Timid Tiger?

The Bonnie gets the glory; its single-carb sibling less so. Is this unfair?

 

 

- Oliver Hulme

OF ALL THE TRIUMPH TWINS the early Oil in Frame (OIF) models from the Seventies are the most controversial and the least loved. Introduced in 1971, the OIF Triumphs had an unhappy birth. The last of the pre-OIF twins were loved and respected as the pinnacle of the twin’s design, so when the team at Umberslade Hall Technology Centre – set up by parent company BSA – came up with their new look they were always going to have a tough job winning hearts and minds. That would have been okay had the design been good, but there were so many problems with the first models that they almost sank the company.

The frame was the biggest problem from the start. The pre-OIF twins were so popular in the US that Triumph had to place adverts in the press apologising for not being able to make enough of them to meet demand. But these glory days came just as the Japanese were getting into their stride. They didn’t handle like Triumphs, of course. So what did the design team do? They took away the one thing that Triumph had over Honda and the like – they junked the frame, coming up with a new design that was heavily flawed.

In theory OIF is a good concept, and other manufacturers have followed the same route. But the Umberslade Hall designers messed up. The oil filler had to be mounted halfway down the drainpipe thick frame tube, instead of higher up near the headstock, because the oil foamed in the top tube. This lower location reduced the oil capacity below its optimum level. The frame, using a design that was also used on BSA twins, was said to be too tall for the average rider. When the frames arrived at Meriden the workers found that they couldn’t get a complete Triumph twin engine into the frame without removing the rocker boxes. Frantic efforts were made to modify the frame, but by now the flawed bikes were in the showrooms and new owners discovered more faults.