1982 Triumph 750 Bonneville T140ES
(Page 2 of 3)
September/October 2008
Story and photos by Robert Smith
The big news for 1980 was — finally — an electric starter, fitted at the rear of the timing chest where the magneto had lived on the original 1959 Bonnie. The new models were the T140ES, T140EX Executive (with full hard luggage) and the T140LE Royal of 1981, celebrating the marriage of Charles and Diana. Shown in 1982 was a new 8-valve cylinder head, subsequently fitted to the 1983 TSX. Also in 1983, the TSS appeared with a rubber-mounted engine. Along the way, Bing CV carburetors had replaced Amals on the T140E models.
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But sales, though reasonably strong in the late 1970s, had seriously tailed off, and by 1984 the cooperative was insolvent. Production ceased, and the manufacturing rights were sold to John Bloor. The first Bloor-licensed Harris Bonnevilles, still badged as Triumphs, arrived in 1985 with Marzocchi forks, Brembo brakes and Bosch electrics.
Bloor, however, had other, bigger plans for the Triumph name. Work on a new Triumph factory in Hinckley, Leicestershire, started in the mid-1980s, and a new Triumph range of liquid-cooled, multi-cylinder bikes was announced in 1990. Thanks to Bloor, the Triumph story is still being written.
Bill Sarjeant’s Bonneville
1982: It was the year of the Falklands’ War, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the death of John Belushi. It was also when, in March, Bill Sarjeant’s T140ES Bonneville rolled off the production line at Meriden and made its way, Bill reckons, to British Motorcycles on Fraser Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From there, its history is a little vague until restorer par excellence Richard Brown in Victoria, British Columbia, bought it.
After he got it, Rick completely stripped and rebuilt the bike to concours standard as a present for his wife, who, unfortunately, found the Bonneville’s seat just too tall. Rick sold the bike, but the new owner didn’t keep it long, either. West Vancouver resident Bill Sarjeant found it on the www.robinsclassicbikes.com consignment website. Proprietor Robin Mullett facilitated negotiations for the purchase — which took a year and a half! “In the end we worked out a deal,” says Bill. “Robin even delivered it right to my door.”
Bill thinks his bike may have started life as a Bonneville Executive with factory fairing and full hard luggage. He’s tracked down another 1982 Bonnie in BC that is only five numbers away from his own bike, and it’s an Executive for sure. Although there’s no longer any way of telling, it seems likely the two bikes were built at the same time and shipped together: Bill remembers seeing a pair of Bonneville T140LE Executives at British Motorcycles in the early 1980s. “They sat for two or three years,” Bill recalls. “They wouldn’t sell — they were a bit of an oddity at the time.”