The phones ran hot at Old Empire Motorcycles after they released their T120 collaboration with Triumph last year. So the English workshop decided to build a more useable and refined version, with similar aesthetics?and creature comforts like lights.
Here it is, and very classy it looks too: a Bonneville that has signed up to the gym, and gained a sleeker, more muscular mien.

A current-spec T120 was purchased and delivered to OEM?s headquarters in the historic country town of Diss. The chaps started the strip down, but with more care than usual: ?The build brief was to keep mad modifications to a minimum,? says founder Alec Sharp. ?We achieved the ?line? by dropping the front end and replacing the rear shocks with uprated Fox units.?
The back end was sliced and diced: a new hoop was made, and machined in sections to accommodate a Z-Flex LED light strip?which includes both the rear brake lights and indicators.
There?s a new hand-formed aluminum seat pan, foamed for a lower profile perch and covered in diamond-stitched waterproof suede leather. The iconic T120 tank was left unmolested though, apart from de-badging and the removal of the kneepads?so it retains its 3.4-gallon (12.8 liter) fuel capacity.
The stock exhaust system was binned, along with the catalytic converter, and a new big-bore, mandrel bent stainless system made up. Internal baffling keeps the noise levels down…a little.

A new remote master cylinder, bolted onto a custom-made bracket under the...