Hi everyone. Looking at purchasing a 1978 T140E.
Could you tell me what “matching numbers mean” and how important it is. This bike has been brought home in 2021 from the USA and has had a complete restoration. Photos show from frame being dipped and sprayed to completed bike.
It has Hagon shrouded rear suspension. Don’t think that was standard fit? Why would it have these?
2 Likes
Hi and welcome. Can’t help you, but I’m sure there’s peeps on here that will be.
1 Like
Welcome to the forum! This sounds like a job for @Iron.
1 Like
Wotcha Tomsdad and welcome.
Triumphs from Meriden were constructed with matched (ie the same number) stamped in both the frame (left side of the headstock) and the engine (left crankcase just below the cylinder barrels). Purists like to see the numbers match so they know the bike hasn’t been built using parts.
The stamped two letters (after the stamped T140E) show when the bike was manufactured Month and Year.
A T140E is a Bonneville (two carbs) that followed the T140V and then the T140D special. It had to align with the latest environmental needs of the US (as that’s where the largest market was for Triumph in the 1970s). The carbs - Mk2s - are arranged parrallel from the rear of the cylinder head with earlier models having the carbs splayed from the head.
Hagon shrouded shocks are really about what you like the look of, they are fine. They are easily changed if you require a more ‘standard’ 70s look rather than the more vintage approach.
Upload some photos - or the advert - so we can have a look.
Best of luck…
5 Likes
Hi and welcome….,
1 Like
Hi Tomsdad, and welcome to the forum. Matching numbers are nice to have, and it helps with the value of the bike. However, back in the day, it was not uncommon for the impecunious facing a knackered engine to simply replace it with a better condition engine from a breaker, possibly from a crashed bike. So a non-matching bike might well be perfectly ok, as long as the engine is the right one for the year.
1 Like
Hi and welcome!
I propose we start referring to Triumph’s manufacturing period in the 60’ and 70’s as the ‘Iron Age’ 
9 Likes
Welcome,
Iron beat me to it!
I was gonna say, ask Iron but he’s too quick off the marks! 
I’ll journey back to the Stone Age, there’s no one’s advice I’d heed more than irons
5 Likes
Hi and welcome to the forum 
1 Like