Triumph Bonneville Technical Bulletins, Late 60's Vintage

1967 (the year of Triumph's record US Sales, further to Hondax' post): 30mm Concentric carbs, a mid-year replacement for Amal Monoblocs. Copper-plated exhaust camshaft. Radiused layshaft spline corners (?) . Fork gaiters secured by spring clips (!) . Grey-on-grey quilted seat and an aubergine (eggplant?) and alaskan white finish
1968: Reinforced (?) Hepolite pistons. Improved (?) cylinder barrel location. New Lucas (ha ha ha!) contact breakers. A Zener diode (ditto). Provision for stroboscopic ignition timing. Fuel tank secured by three studs vs. two. (!) Thicker knee grips (!) but NOT on US-bound units that did not even have the thinner ones. A twin-leading shoe front brake and a metallic red over silver finish.
1969: Nitride-hardened camshafts ("at last putting an end to the wear cam problem so long suffered by the Bonneville" (sic)). An improved thread on the tachometer drive (?). Updated (?) Hepolite pistons. A balance pipe horizontally fitted between the two down pipes. A welcome change to a more "aerated" seat padding. BTW, the "new-for-69" color scheme escapes me right now....

You don't want me to carry on with the swan song, do you?

My point?: Mr Bloor's resurrection of the marque is nothing short of admirable. Jamie

Old fart reminiscing...

Jamie:

I fondly remember the sticker attached to the timing cover of my '68 T120 that proclaimed "stroboscopic timed"......timing light.

I miss the oil drips and the night visitor and Lucas, Prince of darkness. Humor aside, I really do. The golden age of the Meriden Triumph is gone, replaced by the Hinkley Triumph and the consequent globalization...the Thailand Triumph. However, the light still shines thanks to dedicated collectors and restorers......

Even our R3's can't escape the touch of the Pacific Rim. Headers, fenders, frame and bearclaw is manufactured in the Thai plant and who knows what else.

Ah! Someone paid attention. Thanks. Lonely the oldie . All I was trying to share, having been part of that mid/late sixties British motorcycle scene, was that Meriden's products, however charming, were terminally timeworn. The annual "enhancements" aka "fixes" in bulletins to dealers --which I was accurately quoting-- just add a ... poetic or... fatal or... pathetic touch to the decadence.

We had a joke here, in francophone Switzerland, back in the early seventies: What does " Triumph" mean in French? . Every biker rushed to --correctly-- say: "Triomphe". The right answer was "Debacle" . Which did not require any translation. Best. Jamie