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Feline on the road
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Karunakaran no longer can ride his Tiger 100, but he still pets over it
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TIGER CONSERVATION The ferocious 1957 TIger 100 twin and its docile master
If the Japanese sport bikes have not been able to put the skids under Triumph, it's because the motor company has always played to its strengths and shunned areas or even topics (try catching a Triumph marketing guy drawing comparisons between Daytona 955 and a Suzuki GSX-R1000) where its soft underbelly would be exposed. An almost heartless willingness to drop like a hot brick anything that has outlived its utility has been Triumph's other major strength. Perhaps, the separate and tiny polygonal blocks in its logo signify Triumph's various stages of growth and also its ability to be totally finished with something before moving on to anything new.
During WWII, Triumph went with the tide, producing motorcycles for the cause. Its 343cc model (called 3HW) was on par with the best that BSA produced for the Force. However, when the revolvers went into silence Triumph dumped its moulds in Thames and went back to making machines that were as suited for the war-field as a dead soldier. Before the Great War, these models had gripped a whole generation that was looking for some excitement on the road and a resourceful ally on the track-field.
Post-war, Triumph was recovering lost ground by adding features (that no eye can miss) to these very models - the Speed Twin and the Tiger 100. The new versions had telescopic front forks and sprung rear hubs, headlights and clocks that came wrapped around in a nacelle case.
The Tiger 100 had caught the American racers' eye in the late 1930s, but its popularity soared to a new high when a Tiger 100 (ridden by Ernie Lyons) won the 1946 Manx Grand Prix, leaving behind a pack of panting Nortons. It was a period when the Norton had gained a reputation for speed by making a habit of winning the Man Of Isle TT series and most of the other major racing events. Discerning racers noticed that Norton and Triumph were level-pegging and took the trouble to study the relative strengths the two vehicles and this gave birth to Norton-Triumph "hybrids" that were holding sway for a while.
Karunakaran owns a Tiger 100 that was born during the Triumph's heyday. Truth be told, now he can't push his 500cc twin 1957 Tiger 100, let alone ride it. The man did not miss a single rally during the 1960s and 1970s, riding a host of vintage and classic bikes. All these long-distance, nerve-wracking rides (some as long as 1600 miles) took a toll on his spinal cord and in the early 1990s he gave biking a reluctant and heart-rending goodbye.
The 1957 T-100 is the last bike he has swung a leg across. His passion for riding vintage bikes morphed into a desire to maintain them. If the T-100 is in fine fettle, kudos to him. Although he does not ride the Tiger, he does not allow his son, who does ride it, a free rein in the bike's maintenance. The father reads the riot act when he notices junior has let the Tiger take knocks from road bumps.
For Karunakaran, the Tiger 100 is still the triumphant king of the road and has to be treated as one.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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