N
"g
o.
N
....
en
::;;
~
w
Z
W
..J
U
>U
ROAD TEST: TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T120R
When we p icked up th e T riump h
T120R, it already h ad over 2 ,0 00 m ile s
of me rcil ess floggin g u n de r its valve
covers, m o st of w hich was d elive red by
an ad m ittedly m erci less gro up o f
magazin e researchers. A lthough the
Bon neville see med a b it weary of the
a buse, p rimarily in the gearbox, it never
let us down.
Way -b ac k-w h en , the Triumph was the
original superbike. I t would beat
anything a red light co u ld stack against
it , cru ise all day at speeds .o n ly legal in
Nevada, and it sounded tuff. In short, it
was the American male 's answer to his
neve r-ending
search
for
Badass
Superstud Identity.
With the advent of the super-smooth
Ho n da
Four,
the
less
ex pensive
Kawasaki Mach 3 rocketship , and the
copycat Ya maha XS I, the prominence
of the Bonneville seemed to fade . So
lit t le was being do ne to make Triumph
co mpetitive with the new Orientals, that
it see me d des tined to die .
Wh y does the Bo nneville sti ll exist
then ? Well , e motional as it may see m,
th er e is n oth in g qui te li ke it.
Afte r pick in g up th e bi ke, a half-hour
ja u n t wi ll a llow you to adapt to the
old-sty le shifting . Re me m ber when yo u
were sweet 16 an d talked a friend in to
lettin g you ride hi s Bo nneville on the
freeway? A m indblowe r , it went so fast .
We cracked the throttle a cou ple of
times in third gea r in 1972. It
accelerated nicely, b u t not wi th the
same thrill as the '65s. A well-tuned 350
two-stroke twin seems to go better.
After riding it for awhile we got off
to watch it leak . For the past few years
every British twin test h as read,
"h otd og! England finally h as it all
together. Our bi ke didn't leak a bit,
u nlike last year's." Year afte r year they
say th a t.
Well,ours di d n ' t lea k , b ut it wept like
crazy , an d n o d oub t it w ill leave a
p u ddle w ith time. First thing , the right
fo rk seal wept: Then th e left one joined
in . T h en a b it trickled down th e oil
reserv oi r in the fra me . A fte r topping u p ,
th e gas cap lea ked . Even tu all y all the
se ams o n th e cases be came c o ve red wi th
dirt-coll ec tin g oil. G rease we p t o ut of
the wh eel b earin gs. Bu t, li ke a
h ouse-broken p uppy , it n ever stained
the carp e t. Gi ve it time an d it w ill ,
though . If o il le ak age b oth ers yo u, you
haven't en ough soul to o wn a Triumph.
The w orst thing ab out this p articular
Bonneville . by far, was the transmission.
T his w as the grumpiest transmission in
the w orld. Pull in the clutch and drop it
in fir st . Crunch. Shi ft in to second.
Grind. T ry third . Grin d , crun ch. N ow
fo u rth . Varo oooom ! O op s, mi ssed a
sh if t. T he Triumph me ch an ic s said th e
bum trans w as cause d by o ne magazin e
gu y wh o liked to run it fo r h o urs on en d
on a road racing cou rse and an oth er
like d to cook it do wn th e quarte r
ga wd - knows - how-many-t imes.
T he
trann y w as n ot bu ilt for speedsh ifting of
an y sort, and afte r all th at ab u se it we n t
on strike comp lete ly. Now you h ave to
shift b efore yo u get to 4,0 00 rpm, use a
good deal of p ressu re, an d m a k e sure
that suc ker is in gear. On ce we stuck it
into a comer at 50 wh ile tapp ing it into
second , Halfway through th e tu m it
b acked o ut of gea r wh ile the side stand
w as scrap in g, nearly pu tting us to rest.
Af te r th a t in cid en t we r u dely stamped it
in to gear, fo r keeps.
Here a re so me o ther thin gs that went
wrong. T h e electri cs we n t off like
fireworks. T he speedo ligh t neve r
worked and th e t ach ligh t sort o f
bl inked a t wil l. (Th is was b ecaus e of a
p oorly-design ed con nec tion th at cou ld
be easily fixed.) First n igh t th e lo w
beam o f th e h eadligh t pun ched o u t, and
a fe w nights later. while on the freeway ,
the high b eam foll owed su i t. A tu m
indicator bulb blew. The trip meter
stopped w orking and at one poin t eve n
went backwards. T he oil pre ssure id io t
light didn 't w ork when th e oil w as low.
Boo.
In fairness, it cost less than a good
break fast to repair these i te ms, except
for the o il p ressure light an d trip meter.
The clutch cab le b roke , a com mon
m al ad y for Triump h . Wh en we bought a
ne w o ne there was a guy stan ding in line
with the same probl e m. A n d the dealer
h ad plen ty in stock, at a reason able
p rice. C h an gin g the clutch ca b le is a
ten-min ute o peration , if you take y our
tim e . That's th ou gh tf ul engineering.....
One more bitch . Some joker wi th a
poor sense of h umor d eci d ed to give th e
stu d ly Bonneville a feeble-sounding
h om . Bleet, bl eet, A nd you have to take
your h an d off the th ro ttl e to work it.
Heart and soul: the twin carb 650cc Tr iumph engine. Note that tr ick exhaust balancer .
We ll, why gripe any mo re about the
electrics. We'll j ust say they're Lucas
and let it go at th a t.
We p u t over 18 0 0 miles on th e
Bonneville and never had to fool with
the motor o nce . In fact, all we ever did
to it was add two q uarts of oi l, adjust
and lu b e th e chain a couple of times,
( there's n o auto matic oil e r), synch the
ca rbs occasio n ally , an d p u ll the ai r
cleaners o nce just to see wh at it was like
to pull th e a ir cleane rs. It was easy.
. T h e p ower ban d is sp ot on . Once the
Bonneville came on the cam it was a
blessed j oy. The surge of power made
y our voi ce d eeper a n d you r c hes t
h airier. Freudians, take n ote. T he b ro ad
torque c urve made wh ee lies and din
slide s ea sy . Fireroading is a gas o n th e
Bonneville. It's j us t th e bike to ride
h ome fro m a half mile.
Handlin g w as very 11:00d wh ich sh o u ld
co me
as
~o
surprise.
Although
inherently heav the Bonneville could
y
be thrown deeply into comers with
pl enty of confidence . The bike could be
driven hard er on righ t turns, un til the
foorpeg and mu ffl e rs touched down
simultaneously. On left tu rns, th e going
was spookier since the cen terstand
kicker-downer would get in the way
before yo u could start having fu n. A
Pa ul S mart let-it-hang-off corneri ng
sty le helps. With two up , the ce nter
stand touches down on even moderate
tur ns,
as
our
wh ite-kn uc kled
p illion -wo rt hy teste r San dra wi ll tell
you .
Whil e co rnering hard , th e fro nt en d
w ill try to sha ke it s head under ce rtain
con d it ions. It is an noying . We cou ld
allevi a te part o f th e problem b y
inc reasing th e p rel o ad on th e rea r
shoc ks. Playing with fo r k o ils m igh t
cu re the rest .
Trium p h has b een u sin g Du nlop K 70s
on bo th fro n t an d rear for so me time.
We we re wa ry of this at firs t b u t they
wo-rked ou t b e tte r th an w e h ad
anticipated. T he compound on th e
English Du nl ops is superior to tha t of
the Japanese, b y th e way, w hic h is one
thing to take in to consideration . On e
advan ta ge of the univers al tread d esign
becomes ap parent on th e Cali fornia
freeways, wh ere th o se n ew- fan gled rain
grooves ca n be found. O ne tes t rid er
fo llo we d a m o torcy cle with ribbed-type
tires and watched it sha ke and sh im m y
all ov er the lanes. The T riu mp h was
un-fazed
by
the gr ooves.
Frame
geometry h elped, too .
Wonder why th ey d on't have dis c
brakes for it. C'mon, Triumph, if y ou're
gonna win races with tern put 'em on
the bikes yo u sel l.
A t low speeds the brakes that com e
w ith the Bonneville are adequate ,
The old Bonn ie loves the swe rvies.
