1979 Triumph Bonneville T140E | ME & MY BIKE

Yes, this is the same Triumph Bonneville from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. Paramount Pictures made two bikes for the movie, both purchased from Dewey's Cycle Shop in Seattle. The "stunt" bike, with lower gearing and some other differences, is at Planet Hollywood; the other one is mine.

I found the bike on eBay in 2002. A Hollywood prop designer had the bike in storage for many years before she sold it. I’ve always been into English sports cars, and I was looking for a motorcycle to go with my Austin Healey 100/4. The movie history was cool, but I bought it first as a Triumph and because it had almost no miles on it and had been stored in California, so it was essentially perfect.

Honestly, it’s just not a great motorcycle. It’s from one of Triumph’s worst years. It’s kickstart only. The gearbox doesn’t snick, it snatches through the gears. It’s got a 4-inch over front end, which makes it less than comfortable to ride. (I guess they wanted the Richard Gere character to be a bad boy, so they made it a chopper…) Pretty much everything about the bike is difficult.

I bought it on a whim. I had enough money to do what I wanted, so I went out and bought this really cool Triumph. I’d been without a bike since 1976, when I joined the Army. I put 1,500 miles on it the first year, and it mostly reminded me how much I really loved riding bikes. Then I bought some old Honda 550s, and I’ve been back riding ever since.