A 75-year diamond jubilee is a huge event in anyone’s book, so it deserves a big day out. And that’s what the Triumph Owners’ Motor Cycle Club had last month, with a once in a lifetime bash at the iconic Shelsley Walsh hill-climb venue in Worcestershire. Around 100 Triumph riders made demo runs up the demanding 1000yd (900m) course in a series of Saturday sessions on a huge variety of machines. They ranged from a 500cc factory prototype twin raced in 1946 by Irish rider Ernie Lyons to a 2018 765cc Moto2 prototype, and a 1920s 550cc Model H to the thoroughly modern 2.5-litre Rocket Three. And legendary ex-Triumph engineer and club patron Norman Hyde roared up the hill on one of his world-beating triple racers from the 1970s. Once ridden by ace factory rider Percy Tait, it was one of three classic Triumphs brought to the event by the National Motorcycle Museum.
Norman Hyde gives the bellowingex-Percy Tait 750cc triple an airing
Twenty club branches mounted displays of varied historical machines, while groups from Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden helped fill two fields with campers. Brisk business was done with merchandise, and Norman Hyde hosted a ‘Talking Triumphs’ interlude about old times. The furthest travelled award was won by Martino Campanella and Claudio Ruggieri, who had ridden 1550 miles from Italy.