specs for '54 Tiger T110 Triumph

[disbeschl]

have the possibility of buying a '54 Triumph T110 Tiger, plse can anyone give me tips what to watch for and tech specs?
Tks Will

[L.A.B.]

Ideally...you need to take somebody with you that has had some experience with older Triumphs.

Otherwise it will just be a case of checking various things, and you don't say if it is a runner or not, or what condition it is in, so makes suggesting what to look out for rather difficult, however if it does run:

Does it start easily from cold?

Does it idle when warm?

Does the exhaust smoke?

Is there excessive mechanical noise?

Does the clutch slip or drag?

Do the gears work correctly?

And a whole lot more really...

The cosmetic condition may, or may not, be important to you? And whether it has all the right parts on it for the particular year?

  

  

[disbeschl]

Tks for your fast reply, sorry maybe I should have be more specific, it's not my first BritBike, I am mainly interested in the distinctives between the other years of the same type bike, i.c. introduction of nacelle, type of brakes, iron/alloy cyl head and of course colours available for this year. So far, apart for purchasing the books, on internet it's not possible to find this info. Tks for your assistance, Will

[L.A.B.]

In that case, you will need a Triumph expert to look it over in order to verify the specification is correct for the '54 model year, if that is important to you?

And sometimes the experts disagree!

Or the alternative is to read up on every bit of available information you can find, and also get hold of a copy of the '54 T110 parts book.

Even then, experience is required to be able to identify the correct year parts from similar parts substituted from another year model, and as far as I'm aware, there's no website yet, that is able to offer that kind of knowledge and experience.    

[33d6]

I owned a '54 T110 many years ago. It is the major reason why I have never been very keen on Triumph ever since.
'54 was the year they introduced their swing arm frame and it wasn't that good. I think the rear end flexed sideways as much as it went up and down. It also had those early skinny Triumph tele forks with the internal springs. I had to keep the front wheel very carefully balanced or the forks fluttered back and forth like crazy at anything over 70mph.
Nevertheless it was a very pretty bike. It still sported the distinctive Triumph nacelle, was the same blue colour as the T100 and had a very willing engine. Pity about the handling. It looked a million dollars, the engine was a winner but it handled like a pregnant hippo. No wonder Tritons became so popular. Nortons had a terrific handling bike let down by the engine and Triumph was the opposite, Combine the best of both into the Triton and you had instant love affair.
The engine had cast iron barrels but I'm not absolutely positive about the head. I'm 95% sure it was aluminium but the memory is a bit rusty. It was a long time ago.
One thing I am absolutely positive about is that it had only one carburettor but this was fitted as standard with a huge TT carburettor type fuel bowl.  I'd never seen this set up as a factory standard either before or since.
Tell us how you get on, Bob

[Blue]

To my knowledge the '54 model T110 was simply a 'hotted up' Thunderbird; the changes being higher compression pistons, hotter cams (E3325), a larger carburettor (1 1/8 instead of the thunderbird's 1 1/16) and slightly modified inlet and exhaust tracts.  Also the T110 was given an 8" front brake to complement the new swing-arm frame.
The alloy head wasn't a factory fitment until 1956
As for the carburettor type, my literature tells me they were fitted with a 289X for that year only, the next year gaining a monobloc 376.
If i remember correctly the T110 had a manual advance/retard lever - a bit archaic, but I always liked that about them; gave them a certain raciness i suppose.

MY suggestions for books are: Triumph Twins and Triples and Triumph Twin Restoration, both by Roy Bacon.

Unfortunately the T110 is somewhat overshadowed by the popularity of the Bonneville, so it receives limited attention in Triumph literature

Hope this helps, have fun with the old banger!