tragic heh?? poor Malc
Re: this post of mine (135) â not quite sure what happened but the YouTube video on the original post doesnât appear to be the one I intended, apologies for that. Perhaps itâs one of those âcomputer glitchesâ? Have tried again in case anyone wanted to watch it but could not, see below:
for me if there where/is a classic list of the best this is No 1 
they did produce many - any better?
Donât know about a list but thereâs plenty to choose from on YouTube. If you search on there for âTwo Ronniesâ there is also a drop down list from which to choose:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Two+Ronnies
@Barry Apologies, gone off topic yet again, it happens so easily! 
No probs Baz, Iâm enjoying the conversation 
Thanks Barry, thatâs a relief. To be honest I have yet to see a âspatâ on OFC, perhaps the newness of the site and still having to find oneâs way round it is the reason, who knows? Not too bad now though, thanks to Azz and his efforts with this new forum.
Hereâs a 1962 5ta that I restored well, I say restored it was just a box of bits really at an auto jumble but it made a nice running bike eventually. Trouble is though with restoring old bikes is that the whole always ends up being worth less than the parts, just has to be a labour of love usuallyâŠ
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One of the Triumphs I had, a brand new one bought in 1963 was very similar, a Triumph Twin 21 350cc, the same model as the picture below and same colour, with a full fairing and crash bars. It also had full twin exhausts which yourâs appears not to have. A really nice bike and with the full fairing, plus wearing leathers, it wasnât too bad for keeping reasonably dry.
I know what you mean with restoring, the same happens with the model of car I have, âa one day maybe classicâ, a Scimitar GTE. In the past Iâve restored one of these, only to find its total value is less than the parts and labour. The Ownersâ Club have actually refused to advertise any Scimitar being sold to be broken for parts, in favour of someone preferring instead, to fully restore cars as there are less and less of them around.
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Ah the old âbahtubâ style Baz. From memory both the 3ta 21 and the 5ta Speedtwin both had those as new, as in fact did some T110 Thunderbirds, but they are very hard to find now if you want to restore a bike to original spec, most of them were removed in later years because they looked old fashioned, but they did represent a certain style which wasnât too objectionable⊠unless you were under 30⊠
I always though that the 350s were underrated, they were a nice little bike and so much smoother than any 350 single. I restored a Tiger 90 at one point and kept it for quite a while as it was a very nice poky ride for itâs size.
I was under 30 but after doing all the usual things on another Triumph earlier, like getting soaked all the time and eventually having a couple of accidents I thought some âluxuryâ would be nice. It was too and gone were the days of âRockersâ going to Southend and having problems with the âModsâ. Next came four wheels and various of those, three Scimitar GTEâs being just some.
To think all this started with restoring a BSA Bantam 125cc, all well worthwhile though and a big part of my early life too. The âgood old daysâ as they are so often referred to!
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One of the last Triumphs that I restored, a 1967 T100 r Daytona. Another satisfying rebuild and nice bike to ride, but the rewire was a little more complicated as this one even had indicators! 
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That looks very nice, it must have taken up a lot of your time to have done such a good restoration. Where did you find the time? I wonder if the new, modern bikes are as computerised as the modern cars? A few yearsâ ago a friend of mine bought one of the big Triumphs when they started producing them again after going into receivership in the mid-1980s. It was a massive bike, really nice and finished in British racing green. My friend was not very big in stature and in the first week âdroppedâ the bike when stationary one day, it was that heavy. Unfortunately it dropped on his leg and broke it as he tried to keep it upright. No damage to the bike but it took weeks for his leg to get right again. Not a good start but he did use the bike again and as far as I know still owns it. Thereâs an interesting history of Triumph on Wikipedia, I expect you have seen it.
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Edward Turner has left us with some beautiful machines.
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@Psmith A little known fact about Triumph Smiffy is that immediately after WW2, Triumph had a load
of 500cc engines left over from their contract with the WD ( war department) ??
These engines had different shaped cooling fins then the later models in that they were not tapered
towards the bottom of the cylinders as they later were, but weâre parallel all the way down due to the
fact that they were produced as stationery/ static units , and as such would receive no cooling effect
from being in motion ?
Rather than just dumping these engines Triumph decided to put them into their speed twin models
of that time which came supplied with the rubbish sprung hub device!!
I know this because one of the older blokes where l was an appy rode one to work every day !! And
l mistook for being a Triumph Grand Prix, which was the fore runner of the T100 !!
The Grand Prix was supposedly their short circuit racer ??
I just thought you might be interested?
Donkeyman! 
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Baz, this one was my last and finest, but it was after I retired so that I had all the time in the world. The modern Triumphs really are that, marvellous engineering compared to the classics, and I do love some of the retro styling but like you say, they are a different animal weight wise and I wouldnât like one to drop on my leg either!
Yes he did, and his basic design didnât alter for more than three decades until the Japanese came along with their new ideas which effectively put an end to the Meridan production lines.
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Interesting Donks, I didnât know that. 
Hereâs a BMW R80 RT that I had towards the end of my bike riding days. In truth I only bought it because it was cheap and for the electric start, but I found it much too heavy and unresponsive for the sort of riding that I liked, and if the wind caught that big fairing it really took some keeping it straight. Long runs on a motorway was itâs intended purpose I guess, just the wrong bike for me. I did have a Kawasaki GT550 after this, but that was my last riding bike before I retired my helmet and gloves. Iâll try to find a photo of it somewhereâŠ
A lesson in engineering Barry, but they were a bit plump, the GT550 was a nice machine, be good to see a photo.
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kawasaki were very popular in the 70âs with fast two strokes.I would have liked one but couldnât afford it.