![]() ![]() Additionally, the gearbox was redesigned to facilitate engagement and the clutch received an extra plate. The latter’s twin-cylinder 490cc 5T design was strengthened internally, with a reinforced big-end assembly and a more efficient oil pump. The model 6T Thunderbird was marketed as a roadburner when it first appeared in 1949, its engine being essentially a bored and stroked version of the 5T Speed Twin design that had been relaunched after WWII. He replaced only the contact breaker points (recently upgraded to electronic ignition), both tyres and a single spoke in the rear wheel, while the rear carrier and top-box were transferred from a Norton ES2 that he had previously used for touring duties. Pete subsequently added another 14,000 miles of his own to the recorded mileage of 4500, but still the engine assembly remained just as it had been, the day it rolled off the production line at Meriden in the autumn of 1966. Well, I just could not believe my eyes when I saw the quality that was underneath all that dirt and grime! So I coughed up the £1000 and spent the next day at home, polishing the whole lot until it was gleaming and immaculate.” One day, I took a rag and some polish with me, and began wiping away at a small section at a time. “Of course, every time I went to the village with my gas van, I had another look at it. “The asking price was £1000, which was quite a lot of money for any Triumph twin in those days, so I left it for a while,” recalled Pete. Curiosity made Pete decide to go and have a look, even though the model was not one that he coveted, and his enthusiast’s eye soon noted its finer points. Pete was alerted to the bike’s existence by one of his employees at British Gas, who had spotted it through an open doorway during a routine service call. But even then, it stayed where it was, gathering dust at the back of a garage for the next 16 years.” “Now, the mechanic never ever got round to servicing that bike,” Pete told me, “so eventually, the owner moved out of the area and sold the bike to the mechanic. After five years, he left it with a local mechanic for a 5000 mile service. The first purchaser was a mature rider from Oxfordshire, and MoT certificates confirm that he covered 1000 miles every 12 months. ![]() It also came with a full history from the date of sale in 1967, by Triumph specialists H&L Motors of Stroud, in Gloucestershire. It required virtually no restoration and would have been relatively unremarkable, even for having been registered in the year after production ceased, but for the fact that it was 100 per cent original and in exceptional condition.
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