VOLUME ISSUE JULY , P143
shift lever, making certain that the
bike was meshing as it should.
With just 3800 miles on the odom
-
eter, this beaten, bloody bloke was
in need of a tranny rebuild.
More trouble. The '72 lived
up (down) to its reputation as
a brand whose electrics were
just downright unreliable. "The
electrics went off like fireworks,"
wrote CN. "The speedo light nev
-
er worked, and the taillight sort
of blinked at will." The low beam
on the headlight also ceased
to function, and soon after, the
high beam vanished—while the
staff was on the freeway. A
turn-indicator lamp blew, and the
oil-pressure idiot light failed to do
its only job, that of indicating that
the oil in the crankcase was low.
What else? The clutch cable
broke, which was "a common mal
-
ady for Triumph." In fact, when the
staffer visited a local dealer for a
replacement, another beleaguered
Triumph owner was standing in
line, waiting to purchase his own
replacement cable for his bike.
With such a lengthy list of
afflictions, one might expect the
Cycle News crew to be eager to
return this machine to the dis
-
tributor and move on to the more
reliable motorcycles of the '70s
(there were a few). But there was
something about this Triumph
that drew them in so closely that
they could not leave.
"When I'm broken down, and I
can't stand…would you be man
enough to be my man?"
Sure enough, the crew seemed
to have something of a codepen
-
dent relationship with this beauti-
ful yet finicky motorcycle. They
were enamored with its classic
appearance. "Everything," they
wrote, "is well-appointed, comfort-
able and functional. The front end,
the toughest part to design with a
clean look, is well done." The staff
loved the mufflers, both for their
form and their function, stating
that they "look like custom jobs"
and that they were "loud enough
for all to hear but sweet enough
to offend no one."
Gradually, most of the Bonn
-
eville's warts begin to magically
disappear throughout the write-
up. The broken clutch cable was
no big deal, as "the dealer had
plenty in stock at a reasonable
price. Changing the clutch cable
is a 10-minute operation…that's
thoughtful engineering." Most of
the Triumph's electrical issues
could also be easily remedied,
with the staff noting that "it cost
less than a good breakfast to
repair these items…"
In the end, the staff concluded
that the Bonneville was "an out
-
standing, around-town middle-
weight cafe cruiser and mountain
road racer." It wasn't the cheap-
est big street bike ($1500 plus
tax), and it wasn't the best—in
any category. It was a beautiful
classic, but also a temperamen-
tal, unpredictable lover, one that
will "sing along with the pave-
ment as you flick it through some
esses on a twisty road." An allur-
ing, yet dangerous song.
"Are you strong enough to be
my man?"
CN
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(Left) "If oil leakage bothers you,
you haven't enough soul to own a
Triumph," CN said. (Right) The Cycle
News test riders of the 1972 Triumph
Bonneville T120 said that it is "not
the fastest, nor the best-handling,
best-stopping or the cheapest. But
because it's a Triumph, somehow, it's
all you'll ever really need."
