It was in roadster trim or in modern parlance, naked. It had originally been black and silver but by now had acquired a red tank and had lost all its original tinware. At the time I was happy with that. If I'd been buying one now I would have loved the bath-tub fairing that came with that particular model. It was the Easy Rider era so a set of ape-hanger bars were fitted. Job done. I was ready to return to Manchester for a new term.

For the year 1970-71 I joined four friends in a large flat in South Manchester. Save for the contents of a small rucksack, my personal effects arrived courtesy of father in his Victor 2000. The term began well. The famous five, me and my four mates, occupied the top two floors whilst two attractive and musical young ladies were tenants on the ground floor.

One thing led to another and pretty soon I had a female on the pillion. Vivienne was so impressed with the sound of the big Trumpet that she decided to point her cap at its owner. The bike was our common ground as both her brothers were motorbike nuts, one winning several championships in Australia on Yamahas and Bridgestone 350s, and the other was a superb engineer who built all sorts of bike-engine powered specials.

We enjoyed our sorties out into the Cheshire countryside on the Tiger but as autumn gave way to winter the Triumph became a distinctly chilly form of transport. Vivienne stopped riding pillion, making all sorts of polite excuses and taking the bus instead. I continued to use it as daily transport to lectures. It was ideal in the heavy Manchester traffic, maneuverable and quite intimidating to other road users particularly as I always had the big headlamp lit.

I made one trip home to Yorkshire that term. Leaving Manchester on a filthy Friday evening I threaded my way through the rush-hour traffic up Cheetham Hill Road and eventually out on to the A62 through Oldham and over the top at Stanage to Huddersfield. The M62 was still being constructed and was by no means continuous. It was good for high speed testing late at night but little else.

Whilst negotiating part of the ring road in Huddersfield the dynamo fell off, leaving me covered in oil and with no charging. Thankfully the battery was new so lighting was OK for the rest of the journey. I stopped and recovered what parts I could find but thought better of crawling about on a busy ring-road in dark clothing looking for the other bits. Bent studs and lost nuts meant that I had to bodge the dyno back in place with wire, if only to block up the hole to prevent loss of more oil. Someone in the dim and distant past had stripped the threads in the case leaving the dyno just hanging on with one stud.

With careful nursing we got home. Next day involved a trip to Shipley where that marvellous emporium of Triumph parts, Allan Jeffries resided. He sold me some new studs and a kit for rethreading the holes. Quite advanced in those days. By Sunday it was all back together and ready for the run back to Manchester. I had no other problems with the bike that year.

Christmas 1970 came and went and pretty soon we were into the new year and heading for spring. The bike never failed to get me into lectures, starting first or second kick every morning. The security features of the bike were not leading edge so one had to supplement the single ignition switch with a large chain and padlock. Nothing changes.