Triumph TR5 Trophy 1952 ISDT 650cc works machine

Description: A superb and rare photo of one of the 1952 International Six Days Trial (ISDT) Triumph TR5 Trophy works bikes. Shown is the Triumph TR5 Trophy with license plate MNX64. This machine had a Triumph 650cc 6T engine fitted. The photograph shows great detail of this impressive machine. The Triumph TR5 Trophy was a Triumph motorcycle made by at the Meriden factory. It was production between 1949 and 1958. Based on the Triumph Speed Twin, the TR5 was a trials machine designed for off road use with a high level two into one exhaust and good handling on public roads. The name 'Trophy' came from the three 'specials' that Triumph built for the Italian International Six Day Trials in 1948, which went on to win three gold medals and the manufacturers team trophy. Featuring prominently in the AMC "Class C" racing until 1969, the American export models included components from the Triumph Tiger 100 to create a motorcycle for desert competition. From 1951 the 498cc engine (used as aircraft generators during World War II was updated with a new alloy barrels and heads. The TR5 was replaced with a new range of unit construction twins in 1959. The Trophy name was resurrected for the Triumph TR6 Trophy in 1970 and the Trophy 500 (T100C) in 1971, which in turn was replaced by the Triumph Trophy Trail (TR5T) in 1973. The Hinckley Triumph company used the Trophy name for the Triumph Trophy 900 and Triumph Trophy 1200 models. The Fonz , a character played by Henry Winkler in the popular and long running American sit-com Happy Days rode a Triumph TR5 Trophy. Both the character and bike were available as an MPC model kit in the 1970s. In an attempt to ape Marlon Brando and his 6T Triumph Thunderbird, James Dean bought a Triumph TR5 Trophy. Phil Stern's famous series of photographs of Dean show him upon this bike which although sold after the actor's untimely death, was recovered and restored before being displayed at the James Dean Museum in Fairmount, Indiana. The International Six Days Trial (ISDT) or International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) is the oldest 'off road' motorcycle event on the FIM Calendar. The ISDT was first held in 1913 at Carlisle, England. It has occurred annually, apart from interruptions due to World War I and World War II, at various locations throughout the world. The early events were a true test of machine, rider skill, and reliability. Held on the 'roads' of that era, today most of the routes are truly 'off road'. Originally titled the International Six Day Trial, since 1980 it has been called the 'ISD Enduro'. Up until 1973 the contest was always held in Europe. In 1973 it travelled for its first overseas jaunt, the United States. Since then it has been outside Europe more frequently: twice in Australia (1992 and 1998), once more in the USA (1994), Brazil (2003), New Zealand in 2006, Chile in 2007 and Mexico in 2010. The event has attracted national teams from as many as 32 different countries in recent years. Over its long history the rules and conditions have changed to keep in step with the developments in the sport, but it remains a supreme test of rider and machine. Over the six days and upwards of 1250 miles a rider must contend with strict rules about time allowances and restrictions on mechanical replacements, carrying out his or her own motorcycle repairs. Usually referred to as the 'Olympics of Motorcycling' with trophies for best six-rider national, four-rider junior national, three-rider women's national, three-rider club national and three-rider manufacturing teams. Gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded on an individual level. The medals are typically awarded based on percentage of finishers, or relative to the best individual performance in the event within their specific class. Individual gold medals go to participants who finish within 10% of their class' top competitor's total elapsed time, silver medals are awarded for those who finish within 25%, and bronze medals are awarded to any rider who finishes all six days within their time allowance. The 2011 ISDE was held in Kotka-Hamina, Finland. The ISDE can attract entries of more than 500 riders, together with thousands of support crew and spectators. This has a major impact on tourist income for the venue in which it is based each year. Triumph Motorcycles was originally based in Coventry. A new company in Hinckley took over the name rights after the collapse of the company in the 1980s. The company began in 1885 when Siegfried Bettmann emigrated to Coventry in England from Nuremberg, part of the German Empire. In 1884 aged 20, Bettmann founded his own company, the S. Bettmann & Co. Import Export Agency, in London. Bettmann's original products were bicycles, which the company bought and then sold under its own brand name. Bettmann also distributed sewing machines imported from Germany. In 1886, Bettmann sought a more universal name, and the company became known as the Triumph Cycle Company. A year later, the company registered as the New Triumph Co. Ltd., now with financial backing from the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company. In that year, Bettmann was joined by another Nuremberg native, Moritz Schulte. Schulte encouraged Bettmann to transform Triumph into a manufacturing company, and in 1888 Bettmann purchased a site in Coventry using money lent by his and Schulte's families. The company began producing the first Triumph-branded bicycles in 1889. In 1896, Triumph opened a subsidiary, Orial TWN (Triumph Werke Nuremberg) a German subsidiary for cycle production in his native city. In 1898, Triumph decided to extend its own production to include motorcycles and by 1902, the company had produced its first motorcycle - a bicycle fitted with a Belgian-built engine. In 1903, as its motorcycle sales topped 500, Triumph opened motorcycle production at its unit in Germany. During its first few years producing motorcycles, the company based its designs on those of other manufacturers. In 1904, Triumph began building motorcycles based on its own designs and in 1905 produced its first completely in-house designed motorcycle. By the end of that year, the company had produced more than 250 of that design. In 1907, after the company opened a larger plant, production reached 1,000 bikes. Triumph had also launched a second, lower-end brand, Gloria, produced in the company's original plant. The outbreak of World War I proved a boost for the company as production was switched to support the Allied war effort. More than 30,000 motorcycles - among them the Model H Roadster aka the "Trusty Triumph," often cited as the first modern motorcycle - were supplied to the Allies. Bettmann and Schulte fell out after the war, with Schulte wishing to replace bicycle production with cars. Schulte left the company, but in the 1920s Triumph purchased the former Hillman car factory in Coventry and produced a saloon car in 1923 under the name of the Triumph Motor Company. Harry Ricardo produced an engine for their latest motorbike. By the mid-1920s Triumph had grown into one of Britain's leading motorcycle and car makers, with a 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) plant capable of producing up to 30,000 motorcycles and cars each year. Triumph also found its bikes in high demand overseas, and export sales became a primary source of the company's revenues, although for the United States, Triumph models were manufactured under license. The company found its first automotive success with the debut of the Super Seven car in 1928. Shortly after, the Super Eight was born. When the Great Depression hit in 1929, Triumph spun off its German subsidiary as a separate, independently owned company, which became part of the Triumph-Adler Company. The Nuremberg firm continued to manufacture motorcycles under the Triumph brand until 1957. In 1932, Triumph sold off another part of the company, its bicycle manufacturing facility to Raleigh. By then, Triumph had been struggling financially, and Bettmann had been forced out of the chairman's spot. He retired completely in 1933. In 1936, the company's two components became separate companies. Triumph always struggled to make a profit from cars, and after going bankrupt in 1939 was acquired by the Standard Motor Company. The motorcycle operations fared better, having been acquired in 1936 by Jack Sangster, who also owned the rival Ariel motorcycle company. That same year, the company began its first exports to the United States, which quickly grew into the company's single most important market. Sangster's formed the Triumph Engineering Co Ltd largely led by ex-Ariel employees, including Edward Turner who designed the 500 cc 5T Speed Twin - released in September 1937, and the basis for all Triumph twins until the 1980s. Contrary to popular belief, however, this was not Triumph's first parallel twin. This honour falls to the Val Page designed, but unpopular, 6/1. After Turner arrived, in his usual brusque manner, the 6/1 was dropped, later to be replaced with Turner's design. The 6/1 engine later resurfaced, somewhat modified, as the BSA A10. In 1939 the 500 cc Tiger T100, capable of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), was released, and then the war began. Motorcycles were produced at Coventry until World War II. The town of Coventry was virtually destroyed in The Blitz (September 7, 1940 to May, 1941). Tooling and machinery was recovered from the site of the devastation and production restarted at the new plant at Meriden, West Midlands in 1942. (It was actually the village of Allesley, which was difficult to find on a map!) One of Triumph's wartime products is of particular interest: portable generators for the RAF, using 500 cc Triumph engines with alloy barrels. The Speed Twin designed by Edward Turner before the war was produced in large numbers after the war. Efforts to settle the lend-lease debts caused nearly 70% of Triumphs post war production to be shipped to the United States. Post War, the Speed Twin and Tiger 100 were available with a sprung rear hub, Triumph's first attempt at a rear suspension. Privateers put wartime surplus alloy barrels on their Tiger 100 racers, and won races, inspiring the Triumph GP model. By 1950 the supply of barrels was exhausted, and the GP model was dropped. The American market applied considerable pressure to reverse this backward step, and a die cast close finned alloy barrel was made available. The alloy head made the valve noise more obvious, so ramp type cams were introduced for alloy head models to reduce the noise. Another motorcycle based on the wartime generator engine was the 499 cc TR5 Trophy Twin, also introduced at the 1948 Motor Cycle Show. It used a single carburettor, low compression version of the Grand Prix engine. Britain won the prestigious 1948 International Six Days Trial. The Triumph works team had finished unpenalised. One team member, Allan Jefferies, had been riding what amounted to a prototype version. To satisfy the American appetite for motorcycles suited to long distance riding, Turner built a 650 cc version of the Speed Twin design. The new bike was named the Thunderbird (A name Triumph would later license to the Ford Motor Company for use on a car). In 1950 Bobby Turner in Southern California set many speed records with a highly tuned version of the 650 Thunderbird. Several other riders like Ed Kretz and Blackie Blullock used the same machine, nicknamed “Wonderbird” also in speed record events and racing. Amazingly, the Thunderbird engine, its design origins from 1939, held the world's absolute speed record for motorcycles from 1955 until 1970. The Triumph brand received considerable publicity in the United States when Marlon Brando rode a 1950 Thunderbird 6T in the 1953 motion picture, The Wild One. The Triumph Motorcycle concern was sold to their rivals BSA by Sangster in 1951. This sale included Sangster becoming a member of the BSA board. Sangster was to rise to the position of Chairman of the BSA Group in 1956. The production 650 cc Thunderbird was a low compression tourer, and the 500 cc Tiger 100 was the performance bike. That changed in 1954, with the change to swing arm frames, and the release of the alloy head 650 cc Tiger 110, eclipsing the 500 cc Tiger 100 as the performance model. In 1959, the T120, a tuned double carburettor version of the T110, came to be called the Bonneville. As Triumph and other marques gained market share, Harley became aware that their 1 litre-plus bikes were not as sporty as the modern rider would like, resulting in a shrinking share of the market. The Triumphs were models for a new, "small" Harley Davidson as a result: the now-fabled Sportster, which started out as Harley's version of a Triumph Bonneville. With its anachronistic V-twin, the Sportster was no match for the Bonneville, but it proved a solid competitor in US sales and eventually also in longevity. We have more photos, also listed on Ebay, of other bikes, and various motorcycle (world) champions on various kinds of machinery. Please check out our auctions and take advantage of our shipping discount! The auction selection is refreshed and changed continuously. This is your rare chance to own this non period photo that reflects a very interesting and historic piece of motorcycle history. Therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 8" x 12” (ca. 20 x 30 cm). Shipping costs will only be $ 7.00 regardless of how many photos you buy. For 5 or more photos, shipping is free! All our photos are modern photos that are traditionally made from what we believe are the original negatives and are copyright protected. (Note: A. Herl, Inc. does not appear on photo, for ebay purposes only)No copyright expressed or implied. Sold as collectable item only. We are clearing out our archives that we have gathered from various sources.All items always sent well protected in PVC clear files and board backed envelopes. They make the perfect gift and are perfectly suited for framing. They will look gorgeous unframed and will be a true asset nicely framed with a border. They are a gorgeous and great asset in every home, workshop, workplace, restaurant, bar or club! First come - first served. And you can always contact us for your requests. Please ask any questions before the auction ends.

Price: 9.95 USD

Location: Utr.

End Time: 2024-12-29T13:57:24.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7 USD