A bit about Cafe Racers.

**xwhatsit** · 30th June 2007, 18:06

Originally Posted by zrxer

Your a fucking heathen uttering Triumph and then saying honduh made the gb look nicer all in the same sentance

Calm down you crazed zealot

If it makes you feel any better, the GB500 looks to me like it's a rip off of an AJS Boy Racer -- there you go, AJS is better than Triumph

Modern Triumph have their heart in the right place -- their wallet (at least this time they might survive) -- but some of their retro models seem slightly cartoony to me. They're not supposed to be Volkswagen Beetle-style retro, they're attempting to be Caterham 7-style retro, which is all well and good, but they could do much better. The new Scrambler is a much better stab at it IMHO, although peculiarly it also seems to have suffered from a strain of fat-arsed-itis, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Thruxton.

Note I'm still a big fan of the new Thruxtons and Bonnies -- but any bike has it's flaws, and sometimes in the right circumstances they can become endearing, just like your girlfriends way of over-generalising English and sometimes saying `I'm just going to pick up some stuffs from my mother'. Some guys like fat arses, it's true. At any rate it's a vast improvement from the 2004 model Thruxton.

**BigG** · 30th June 2007, 20:29

Originally Posted by Paul in NZ

Nope.... To my knowledge there was never a pre unit Thruxton. Triumph tried racing the pre unit bonnies but the 61's frames fell to bits and while the 62 had an extra bracing strut they were no match for a Norton 650SS.

The 'R' in T120R usually means its an export spec Bonnie but Triumph were pretty casual about some suffix's.

Usual std was...

T120 - 'Home' model bonnie
T120R - 'Export' or US spec bonnie
TR6 - Trophy - Home market single carb street bike
TR6R - Tiger - 'Export' or US spec of Trophy
TR6C - Trophy 'Competition' model street scrambler - US spec - export only

You can add in

T120TT
T120SR
TR6SR
T120C
T120SC

And a bunch of other wierdies....

While Triumph did make 'Thruxton' Bonnies and parts appeared in various parts books etc, Joe public didn't have a shit show of obtaining one. They made bugger all (prob less than you think) and many of them were recycled next season or crashed blown up etc. Factory favoured dealer teams usually raced them because Edward turner was dead against racing but he would support production based racing if he thought the bike was competitive..

I guess the glory days were the later 60's when Turners influence was gone? Triumph had a couple of good seasons for sure at the production TT...

Most Thruxtons are fakes or replicas and very very very few properly documented bikes exist (prob under 20) and they cost a lot of money.

However, you need to remember that Thruxton was an endurance race at an old airfield called Thruxton and a lot of other bikes did very well there and Velocettes 'Thruxton' was entitled to the name before Triumph.

The Thruxton Triumph was a great bike but it was never a production model - every one of them was a little different and were all handbuilt from std Bonnies, the current model, while a worthy bike is perfectly entitled to the name but its not a handbuilt one off racer like the real thing....

Now - IMHO - the most significant 'racing' Triumph ever made in the classic period? Without a doubt the 500cc Daytona, it was remarkable!!! Close second the T120TT...... Sex on a stick but really - it was only the engine the yanks wanted... They could build their own frames..

Well done thats heaps of good info thanks. My mate had a 1962 T120R and we were under the asumption that the R was for raceing, was a real quick bike for its time a lot og guys were wiping the motors out of the Bonnies and fitting them to the feather bed frame then you had the real McCoy.

**McJim** · 30th June 2007, 20:45

We (Auckland motorcyclists) need a cafe...or two.....

**gijoe1313** · 1st July 2007, 01:52

Originally Posted by McJim

We (Auckland motorcyclists) need a cafe...or two.....

Motomail don't count? Or do we need something like Ace Cafe? Or ... McJim's and Chickadee's biker hangout and meet point?

Actually I think Donor is working on that ...

But it's Southside... you'll probably find your bike jacked up on bricks and missing it's tyres!