I know you all like a good story, and I think you will like this one about my Uncle Sam’s Triumph T100 – that’s the same Uncle Sam whose Square 4 photos I sent in to OBM last year in the hope that I could be reunited with it. And I was successful!
He and his mate, Bobby Tenniswood, bought two new Triumph Tiger 100s from Bill Webster’s in Crewe, which must have been around 1947/48.
Bobby was a Rolls-Royce engineer (RR being a large employer in the area then) so, as you can see from the picture, fitting twin carbs was not a problem to him.
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Uncle Sam said they would burn most bikes off on the road at the time, and Bobby also talked his way into the Triumph factory to be taught how to hand-line a tank, and I can recall him relining a 1939 R51 BMW tank that I had in the 1960s.
Bobby also fitted a monobloc carb to Sam’s Square 4, which was still on it when I was reunited with it, and I was told Bobby did some work on Bill Webster’s Aermacchis, converting the gearboxes to needle roller bearings instead of plain bushes.
Uncle Sam said that those Triumphs were fitted with a Meehanite cast iron front brake, and you only needed one finger to work it. Has anyone else out there had experience of brakes made from Meehanite?
Colin Rider
Warrington
I remember all too well gazing longingly through the window at Websters during college lunchtime walks, when doing my A-levels. Sadly, Crewe’s premier motorcycle dealer of the time is now a tile shop – Ed.
Read more Letters, Opinion, News and Views in the February 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
