Page 32 - Riding On Spring

ROAD TEST

1979 TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE

Malcolm Fraser was Prime Minister, Skylab crashed in Esperance meant a second motor rebuild, after the valves and pistons
Western Australia. At the pictures you may have watched My connected, albeit very minimally. A few other mechanical issues
Brilliant Career, directed by Gillian Armstrong, or George Miller's have occurred over the years. On one occasion I found myself
Mad Max starring a relatively unknown Mel Gibson. On the old overtaken by a very rapidly moving T140 mounted Craig during
box, Sixty Minutes began and Prisoner made its debut. The D UXQ WR RXU IDYRXULWH ¿VK DQG FKLS VKRS $V LW WXUQHG RXW D
Poms beat us in the cricket, Hyperno won the Melbourne Cup ferrule holding the throttle cable in the carby had popped out
and Jack Newton won the Australian Open. If you listened to and held the engine on full noise!
your radio you may have heard “Up There Cazaly”, “C'mon
Aussie C'mon”, or The Knack's “My Sharona”. Craig likes this particular blue, it's the same as one of his earlier
show bikes. He believed that his British bike should show the
There was a heap more happened of course, but, I'll leave it to Union Jack colours.
you to Google the year that was 1979.
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My focus for that year is the T140D 750cc Triumph Bonneville early 70s and he and that bike were actually in the 1974 Stone
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#68672. Craig has devoted much time, blood, sweat and a
quite a few choice swear words into his pride and joy over the Craig estimates about $3000 went into the custom restoration
years. He has owned the bike since 2013 and is the 4th owner, of his T140D. He's very proud of the result and so he should
buying it was a non-runner. The Bonnie languished silently be, as it looks a treat.
for 8 years in a shed with the chokes jammed on. Once in his +RZ GRHV D TXDOL¿HG SDVWU\ FRRN EHFRPH D ELNH PHFKDQLF"
possession, Craig had it running within 2 days. The bike at Craig laughs and says that an anagram of Triumph is “To Ride
that stage was green in colour, having been repainted after
EHLQJ ZULWWHQ R໤ DERXW DIWHU EHLQJ EHDWRQ XS E\ D )RUG It U Must Push Hard” or another one is “Tried Repairing It Until
=HSK\U UHPHPEHU WKHP" 7KH RULJLQDO RZQHU VROG WKH ELNH DV My Parts Hurt”. It’s all about experience and making mistakes
a wreck. When it originally left the Meriden Triumph factory, it he says, “if you do something wrong during repair or upgrade,
ZDV EODFN DQG JROG VHH EURFKXUH SLFWXUH it doesn’t take long to work out never to do that again”!
Craig isn't resting on his laurels, he's currently rebuilding a
Craig spent a couple of years tinkering to get it to its current 1972 650cc Tiger TR6RV, that is of course whenever he isn't
blue and white livery. He rebuilt the motor and gearbox, out riding the Bonnie.
however, a slight miscalculation in head gasket thickness

RIDING ON 32