Reader Ride. A rare 1971 T120RV, a 5 speed Bonneville.

This in from Dogtown Cycles.  They write:

A rare T120RV, a 5 speed Bonneville from 1971 with matching engine and frame numbers. The T120RV was released in the US in 1972, to permit Triumph to use them in American Motorcycle Association production-based racing.  But a few were imported in late model year 1971.  In order to race, all bikes had to be made and sold to the public in the same basic form as they would be raced. To meet this requirement Triumph had to produce and sell 200 of them before they qualified.


The Engine/Frame number, T120RV GE25619 is coded as follows:  The ‘T120R denotes this is a 650cc Bonneville, ‘R’ for a road bike, the ‘V’ five speed. The first ‘G’ in the engine and frame number represents June and the ‘E’ is for 1971 production.  As you can see it has the original and correct Triumph logo printed behind the engine serial number, for 1969 and later models.

With the exception of the stamping on the engine case, there were no external differences between the 4- and 5-speeds. They had the same final drive ratios and sprockets, and the 5-speeds were significantly quicker.

This bike has been completely rebuilt with less than 100 miles since. The engine was thoroughly gone through with a new valve job, guides, rings (std.), main & rod bearings (std.), gaskets, seals,etc. HPC coated TT pipes with removeable internal baffles. It was upgraded with a 1973 disc brake front end with resurfaced rotor, new seals/fluid and polished lower legs.  New Marzocchi shocks at the rear. It has like-new  4.00 x 19 Street Tracker tires front and rear on excellent original rims and spokes.

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