1959 Triumph TR6 Trophy
One look at the 1959 TR6 and it’s no wonder Triumphs were the best-selling big bikes of the late 1950s
July/August 2006
By Roland Brown
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The TR6 Trophy's single carb aids reliability while its aluminum head keeps engine temps down.
Photo by Roland Brown
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Years produced: 1956-1973
Total production: N/A
Claimed power: 42hp @ 6,500rpm
Top speed: 110mph (approx.)
Engine type: 649cc overhead valve, air-cooled parallel twin
Weight: 180kg (396lb)
Price then: N/A
Price now: $6,000-$10,000
MPG: 45-55
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Even Steve McQueen himself couldn’t have looked much cooler than that, I thought with a grin, as the Triumph TR6 came to a halt, its rear wheel waaaay out to the left, with what must have looked like a perfectly planned and executed rear-wheel skid.
In reality, it hadn’t been planned at all. I’d been following a car at slow speed in traffic (and keeping a reasonable distance, I might add), when the driver suddenly braked for no apparent reason. Squeezing the front brake lever made almost no difference to the Triumph’s speed. So I stepped on the rear brake pedal with my left boot, at which point the contrastingly over-powerful rear drum locked the wheel, sending the bike to a gentle, sliding halt without ever feeling out of control.
That skidding stop might not have been planned, but when you’re riding a high-piped Triumph TR6 Trophy twin like the one ridden by movie icon and biker McQueen (on the silver screen and in real life, too), acting cool comes with the territory.
You only have to take one glance at the TR6, with its lean lines, handsome parallel twin engine and high-level exhaust system, to understand why Triumphs were the best-selling big bikes on the West Coast in the late 1950s and 1960s — and why the TR6 was one of the most popular of all.
Scrambled, not fried
The importance of the TR6 goes further than its sales figures and dollar-earning ability for Triumph. When it was launched in 1956, the offroad-oriented twin was the first “street scrambler” from a major manufacturer, introducing a style that continues to this day (see Scrambler sidebar). It was created specifically for export, targeted not simply at the States, but more precisely at the desert-racing hotbed of California.
Essentially, the TR6 Trophy was based on the 500cc TR5 Trophy, fitted with the 649cc engine from the T110 Tiger that was introduced two years earlier, in 1954. The T110 itself had been built largely at the request of Triumph’s U.S. dealers and their customers, and was a hopped-up version of the Thunderbird model with which Triumph had entered the 650cc market at the start of the decade.
The T-bird’s lasting popularity led to the new street-scrambler model being nicknamed the “Trophy-bird.” Predictably, it became another hit for Triumph. The TR6’s engine was an updated version of the T110 unit, with an aluminum cylinder head instead of the cast iron head that had a tendency to overheat under hard use. The Trophy-bird also featured a small fuel tank, short dual-seat and a new waterproof Lucas magneto, plus a quickly detachable headlight.
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