Historic Racing Triumph Twin’s in for RS Silencers
filed in News on Jul.17, 2009
Alan Lewis can often be seen, knee down trying to control a tank slapper on his 1939 Triumph Twin around the racing circuits of Great Britain.
The Triumph Twin was originally designed by Edward Turner in 1938 and was modified in 1939 to incorporate an 8 stud barrel. The design continued after the war and ultimately became the Triumph Bonneville.
Alan Lewis “Big Al” started racing his 1939 500 Twin [number 48] in 1976. Vintage racing allowed modification of the internals, so the bike received Racing 3134 Cams, Morgo Rods & High Compression Pistons. Mated to a Five speed gearbox, the original 1939 bike managed 100 MPH in road trim and now it is capable of in excess of 125 MPH!
“With girder forks, ridged rear end & mininmal brakes it can be an exiting ride!” commented Alan “but when you are out on the track, with good rubber these old twins are a blast!”
“I purchased a spare Triumph Twin road bike in 1980, reconditioned it to concourse standard, and low & behold one of my son’s, Simon ” Long Pockets”, wanted to race it! We stripped off the accessories, installed a Race Engine, and that became 49″ added Alan,“we all have great fun at the circuit, the most is seeing Simon trying to get into his leathers!”
With increasing restraints on noise levels in the UK, the Edward Turner 500 Twin was braking 107 dB, when “on song” [the current limit being 105 db] and small silencers were required to bring both bikes to within the noise regulations.
Alan has been associated with RS Fabrications since its initial conception at the end of 2005, and subsequently called Russell at the workshop. The bikes were picked up and silencers manufactured, fitted and tested at the Banbury facility.
“We fabricated small stainless steel end silencers to fit the original exhaust pipes,” said Russell ” and we had to bump start them to run them up to get the noise readings. After the initial warm up, 48 ran at 102.4 dB with 49 peaking at 102.8, well under the limit.”
Look out for Big Al & Long Pockets, at an Historic Racing Event near you this season.