Triumph road bike history and upgrade

Donnybrook

Hi All,

Just picked up this Steel Racing/touring bike.

I like the understated style of it and am hoping to upgrade it to training run standard and spinning around town.

I am slightly bewildered though as to the origins of this bike as I like to know about the history even though my bike mechanics knowledge is very limited

There are Triumph stickers stuck all over it and also made in Austria, however I have found absolutely no reference to any Triumph bikes in Austria on the web – not even an iota…

I would be grateful if any of the posters could shed some light on what era this bike is from and the Triumph from Austria brand – I did find this one article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Cycle but the sticker does not match mine nor is there any mention of Austria. Does it even look like it was always a drop bar bike?

This bike weighs a ton but I am hoping a nice set of wheels and tyres, wider handlebars and a good service with maybe new brake pads etc will bring it up a level; any advice on this would also be very appreciated.

Please see photos – hopefully they are clear enough to give some insight into the bike

Thanks for any advice.
Donnybrook

Monty Dog

Judging by the quality of the frame fittings and components, these bikes are known as 'gas pipe specials' due to the quality of steel used in their construction. They were simply mass-produced frames of no intrinsic value - similar to the supermarket / catalogue bikes you get today.

Donnybrook

Monty,

Thank you very much for replying to me there.

I like the old understated style of this bike but I still want a bike that has some basic level of performance around town etc. This bike is heavy even in steel terms and I wonder if I would be better off in your opinion getting for example a genuine 80’s Peugeot Racing steel bike etc instead of trying to upgrade this with good set of wheels etc?
The bike is for spinning around town and maybe the odd training run.
___________________________________________________________________________-

From a historical point I managed to track down one link on the web from the
‘TRIUMPH-FAHRRADINDUSTRIE MADE IN AUSTRIA’ sticker on the bike with company information:
http://www.trademarkia.com/t-w-a-73465925.html .


TRIUMPH-FAHRRADINDUSTRIE GESELLSCHAFT M.B.H. & CO KG

Address:
TRIUMPH-FAHRRADINDUSTRIE GESELLSCHAFT M.B.H. & CO KG
SPORTPLATZSTRASSE 7A
8580 KOFLACH, STEIERMARK
Austria
Legal Entity Type: Corporation
State or Country of Incorporation: Austria :

So maybe there was a separate Austrian Triumph bike company or Triumph also manufactured bikes there, at least I know the bike appears to have been made here now.

Thanks for your time.
Donnybrook

Donnybrook

Sorry, just noticed I should have posted this in road bike forum..

Monty Dog

There's a huge variety in big-brand steel frames from the 80s - from the mass-market gas-pipe specials right through top-quality race frames made from high-spec Columbus and Reynolds tubing - if the frame has a Reynolds or Columbus tubing decal, then often it's a good indication of a better quality frame. Likewise, the use of investment cast fork crowns, drop-outs and fork tips rather than cheaper pressed-steel items are good indicators too. The problem is that the demand for fixed gear and retro-classic bikes means that real bargains are harder to find. Likewise, there's often rubbish hyped-up to be something better. I'd suggest you trawl your local free-ads or even local municipal dump as you can still turn up a bargain - good luck.