THIS IS NOT A TRIUMPH TR5 TROPHY. IT’S NOT even an M+S TR5 Trophy. It might look a lot like one, but it isn’t. And it’s none the worse for that.
Anyone owning a real TR5 might be loath to take one on to the dirt, slide it sideways through the mud, wrestle it over rocks, or drop it into ditches and heave it out again, with both rider and machine steaming quietly, both grinning. This is a bike for treating in the same way legendary ISDT champion Jim Alves would have done. You can just imagine some flat-capped, greatcoated rider riding it 100 miles to a meeting, ripping off the QD lights, pouring in some five-star, going out and obliterating the opposition on track, then riding it back to the pits before bolting the lights back on to ride home or, if they were more well-heeled than most, heaving into the back of an old Morris 10 van for the journey home, having saved enough petrol coupons.
John’s TR5 Replica is that kind of motorcycle...
The frame, for a start, is from a Triumph TRW 500, the side valve twin Triumph created for the army to replace all those worn-out Matchless and BSA singles after the war. In fact, the whole rolling chassis is TRW, from the forks back.
The gearbox is TRW too, an excellent choice as the TRW and TR5 gearboxes have very similar ratios. The gap between second and third is almost the same, while the TRW and TR5 have the same number of teeth on gearbox and rear wheel sprockets. “The standard TRW box was a wide
