‘68 T120 stood for nearly 8 years and …

My Dad borrowed this but shortly afterwards health stopped him riding.

Time flies dunnit, I hadn’t realised he’d had it for 8 years.

8 years in his shed without being run or ridden.

I got it back yesterday, the oil tank was still full (not in the sump). Today I cleaned it up, changed the petrol and… it started 3rd kick and ticked over like a good un!

Lovely! Bet that felt nice!

68 was the most beautiful Bonneville ever. You have a fine example! Enjoy

twinboy said:

68 was the most beautiful Bonneville ever. You have a fine example! Enjoy

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That’s my opinion too. The earlier bikes were less stylish and the later pre OIF bikes were a tad over styled, it looked like they were trying too hard, whereas the 68 just looks ‘right’.

However, where I don’t agree with the commonly held opinion is riding them. Pre OIF bikes feel very much like ‘old’ bikes whereas the late OIF bikes ride much better IMO (and the later, the better).

Fast Eddie said:

That’s my opinion too. The earlier bikes were less stylish and the later pre OIF bikes were a tad over styled, it looked like they were trying too hard, whereas the 68 just looks ‘right’.

However, where I don’t agree with the commonly held opinion is riding them. Pre OIF bikes feel very much like ‘old’ bikes whereas the late OIF bikes ride much better IMO (and the later, the better).

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That bike looks mighty nice for having been in a shed. Sorry your Dad was unable to ride. My Dad HATED (literally) motorcycles.

grandpaul said:

That bike looks mighty nice for having been in a shed. Sorry your Dad was unable to ride. My Dad HATED (literally) motorcycles.

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It didn’t look like that when I dragged it out of the shed gp… that’s the result of a days worth of cleaning and polishing !

Well, it's a beaut now!

Is that a breather added to the back of the inner primary?

acadian said:

Is that a breather added to the back of the inner primary?

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Not quite, it’s a breather added to the timing plug hole in the crank case. Many folk say this doesn’t work as it passes oil out of the breather. I routed it to a reed valve, and (I assume) that due to the overall reduced volume of gas moving back and forth, no oil comes out of the breather.

IMO the best way for a Triumph 650/750 unit twin to breathe is via the empty front engine mount chamber. But, this requires the engine to be stripped to modify it of course.

Prior to this, I fitted a breather to the oil fill cap on top of the primary case (shown below) which also seemed to work fine. I moved it just to get it as close to the source of pressure as possible.