My ’78 Bonneville…

It’s raining, it’s cold here in southern California, and those two conditions are enough to keep me indoors today. I’ve been straightening things up here in the home office, and I came across a Triumph brochure from 1978. I bought a new Bonneville that year and as I type this, I realize that was a cool 40 years ago. Wowee. Surprisingly, the brochure scanned well, so much so that even the fine print is still readable…

Triumph had two 750 twins back then. One was the twin-carb Bonneville, and the other was the single-carb model (I think they called it the Tiger). The Bonneville came in brown or black and the Tiger came in blue or red (you can see the color palette in the third photo above). I liked the red and my dealer (in Fort Worth) swapped the tank from a Tiger onto my Bonneville. I loved that bike, and I covered a lot of miles in Texas on it. I used to ride with a friend and fellow engineer at General Dynamics named Sam (he had a Yamaha 500cc TT model, which was another outstanding bike back in the day). I wish I still had that Bonneville.

After I sold the Bonneville, I turned right around and bought a ’79 Electra-Glide Classic.  There’s a brochure buried around here somewhere on that one, and if I come across it I’ll see how it scans.  The Harley had a lot of issues, but it’s another one I enjoyed owning and riding, and it’s another I wish I still owned.

So, back to the present:  We’ve got two great rides coming up.  One is the ride to the Nethercutt Museum on June 2nd, and if you’d like to ride with us, you can sign up for it here.  Our next adventure after the Nethercutt run will be the Pinnacles ride, and I’m also looking forward to that one.  I’m taking my TT250, which has proven to be a great bike for the back roads we’ll be riding.