21 Today, 21 today as the song says

My first Triumph in 1967 was a Triumph 350cc Model 21 representing 21 cu inch and also 21 years since Triumph Engineering had started, a milestone model as it was Triumph's first larger capacity twin that was unit construction and a fashion statement having full rear enclosure better known as a "bathtub" model.

I was about 15 and it was not fast but I was riding it around my back yard for 2 years in anticipation of getting a licence at 17 and 9 months, it was a fetching metallic red and silver colour much better than the original shell blue that the factory painted it, they were not popular and the only other one'sI ever saw were ridden by "grey ghosts" traffic & by-laws officers I seriously lusted over the sports Tiger 90 version that was a tuned stripped down version but I had only ever seen a picture of one in the riders handbook, they never sold in numbers because the Japanese produced cheaper and more modern 350's that sold very well. My 350 never got ridden by me on the road as I eventually sold it in the Trading Post and used the money to buy a Triumph 650 Saint. Some years later I had the experience of riding one on the road and was overcome how gutless it was!

350cc capacity is a bit of a "dead"model for manufacturers they are effectively a heavy weight model the same as a 500cc but sold cheaper so most companies loose on them unless there is a insurance or licence break to make them worthwhile, most are underpowered and usually are never promoted in sales catalogues. I have ridden  BSA 350 Goldstars, AJS G3's. Norton Model 50, and Royal Enfield 350 Bullets and possibly the BSA was the only memorable one out of the whole boring lot! Riding a 2009 Honda CB400 Super 4 was a revelation on how things had progressed from a Kawasaki Z400 I had years ago the Honda has VVT (Variable valve timing), ABS and 50 horsepower under its belt and the VVT does'nt "kick in" till 6000 rpm!  riding it makes me question why I ride old "clunkers" I had been sceptical of all motorcycles under 250cc because in capacity size they are competing with my 160cc Victa Lawn mower 350cc had a slight advantage as usually the shared the same frame components as a "heavyweight" model 500-650 version and could be up graded, the other advantage was they were and are generally cheaper.

So why a blog about a capacity model that by now you realise I abhor, my father always told me he would never be caught dead in a Ford but eventually it was the last car he ever owned, it must be in the genes and no I hav'nt bought a Ford but I had the opportunity to be offered one of the 12 stillborn Triumph 350 Bandit's its cousin the BSA 350Fury was also equally as rare as Triumph-BSA were gearing up in 1971 for 10,000 of them and eventually ran out of finances and they with the tooling were scrapped even know the were listed in the 1971 brochures. They were produced to battle the then popular Honda CB350, the Triumph/BSA was double OHC ,180deg crank, electric start, left shift and 5 speed and was clocked at M.I.R.A in UK doing 109 MPH, 10,000 RPM max revs, and faster than its bigger brother 650 Bonneville to boot! its is the only one in the southern hemisphere and a running version as well there were 8 that were display versions that never ran and had no internals most of these were pre-production versions which mine is'nt, it has done 6,000 miles probably one of the highest milage ones as they are to rare to be ridden much, my one was road tested by Old Bike Magazine and the link is below.

So Never Say Never about saying you would never own a particular product, but I would never own a Harley or a Japanese bike, enough said

https://www.oldbikemag.com.au/triumphs-last-gasp-abandoned-bandit/

Phil Pilgrim Sept 2025