Jay Leno – 1964 Triumph Bonneville Review – Video

 

Jay gives us an in-depth look at one of the most classically beautiful motorcycles of all time, his 1964 Triumph Bonneville.

The Bonneville name came from the achievements of Texas racer Johnny Allen on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. In September 1955, Allen had achieved a two-way average speed of 193.3 mph (311 km/h) on his special motorcycle the “Devil’s Arrow”, a 650 cc twin-cylinder Triumph engine fuelled by methanol in a unique ‘streamliner’ fairing. Allen’s speed was ratified as a record by the American Motorcycle Association but not by the world authority, the FIM, as no official observers were present. German motorcycle firm NSU took the record the following year, so Allen and his team returned to Bonneville in September 1956 and won it back with an average speed of 214.17 mph (344 km/h). The FIM also refused to accept this as a world record but Triumph gained much needed publicity from the legal dispute that followed. After the Bonneville T120 had been named in recognition of Allen’s records, other Triumph-engined motorcycles went faster still on the Salt Flats. In 1962 Bill Johnson set a two-way average of 230.269 mph (370.5 km/h) over a measured mile, riding a 667 cc ‘streamliner’ whose design was based on the American X-15 rocket plane. In 1966 Detroit Triumph dealer Bob Leppan raised the record to 245.66 mph (395.3 km/h) with his Gyronaut X-1, powered by two 650 cc Triumph engines. For the next few years, Triumph fitted Bonneville roadsters with “World’s Fastest Motorcycle” stickers.