Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1537729
S heryl Suzanne Crow is a motorcyclist, which is a fact that won't surprise fellow riders when they learn a little more about her. From a short career as a fresh-faced music teacher, she moved on to perform with local bands and eventually sang McDonald's commercial jingles. When her skills were finally noticed, she re - jected oily execs in the industry who were pressuring her to be- come another dance pop queen and instead became a treasured singer-songwriter. Along the way, she gave breast cancer a smackdown and even survived a relationship with Eric Clapton. Though she seems to enjoy dirt biking, there is at least one pic on the interwebs of Ms. Crow aboard a Triumph street machine. When you listen to the lyrics from her song "Strong Enough," she could have been writing in second person, speak - ing from the vantage point of a particular Triumph from the early 1970s, with the British beauty making it known that this rela - tionship is going to be anything but easy. Metal vs. mettle. "If oil leakage bothers you," she sings, "you haven't enough soul to own a Triumph." Okay, she didn't say exactly that. Those words are from the May 16, 1972, issue of Cycle News, which featured a road test of the '72 Bonneville T120R. This Triumph "wept like crazy…the right fork seal wept, then the left one joined in. Then a bit trickled down the oil reservoir in the frame…the gas cap leaked. Eventually all the seams on the cases became covered with dirt- collecting oil. Grease wept out of the wheel bearings." Indeed, fossil fluids on this motorcycle were like viscous ghosts, determined to return to the burial ground from whence they came. What's worse than a drippy motorcycle? A clunky gearbox. "The worst thing," the staff wrote, "about this particular Bonneville, by far, was the transmission. This was the grumpiest transmission in the world. Pull in the clutch and drop it in first. Crunch. Shift into second. Grind. Try third. Grind, crunch. Now fourth. Varooooom! Oops, missed a shift." Triumph technicians blamed the transmis - sion woes on a couple of un- named monthly magazine editors. Before arriving at Cycle News, the Bonneville had apparently been mercilessly flogged by these chaps, running it up and down the quarter-mile strip and taking it on to the road racing course for a day of pretend racing. By the end of the next 1800 miles, Cycle News' staffers were "rudely" stamping the right-sided gear CNIIARCHIVES P142 BY KENT TAYLOR 1 9 7 2 T R I U M P H B O N N E V I L L E T 1 2 0 1 9 7 2 T R I U M P H B O N N E V I L L E T 1 2 0 1 9 7 2 T R I U M P H B O N N E V I L L E T 1 2 0 1 9 7 2 T R I U M P H B O N N E V I L L E T 1 2 0 STRONG ENOUGH Despite a lengthy list of complaints, the Bonneville's test rider concluded, "You feel neat on a Bonneville."