The Cw Library

THE CW LIBRARY

Turner's Triumphs

IRUE CONFESSIONS TIME: I DID NOT read all of this book, an exhaustive study of Edward Turner, the bloke who brought us the timeless Triumph Speed Twin, among many others. Not that I didn't try (several times) and not that I don't have an affinity for the man and his creations-being the owner of a 1950s Tiger 100 desert sled myself.

It's just that there is so much cubic information here, written in such scholarly prose, presented in such small type and with such uninteresting layout, that getting through all 160 pages is a tough old slog.

Make no mistake, Turner is a worthy bio subject, designer of the jewel-like ohc Arid Square 4 before moving on to Triumph where he laid down the archetypal vertical-Twin, the 1937 Speed Twin. Over the years that bike would morph into the Bonneville 650, one of the most beloved of all motorcy des. Turner himself eventually became Triumph's managing director, arguably the most powerful posi tion in the motorcycle world-at least before the Japanese on slaught of the late `60s. Author Jeff Clew has painstakingly retraced Turner's every step, from birth certificate to cre mation details and seemingly everything in between. For de voted followers of the godsend. Triumph legend, this book will be an absolute must-read. For the rest of us, a good editor would have been a -David Edwards

Turner's Triumphs: Edward Turner & His Triumph Motor cycles, Jeff Clew, 160 pages, $40; Veloce Publishing, 33 Trinity St., Dorchester, England DT1-177~ www.veloce.com.uk