Talk:Tribsa

New Category for British Motorcycles

As part of the Motorcycling WikiProject I am working though all the missing articles and stubs for British Bikes. To make things easier to sort out I have created a category for British motorcycles. Please will you add to any British motorcycle pages you find or create. It will also help to keep things organised if you use the Template:Infobox Motorcycle or add it where it is missing. I've linked the Category to the Commons British Motorcycles so you could help with matching pics to articles or adding the missing images to the Commons - take your camera next time you go to a rally! Thanks Tony (talk) 13:14, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

On the contrary, please follow the guidelines in Wikipedia:Categorization for all articles. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 17:25, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Photo

I found one freely licensed photo of a TriBSA at Flickr, and it's an enduro, not a cafe racer. Might want to review the sources and see if they all insist that all TriBSAs were cafes. The majority of the photos I found looked like cafe racers, though one is more of a standard. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 17:48, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Interesting photo. I'd call it a scrambler (MotoX) bike, not enduro (no lights or silencer & not street-legal). Despite the logo on the tank, I'm not even sure its a Tribsa: the forks aren't BSA (are they Norton?); and I don't recognise the frame as a BSA. Arrivisto (talk) 10:28, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Here are more examples: [23][24][25][26] . I've sent some Flickr messages begging the owners to change the licensing to CC-BY-SA so that we can use them. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 15:27, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

I'm still wondering if the "TriBsa scrambler" in the photo has a BSA frame. But perhaps is is indeed an A10/A65 frame, but with the pillion footrest curlicues removed and with extra bracing from the headstock and along the down tubes. Arrivisto (talk) 13:26, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Allegedly Tribsa image

The B&W image added by Dennis Bratland captioned 500 cc TriBSA scrambler is actually a 650 Triton. There are several identifiers for both the engine and frame - Triumph 6T Thunderbird, pre-1953. Wideline 'bed frame with what appears to be long Roadholders.

If we are to believe Wikipedia - and Dennis Bratland's talk page insists we should not - then the Minivans in background were produced from 1960; the hairstyle however seems later (assuming it to be a man)

I appreciate this was added in GF but Flickr is an unregulated blog, no more reliable than motorbike-search-engine which is an unacceptable source. This is why Wikipedia needs expertise, not blind faith, to recognise unwitting errors. The Flickr page has no suggestion of how the uploader came into possession of the print, unlike the captions of those alongside. Ignoring the frame, the image 'owner' obviously doesn't know the glaring differences between 350/500 and 650 engines

This summary can be denigrated and characterised as OR, opinion, or POV. It matters not to me but I have to be true to myself and other Wikipedia readers - I cannot 'unlearn' or ignore 50 years' experience.

This image would reasonably illustrate (wikipage) that Tritons were not necessarliy 'cafe racers' (a term unknown in 1960s UK) as is insisted upon by 'editors' in having this sub-type applied. Without digressing into the socio-economic factors of the post-war recovery period, Tritons were NOT common compared to 'standards' (as Dennis Bratland would have it - again, a term not widely used in UK). They were difficult to create, requiring much engineering expertise, considerable time and equity, and were not all set up as street racers - one of the earliest I know of (published source) was a roadster with dual seat and flats. Something similar (1964) is here (I have a complete copy of the orignal mag).--62.253.80.1 (talk) 22:27, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

What exactly are you citing from the sources you are alluding to? What do they say? --Dennis Bratland (talk) 22:47, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Cafe Racer - mis-quotations and mis-application of the phrase

The term 'Cafe Racer' was invented in US during in 1969 (I have the source scan) unless later-proven to be an earlier date. This phrase was later further-disseminated by car journalists Wally Wyss and Norman Mayersohn, together with general journalist (the late) Marc Madow (I am not guessing; this is representative, not necessarliy an exhaustive list)

The term was not used in UK until 1980s (ignoring the brief and inconsequential Harley XLCR). It is most unlikely an historic UK magazine source will be found earlier than 1980; presently I have 1981 but I will keep looking. Weekly 'papers are rather more difficult to research.

The earliest book ref I believe to be 1988 Clay. 2000s book and web refs are entirely inappropriate and irrelevant, simply gravy-train bandwagon jumpers. Dennis Bratland's insistent citing and retro-application of latter-day works by Mick Walker et al as sacrosanct shows ignorance of the top journalist and publisher of the time - Bruce Main-Smith (started 1955, sold his business in 1991 to the Mitchell family, including rights to the name - again, I am not guessing)

I have a 1962 source for Café (Cafay), but this refers to a famous building NOT the bikes or people, as the confused and confusing writings of Wyss suggest. Any controversey over pronunciation is also irrelevant, as it never happened in UK - it's how the Yanks may or may not have said Pidgin French, like fillet (feelay, f'lay)--62.253.80.1 (talk) 22:31, 22 September 2013 (UTC)