[bri]

Has anyone ever owned a '79 Bonneville here?  If you have or do, how do you like the bike?
I may end up getting one as a second bike.

[PaulF]

Has anyone ever owned a '79 Bonneville here?  If you have or do, how do you like the bike?
I may end up getting one as a second bike.

Never owned one myself but grew up around them, rode a few and had friends who had 'em. One with a 79.
My opinions:
-Small and light weight - plus
-Sound beautiful with the stock mufflers - plus
-Nice handling - plus
-Sound like loud crap with aftermarket mufflers - minus
-Brakes are so-so.
-If it has Amal conentric carbs - big minus. Amals do, (or will) leak. I think however, that the 79 has Amal Mark II's - better. Maybe Del Ortos - even better yet.
-By the late 70's, electrics were better with electronic ignition and three-phase alternator and a 79 should have Veglia gauges. Better than Smiths, but not nearly as pretty - I'm neutral on that.
-79 Bonnevilles have oil-in-frame. At 30+ years old, unless the bike was restored, that frame, (which is the oil tank) is definately full of sludge - big minus.
-I dont know, if by 1979, Triumph still had the internal sludge trap. PITA to get to and clean.
-One important thing I know for certain. If that bike is a T140D, and it's black with a 2-into-1 exhaust and Lester mag wheels, it is a unique Bonneville that was made for one year only. That particular bike has a one-off frame and fatter, modified swing-arm to accept the 4.25" rear tire, and few, if any other Bonneville parts from those years will fit it.

In all, if the bike has been meticulously cared for or restored, and priced right, I'd say buy it. Stay away from anything after 1980 with the electric start. They have sprag clutches!!

The Triumph experts can add to anything I missed.

[PaulF]

Never owned one myself but grew up around them, rode a few and had friends who had 'em. One with a 79.
My opinions:
-Small and light weight - plus
-Sound beautiful with the stock mufflers - plus
-Nice handling - plus
-Sound like loud crap with aftermarket mufflers - minus
-Brakes are so-so.
-If it has Amal conentric carbs - big minus. Amals do, (or will) leak. I think however, that the 79 has Amal Mark II's - better. Maybe Del Ortos - even better yet.
-By the late 70's, electrics were better with electronic ignition and three-phase alternator and a 79 should have Veglia gauges. Better than Smiths, but not nearly as pretty - I'm neutral on that.
-79 Bonnevilles have oil-in-frame. At 30+ years old, unless the bike was restored, that frame, (which is the oil tank) is definately full of sludge - big minus.
-I dont know, if by 1979, Triumph still had the internal sludge trap. PITA to get to and clean.
-One important thing I know for certain. If that bike is a T140D, and it's black with a 2-into-1 exhaust and Lester mag wheels, it is a unique Bonneville that was made for one year only. That particular bike has a one-off frame and fatter, modified swing-arm to accept the 4.25" rear tire, and few, if any other Bonneville parts from those years will fit it with the exception of the seat pan and tank.

In all, if the bike has been meticulously cared for or restored, and priced right, I'd say buy it. Stay away from anything after 1980 with the electric start. They have sprag clutches!!

The Triumph experts can add to anything I missed.

[PaulF]

Sorry. double-post.
dammit

[Chasfield]

Had an earlier unit 650 for a number of years.

Triumph twins are great. The unit engines were basically sound from the start, with a good strong gear box.

Very easy to work on. Plenty of third party upgrades and reasonably priced spares.

Great torque and they only weigh a bit more than a Bullet.

I think the sludge trap "feature" persisted through all the 750s. Thus, the use of an air filter and frequent oil changes are to be strongly recommended. Post-fit external oil filter kits are now available, so that problem is not so much of an issue.

[SRL790]

I have owned and ridden a Bonneville for better than twenty years, the one I have currently for 15 years.  Still my favorte bike for scraping footpegs in the mountains.

The price of Triumphs has been steadily rising, with the pre-1971 models (pre oil-in-frame) being the most desireable with good examples fetching over $10,000 at auction.  As these models get rarer to find I would think that the later models will also increase in value, so if the bike is in good shape and the price is right, it could be a good investment.

My two cents worth on sludge traps.

The sludge trap is located internally on the crankshaft and, as the name implies, it traps sludge - a lot of sludge.  On engines that have sat for a long time this sludge tends to dry out and then, when the engine is re-started, chunks can break off blocking an oilway and causing a catastrophic failure.  This may of course never happen to your machine, but my recommendation, on a bike thats been sitting, is always to clean it out which involves stripping the engine down to the crank.

[bri]

Well... I went and checked it out in person today...
The story behind the bike is a friend of the seller had bought it and intended to totally restore the bike, but never did so the seller bought it and assembled the bike himself (the bike was in pieces with the exception of the engine.
The tank had been repainted, the tank badge was missing and replaced with Triumph decals, the front forks were replaced with slightly longer ones giving it a cruiser/slight chopper type look and the handle bars were replaced with cruiser type bars.
The demonstrated that it does run well, starts up in 1-2 kicks and revealed that the seals on the front forks need replaced and that sometimes the engine smokes white smoke when the bike is running and on the kickstand.  He wasn't aware of any problems with the oil sludging up and said he had changed the oil approx. 1k ago.
I am unsure if I will buy it.  If I do, I am afraid I will fell the need to sink a bunch of money into it to get it looking just right...  ...and my Bullet might get neglected...

[SRL790]

I usually offer $500, take or leave it, for something with this dubious a historry (most people leave it and find some other sucker).  If the chromes good go to 1K.  You have at least a few hundred bucks just to rebuild the forks and find the correct tank badges!

[PaulF]

bri, walk away from that thing. With different forks, the geometry has been changed and I'll bet my last peso it handles like sh**. I'm betting they're not even Triumph forks.

Sounds like it needs alot and you may end up spending the equivalent of a small country's national debt to get it right.