Triumph Tiger Cub

EDWARD TURNER WAS a master of marketing as much as he was a genius of a designer and when he decided he was going to blow the BSA Bantam and Villiers-engined two-stroke offerings into the weeds, the result was the Tiger Cub.

Stylish enough to mix it with its bigger brothers and sisters at the café and the chip shop, this little 70mph 200cc single would also manage to do more than 90mpg if ridden carefully – an important consideration when petrol was four shillings a gallon and you were lucky if you were paid more than £4 a week.

Even before the advent of the 250cc learner law, the option of a stylish 200 single on the never-never rather than a rotting ex-WD single was an attractive one. When that 250cc restriction came along in 1960, the Tiger Cub was well-placed to exploit it.

The Tiger Cub started life as the Terrier T15 150, which was launched at the Earls Court Show