Last summer I acquired two things:  my Florida motorcycle certification and a 1972 Triumph Bonneville T120R 650cc motorcycle.  Neither of which have I used.

The Bonneville sort of fell into my lap (so to speak).  I wasn’t looking for it…it found me.   I bought it from Gene who owns the Holopaw Ural dealership in Holopaw, Florida.   Gene hadn’t started it in 20 years.

Gene opens the gate at Holopaw Ural

Unfortunately neither could we.   I showed this pic to Andy Armstrong who laughed and said,  “Get used to seeing that bike being pushed.”

It started pouring rain. And since we couldn’t go anywhere, my buddy Travis decided he was going to get this bike running.  (Florida summer storm in the background)

Eventually Travis took the carburetor apart and put it back together… and we got her running…

You’ll notice in the above video just how loud this bike is with the pipes it had (and no muffler).  It was so loud it clipped the microphone off after about 15 seconds.  It was a loud, angry beast.  I just didn’t feel comfortable riding it that loud.   So I ordered new pipes and new mufflers (replicas of the original stock exhaust from Mitch Klempf), which Dave and I put on today:

The problem with the new pipes… the kick start pedal is bent towards the body, so it doesn’t clear the new muffler…making it impossible to start the bike.

And that’s the update on the Bonnie Situation:  Travis is going to heat up and bend the kick start pedal so it clears the new muffler.  And then we’ll see how she sounds