Triumph T120RT Serial Numbers Available
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.”
Contack Mark at:
Mark Mederski
Executive Director/Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum
13515 Yarmouth Drive
Pickerington, OH 43147
www.motorcyclemuseum.org