“Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do ‘em all together, I guess.” Elvis Presley
Your name up in lights...
It seems that the team in Hinkley like their rock ‘n’ roll music distinctly retro. This month Triumph have released a limited edition T120 Bonneville
Let’s start with a quick history lesson. In the early 50s a young musician appeared on the scene. Coming up from humble beginnings, he went on to take the world by storm. Then in the late seventies, after eating one burger too many, he died. By this stage he was morbidly obese and actually 'kicked it' while sitting on the ‘throne’. In between being really, really hot and very, very fat, he changed the world when it came to music. He was also incredibly good looking and oozed sexiness. He was, of course, Elvis Presley. Now it appears that he also rode motorcycles. Namely Triumph motorcycles.
Well Handled
To celebrate the fact that he rode their bikes the company have decided to release a very limited Elvis tribute Bonneville T120. And limited it is, there are only 925 of them being made for the entire global market.
‘The King’ as he was known in the music and movie business had a long and varied career. The design on this T120 is inspired by his legendary ’68 Comeback Special. Not the Vegas years. That one would require a mid 2000's Goldwing...
Meanwhile Elvis’s signature is proudly painted onto the tank and the side panels. This is very cleverly overlaid on the word ELVIS which, in turn, is laid out in block capitals with a font style that evokes those rather cool set lights from back in the day. Additionally there’s a very subtle ‘Taking Care of Business in a Flash’ emblem on the mudguard. His signature is also on the ‘bars between the clamps alongside the bikes individual production number.
It's not actually signed by him. He's dead.
Its paint is impressive. That carnival red is powerful and the hand painted silver stripes that run across the tank are an exquisite piece of work. The generous chrome and those cross spoked wheels look perfect on a bike that has ‘peashooter’ exhausts and a fake carburettor.
The clocks consist of a pair of twin dial instruments, as the standard model does. They feature a speedo, a tacho as well as an LCD screen. The motor is the same as the rest of the T120 machines, a liquid cooled parallel twin that puts out 80 bhp and a rather impressive 105 Nm of torque. A set of Brembo calipers provide the stopping.
These have ABS. Elvis’s one didn’t. His also didn’t have cruise control. The new one does. It even has traction control. And fuelling modes. These include Rain, Road and full to the phuckin’ brim with cocaine and cheese burgers. I’m only joking, it’s just the first two. Then again…
‘Taking Care of Business in a Flash’
And if all of this wasn’t good enough the bike even comes with an Elvis Presley Sony gold disc. This is presented in an exclusive Elvis Presley and Triumph Motorcycles record sleeve. There’s even a certificate of authenticity, which has been signed by Triumph’s Nick Bloor and someone from the Elvis foundation in with the tunes.
Just to balance out the cosmos, we’re going to need a Chuck D tribute bike from the companies range. I’m thinking a Rocket 3 with headlamp finished to look like Flavor Flavs clock…