Triumph Bonneville

• 649 cc, with 34 kW ( 46 hp ), 178 km / h
• 744 cc with 40 kW ( 53 hp ), 178 km / h

The Triumph Bonneville [ bɔnvɪl ] is a motorcycle manufacturer Triumph of the vehicle. The original version of the Bonneville, or as it is called by fans " Bonnie ", was presented at the 1958 Earls Court Motor Show in London. In 1959, she appeared on the market.

Model history

The Triumph Bonneville was born from the development of the Triumph Tiger T110, the engine should be increased from 500 to 650 cc. A speed of 120 mph provided ( 193.1 km / h ) - was Performance-wise - with about 50 hp. The engine of the T110 had to be to be substantially revised. So he was given a new one-piece forged crankshaft to withstand the increased power. Developed from T120 engine was tested on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah in a streamlined machine clad in September 1955. Here, the test driver Johnny Allen set a new motorcycle world record with 214.5 mph ( 345.2 km / h ), which resulted in the model name Bonneville. The bike was built in various stages of development to 1980 in the old Triumph factory in Meriden. After the economic collapse of triumph and the takeover of the insolvent company by the Contractor John Bloor, the British Triumph dealer Les Harris still built from June 1985 to 1988 from stockpiles and supply parts more Bonnevilles.

John Bloor founded triumph as it were new in the 1980s; he moved the production base of Meriden in the nearby Hinckley and built a completely new work. After Triumph had been successfully established in the 1990s with three-and four-cylinder motorcycles again as a producer, appeared a new edition of the two-cylinder Bonneville retro style, referred to as Triumph Modern Classic.

Models

Bonneville 650 T120 ( 1959-1973 )

The original Bonneville was not only a very popular street bike, she was also sporting success: The first production aircraft reached at the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man a round -section of 100 mph with the Model 1960 frame and lamps were changed. The T120R was awarded in 1972 an optional deliverable five-speed gearbox. In August 1973, the production was stopped.

Bonneville 750 T140 ( 1973-1980 )

Main article: Triumph Bonneville T140

Since the call for more power and more displacement grew louder over the years, the engine of the Bonneville in 1973 was enlarged. In a first series engines have been delivered with 724 cc. The transmission had five gears and were quite connected, the motorcycles were equipped with a Lockheed front disc brake and a conical drum in the rear.

During the development process for this variant, it was found that the greater burden tended by the right main bearings of the crankshaft to frequent defects. Therefore, the new engines were a vote, which reduced the load on the bearing by put less torque at low engine speeds. This has been achieved mainly by an exhaust with little performance friendly timing. Thus, the T140 received a less than satisfactory in comparison with the smaller engine power characteristics with a pronounced lack of torque below 4500 rpm, so effectively by the larger engine capacity no real performance increase was noticeable.

The first engines of T140 were still suffering from the same problem as the T120 with the oil- in-frame chassis: the space in the frame were very cramped, so dismantled for engine assembly into the chassis, the rocker box of the finished test overflowed engines and re-installed in the chassis had to be, because the motor is not allowed to completely install. To remedy this, a new cylinder block was constructed which had only seven instead of the previous eight fins and built correspondingly lower. This included correspondingly shorter connecting rods and push rods in the motor and suitable small parts on engine and chassis. These engines had a displacement of 744 cc and were completely mounted to the bogie.

For model year 1976, the T140 received a transmission with links circuit to meet the new U.S. registration requirements. At the same time kept in the rear wheel a disc brake feeder.

End of the year 1978, the model T140E (E = emission control ) appeared with carburetors type Amal MkII without float swabs, since these were banned in the United States. This cylinder heads were used in which for the first time in the history of the Bonneville intake ports were parallel instead of a V-shape to each other. These heads were modifierte Tiger parts adapted to the new carburetor intake manifold on which the carburetors were mounted with rubber bushings. Moreover, almost unchanged, very strongly damped exhausts were used optical; both changes together ensured that the performance of the T140E I, and the already strong lack of torque was even stronger. In this otherwise identical to the previous model execution T140E very few were produced.

After a short time with an electronic ignition type Lucas Rita was used and the upper fork bridge the Triumph Trident introduced at the front forks, in the ignition with the control lights in a housing between the instruments sitting (instead of before the ignition switch in the left lamp holder and the lamp mounted in the headlight ) and the instruments in cast brackets with vibration dampers were held as before. chromed mounts to the upper fork plugs Moreover, such hand controls were used, as they had been previously used on the Norton Commando MkIII and Triumph Trident T160. Thus, at least in these points, a design was achieved that could connect to the Japanese competitors.

For the rest of the life of the model, only minor changes to the T140 were made.

Bonneville Special models

The special model Jubilee came to celebrate the 25th Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II on the market. Base was the model T140V. The Jubilee differed from the standard model only by the color scheme of blue, white and red, the rest should be limited to 1,000 copies for the U.S. and the UK market. There were, however, made ​​because of strong demand for 400 additional copies for Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

With the special triumph followed the trend coming from Japan to the so-called soft chopper. With 42 hp, the engine was designed to be weaker than anything in the series. The chopper optics achieved a stepseat, higher handlebars, cast aluminum wheels and a 2- in-1 exhaust system.

On the occasion of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana on 29 July 1981 put Triumph on the Royal 750 special model. Base was the model T140V. The machine had an electric starter, struts Marzocchi and lightweight cast wheels with dual disc brakes. Besides lots of chrome and polished aluminum graced a " jubilee plaque " the steering head. It should have been built 2,000 units.

The executive was positioned as a touring bike and had a standard case set with top case, a handlebar fairing and an electric starter. It was available with spoked wheels surcharge also with cast aluminum wheels.