Twins seperated at birth?

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito made unlikely siblings in the hit film Twins, but truth is often stranger than fiction.

Take two famous twin cylinder machines from different continents and eras and you would think them even more opposite than Arnie and Danny, but the iconic Norton Commando and Yamaha RD350LC do have a link even though one is four stroke powered and the other a screaming two stroke.

Not only were both top performance machines or their eras and raced to great success, but one man had a hand in the development of each of these much-loved machines. Bob Trigg is not a name that many know yet he played an important part in the creation of some famous household name bikes.

Born in Birmingham - the spiritual home of British motorcycling - Bob joined BSA from school at 16 in the post room. From this humble start he worked his way up to engine development on the world-famous Gold Star moving on to Ariel and joined Norton in 1967 where in less than three months he helped create the first 750cc Commando with its rubber mounted “Isolastic” chassis.

A swathe of other models – including the Triumph T160 Trident – benefitted from Bob’s design and engineering skills but by the late 70’s the UK industry was all but gone so Bob looked further afield ending up in a consultancy for Yamaha Europe.

One of his first projects was the 350LC loosely based on Yamaha’s successful TZ water-cooled racers launched alongside a 250cc version. So successful were the “LC’s” that Bob took on a full-time job with Yamaha counting the FJ1100, FZ750 and even TR1 V-twin among his varied development stable.

So next time you see a classic Commando, or lust over an LC just remember Bob and that the world of motorcycling is full of connections and united by one guiding principle, a pure and simple love of all things with two wheels and an engine…