The way we were: August 1988

by

Marco Lucchinelli

World champion road racer and IoM TT winner Geoff Duke celebrated his 65th birthday at a recent surprise party organised by his wife Daisy as 35 family members and close friends joined the youthful looking OAP for the celebration.

After a theoretical five years of production, the last parallel twin cylinder Triumph Bonneville rolled off the production line at Les Harris’ Devon factory. After the closure of the Triumph factory at Meriden, the manufacturing rights were bought by businessman John Bloor and licensed to Racing Spares, run by Les Harris, to manufacture the Bonneville for five years. As many Triumph Meriden suppliers had ceased trading or moved into other fields, it took Harris two years to prepare for production with many parts sourced from outside the UK including Brembo brakes, Paioli front forks and Veglia instruments. Despite meeting stringent US emissions requirements, the 744cc

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