In the autumn of 2022, I became convinced that my life would not be complete unless I got a 650cc Triumph T120 Bonneville, vintage 1971-73. These obsessions have roots too deep to fully fathom, but there are some parameters. Despite enjoying traditional singles, I’d come up on twins, first bike a 350cc Norton Navigator, significant long-term keepers a 1973 750cc Commando, and a 1956 BSA A10, Anneka, which I’d recently, reluctantly, let go due to persistent hot-starting problems.
Triumphs Rule?
Test machines over the years had taught me that 500 and 650cc Triumph twins felt the liveliest, and were generally easy to kick-start. I’d put a toe in the Meriden waters in 2018 with the outstandingly smooth 1981 single carb TR65 Thunderbird 650, which, after fettling, had proved satisfactory in every respect, though acceleration was respectable rather than stirring.
And I felt that it wouldn’t really do for long distance touring. Advancing age had meant that my Guzzi California had got too heavy for me and had to go. So the TR65 had been part-exchanged for a nearly new, substantially lighter Moto Guzzi V7. That left the 1955 BSA M20 for classic riding.
Advancing years (I had a big birthday coming up in 2023) fuelled the appetite for One More Go-Round with a quick, charismatic classic twin, an excuse to break out the Schott Perfecto jacket and channel the inner Marlon, to feel that Triumph twin carb acceleration. And yes, I know that ‘the Tiger is the thinking man’s Bonneville’ – but that kind of ruled me out…
The style of the early oif (oil in frame) twins was also a big factor, centring on the wasp-waisted US-style gas tank. American author David Gaylin had nailed it when he wrote of the 2.5 US/2 Imperial gallon ‘slimline’ version with its mere 100-mile range that it “failed in every duty except one: no other single feature sold more Triumphs in the United States than that sensuous fuel tank.” With the swooping painted ‘scallops’
