1960 Triumph Bonneville

1960 Triumph Bonneville Background & History

The 1960 Triumph Bonneville was the second-year version of this world-famous high performance motorcycle model that continues on to this day. It was the ultimate manifestation of a long line of parallel twins created by Edward Turner beginning with his ground-breaking 500cc 1938 Triumph Speed Twin

At the time, Britain was by far the largest producer of motorcycles in the world, and led that industry technologically. By the mid-1930s, the most prevalent high performance bikes were 500cc singles, but by the late-30s they had already reached their limits in terms of RPMs and power output. They’d hit a wall at about 30 horsepower. Anything more produced wicked engine vibration that was hard on both rider and machine. Turners game-changing idea was to break that displacement into two parallel cylinders, with the pistons rising and falling together, but firing alternately.

The result was an engine that was lighter, smaller, made more power, and loved to rev, all while reducing engine vibration. The Speed Twin was an instant hit and most of the rest of the British motorcycle industry rushed to duplicate Triumph’s success. Soon BSA, Norton, Royal Enfield Matchless/AJS and Ariel all had their own 500cc parallel twins.

The 1960 Triumph Bonneville featured an all-new duplex frame which tended to flex during hard cornering.  It was quickly remedied.

But no sooner had Triumph created a new breed, they upped the ante with a high-performance version, trumping the entire rest of the industry who was struggling to keep up. The 1939 Triumph T100 Tiger had hotter cams, higher compression and a bigger carburetor. Because both pistons rose and fell together, it was possible to run a single carburetor and for the time being all Triumph parallel twins featured one carb.

World War 2 intervened and all civilian production was halted in favor of war production, but in 1946 peace broke out and the British motorcycle industry again began cranking out bikes for a hungry home market just as a huge new export market opened up: America! Millions of Yanks had been introduced to British motorcycles during the war and now that they returned home they wanted more. The American market soon became more important to Triumph and the other manufacturers than their own home market, and Americans was one thing: power and lots of it.

The 1960 Triumph Bonneville was a truly handsome brute.

And again, just as the industry started to catch up with Triumph, they did it again by punching out their venerable 500 twin into a 650cc monster with the 1950 Triumph 6T Thunderbird. Suddenly all the hot new 500 twins looked small and underpowered. Before long, the others followed with their own 650s, and some even pushed past Triumph with 700 and 750cc models. Yet, Triumph remained at the top of the performance heap and continued to be the top-seller in the segment. But, they weren’t finished yet, not by a long shot.

In 1953 Triumph hopped up their new 650 twin to create the 1953 Triumph T110 Tiger Triumph T110 Tiger, applying the same ‘Tiger-treatment’ to it they they did to the 500cc Speed Twin to create the T100 Tiger. They added compression, hotter cams, a bigger carb and lighter bodywork, and ended up with a true hot rod. Again, the industry struggled to keep up. The American market just gobbled them up and wanted more, more bikes and more power. Triumph was on top of the world.

In 1956 they did it again with the introduction of the 650cc Triumph TR6. The TR6 was available in both street and off-road versions and featured a new alloy cylinder head dubbed the ‘Delta head’. All previous Triumph twins had cast iron heads which were heavier and didn’t dissipate heat nearly as well. This allowed the new bike to run a higher compression ratio for even more power, all still with a single carb.

This 1960 Triumph Bonneville engine shows the Lucas magneto residing behind the cylinders, the tachometer drive feeding off the exhaust cam, and the lack of air cleaners.  The twin downtubes of the duplex frame are clearly visible from this angle.

Triumph Bonneville is Born

In 1959, Triumph reworked the new Delta head to accommodate a second carburetor and the 1959 Triumph Bonneville was born. The whole world took notice. Adding two carbs to a twin cylinder machine seems obvious to us now, but at the time, no one was doing it, but soon most of the other brands who made twin were also converting over to twin carbs.

In actuality, the second carb added some horsepower, but only in the upper RPMs, and at the sacrifice of lower-end performance and drivability. But, the real success was in showrooms, where the look and the bragging rights of the new twin carb “Bonnie” ignited the market.

Duplex Frame Woes

When the Bonneville launched in 1959 it featured a single-down tube frame which was replaced with a new twin-down tube frame in 1960 call the 'duplex frame'.  It looked more modern than the old frame, but suffered from flexing around the steering head.  By 1961 Triumph had figured out that they needed to add another frame tube under the backbone (hidden by the tank) to support the steering head.  By the end of the 1961 model year, all duplex frames had either been built with, or retrofitted with the additional frame tube, and the steering head angle, or front end rake, was set at 65 degrees.  Handling was improved, but this frame had a short life because in 1963 when Triumph converted it's 650 twins over to unit-construction, a new frame, with single down tube as used, and would remain in service through the 1970 model year.

1960 Triumph Bonneville engine, primary drive side.

1960 Triumph Bonneville Styling

The first 1959 Triumph Bonnevilles came with stodgy ‘old man-bodywork’ that didn’t appeal to high performance riders in America at the time. The full fenders, a frumpy tank and seat and the bulky headlight nacelle made the bike look slow. Many US buyers had the dealer change out the body for the lighter, sleaker bodywork from the Triumph TR6. It didn’t take Triumph long however to realize their mistake and by the time the1960 Triumph Bonnevilles came out, they shared bodywork with the Triumph TR6 and would for the rest of the models life (in the classic era).

The Triumph Bonneville, and all of Triumph's bikes except the Triumph Trident which was built in BSA's factory in Small Heath, side-by-side with the BSA Rocket 3, were produced in Meriden, England from 1940 through 1983 when the company went into receivership. British billionaire-developer John Bloor bought the rights to the company for a mere 150,000 pounds, and went to work reinventing the entire Triumph motorcycle line as modern state-of-the-art bikes which he introduced to the world in 1990, now built in a new, ultra-modern factory in Hinkley, England. Thus, all classic Triumphs built in the old Meriden factory are called Meridan Triumphs and all the new ones are called Hinkley Triumphs. It took until 2001 to release the modern Bonneville to the world and it was well-received.

The classic Triumph Bonneville was produced in three generations (four, if you count the new Hinkley Bonnevilles) The first gen, which ran from 1959 through 1962 was known as ‘Pre-Unit’ or ‘Non-Unit, which referred to it’s engine, transmission and primary case being separate components which were bolted together in the frame with a complex set of brackets. This was common practice in the day and became known as non-unit construction. In 1963 Triumph released the second generation which was Unit-Construction which incorporated engine, transmission and primary case in one unitized casing, hence the name. These engines were lighter, stronger, cleaner (fewer oil leaks), easier to build on the production line, simpler to maintain, produced more power and vibrated less. And they looked awesome!

The third generation came in 1971 with the introduction of the Oil-in-Frame bikes, also known as “Oilers”. The engines were largely unchanged, but the bikes received an entirely new frame with a large backbone that held the oil, instead of using a separate oil tank as did the early bikes. They also sported all new bodywork and running gear and were handsome machines, although many Triumph traditionalists didn’t like them much. The modern looks didn’t help sales much either as Triumph began its slow slide into insolvency.

1960 Triumph Bonneville Specifications

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Triumph Bonneville Books

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Other Triumph Bonneville Pages

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1983 T140 Bonneville

1983 TSS Bonneville

1983 TSX Bonneville

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