Detail Info for: Triumph : Bonneville TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE T120RT

Transaction Info
Sold On:
05/05/2013
Price:
$ 13900.00
Condition:
Mileage:
Location:
Danville, California, 94526
Seller Type:
Private Seller
Vehicle Specification
Year Make Model:
1970 Triumph Bonneville
Submodel Body Type:
Engine:
Transmission:
VIN:
BDXXXXT120RT
Vehicle Title:
Clear
Drive Train:
Fuel Type:
Standard Equipment:
Optional Equipment:
Vehicle Detail
Photo bucket pictures: http://s1356.beta.photobucket.com/user/deadwood99/media/P1030549_zps184bc5de.jpg.html#/user/deadwood99/media/P1030549_zps184bc5de.jpg.html?&_suid=1360806257895015470381430337593 1970 Triumph T120RT, one of 200 or so homologated by the AMA for racing that year. I purchased this bike at the Mid America auction in Las Vegas last January sight unseen until it was up on the auction block! I put a bid in thinking it would sell for much more than my bid (late in the final day and bidders were dwindling) and all of the sudden it was over and I had bought the bike, oh my god! I am not an old Triumph guy but love the classic look of these bikes and the fact that it was a very rare model. That said when I went to research this bike post purchase I found that there is quite a bit out there on how easy it would be to fake one of these so I found my way to the AMA motorcycle hall of fame museum where Katy Wood verified in righting that my bike was in fact authentic! The story on the restoration: This bike was frame up restoration performed by Mike Doom in 2004 (I now have copies of the receipts and Mike can be contacted if a potential buyer has additional questions) for a wealthy motorcycle collector who never rode it post restoration. After the restoration it was started and ridden a short distance with “shop pipes”, torque’s rechecked, new headers installed, gas drained (but the oil was left in) and it has not been started since. The good and the bad: This was a very detailed and complete restoration in every detail from the motor through to the last spoke and nipple – even to the extent that the originally rebuilt motor with a new remanufactured crank was not good enough for the owner who insisted that the engine be re-done with a brand new crank. When completed the bikes speedo/odometer was reset to zero miles and all was complete, but the second owner apparently swapped that unit out for one that showed 11xxx miles so I had that one reset and the trip meter on it repaired. When I purchased it only had one of the two horns and the relay was missing, I have since purchased a second horn but not the relay so the horns do not work. The small Bonneville decal on the tank is also missing, that’s about it. The story behind the 1970 Triumph T120RT In May 1970 the top 200 dealers in USA were sent a letter from the Baltimore and Duarte Offices stating that "Triumph was conducting a nationwide market test of a limited number of 750cc Bonneville models" Each participating dealer was sent one of the new machines which were built to homologate Triumph's B-Range twins for the AMA's new 750cc racing formula. Dealer Price was $1,199 and suggested retail was $1,599-about $150 more than the regular Bonneville. All of them bore the regular model code T120RT stamped on the crankcase serial number pads. The "T" being added in either Baltimore or Duarte, NOT in Meridan. Triumph wanted to compete in the new 750cc Twin Dirt track events, but AMA required 200 "production" examples of any race engine to be built for sale to the public. Therefore Hubert "Sonny" Routt was contacted. Routt ran a successful Maryland business making accessory big bore kits for Triumphs when he wasn't building record-setting twin engined drag bikes. "Rod contacted me in 1969 for an order of 240 Big Bore kits, which included 40 spares," Recalled Sonny Routt. "The job costed out at $88 per kit, including a pair of 10.5:1 Forged True pistons, rings and wrist pins. Triumph got a great deal, because my stock kits sold for about $200 retail!" According to Routt, the special barrels carried embossed part numbers on opposite sides of their base flanges, front and rear. Interestingly the Motor Castings logo (Routt's regular cylinder barrel supplier), which identified every regular Routt kit-an "MC" inside a tiny upside down triangle- remained in the casting mould for the T120RT job. On the 200 RT barrels, the logo appeared where it usually was on the base flange, next to the tappet holes. Taken from "Triumph Motorcycles in America" Triumph T120RT Serial Numbers Available - from Motorcycle Classics magazine If you’re a Triumph fan, you might be familiar with the special batch of hopped up Bonnevilles that Triumph prepared in 1970, the T120RT. Triumph converted some 200 standard 650cc machines to 750cc for racing, and as the years have rolled by these have become increasingly valuable machines. Increased value equals increased interest, but unfortunately, there’s been nothing to keep an unscrupulous restorer from hopping up a standard Bonneville and passing it off as an RT. So how do you tell if you have a “real” RT? Unfortunately, a lack of official records has made that impossible – until now, as Motorcycle Hall of Fame Executive Director Mark Mederski tells us in the following note. – Richard Backus “For some time, reference has been made by collectors to an official list of specially modified for AMA dirt track racing Triumph T120R Bonneville motorcycles, commonly referred to as the “RT” Bonnevilles. Recently the list, probably complete, was discovered in the AMA Homologation files that were transferred to the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum about 20 years ago. One collector has already told me this list is the ‘Holy Grail’ of Triumph motorcycle collecting and will be useful in identifying which machines were officially modified, with a suffix added to their serial numbers. “If you have a machine you feel may be from the 200-and-some machines in the batches of RTs prepped on the east and west coasts we will compare those numbers to the lists for you. Please send us your serial numbers and state whether they are with a chassis, and if yes, what chassis number in cases where the engine is in a frame other than original. We will supply back to you on Museum letterhead a statement of whether the number is from the lists in our files. We will keep these homologation numbers and your provided information in our files and confidential. "By the way, it will ease the process if you can also supply a self-addressed stamped envelope for return of the verification document. “It’s nice to know that much of the good work of the Triumph corporation is well cared for in the hands of passionate collectors. Keep up the good work.” A copy of the Classic Motor Cycle magazine (shown in the pictures) that features the Bonneville T120RT will be included with the sale. Read more: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/Bonneville-Serial-Numbers-Found.aspx#ixzz2KHS2GJ76