Last week, Garry Chitwood shipped our 1962 T120R Bonneville back to Redmond from his shop in Alabama. We picked it up at the air forwarders this morning and it is now on display in our collection. It is hard to believe Gary could have taken our lowly donor bike and turned it into such a beautiful machine.
Before ...
and ... After
This bike was purchased at the Las Vegas Motorcycle Auction a few years ago for probably more than it was worth at the time. But we bought it because it was, after all, a 1962 Bonneville! Many enthusiasts consider the 1962 T120R to be one of the premier machines ever made by Triumph due in part to its beautiful Silver Sheen and Flamboyant Flame paint, and because it was the final year of pre-unit construction. When we purchased this bike we knew that cosmetically it wasn’t too bad, but we suspected that the engine, gearbox and electrical were in pretty sad shape. Our suspicions were confirmed when Garry got into the bike. At some point in its life, it had lost its magneto and had been converted to electronic ignition. So Garry had to find a completely new 42344 magneto which is one of the more expensive parts to source on a pre-unit machine. Garry also found that outer chain case was cracked. When it was removed Garry found an ugly JB weld inside and that the chain case was actually trash. Fortunately, Garry was able to obtain another one for us.
Another interesting restoration fact is that Garry rebuilt the original gauges on this bike himself.
Our 5/23/07 posting was a personal article about Garry Chitwood and his background restoring Triumph motorcycles. In that posting, we actually displayed a picture of Garry in his shop standing next to this Bonneville. Here is the picture one more time …
Many more pictures of this machine in both its pre-restoration state and its newly restored condition can be found in the photo album. Here are a couple more in high resolution ...
Take a look at pictures of the 1962 T120R we sold last year (at the bottom of the photo album) and compare it to this beauty. Even though the one we sold was a very nice machine, there is still quite a difference between the two … to say the least.
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