1966 TriCor Brochure
Colour photography for the 1966 TriCor brochure of a suave young minstrel serenading an uncomfortable and bored looking young maiden on a Trophy. (How did he carry his guitar on the bike?) What was he singing - looks like he's holding down an E chord. My guess is it's a version of Johnny Cash's "Big River", which features a lot of "E" chords, and the line "Now I taught that weeping willow how to cry". Which the singer clearly found inappropriately amusing. Thus unsettling the poor girl on the Trophy - it was probably her first day in the office and being taken out to a country park and sung to by a grinning Adam from the mailroom was not what she had expected, at all. It was chilly out there by the lake and she was glad she'd worn the green woolly jumper Mum had knitted for her though.
Brochure was printed in the USA but I've a feeling the cover photo and the one lower down of the "practical set" on the golf course with the same couple and their Trophy (how did they carry their clubs?) were shot in England. The cover photo looks like Coombe Manor, down the road from the factory and a popular location for Triumph photo shoots. Now a hotel, popular for weddings and conferences. I went there and had a nice cup of coffee when I was passing by in spring 2015. The "models" in these photos would have been workers from the factory in all probability, dressed to look "American". Shot early to mid- September 1965 with one of the first TR6Rs off the assembly line ("B" Range production commencing 14th August 1965).
The other outside photos of "active people" are unmistakenly, effortlessly American. I don't know where the cliff location is but it features in other brochures too. Frankly, it looks extremely dangerous riding around on a rocky clifftop, two-up and with no protective clothing. I don't think it'd get past advertising standards these days. No Hi Viz anywhere to be seen, no helmets, no Kevlar this and that! Those crazy Yanks! Looking for adventure on their good ole Thunderbird on the rocks and a T100R for some fun in the sand. But why didn't they take the lovely T100C ? Much more appropriate for dune riding - and very desirable in Sherbourne Green. (Not "The Green, Sherborne", where my long-term love of motorcycles was sparked, coincidentally. But little else - other than the "herbal" cigarette that resulted in my being asked politely, but firmly, if I'd like to leave at the end of term, and never come back. I left, but returned a couple of years later by way of protest on a horrible little Lambretta, disguised as a Mod in a parka. Then a few years later, much matured, on a T140D with TT pipes.)
1966 colours for the Bonnevilles were Alaskan White with Grenadier Red stripes - another stunning colour combination. The TT Special looked great this year too, with the new slimline tank. More TTs were built in '66 than any other year - 1,310 in total according to the factory records. From 9th December 1965 the "T120TT" engine and frame stamp was introduced in place of the "T120C" stamp used since 1964. There was now only one competition Bonneville, the TT Special, the East Coast T120C Competition Sports scrambler having been discontinued.
On the US Trophy competition models, the "S" had been dropped from the model designator prefix on engine and frame numbers, which reverted to "TR6C" from December 1965, along with the TR6SR back to "TR6R". TriCor received the "Trophy Competition" scrambler while JoMo got the Trophy Special desert racer. Both had the slimline tank in Pacific Blue with Alaskan White racing stripes - another great combination. The Trophy Special was given high level, slash cut pipes exiting to the left, magnificent looking and sounding. 1966/7 was a record year for Triumph sales of 650 twins in the USA, with 23,881 Bonnevilles, Trophies and Thunderbirds being sold in America (source: TEC accounting records).
Elsewhere in 1966 a certain Triumph rider, who, like the chap in the brochure, played the guitar (how did he carry it on his 1964 T100S, with Joanie clinging on for dear life behind him?) was having a bit of a rough time of it on tour in England and around the towns and cities of mainland Europe. His "crime"? Daring to play an electric guitar... Good Lord!
