd Rotax has a more p o werful vers io n o f th eir 500cc engine in the works. But th e Mat ch less nam e doesn 't limit hi s intentions to single-cylinder machines. Working on th e dra wing board near Les's offi ce is Brian Jones, a n o ld Triumph hand, a nd the stac ks o f blueprin ts mi ght mean one co uld expec t a Matchless twin of a new design to rea ch th e m ark et bef ore th e millenium. T he matchless Matchless nam e is alive and well. It won't co mpete head on wi th the J a panese marques, bu t it will ,fill a nich e in th e specialty market. , The rea l exci teme nt, th ough, is up a t She ns to ne, Staffordsh ire, wh ere th e Norton name is very much alive, a nd is the most exci ti ng o f th is tri o. In th e musical chairs, or mo to rcycle, of De n n is P o o re da ys, Norton was a lways the stro ngest. Poo re had promo ted the excellen t Com ma ndo series , wh ich di ed a bru ta l death in 1976 due to the who le industry's goi ng down th e tubes. Bu t in th e wing some th ing else was waiti ng. Back in the la te 60s a BSA engineer by th e name of David Garside was working o n d es igning ' a rotary engine for motorcycles. BSA merged into NVT, a nd the ro tary stayed o n , a ba ck burner. The in terest was th ere, ' the money wasn 't. A rotary engi ne? Yes, it is quite d ifferent from a reciprocating engine. In a motor cycle engi ne as we kn ow i t pis IOns a re a ttache d 10 co n nec ting rods a ttached 10 a cran ksha ft, provid in g lo ts o f mov in g pa rts and reciprocating for ces, wh ich in turn created vib ration. In a ro tary engine the wh ol e th in g is sim p li fied; put a rotor o n a sha ft, and spin that, with intak e, compressio n, a n d exha us t impulses. Look at a ro tary engine as a threesided operation: first side suc ks in the fue l; second co m presses a nd ignites it ; th ird ex pe lls it. Halfway between a four-stroke and a twostroke, o ne mi ght say, a nd none o f th e com plication or vib ration o f a reci p roca ting engi ne. The difficulty with the ro tary conce p t has been in crea ti ng a n adeq ua te sea l between th e ti ps o f th e rotor and th e walls of the cylinder as the triangulated ro to r spins aro u nd ins ide th e vaguely ovalish cylinder. This is a fun ction that th e pi ston rin gs serve o n a reciprocating engine. The ro tor tips on the Norton engine a p pear to work ad mi ra bly. The original ro tary desi gn dat es ba ck to th e 20s; th e first practi cal units were built by Fritz Wankel in th e 50s: Economi cally u nsuccessful, th ough technicall y so u nd, a pplica tions were th e NS U a u to mobi le ro tary, which p ro voked th e demise of this German com pa ny , a nd the