page_title: Triumph Bonneville T120
section_title: The Bonneville name
hierarchical_section_title: Triumph Bonneville T120 / The Bonneville name
caption_attribution_description: Taking Creative Liberties with a Motorcycle with Tremendous Historic Significance. This Motorcycle set a Land Speed Record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1956, and a result of that effort was that The Triumph Motorcycle Company in England named a 650cc model of their Motorcycles the "Bonneville"...Which is still in production today.
context_page_description: The Triumph Bonneville T120 is a motorcycle originally made by Triumph Engineering from 1959 to 1975. It was the first model of the Bonneville series, which was continued by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd. The T120 was discontinued in favour of the larger 750 cc T140 in the early 1970s.
  The Bonneville T120 name was revived in 2016 on a new machine with larger engine and updated specifications.
  One was used as a model for Sirius Black’s Motorbike in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: 'Devil's Arrow' Triumph streamliner ridden by Johnny Allen to record speeds at Bonneville salt flats in 1955.
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