Bike of the Month – July 2024
An Irish Triumph!
In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Tube Investments produced bicycles under a few different brand names. They used the the names of companies that they had acquired such as Raleigh, Carlton, Rudge, Humber, BSA, Triumph and Sun to name a few.
The Carlton brand was identified with with racing bicycles. Raleigh and BSA with roadster bicycles and Triumph with ‘sports bikes’. Sports bikes were positioned somewhere between the Racing bike and the Roadster. One of the main features that made them different to Roadsters was that they had cable brakes and more attention was paid to the finish. They often came with white side walled tires and ‘lustre’ paint jobs.
Make: Triumph
Model: Tenerife
Components: Raleigh/ Triumph branded
More Information:
What we have here is an original, mint condition, unrestored (except for ties) Triumph Tenerife. What makes this bike really rare is that it was made in Ireland in the Raleigh factory on Hanover Quay. The factory burned down in 1977 with the loss of 1000’s of bicycles.
This interesting part of Irish bicycle history was found in its current condition by ‘Dropout Cycles’ and is for sale. They can be contacted through their website <Dropout Cycles>