RealClassic TRIUMPH 6T THUNDERBIRD
Even after a truly depressingly number of years spent messing about with old bikes, I am still unsure why it is that I get along so well with iron-head engines. Why should a cylinder head cast in iron make for a more pleasant engine than an otherwise mostly identical unit wearing a head cast in lighter, more shiny alloy? Casting my occasionally reliable memory back down some of those years confirms that iron-head G80 Matchlesses are somehow more charming than their later light-headed offspring, while the iron-head plunger Flash from Small Heath fights a desirability contest well with Norton's excellent Model 7. Drifting down memory highway is compulsive, I find, especially when I can dredge up photos of many of the bikes I've ridden since time immemorial.
I think I had somehow forgotten that Triumph built an awful lot of iron-head 650s. Which is a little surprising, given that not only have I ridden several, and even owned a few; I even built one into an otherwise inoffensive wideline Norton to make possibly the world's least rapid Triton café racer. A friend, Jim, actually did almost all the work, but I made the tea and told jokes. The Triton was horrible, by the way. It was slow, handled badly and blew dirty oil all over my favourite lime-green cord trousers. Somethings are unforgiveable.
Which has nothing to do with the rather handsome – despite its colour – Thunderbird you will hopefully be able to see before you. I had actually arranged to borrow the iron-head BSA
