1976 Triumph Bonneville

1976 Triumph Bonneville Background & History

While the big news for the 1976 Triumph Bonneville was the switch to left-side shifting, the engine itself had few modifications. Starting with engine number HN62501, a new O-ring was fitted to the revised timing inspection plug located on the primary cover, and also at the oil pressure relief valve. A new muffler set were now almost cylindrical reverse-cones (very little taper) and internal noise reduction revisions. The twin 30mm Amal Concentric carburetors were now being produced by the company’s Spanish subsidiary and now featured longer ticklers. New petcocks were clearly marked with ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ to meet new US regs. To mute intake noise, silencer tubes were installed in the centers of each air filter.  Quieter mufflers, quieter intake, they were pulling the 1976 Triumph Bonneville’s teeth!  And any time you quite something like this down, you affect, or reduce airflow, and airflow equals horsepower. Less airflow, less power.  While the quoted 49 horsepower never changed year-to-year, the performance must have suffered as Triumph was forced to make this ancient engine compliant with ever-stricter smog laws in the US.

While the 1976 Triumph Bonneville was certainly a handsome machine, it looked positively antique next to the futuristic bikes rolling out of Japan in 1976.  Note the stubby shifter popping out of the middle of the primary case.

1976 Triumph Bonneville Shifts on the Wrong Side!

But the biggest change on the 1976 Triumph Bonneville surely was the switch from right-foot shifting (the way it traditionally had always been on virtually all foot-shift British and European motorcycles, as well as early Sportsters; and of course it was the way God intended it to be) to left-hand shift again to meet US legislation. Just coming out of an 18-month shutdown, now as the newly-formed, worker-owned Meriden Co-Op, with very little cash to work with and very little time, the scrappy Triumph team had to come up with a way to move the shifter from one side of the engine to the other, or there would be no 1976 Triumph Bonneville! It may sound simple but its a monumental task, especially when doing so with an engine that was designed 40 years earlier.

The 1976 Triumph Bonneville was the first with left-side shift.  Note the absence of a shifter coming out of the gearbox cover.

With very little space to work with, these clever engineers modified the innards of shift mechanism inside the gearbox cover, to eliminate the shifter on that side,  and actuate a shaft that ran sideways between the crankcase and the gearbox.  Where it popped out of the primary side it interfered with the clutch.  The shaft had be located there, it was the only place it would fit, but it came out partially behind the clutch sprocket.  So, a simple piece of bent steel was welded on that bent around the clutch, then the shaft continued as it exited the primary chain cover, roughly in its middle.  It was an incredibly simple solution to a difficult problem and it worked well enough.  It required new engine cases, inner and outer gearbox covers, bushings, gearbox quadrant, kickstart shaft, shifter, seals and primary cover to get it done.

The US version of the 1976 Triumph Bonneville came with high, pull-back handlebars.  Note the rear disc brake.  This bike has cross-drilled brake rotors, which is not stock.

I had a few left-shift Triumphs and I never thought they shifted as well as the right-shift bikes. That’s likely because of the added weight and friction of the mechanical train needed to make the right-shift bike shift on the left, and also the shortness of the new shift lever. Because of where it stuck out of the primary cover, it needed to be short to be in the right place relative to the foot peg. I thought the location always looked odd to me, like it was too far forward. I also think it ruined the look of one of the most gorgeous motorcycle engines of all time!

The 1976 Triumph Bonneville was the first to offer 2 color combos.  This one was called Pacific Blue in the US, and Polychromatic Blue in the UK.

1976 Triumph Bonneville gets a Rear Disc Brake

When the shifter moved to the left on the 1976 Triumph Bonneville, the brake pedal moved to the right. Rather than work up a new linkage for the rear brake, which would have been simple, and would have allowed them to keep the elegant 7-inch conical rear drum brake, Triumph took this opportunity to introduce a hydraulic disk brake, also from Lockheed, in fact virtually all of the major brake components wee interchangeable front-to-back. The underslung Lockheed caliper was operated via a remotely-operated master cylinder hidden under the seat. Both front and rear disk brakes were identical 10-inch cast iron units (the front slightly thinner than before and sans the chrome plating).

This is the UK/export version of the 1976 Triumph Bonneville.  As always it differed from the US version by its squarish 'Euro' tank and low handlebars.

1976 Triumph Bonneville Frame Mods

Frame modifications on the 1976 Triumph Bonneville were restricted to those needed to accommodate the new rear disk brake and right-side brake pedal. While regulations were heating up in the US, this same year the UK dropped its age-old requirement for a front license plate on motorcycles, the typical ones you saw on front fenders. So the front fenders were no longer drilled for them. Switchgear was now labeled, with the lefthand control displaying cast-in labels, while the righthand control and the headlight shell had cheesy stick-on labels that fell off.

This was a 1976 two-page spread in a British motorcycle magazine advertising the 1976 Triumph Bonneville.

1976 Triumph Bonneville Color Combos

The Meriden Co-op was struggling just to get the assembly line rolling again, so very few changes were made to the 1976 Triumph Bonneville unless absolutely necessary to meet pending regulations. Hence the color combinations remained as they were in 1974 and 1975, for the early part of the year. By later in the model year, for the first time ever, the 1976 Triumph Bonneville was available in more than one color combo. Cherokee Red and Cold White carried over with the same graphics as before, but a new color was added. It was called Polychromatic Blue in the UK home and export markets, but was called Pacific Blue for the US market. Both colors were identical and teamed with Cold White in the same pattern. Gone was the 650cc T120, after 25 years of service, only the 750cc T140 remained.

1976 Triumph Bonneville Specifications

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Triumph Bonneville Books

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