1970 Egli-Vincent 1970 EGLI-VINCENT BACKGROUND Swiss racer/engineer Fritz Egli designed and built custom frame kits for the legendary Vincent 998cc...
1970 Norton Commando ABOVE: The 1970 Norton Commando came in a new guise: The Norton Commando Roadster, or Type R....
1970 Norton Mercury 1970 NORTON MERCURY BACKGROUND The Norton Mercury-series ran from 1968 to 1970 and represents the last model in the Dominator family. With Featherbed Frame production having ended in 1968 with the death of the Dominator 650SS and Atlas 750, and the launch of the new Commando. Production...
1970 Rickman-Triumph 1970 Rickman-Triumph Background This 1970 Rickman-Triumph is typical of many of the Rickman desert racers of the era,...
1970 Royal Enfield Interceptor 1970 ROYAL ENFIELD INTERCEPTOR BACKGROUND Royal Enfield hopped up its 692cc Constellation and created a new...
BEST EVER The 1970 Triumph Bonneville T120 was not only the high water mark in Triumph 650 development, and the year that most people favor as ‘the best Triumph Bonneville ever built’, it was also the last year before the dreaded Oil-in-Frame bikes arrived, and all the problems with...
1970 Triumph TR6 1970 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS For 1970, the Triumph TR6 was again known as “Tiger”, as...
1970 Triumph Trident T150 1970 TRIUMPH TRIDENT – A NEW LOOK After the horrible styling experiment of the 1969 Triumph...
1971 BSA A65 BIG CHANGES FOR THE 1971 BSA A65 For the 1971 model year, BSA and Triumph changed virtually every item on their big 650 twins, with the exception of the engines. A new frame had been designed by BSA’s hopelessly misguided Umberslade Hall tech center. Instead of focusing...
1971 BSA A70 Lightning 1971 BSA A70 LIGHTNING IS BORN BSA wanted to enlarge their 650 twin to a 750...
1971 BSA Rocket 3 BIG CHANGES FOR THE 1971 BSA ROCKET 3 1971 was a watershed year for BSA and...
1971 Norton Commando 1971 Norton Commando ROADSTER 4 NEW MODELS The 1971 Norton Commando line grew from 2 models in 1968 (Fastback & S), to 3 models at the beginning of the 1969 model year (Fastback, S & R), then dropped back down to 2 models by the end of...
ABOVE: This 1971 Triumph Bonneville was restored to ‘better-than-new’ condition. It won “Best of Show” Award at the Clubman’s All-British...
1971 Triumph TR6 The 1971 Triumph TR6 saw the introduction of the new oil-bearing frame & all new cycle gear....
1971 Triumph Trident T150 THE 1971 TRIUMPH TRIDENT EVOLVES After 2 model years since it’s introduction in 1969, the novel Trident triple continued to evolve slowly, both mechanically and stylistically. On the styling front, the restyled 1971 Triumph Trident benefited from all the new cycle gear introduced on the also...
1972 Norton Commando 1972 NORTON COMMANDO MODEL DESIGNATIONS All four road models became MkIVs & one completely new model was...
1972 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE CARRIES OVER Coming one year after the major redesign that came in 1971, and one year before...
1972 TRIUMPH TR6 BY THE NUMBERS 1972 was the second year for the Oil-in-Frame. There were four models for 1972: TR6R (the standard Roadster with low pipes); TR6C (with high pipes running along the left side); TR6P (Police version); and TR6RV (a Roadster with optional 5-speed gearbox). Engine & frame...
1972 Triumph Trident T150 1972 TRIUMPH TRIDENT BACKGROUND The Trident benefitted majorly from the 1971-and-later redux of the Oil-in-Frame 650...
1973 Norton Commando ABOVE: 1973 Norton Commando 750 Roadster was more or less the “standard” Commando. BACK ON TRACK After...
1973 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE MODEL DESIGNATIONS 1973 was a big year for the new Oil-in-Frame Triumph Bonneville. Starting the model year with Engine #JH15366, the T120 Bonneville 650 soldiered on for another year (it would finally be dropped in 1976), side-by-side with the new T140 Bonneville 750, which started with Engine...
1973 Triumph TR7 1973 TRIUMPH TR7 BY THE NUMBERS 1973 was the first year for the new 750 twins, in...
1973 Triumph Trident 1973 Triumph Trident T150V THE 1973 TRIUMPH TRIDENT IS A TURNING POINT 1973 was a very important...
THE 1973 TRIUMPH X75 HURRICANE As an interesting aside to the Triumph Trident / BSA Rocket 3 story is the X75 Hurricane. Having insisted on a slightly different 3-cylinder engine from the Triumph’s, BSA wanted to make an impression and show their dealers something exciting for a change, and something...
1974 Norton Commando A 1974 NORTON COMMANDO FOR EVERY TASTE The Commando was available in a variety of configurations, all...
SHORT MODEL YEAR The 1974 Triumph Bonneville was built in very low numbers. It was a very odd year in...
1974 Triumph Trident T150 1974 TRIUMPH TRIDENT MOSTLY CARRIES OVER The 1974 Trident was essentially much the same as the 1973, other than paint schemes and minor details. Trouble was brewing at Triumph that saw the workers union shut down their Meriden plant, where their best-selling Bonneville and all other...
1975 Norton Commando ABOVE: 1975 Norton Commando MkIII Roadster in Union Jack paint scheme. TROUBLE BEHIND THE SCENES While the...
ABOVE: This 1975 Triumph Bonneville is rarer than you might think. While it looks very similar to the 1973 &...
1975 Triumph Trident T160 1975 TRIUMPH TRIDENT AIMS HIGH It’s amazing to think about how much of a leap the ’75 T160 Trident was over the ’74 T150, especially considering that the newly-formed, worker-owned Meriden Co-op was also woefully underfunded. In other words, they had almost no money for R&D....
ABOVE: The 1976 Triumph Bonneville is the first to adopt left-side shift. Note shifter coming out of primary case. SPANISH...
1976 Triumph TR7 1976 TRIUMPH TR7 IS A FIRST The 1976 model year was the first full model year under...
ABOVE & BELOW: 1977 Triumph Bonneville T140V was essentially carried over from ’76, as would be the practice from now on. Budget constraints were choking the company and it’s products. This one is in the Polychromatic Blue and Cold White paint scheme. FOCUSING ON ONE MODEL As the 1977 model...
1977 Triumph Bonneville Silver Jubilee US-Market Version ABOVE & BELOW: The US-spec version of the 1977 Triumph Bonneville Silver Jubilee...
ABOVE & BELOW: This 1978 Triumph Bonneville is a T140V, which still has the Delta-style head with splayed intake ports...
ABOVE: 1979 Triumph Bonneville in T140D Bonneville Special guise, with Dark Blue & Silver paint scheme. SPECIAL EDITIONS HELP SALES Triumph motorcycles’ new owners, the employees, known as the Meriden Co-operative, or the Co-op for short, had hit on a new idea almost by accident: a limited edition special. 1978...
I’m 52 years old, and I’ve been riding since I was 16. I bought the Triumph Bonneville Special brand new...
MY 1979 TRIUMPH T140D BONNEVILLE SPECIAL I own a ’79 T140D myself. It’s pictured above, on display at the Quail...
ABOVE: 1980 Triumph Bonneville T140E in Steel Gray & Black. SLOW SALES HURT CO-OP By 1980, what was left of the “Triumph magic” had evaporated. Large numbers of 1979 Triumph motorcycles were still sitting unsold in dealer showrooms & factory warehouses. For the first time since the end of WWII,...
ABOVE: The 1981 T140ES Executive was a factory touring bike, with sport fairing & saddle bags (panniers). MORE SPECIAL MODELS...