The T140W TSS was the last
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
model made by
Triumph Engineering
Triumph Engineering Co Ltd was a British motorcycle manufacturing company, based originally in Coventry and then in Meriden. A new company, Triumph Motorcycles Ltd, based in Hinckley, gained the name rights after the end of the company in the ...
at their
Meriden factory.
Development history
Designed to appeal to the US market, the TSS had an eight valve
Weslake Engineering
Weslake & Co also known as Weslake Research and Development was founded by Harry Weslake, described as England's greatest expert on cylinder head design, with premises in Rye, East Sussex, Rye, East Sussex, England. Weslake is most famous for its w ...
cylinder head
In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber.
In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ov ...
developed by Triumph's
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
from a 1978/9 design originally commissioned from Nourish Racing of Rutland
[''A Final Bid To Triumph'' Classic Bike (April 2012(] following 1960s designs for the 650cc twins by the
Rickman Brothers.
The crank was a fully machined single forging with increased big end diameter making it much stiffer and better-balanced and producing one of the smoothest running motorcycles in the Triumph range.
The head had smaller valves set at a steeper angle (30°). Recesses in the pistons allowed a 10:1 compression ratio.
UK models had a pair of 34 mm
Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
MkII
carburetor
A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...
s while the export models had
Bing
Bing most often refers to:
* Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer
* Microsoft Bing, a web search engine
Bing may also refer to:
Food and drink
* Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread
* Bing (soft drink), a UK brand
* Bing cherry, a varie ...
constant velocity carburetors. Other changes from the standard T140E included offset
connecting rods
A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the cranksha ...
, steel-linered alloy barrels,
a strengthened swinging arm, and a high output three-phase
alternator
An alternator is an electrical generator that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current. For reasons of cost and simplicity, most alternators use a rotating magnetic field with a stationary armature.Go ...
.
A modified TSS raced by
Jon Minonno for Texan
Jack Wilson's Big D Triumph dealership achieved outstanding results in the
Battle of the Twins
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
races for 1981–1982.
Specification
![1982 Triumph T140W TSS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/1982_Triumph_T140W_TSS.jpg)
Launched in 1982 with an electric starter as standard, the all-new top end of the engine featured Cooper rings sealing the 8-valve cylinder head to the barrel. American Morris
alloy wheel
In the automotive industry, alloy wheels are wheels that are made from an alloy of aluminium or magnesium. Alloys are mixtures of a metal and other elements. They generally provide greater strength over pure metals, which are usually much soft ...
s were an option
[''Bonnie: The Development History Of The Triumph Bonneville (2nd edition)''(Nelson)Haynes Foulis 1994] with dual
Automotive Products
Automotive Products, commonly abbreviated to AP, was an automotive industry components company set up in 1920 by Edward Boughton, Willie Emmott and Denis Brock, to import and sell American-made components to service the fleet of ex-military truc ...
Lockheed disc brakes upfront as standard.
The fins of the black painted engine were polished although, like the
Triumph TR65 Thunderbird
The Triumph TR65 Thunderbird is a motorcycle made by the Triumph worker's co-operative at the Meriden factory from 1981 to 1983. The TR65 was a reintroduction of the Triumph Thunderbird model name first used on the original 6T Thunderbird of ...
, many alloy cycle parts that had in the past been bright–polished or chromed were now painted satin black.
Mudguards were stainless steel as were the Italian
Radaelli Radaelli is an Italian surname
A name in the Italian language consists of a given name ( it, nome), and a surname (); in most contexts, the given name is written before the surname. (In official documents, the Western surname may be written before ...
rims for the wire-spoked wheel option.
The high specification air-oil 'Strada' rear suspension units were supplied by Italian firm
Marzocchi
Marzocchi is an Italian manufacturer founded in 1949 by brothers Stefano and Guglielmo Marzocchi. The company profile doesn't include hydraulic industrial pumps anymore but only suspension components for motorcycles and bicycles. The Marzocchi Pom ...
.
Like the Italian–sourced petrol tank, other OEM components were now from mainland Europe: French
Veglia
Krk (; it, Veglia; ruo, Krk; dlm, label= Vegliot Dalmatian, Vikla; la, Curicta; grc-gre, Κύρικον, Kyrikon) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Ko ...
clocks, Italian Paioli petrol taps and German
Bumm mirrors,
Magura choke lever and
ULO direction indicators
[''Fast And Varicose'' (Motorcycling 7/82)]
Unlike most Triumph models, no USA style with high handlebars and two-gallon tank was officially specified (until the TSX8-see below), all advertised models coming with the Italian four-gallon tank and low handlebars as well as the newly introduced alloy 'dog leg' clutch and front brake levers.
The actual version exported to the USA received a black paint scheme with gold-lined red 'wings' along with newly shaped megaphone mufflers and German Bing carburettors.
[''Triumph TSS-The Legend Reborn'' (Rider 2/83)] A one-off variant in line with the
Triumph Bonneville T140EX Executive was produced for a London dealer, albeit again in gold-lined black, but with the Executive's standard ''Brealey-Smith'' 'Sabre' fairing and luggage by
Sigma
Sigma (; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; grc-gre, σίγμα) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as ...
. All TSS were shod with
Avon Roadrunner tyres.
Only 112 TSS bikes were actually exported by Triumph, as on 26 August 1983 the factory at Meriden went into voluntary liquidation. It is calculated that 438 TSS units were made in total.
The TSS, particularly the engine, was generally well received by the British and international press
although a long term test by
''Motor Cycle Weekly'' revealed early cylinder heads to be porous and wet weather braking failure. In an interview in US magazine, ''
Motorcyclist
Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small- displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in the most populous c ...
'', Meriden's Director of Engineering,
Brian Jones
Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English multi-instrumentalist and singer best known as the founder, rhythm/lead guitarist, and original leader of the Rolling Stones. Initially a guitarist, he went on to prov ...
revealed that the epoxy coating on the initial cylinder heads supplied by Weslake disguised the porosity problem from their factory testers.
TSSAV
Fitting an eight-valve engine in an anti-vibration frame was first mooted by the factory at the 1981
Earls Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
motorcycle show on the prototype super-tourer, TS8-1. Now displayed at the
London Motorcycle Museum
London Motorcycle Museum displayed a range of over 150 classic and British motorcycles. It closed in October 2019, partly due to inability to meet the running costs.
A charitable trust, it opened in May 1999 at Oldfield Lane South, Greenford, ...
, the TS8-1 had plastic bodywork by Ian Dyson of contracted stylists, Plastic Fantastic.
For the unrealised 1984 range, the TSS was to have had Meriden's 'Enforcer' anti-vibration frame as standard where the engine was rubber-mounted in a special anti-vibration frame. Styling changes included the adoption of parts from the
Triumph T140 TSX
The Triumph TSX was a British motorcycle credited by the factory as being designed in 1981–1982 by Wayne Moulton, president of Triumph Motorcycles America(TMA), the factory's American arm.''Save The Triumph Bonneville ! The Inside Story Of ...
model such as the abbreviated rear mudguard albeit in stainless steel and side panels with a TSX-styled TSS badge affixed. These replaced the original side panels which had been extended to cover the Bing carburettor linkages on the USA export models. A plastic 'ducktail' seat unit was mounted above the shortened rear mudguard of the projected 1984 civilian model and rear set footrests, brake and gear shift mechanisms fitted. Police TSS AV retained the standard footrest/control arrangement as well as conventional cycle parts over the ducktail and TSX parts. Due to the height clearance limitations caused by the engine jogging about its rubber mounts within the Enforcer frame, the shorter Amal Mk2 carburettors instead of Bings were fitted.
[''Guide Lines'' (Cycle Guide 6/83)]
![Triumph T140W TSS close up](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Triumph_T140W_TSS_close_up.jpg)
Only three examples of the TSS AV in police and civilian specification were ever made
[''Mr Smoothy'' (British Bike Magazine 6/92)](and one bare frame) including one for the late Chris Buckle, proprietor of former Triumph dealers, Roebucks Motorcycles. Not quite to the envisaged 1984 specification, this was made on 27 June 1983 and is, according to the factory production records held by the Vintage Motor Cycle Club, the last complete Meriden Triumph.
[''Meriden's Last Twin For Sale''(Classic Bike 4/90)] This is the pictured burgundy-coloured example now on display at the
National Motorcycle Museum in
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
,
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
close to the former factory site. It was factory -fitted with
Koni rear suspension units and omitted the 'ducktail' in favour of the conventional rear mudguard arrangement.
TSX8
Another prototype from the unrealised 1984 range, a TSS engine, with Bings, in
Triumph T140 TSX
The Triumph TSX was a British motorcycle credited by the factory as being designed in 1981–1982 by Wayne Moulton, president of Triumph Motorcycles America(TMA), the factory's American arm.''Save The Triumph Bonneville ! The Inside Story Of ...
cycle parts was to be marketed as the TSX8, the original four-valve version renamed as the TSX4.
Wayne Moulton
Wayne LaVar Moulton (June 19, 1932 – August 21, 1995) was a motorcycle designer called "the father of the Japanese cruiser" after introducing specific designs for importers to the lucrative US motorcycle market. The custom/cruiser market cont ...
who designed the TSX, had originally done so with the 8-valve TSS engine in mind.
Notes
{{Triumph motorcycles Meriden
T140W TSS
Motorcycles powered by straight-twin engines