In 1978, my father, an original Meriden Triumph employee decided that at the age of 39, it was time to stop being bossed around in menial jobs, and time to start being the all-knowing, all-seeing omnipotent smart arse that did the bossing; he trained to become a teacher. That in itself isn’t all that remarkable, an unforgettable occasion aside from one thing; he’d convinced my mother that commuting from the Midlands to Liverpool and back each week, only really worked if he did it on a bike.
That’s some superstar level of manipulation right there, and it worked. A short trip to a local dealer later, and CAC 726T was his – a beautiful candy apple red & black export model spec Triumph Bonneville T140V/E (it was produced in February 1978, which meant it was a mixture of the T140V & E). I was seven years old. Forty years later, I still remember that time, purely because of the Bonnie. (In fact, you can read about my first experience of a Bonnie here).
Dad was a badass. The Bonnie represented everything that was cool; the style, noise and even smell was just an overload of my seven-year-old senses, I can still to this day remember the ticking noises as the headers cooled down, and leaving a large portion of flesh from my fingers on one of the header pipes after touching it because I was fascinated by the blueing.
infographic by: timeless2wheels.com
