Triumph Bonneville T120, GENUINE CLASSIC/CUSTOM

Back in February of this year, I reviewed the Halcyon 830 Bar End Mirrors for Triumph Bonneville Motorcycles. But, this mirror wasn’t my first choice. Now I’m taking a trip down memory lane as I go back to that first new motorcycle I bought back in 1983. It wasn’t my first bike, but it was my first new bike, a Suzuki GS125ES, in Blue!

Now, I just started my first full-time job and I was a bit flush, as I had just taken out a big bank loan! Well, I say big… It was £1200. After I worked out a deal with the bike shop, I had a bit of money left over. I thought I would quite like to fit equip my Suzuki motorcycle with full fairing.

Memory Lane

Now, this was one of your old-fashioned bike shops. The type that is just like any other corner shop, except, they somehow managed to cramp dozens of bikes onto this shop floor. When you first entered, it seemed like you needed a map to find the route to the shop counter.

The shop was actually due for demolition. The dealership was looking for new premises not too far away and they were actually in the process of packing up for the move in a week’s time. When I collected my motorcycle, the salesman handed me a carrier bag. Inside that carrier bag were two stem-type handlebar mirrors!

Adjustable Folding Mirrors

They explained, that because of the shape and design of the motorcycle screen. You couldn’t actually turn the steering from lock to lock and the mirrors would fold against the screen, so they had to take them off. Obviously, I wasn’t very pleased about this… However, the workshop manager then suggested Bar End Mirrors. Now looking back, I don’t think I knew what Bar End Mirrors were at the time. But, he did explain to me that nobody really made them anymore and he would have a look and see what he could find.

Now, a couple of weeks later when I brought the bike in for its first service. The service manager with who I remember getting on really well. He always wore one of those brown workshop cuts, a flat cap, and a pair of round spectacles. He walked towards me excitedly, holding a large brown paper bag. Inside this bag was a brand-new pair of new old stock Stadium Bar End Mirrors, the rectangular type! He went on to explain, while they were sorting out one of the storerooms, where all the old stock had been kept, that hadn’t sold in previous years. They’d come across a few sets of Bar End Mirrors and also had the newer round type. But, he decided that the rectangular type would suit my bike better because they’d look more modern.

Halcyon 820 Rectangular Mirrors

The triumph mirrors were actually what is now called a Halcyon 820 mirror. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the look of these mirrors, but beggars can’t be choosers and I did need a pair of mirrors for my bike.

The ticket price for them was something like two shillings and sixpence. So, these mirrors had obviously been languishing in that storeroom for twenty years plus! And I think in the end we agreed to something like fourteen or fifteen pounds for the pair. They secured onto my bike, okay and they did the job. As the years went on I fell in love with the mirrors. The large rectangular shape gave an excellent rearward view of the likes I’d never seen with any other rearview mirror. In those days most Bar End Mirrors were of mild steel construction with chrome plating.

Triumph Bonneville Motorcycle Mirrors Since 1938

I remember not long after I fitted them, I started watching this really old movie on TV from back in the nineteen sixties. Now, I don’t know which movie it was and I’m not entirely sure which A-list female movie star was featured in it. I believe it was someone like Jane Fonda or Brigitte Bardot. There was this scene where she was reapplying some makeup in a motorcycle mirror, and it was the exact same mirror I had fitted to my bike! I remember thinking at the time, those mirrors are a piece of motorcycle history.

In fact, recently I looked into these mirrors, and truth be told, there’s not an awful lot of information out there about them. But, the Bar End Mirrors were first offered for sale as far as 1934. I’m pretty sure that must make these the oldest motorcycle accessory that’s been in continuous production since.

After a few years, I eventually sold the bike with the bar-end mirrors still fixed. I remember about 15 years later, spotting that bike in a supermarket carpark and the bike itself was absolutely hammered. It was rusty, the bottom half of the fairing was missing, the paintwork was scratched, and the screen had split. But, one thing on that bike that really stood out, you guessed it! Were the bar end mirrors that I’d fitted all those years before and still looked like they were brand new?

Stadium Style Mirrors

Now, the current 820, although they the exactly the same design, uses the exact same tooling as Stadium back in the thirties. The mirrors are now made completely from stainless steel and they’re not 14 or 15 pounds anymore. But, what they are is a motorcycling icon, just like the Triumph Bonneville or the Royal Enfield Bullet. Although at first, I thought I may have been remembering these mirrors through rose-coloured glasses. It soon became clear that I wasn’t, were every bit as good as I remember them.

The Triumph Bonneville 830 bar-end mirrors I tested a few months ago were good, in fact, they were very good! The 820s surpass even those! The extensive rearview vision that the rectangular mirrors provide can be a little bit distracting until you get used to them. They seem to offer an almost 180-degree rearview once you’ve got the angles adjusted properly. Now I know the standard interpretation of a classic mirror these days are small and round construction. However, the Halcyon mirrors are a genuine classic, and they were exactly as they were back in the 1930s when they first came into production. In fact, the Stadium only changed from this rectangular design to the round design sometime in the ’60s.

WHERE TO BUY

Mirrors are available on Classicpartsltd.com and the Halcyon Amazon Store.

WHERE TO BUY – FIND ONLINE
Motorcycle Triumph Bonneville Mirror | 830 Bar End
Amazon	Price: £57.95*	Check out the Amazon marketplace.
Ebay	Price: £57.95	Find Triumph Mirrors on eBay.
Classicpartsltd	Price: £57.95	Find the manufacturer’s store.
*Price last updated on the 10th of December 2024 at 14:49 pm GMT Product prices and availability are accurate as indicated by the date/time and subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply to this product.