The golden years

Order a new UK Triumph Thunderbird in 1957 or 1958, and then unless you asked otherwise, it would arrive finished in bronze gold

- JIM PATTEN

Beaulieu Autojumble, some 25-years ago, and Jaguar XK rare parts specialist Tom Kent was prowling the stalls on the lookout for something different. He’d had a love affair for British bikes for as long as he could remember and always thought that a Triumph would be the perfect stablemate for his 1955 Jaguar XK140 open two-seater. But which one to choose?

Tom is about as fussy as they come. Not for him the run-of-the-mill mismatch; it would be something of interest or nothing at all. He had not been in a hurry and had already spent time on fruitless journeys. But this time there was a sniff in the air. His uncanny knack of unearthing bikes and parts that most would just write off as junk, was starting to itch. It led him to an unsavoury looking pile of Triumph bits that could even be a complete machine. He sat for a while familiarising himself with a sturdy frame, lumps of mechanical components and various pieces of bashed and bent tinware, and what paint that did remain, appeared to be a shade of gold. The only accessory seemed to be a single Rodark D-shaped pannier, made by Craven.

He’d struck up a conversation with the stall-holder, who confirmed that the bike had been off the road for years, way before the advent of computerized registration. But he did have the original, buff cardboard logbook that confirmed it to be a 1958 Thunderbird, with the colour box marked as bronze gold. All Tom had to do was agree a price.