Les
I had the 1952 Triumph 500 cc TR5 , into which I fitted
2 Bonneville inlet cams (3134 cams, popular mod for 500 cc. ), 9 to pistons, and twin carbs.( installed on a solid aluminium manifold that my Father got made in the machine shop in Shorts )
I then bought a 1954 Norton Dominater 88.
I took the engine out of the Triumph frame , and installed it in the Norton frame.
I managed to get a set of close ratio racing gears from a racing unit construction "works " 250 cc New Imperial which had raced in the 1936 Ulster grand Prix. These gears were made by Sturmey Archer who made the Norton gearboxes, and they installed into the Dominater's gearbox shell. Seeing they were racing gears there was no provision for a kick start, I always had to bump start it .
Roy's Bonneville was the first year Triumph changed the frame from the duplex front down tube to the very large single down tube, 1962 I think. The colour scheme was Gold / White with a black frame, a lovely looking bike.
It was unit construction. It came from the Factory with the "Race Kit", this was remote rubber mounted carb float chamber----- this enabled the engine to go 1,000 revs higher------the petrol frothed in the normal carbs at high revs
Rosie's memory is going also, she came to my house in Bloomfield to show me her new automatic Mini.
