Triples Who's Who

Triples Who's Who
Honorary Members & Famous Faces

Jack Shemans, formerly the Club's much-respected Patron, sadly passed away on 27th February 2007.

"We were always striving to find a quarter of a horsepower from somewhere. Sometimes I would be locked away in the test house for months on end," Jack Shemans recalled. Like Arthur Jakeman, Jack Shemans brought 500cc twins experience to bear on Triple race development.

Jack Shemans joined the Meriden workforce shortly after leaving the Army in 1947. He graduated from sprung-hub assembly to the engine bench, and was then taken on by the Experimental Department, where he became the chief testbed operator. Over the next few years, Jack's almost constant vigil saw more and more power squeezed out of both 650 and 500cc engines intended for production and Daytona / selected GPs respectively. In addition to working closely with Doug Hele implementing new ideas for test-bed analysis, Jack built many of the engines which won major events.

His was a vital job, testing every aspect of engine development on the dynamometer, and keeping track of those things that worked well, as well as those that didn't. Apart from assembling race engines, one of his major contributions to the Triples' evolution was setting up the Amal Concentric carburettors used from 1971. Check out the cover of TE141 to see a photo of Jack with a bank of Triple carbs, complete with 'shemozzles' - the Jack-produced intake trumpets which aided the running of the machines immensely.

Another of Jack's trademarks had appeared on factory racers at Daytona in 1970. On arrival in Florida, none of the machines would run. Handlebar-mounted ignition cut-out buttons, compulsory under AMA rules, had been fitted by Lucas. "They were wired so that the ignition was permanently earthed", Jack recalled. He took the cut-outs off, and rigged up his own, using short lengths of junior hacksaw blades. The earthing wire was threaded through a hole at one end, which was taped to the handlebar so as to be insulated from it. To cut the engine, the rider simply pressed the other end of the blade against the handlebar. It was crude but effective. The system worked so well, it was left in place on several bikes.

Along with Arthur Jakeman, Jack won several hundred dollars in mechanics' prizes at Daytona in 1971. They took the booty back to share with colleagues who hadn't been lucky enough to make the trip, a gesture that says much about the team's spirit, and - of course - the two men themselves…

After the racing successes of 1970-72, it was time to get back to more mundane development projects. These included work on the Trisolastic and Quadrent.

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Ron Barrett