The Triumph Bonneville T120
The Triumph Bonneville T120 made its debut in 2016, the motorcycling world had been expecting some big announcements from Triumph so it wasn’t a complete surprise, but the T120 was perhaps a little more than most were anticipating.
At its heart the Bonneville T120 is fitted with an all-new liquid-cooled parallel twin with a SOHC, 8 valves, a capacity of 1200cc, a bore / stroke of 97.6 mm / 80 mm, a compression ratio of 10.0:1, multipoint sequential electronic fuel injection, and a 270° crank. There’s 79 bhp (at 6550 rpm) and 77 lb-ft of torque (at 3100 rpm), fed to the rear wheel via a 6-speed gearbox and an X-ring chain.
Reviewers overwhelmingly loved it. There was a clear and distinct improvement in build quality throughout, and rival motorcycle manufacturers like Harley-Davidson, BMW, and Moto Guzzi had been put on notice.
BAAK Motorcycles
BAAK Motorcycles was founded in Lyon, France in 2012 by Rémi Reguin, it’s since grown to employ five, and the company enjoys a global reputation both for their custom motorcycle builds, and for their in-house developed motorcycle parts for Royal Enfield, Moto Guzzi, and Triumph.
The BAAK Motorcycles Bonneville T120
The new T120 is the current motorcycle of choice for BAAK, in fact they’ve probably built more customs using it as a platform than any other garage in the world. They built this bike for a customer in Spain, his main request was to use a British Racing Green on the fuel tank, as a hat tip to the cars of his childhood.
British Racing Green, commonly abbreviated as BRG, is a perfect color for a British motorcycle with heritage like the Bonneville. The team at BAAK matched the fuel tank with a medium tan leather seat, side bag, grips, and gators, with brushed steel knee-indents on the tank.
The plan was to lower the bike a little and tighten up the handling, so a pair of Shock Factory -20mm shocks were fitted in the back, and a machined aluminium flat triple trees were fitted up front to proportionally lower the front end.
A new 16″ rear wheel was installed and both ends were fitted with Avon MKII tires, giving the bike and vintage look with the benefit of modern tire compounds. A MotoGadget ChronoClassic dial was fitted carefully into the back of the headlight unit, a nice reference to instrument fitment on vintage British motorcycles, and the team at Baak are currently working on a plug-and-play system for others who want to replicate the look.
The original handlebar was swapped out for the Baak N°1 wide stainless steel unit, with machined aluminium handlebar clamps, and a mini brushed stainless steel rear mudguard with license plate support – significantly better looking than the factory fitted unit.
Up front theres a longer stainless steel front mudguard with aluminium supports, Mini LED blinkers from Motogadget, a Monza-style gas tank cap, Beringer Aeronal front brake discs, and proper mirrors left and right.
The completed bike is a tasteful custom, bobber-like in some respects, with combined British and French heritage, and a future that will be based in Spain. If you’d like to see more from BAAK motocyclettes you can click here to see their other custom builds.
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Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
