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Triumph Tina The start of my motorcycling career. I needed two wheels and there was this scooter that my mum had had from new, dropped on a bend (easy to do with small wheels) and as the frame cracked it was dumped in the shed. My dad said I could have it if I could get it going and so I started. I picked up a frame from the council dump for free and transferred all the bits. It was an early model Triumph Tina in a maroon colour. Six months later I passed my test and not long after got bigger wheels. |
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| The Tina was introduced to take advantage of the Scooter craze of the sixties, but was this a mistake. Triumph renown was for it's motorcycles and it should have stayed with them, spending their development budget on beating the oncoming deluge from Japan instead of this lame duck. The scooter design was common enough based around a steel pressed spine, and even the engine and rear wheel transmission unit was a fairly common layout as used on the Lambretta's of the day. The drive train was innovative and instead of a gear box, a infinitely variable belt system was used, based around a pulley which was built in two halves and was forced together by three large ball bearings rising up a ramp device under the effect of centrifugal force. This worked well, but it was the 2-stroke engine that did not. I spent hours kicking it over as you could not bump start it. The spark plug used to foul up and was a bitch to change or clean. There was a switch for starting mode so that the drive unit did not engage when the engine was started. The front suspension was adequate using rubber elements, while the rear used a single spring & damper unit. The seat formed the fuel tank which gave a reasonable range. As a nine stone teenage weakling there was sufficient power one-up. Forget carrying a passenger though, it was not up to it. The ride was comfortable and the brakes were good enough for the amount of speed that you could wring out of it. | ||
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Conclusion
The last 30 odd years has softened the image and experience. I have
seen a few in the passed few years and nostalgia takes over, but fortunately
common sense keeps me from buying one. I would say that this is a collectors
piece, but not a regular ride. |
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