Triumph TRW Motorcycles

[Dave Stapleton]

Having a look around the bike today, which by the way is showing 4,000+ miles on the clock, and opened the toolbox for the first time. This is what I found inside, the brown colour is old preserveative grease. Could this be a pointer to its history?

[Jon Skagfeld]

Originally Posted by Dave Stapleton

Having a look around the bike today, which by the way is showing 4,000+ miles on the clock, and opened the toolbox for the first time. This is what I found inside, the brown colour is old preserveative grease. Could this be a pointer to its history?

Now that's a bonus find! Our bikes were issued during a Canadian military era known as "austerity", thus many vehicles, especially for Reserve Force, were issued "MFU" (minimum for use). That meant that an item issue was bare bones, no manual, no tools, often not even a spare tire (tyre,lol).
PS...that tool box was just the right size to fit in a "mickey"=13 oz bottle of booze...for those damp and cool days ya know.

[rob love]

The GRAY Canada wrenches were common issue back in the day (and can still be found in some of the toolboxes) so the RCAF engraving on the one wrench does not really mean anything. It just means at some point that wrench was in Air Force service, and later found it's way likely to Army service. Often you did not order a wrench set, but rather had to order each wrench as individual items.



The wrenches themselves were good quality. I have many that I have acquired thru surplus yards in use out of my tool boxes.



I have found a small number for wrenches marked with triumph form the local scrapyard. These would have been out of Cdn service.

[Jon Skagfeld]

Originally Posted by rob love

The GRAY Canada wrenches were common issue back in the day (and can still be found in some of the toolboxes) so the RCAF engraving on the one wrench does not really mean anything. It just means at some point that wrench was in Air Force service, and later found it's way likely to Army service. Often you did not order a wrench set, but rather had to order each wrench as individual items.



The wrenches themselves were good quality. I have many that I have acquired thru surplus yards in use out of my tool boxes.



I have found a small number for wrenches marked with triumph form the local scrapyard. These would have been out of Cdn service.

Rob...were these originally known as Gray-Bonney?

[Ed Storey]

Attached is a photograph of a Triumph being employed by 1 RCHA in Germany in 1961.

Triumph Motocycle.jpg

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Jon Skagfeld

Rob...were these originally known as Gray-Bonney?

There was some form of partnership with Bonney that took place sometime in the 30s and lasted until 1961. However, a more common found brand from Gray, especially in the military wrenches, was Dreadnaught. That was a Gray sub-brand.

[Dave Stapleton]

Originally Posted by rob love

There was some form of partnership with Bonney that took place sometime in the 30s and lasted until 1961. However, a more common found brand from Gray, especially in the military wrenches, was Dreadnaught. That was a Gray sub-brand.

I noticed these spanners I have were marked Dreadnaught.