Silver Jubilee Heirloom - The Coronation Triumph That Traversed Generations and the Atlantic

Birmingham Small Arms (BSA), who had been largely subsidized by War Department contracts, closed their factory in 1972. Royal Enfield, the creators of the bike with the longest production run at the time — the Bullet — were acquired by Velocette in 1967, and went over the proverbial financial handlebars themselves in 1971. Even independent race chassis builders like the Rickman brothers were out of the builders race by 1975. To fully underline the dire straits British bike builders were in by the late ‘70s, the Norton Commando – a bona fide icon amongst icons – witnessed its final example roll off the assembly line in 1977.

On February 6th of 1977, the United Kingdom celebrated the 25th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne, and Triumph Motorcycles honored the Queen’s coronation with the release of an extremely limited edition of their 750cc T140 Bonneville model: The Silver Jubilee. As the sole surviving British bike manufacturer at this time and this being the ‘70s where anything went aesthetically, Triumph allowed themselves the oh-so-cheeky pleasure of plastering the limited edition bike with a Union Jack paint scheme, which certainly provided these bikes with a striking visual, but also felt like a victory lap for the brand which had outlasting the whole of their domestic competition. Even the seat cover got the Union Jack treatment with blue with red piping! 

That very year, Englishman Colin Middlemiss was sitting trackside at the horse races. Middlemiss and an unnamed friend had been side-betting with each other throughout the races and Middlemiss’ seemed to have a sixth sense for the ponies that day. As the debt his friend owed him increased, Middlemiss suggested that his pal hand over the keys to his motorcycle in lieu of money and the two would be even. Middlemiss was an avid rider and had even courted his wife from the seat of a motorcycle. Middlemiss’ friend agreed and it was a brand new Triumph Silver Jubilee that Middlemiss claimed as his prize from a day at the races. The bike followed him to his family’s ranch in Linfield, in the countryside about 30 minutes outside of London. 

Over the next 40 years, the lovely Jubilee sat beneath a blanket in the Middlemiss family barn, where it slept in an exceptionally well-preserved state (save for the occasional ding caused by an errant tool carelessly dropping from a hand). Middlemiss taught his son to ride motorcycles, and years later his grandson Jake also found himself afflicted with the hereditary bike bug after taking the same riding lessons from his granddad. On that same ranch, young Jake learned to drive in his grandfather’s right-hand-drive MGB soft top; it was the site of many fond petrol-fueled memories for the family. When Jake was still young, his mother remarried an American man named Engelen and the family emigrated to the States.

Jake served in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation and while he was stationed in Hawaii, he found himself chasing the dragons of his childhood. The young serviceman found himself an old MG chassis and dropped a Chevy 350 crate motor into it, which in addition to being an incredibly high-powered hoopty, wasn’t a bad bit of mechanical symbolism for his transatlantic upbringing. Sadly, the cobbled-together vehicle failed its export inspection thanks to its lack of a proper safety brake, and Jake couldn’t afford to ship it in an independent container on a Marine Corps salary, so the V8-powered MG was sold hastily before he returned to the mainland to complete his deployment. In one fell swoop, Jake’s transportation and primary source of entertainment were gone.

In 2017, Jake’s biological father passed away unexpectedly. Jake had been attending graduate school in Minneapolis and was studying mathematics at the time and as the family mourned the loss of Jake’s dad, the eldest Middlemiss reached out to his grandson and offered to ship “an old bike” across the Atlantic. Jake’s grandfather had originally intended to pass his beloved Triumph on to Jake’s dad, however that day never came and it was important to Colin that the bike remained in the family.  Jake was assured that the bike would be “restored to starting condition,” a job which was completed at a London shop named Ace Classics. Despite the bike having less-than-complete title paperwork as the spoils of a horse racing bet, the Triumph Silver Jubilee arrived in the states looking as if it had rolled straight out of 1977 and displayed only “push miles” on the odometer.

The Triumph became Jake’s only form of transportation. It carried him to and from class, and even served as a grocery-getter once he found a large enough backpack to wear while riding. The 650cc twin motor excelled in the temperate Minnesota climate and Jake enjoyed ripping the bike around the varied terrain on scenic trips to the coastline of neighboring Lake Harriet when he had the time between his studies. 

Jake’s graduation came in the middle of the COVID pandemic and he made the decision to relocate to a ranch in Texas in order to collect himself in a peaceful place and decide what was next. With his beloved heirloom Jubilee in the back of a pickup truck, Jake began the next chapter of his and the bike’s life in Texas. After the call of work brought the recent graduate and his rare British twin to Georgia, then back to Texas, Jake eventually landed Florida, where he and the Triumph live full time and work in the financial world. While the heat and humidity of Florida’s subtropical climate are an obstacle for the air-cooled, carbureted machine, Jake recently had the Bonneville restored to one-kick status and rips around South Florida on the bike as often as possible.