The sun was beginning to set when I saw this classic Triumph Bonneville. Back in my day custom motorcycles were made, not purchased like consumer goods. This bike looks like it has been in a time capsule since the mid 70’s. Except for modern tires, this bike is a snapshot from another time.
This bike could be in a museum someday to illustrate the evolution of the custom motorcycle. I simply enjoy seeing such a cool machine in its natural environment, still being enjoyed.
Beautiful old Trumpet .
-Nate
I remember when Triumphs, BSA, and Norton where thick on the ground. They were lightweight, good handling, good performing bikes with a lot of tradition and mystique. They are missed.
In re: they are missed! Yeah, but, at the tender age of 18 in 1971. I snagged a sales job at a Honda / Triumph motorcycle dealer in my home town in western Pa. One of my duties was to start up the used bikes and display them in the parking lot. One was a ’66 Bonnieville 650. Damn thing almost threw my over the handle bars trying to kick start it. Hated that bike! Also I had to wipe up the oil that leaked on the floor from the new Triumphs on the showroom floor. So nostalgia sometimes glosses over reality. Shop was owned by a weirdly dysfunctional family, and went under a few years later. Yep Triumphs sound wonderful, They just needed a lot of love and attention back in the day.
Don’t blame the machine for being out of tune….. (too much lead advance) .
When I worked for Fred Merkel at about the same time I had to daily push all the Motos out to San Gabriel Blvd. and mop the floors clean of oil, that’s just how it was back then . no whining .
-Nate
British Triumphs, BSAs, Nortons, Matchless, Ariels and Royal Enfields (missed a few) enjoyed wide acceptance in the US during the 1950s, and these motorcycles have grown in value today. In particular, Edward Turner’s parallel-twin Triumphs enjoyed wide acceptance and became somewhat cult symbols in the 50s, 60s and somewhat into the early 70s.
My favorite bike (before buying Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 and Yamaha R1 sportbikes) was a 1966 Triumph T120 “TT-Special,” a ball’s-to-the-wall, 11:1 compression 650cc twin (shown in attached image from 1966) that was guaranteed to create excitement! Though nowhere near as quick as a current Suzuki 1000 (or even a 600) today, it felt like it was flying. My TT would never pass current street-legal requirement today, but back then it did so with the Energy-Transfer alternator providing variable-voltage output to the headlight and tail light—at least until the elevated voltage burned out the bulbs at high rpms. The street version of the Bonneville was the T120R (road), and it differed significantly from the T120C (competition) version.
That’s definitely straight out of history. Personally I’ve always preferred the cafe racer style, after imprinting on BMW R90S in 1976 or so.
My favorite from that era is still the Norton Commando Fastback, although I do like the looks of unit engine Triumphs with as long as they have low handlebars.
The special-order Bonneville 650 cc TT-Special — beginning in 1963 and continuing until 1967 — was the preeminent “desert-bike” motorcycle that completely dominated Southern California TT Scrambles racing at places like Ascot Park and other venues across the great southwest and central plains. Other British twins, such as the BSA Hornet, were also very competitive but apparently not quite there. The BSA twin was more short-stroke design with its parallel-twin design — thus a higher revving, though not less reliable — but also not developing low-rpm torque quite like the venerable Triumph twin. The TT first appeared at the behest of Johnson Motors in Pasadena, and soon the east-coast distributor in Maryland followed suit. My TT was from the east-coast distributor.
CC effect #2. Just saw one drive by not even an hour ago. Black and white paint scheme.
I love vertical twins – narrow engines with nice torque; I had a friend with a Bonnie and it was a lovely bike to ride but required constant fiddling with (insert here, and change frequently). I the got a Yamaha 650 twin in the 80’s which I turned into a Cafe Racer with a bullet fairing as required in the times. It wasn’t as good as cafe bike as the Triumph, but it was a pretty good handler. I liked it better than my Honda CB 750 or my Kawasaki KZ750, for canyon carving, and just plain everyday use. They were both too wide and heavy .
I have to say though that nothing in my young experience accelerated like the Kawasaki.
I described it as “Down two [gears] and gone!”. The bike didn’t handle well as it flexed at the frame head, but acceleration, that bike understood. The redline was 10,000 rpm, but I took it to 12,000 daily.
It’s a ’71 and amazingly close to stock. Paint, mufflers and the seat are about the only variances from factory original that I can tell.
This was the bike the put the nails in the coffin for Triumph/BSA. The company took some excellent for the time motorcycles, with excellent handling and brakes, but lacked an electric start and oil tightness and they changed . . . . . . . the frame and brakes.
The new frame had a 34″ seat height (about what you’d get on a current adventure tourer), the brakes were complete crap and definitely a step back from the 69-70 drums (meanwhile Honda was doing front disks starting in 69), and moved the oil tank to the main tube of the frame, thus slightly lessening the oil consumption – if they had put the filler where it belonged, in between the tank and the headset. However, some genius put the filler in between the back of the tank and the seat, so all that open tubing under the fuel tank carried nothing.
Then, BSA (who designed it) passed the frame on to Triumph. And the engine didn’t fit! As a result of the changes that had to be done to the rocker boxes on the engine to get it to fit, dealers didn’t get the new ’71 bikes until the spring of 71. Which completely killed the selling season. 72’s were identical, except they finally got the seat lowered to the height of the 69-70’s, but by then it was too later. BSA/Triumph were bankrupt.
At the time these bikes were coming out, management was pushing BSA over Triumph big time (see engine fit in frame), even though in the US Triumph was outselling BSA 2:1. The story behind these bikes is an amazing tale of management incompetence to the point that you’d think Sochiro Honda had picked BSA’s board of directors. If there was a right way and a wrong way to do something, BSA managed to find a third alternative that was even worse.
I’ve owned four Meriden Bonnevilles: 68 chopper, 69 cafe racer, 74 and a 79, plus a 71 Trophy (the single carburetor version), and a 72 Trident (750cc triple, much faster than the Bonneville, which taught me just how bad those brakes were). Sold my last one, the 69, three years ago. My days of wrenching those beauties is long gone.
For the record, I’ll put up any of them in reliability against any CB750 Honda made. Just don’t ask about the amount of maintenance I did to accomplish that.
There is no need to ask how much maintenance you did, but…. it made you the mechanic you are today.
My own personal preference for vertical twins were the Japanese ones. From 350 to 650 all worked although the present interstate system might change my mind. I still think the best triumph or bsa twin was the xs650. I really never cared for extended forks like that but the rest of the bike is great.
Syke I always enjoy it when you talk about old bikes. I think you should work up some drafts and talk to Paul.
I’m not a big cruiser fan myself. This is actually an old Triumph I would like to own. I took this at Cars & Coffee today.
FWIW ;
Old Trumpets scoot right along and are marvelous fun on challenging twisty roads……
If stunting and burning rubber in straight lines is your thong then a moder Japanese Moto will suit much better .
Here in Los Angeles we have a thriving Vintage British Motocycle scene ~ to – day was another open to all Norton Club Ride .
I wish I coulda gone along .
-Nate
OH. MA. GA.
You just made my day!
I had a 68 Bonneville 650 for many years. It was absolutely wonderful to ride-light, well balanced and torquey.The sound through the stock bullet mufflers was great. It was a thing of beauty also. I kept it stock except some engine hop ups. It took a lot of work to keep it running. I had the wiring start on fire and strand me one day. Another time something broke in the trans causing the rear wheel to lock up at speed resulting in a pretty hairy ride to get it stopped. Even with all of that, I loved that bike until the day I had to sell it. Great memories.
I had a friend back in the day who let me share driving his 1966 Triumph, think it was called a TR6? A single-carb version of the Bonny, iirc.
The clutch cable broke twice while I had it. I got pretty good at riding without using the clutch! Oh and always bring spare fuses with you……always.