‘Bet on a Bonnie’

Lockdown is getting to me. I’ve serviced my 400 Four, cleaned it and my Honda CD200 until they gleam, run up my Ninja H2 until it’s nice and hot – haven’t ridden that for three months – and fitted an as-new rear rack to my Guzzi Le Mans while making ‘brrmm-brrmm’ noises.

And now I want to buy an old Triumph. I can’t explain why. I suppose it’s because I want something I can tinker with pointlessly and swear at.

I know nothing of the Ancient Lore of Meriden (though I have friends who do). I briefly owned a TR65 Thunderbird, the rare last-gasp 650 and I tested a Les Harris 750 Bonnie in the late 1980s. Museum pieces even then, but I loved them. Even so, I wound up pushing the Bonnie because it ran onto reserve and then ran out completely after just six miles.

I have no non-metric tools, so that will mean an expensive trip to Halfords.

For me, there are just two models to choose. One is the old T100R Daytona 500, the mini-Bonneville and the other is as late and sorted a Meriden T140 750 as I can find, preferably in US spec. In other words, I want something that someone else has done the hard work on rather than a ‘just a few jobs left to do’ project.

The Daytona is just neat and sweet and the late ones even came with indicators to make life easier. The Bonneville shakes more – though the Harris one I rode was remarkably smooth (for a Bonnie) – but has a left-hand gear shift, which I’d prefer. Really nice examples of each cost about the same, and they can only appreciate. It’s a matter of which comes up first.