The story behind the birth of a legend
How Triumph’s roadster became the best-loved British bike ever
Sixty years ago the most famous British motorcycle model of all time first went on sale: Triumph’s Bonneville. The basics of that story, in being an uprated, twin carburettor, performance version of Triumph’s then single carb 650cc Tiger twin, built at the request of the US market and named in honour of a 1956 land speed record attempt at the famous Salt Flats, are well-reported and known, as they should be. The Bonneville was, after all, the fastest Triumph yet built and marketed by Meriden as ‘The best motorcycle in the world.’ And it went on to become not just Triumph’s, but Britain’s most famous motorcycle of all and in some eyes, the first true superbike. No bike is more storied.
But less well known is the fact the Bonneville almost never happened at all, initially got a somewhat lukewarm response and only over time evolved into the world-beater it’s revered as today. This is that seldom-told story…
‘Triumph faced increasing calls for performance’
Sign of the times
To understand the birth of the Bonnie it’s important to understand the times it was born in. The late ’50s, particularly in the US, was not just an era of emerging youth culture and rebellion, ranging from James Dean and Marlon Brando’s The Wild One on celluloid to rock ‘n’ roll, but also of increasing affluence and a lust for showy, motorised performance. These were the days of booming freeways and bopping diners, of fledgling space travel and jiving jukeboxes, fin-bedecked Cadillacs and chrome-laden Chevy V8s. On two wheels that meant a desire for more power, performance and, well, just more. And if war-scarred Britain was more austere and monochrome, the rise of the rocker scene and the ‘tonup boys’ fuelled a similar hunger for noise and speed.
At the same time, a battle for the motorcycle land speed record was reaching fever pitch at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, (see over). Mainly between the German NSU factory and the Triumph USAsupported Devil’s Arrow ridden by Johnny Allen, it also involved Russell Wright and Bob Burns with their Vincent and Brit rider Bob Berry and his 1000cc JAP. All had the mystical 200mph barrier in their sights. And against the backdrop of all of this, Triumph, already far and away the most popular of the British marques in the US, was faced with an increasing demand for performance from American buyers. In 1956, its biggest bikes were the 650 Thunderbird tourer (as conceived for the US market and ridden by Brando in The Wild One) and single-carbed Tiger T110, both no great shakes when Harley’s FL was already 1200cc. American buyers and its influential importers wanted more. And with Stateside sales vital, Meriden relented, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
American dream
Edward Turner, Triumph boss and designer of the original 1937 500cc Speed Twin upon which the Thunderbird and Tiger were based, although grateful for the publicity the land speed record generated, was wary of racing and high-performance road machines, so sought a relatively simple and swift solution. In 1957 Triumph had produced its first splayed head, twin-carbed version of its smaller, 500cc twin and also offered a splayed port, Delta twin-carb head as an option for the T110. But a complete production twin-carb 650 wasn’t yet available. That was about to change. With a quick fix template to hand, development of the new bike was quick. By March of 1958 a twin-carb 650 was undergoing bench testing while Turner saw the first complete prototype, using basically Tiger running gear, in August. Even then he was not convinced, reputedly saying to Frank Baker, Triumph’s experimental department manager: “This, my boy, will lead us straight to Carey Street” (where the bankruptcy courts were).
Triumph’s US distributors, however, were far more enthusiastic and not only persuaded Turner to put the
newbie into production, but to call it Bonneville in honour of Allen’s achievements. A legend was born.
A difficult birth
The T120 Bonneville, (its nomenclature intended, like the T110 Tiger before it, to indicate top speed, although in truth 115mph was nearer the mark) was unveiled at the Earl’s Court Show in November 1958 where it was the star of the show. And the rest, you might think, is history. But in truth, it was just the beginning. Right up to that point, the Bonneville’s existence was far from certain. It’s speed of development and the decision to put it into production had come so late it wasn’t even included in Triumph’s 1959 model catalogue while early versions had more than their fair share of problems. Although, ostensibly, just a T110 with the splayed-port cylinder head and twin carburettors, there was, of course, more to the Bonneville than that. There were different, highlift cams, bigger valves and higher compression pistons. There was a strengthened, one-piece, forged crankshaft with bigger journals and bearings and a different flywheel, too. The result, 46bhp at 6500rpm, was class-leading.
But at a small press launch in September, before the show and, just after the first pre-production bikes began to be built, a bent valve on one machine almost caused the whole project to be delayed (stronger valve springs were fitted instead). Vibration was also a problem, as were high-speed wobbles from the single downtube frame, while flywheel bolts were known to break, too. Worse, despite all of its performance and speed boasts, the Bonnie wasn’t the immediate sales success many expected. In the UK the Bonneville, along with the rest of the industry, was hit by a 1959 sales slump, brought in part by the popularity of a new wave of small, affordable cars such as the Mini, which launched that year. Worse still, despite expectations, the Bonneville wasn’t an immediate hit in the US, either. The rush to get the bike into production meant the sportster Bonneville shared most of the bodywork and styling of the more touring Tiger, including its sensible, heavily valanced mudguards and headlamp nacelle, neither of which appealed to American hot rod junkies where a stripped-down look was where it was at. Some US buyers even swapped the bodywork of their new Bonnies with that of the more svelte Triumph TR6.
Becoming the best
Even the original Bonnie’s famous colourscheme, the two-tone orange and grey; as selected by Turner himself and inspired by the pastel schemes of American diners, was initially unpopular. Many examples remained unsold in the US well into 1960. Ironically, these are now the most desirable of all.
But all of these were just hiccups and, with a few corrections, improvements and developments, the Bonneville went on to become the most desirable, successful and iconic British bike of all.
As early as April 1959, Meriden responded, first by changing the colours to two-tone blue, while for 1960 a host of other changes were made with the nacelle and ugly mudguards replaced for a more cutdown look, a new alternator was fitted, carburetion improved, and a new duplex frame adopted. Slowly but surely, the fastest was genuinely becoming the best.
In 1963 another significant step was made with the adoption of a unit construction engine along with other frame improvements while new forks soon followed. In short, continually developed through the 1960s and with a range of variants including the T120C and TT racers, by 1967 the Bonnie was a machine truly deserving of the hype. Interestingly, that year was the Bonnie’s most successful year of all, with 28,000 sold in the US alone. It also won the Production TT that year (repeated in 1969) and is the model year on which today’s modern, reborn Hinckley Bonnevilles are most modelled. And while later 750 versions, now outpaced by the Japanese, may have sullied the memory and the 1970s collapse of British bike manufacturing taints the glory days, those ’60s Bonnies cemented a legend that will live forever.
‘This, my boy, will lead us straight into bankruptcy’ EDWARD TURNER, TRIUMPH BOSS