www.tigercubandterrier.com
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
  • The Story begins...
  • An Interview with Mr Turner
  • Model information
    • Terrier T15
    • Tiger Cub T20 >
      • 1954/55
      • 1956
      • 1957
      • 1958
      • 1959
      • 1960
      • 1961/62
      • 1963-on
    • Competition Cub T20C
    • Sports Cub T20S
    • Woods Cub T20W
    • Sports Lights Cub T20SL
    • Trials Cub T20T
    • Street Scrambler T20SS
    • Scrambler T20SR/T20SC
    • Trials & Scrambler TR20/TS20
    • Sports Home Cub T20SH
    • Mountain Cub T20SM/T20M
    • War Department (T20WD/T20M WD
    • Bantam Cub T20B
    • T20B Super Cub
  • Buyer's Guide
  • Resources
  • Technical
    • Machine Numbers
    • Gear Clusters
    • Front Forks
    • Front Fork Oil Change
    • Condensers
    • Finding T.D.C.
    • External Oil Filter
    • Lucas Energy Transfer
    • 12V Conversion
    • Fitting Indicators to a Tiger Cub
    • Fitting a Craven Luggage Rack
    • Spark Plugs and Sparks
    • Know your Alternator
  • Your Stories
    • My Wee Cub
    • Denny's Terrier
    • A T20C Story
    • TR20 Cub Sorted
    • Saving Sylvia
    • My 1959 Tiger Cub
    • My First Restoration
    • Found in a Scrap Yard
    • My First Bike
    • Brand new out of the Box
    • On the Road after 40 years
    • First bike I ever Rode
    • The' Tarbuk' Conversion
    • A Tiger Cub in a Box
    • Aunt Tiny
    • Well-travelled Terrier
    • Mashooq's Tiger Cub
    • 48 Years with my Cub
    • Ready for the Arbuthnot
    • My Collection of Cubs
    • Mountain Cub and Cafe tales
    • My favourite Cub of all
    • A Cub in Norway
    • Beginning of a Terrier Restoration
    • An Ambush of Cubs
    • A T20C Cub (probably!)
    • A Moment Frozen in Time
    • Finally after 56 years!
    • Still riding Cubs after 60 years
    • A Lakeland Venture
    • Back to my Teens!
  • The Princeton Cubs
    • Class of 2009 - 2010
    • Class of 2010 - 2011
    • Class of 2011 - 2012
    • Class of 2012 - 2013
    • Class of 2013 - 2014
    • Class of 2014 -2015
    • Class of 2015 - 2016
  • Machines in Competition
    • Bonneville Speed Record
    • ISDT Success
    • Success in the Scottish
  • TC&T Mysteries
    • The Terror
    • Who is this?
  • Buy - Sell - Swap
  • Welcome
  • Introduction
  • The Story begins...
  • An Interview with Mr Turner
  • Model information
    • Terrier T15
    • Tiger Cub T20 >
      • 1954/55
      • 1956
      • 1957
      • 1958
      • 1959
      • 1960
      • 1961/62
      • 1963-on
    • Competition Cub T20C
    • Sports Cub T20S
    • Woods Cub T20W
    • Sports Lights Cub T20SL
    • Trials Cub T20T
    • Street Scrambler T20SS
    • Scrambler T20SR/T20SC
    • Trials & Scrambler TR20/TS20
    • Sports Home Cub T20SH
    • Mountain Cub T20SM/T20M
    • War Department (T20WD/T20M WD
    • Bantam Cub T20B
    • T20B Super Cub
  • Buyer's Guide
  • Resources
  • Technical
    • Machine Numbers
    • Gear Clusters
    • Front Forks
    • Front Fork Oil Change
    • Condensers
    • Finding T.D.C.
    • External Oil Filter
    • Lucas Energy Transfer
    • 12V Conversion
    • Fitting Indicators to a Tiger Cub
    • Fitting a Craven Luggage Rack
    • Spark Plugs and Sparks
    • Know your Alternator
  • Your Stories
    • My Wee Cub
    • Denny's Terrier
    • A T20C Story
    • TR20 Cub Sorted
    • Saving Sylvia
    • My 1959 Tiger Cub
    • My First Restoration
    • Found in a Scrap Yard
    • My First Bike
    • Brand new out of the Box
    • On the Road after 40 years
    • First bike I ever Rode
    • The' Tarbuk' Conversion
    • A Tiger Cub in a Box
    • Aunt Tiny
    • Well-travelled Terrier
    • Mashooq's Tiger Cub
    • 48 Years with my Cub
    • Ready for the Arbuthnot
    • My Collection of Cubs
    • Mountain Cub and Cafe tales
    • My favourite Cub of all
    • A Cub in Norway
    • Beginning of a Terrier Restoration
    • An Ambush of Cubs
    • A T20C Cub (probably!)
    • A Moment Frozen in Time
    • Finally after 56 years!
    • Still riding Cubs after 60 years
    • A Lakeland Venture
    • Back to my Teens!
  • The Princeton Cubs
    • Class of 2009 - 2010
    • Class of 2010 - 2011
    • Class of 2011 - 2012
    • Class of 2012 - 2013
    • Class of 2013 - 2014
    • Class of 2014 -2015
    • Class of 2015 - 2016
  • Machines in Competition
    • Bonneville Speed Record
    • ISDT Success
    • Success in the Scottish
  • TC&T Mysteries
    • The Terror
    • Who is this?
  • Buy - Sell - Swap
www.tigercubandterrier.com
The ‘Tarbuk’ Conversion
by Peter Knapper
Picture
This is something of a mystery model, but facts are slowly emerging.

In the early months of 1968, a number of T20B machines were delivered to Elite Motors, Tooting, London.

Forty-six of these machines were variously described in the BSA despatch books as, 'Tarbuk Conversion', 'Tarbuk Hi Fi', 'T20 Hi Fi', 'SC Hi Fi' or 'Shopsoiled SC Conversion'. The Small Heath build schedules do not show any of these odd descriptions.
Recent enquiries made at Elite Motors revealed a further twenty machines not shown in the BSA records, making a total of sixty-six. The Elite books describe these machines as, 'T20B', 'T20SC', 'T20 ex-export', 'T20B SC Clearance', 'T20 Hi Fi Clearance' or 'T20 Hi Fi Tabarrok Clearance'.
All these names have been mentioned here as they give some clues about the 'model'.
 
The Tabarrok Brothers of Teheran were the Iranian Triumph main agent and it is believed that these sixty-six machines were a cancelled export order originally intended for this agent, but which had been sitting undelivered in the BSA warehouse.
 
Elite Motors was a large customer of Triumph and BSA who sometimes bought cancelled orders or old models from the factory and a deal was struck for the whole lot.
The variety of names given to this group of machines is interesting and gives some clues about its specification.
The machines are thought to have been T20B Super Cubs fitted with the Bantam Cub petrol tank and badges and possibly Bantam Cub mudguards as well. The use of the word 'Conversion' may have indicated that either they originally had export lighting sets, which had to be converted to UK specification or that they were a converted export order.
 
The 'Tarbuk' appellation is thought to have been a corruption of the Iran agent's name, 'Tabarrok', by person or persons unknown in the BSA sales office!
Picture
​Enquiries at Elite Motors in recent years brought forth a vaguely remembered description of the machines being, 'a Tiger Cub engine in a D10 Bantam chassis with the wider Bantam Cub tank and painted in a sort of Dayglo Orange'.
​
A few existing specimens of this machine are now recorded in the Tiger Cub and Terrier Register but unfortunately all have been extensively modified over the years. However, underneath the repainted tinware on a few of them, traces have been found of Dayglo Orange paint on a white basecoat!
Proudly powered by Weebly