Will the new Bonneville range change the fortunes for Triumph Motorcycles?

Triumph has decided to change the game by unveiling its 2016 range of Bonneville motorcycles. But is it enough to put it back on the world map of motorcycles? We find out.

It is evident how serious a manufacturer is about a new product by the way they launch that particular product. So when we got invited to London by Triumph Motorcycles to attend ‘an event,’ we knew we were in for some good fun. Rumours soon started floating around and off we were to London for the unknown. Soon enough, we were standing in front of five new motorcycles from the Triumph stable, grinning from ear to ear.

Standing in front of us, in all their glory, were the new Street Twin, T120, T120 Black, Thruxton and the Thruxton R. Well, some of these names might not sound very new or path-breaking to you, but trust me on this, they just share their names, or some part of the names, with the older models. Just the names!

All these bikes have been powered by the new-generation of the parallel-twin engines developed by Triumph only for this project. Suspension design and the chassis have been redesigned too to suit the demands of the gen-next, and the power these engines deliver.

The guys at Triumph didn’t give us the exact statistical information, but what got us kicking was the news that the new motorcycles will be powered by a 900cc engine and a, oh yes, 1200cc parallel-twin unit. Both the engines have been made to deliver high torque at a very-easily-achievable rpm range. Where the 900cc engine delivers a peak torque of 80Nm at 3,200rpm, the 1200cc engine, in the case of T120, delivers 105Nm at 3,100rpm. This figure is 54% more than what was found on the existing T100. The icing on the cake, however remains the Thruxton R where the same engine has been tuned to deliver 112Nm at 4,950rpm. This is 62% more than what is found on the current Thruxton.

The styling on the Street Twin and the T120s were spot on. Easily noticeable and futuristic, but what stole the show, for us, were the Thruxtons. While the Thruxton still remains one of the best café racers out in the market, it has been redesigned to live up to the expectation level, refinement and the power it delivers. The bike with quite a few gold teeth was the Thruxton R, which sadly won’t make it to India sometime soon, flaunting the fully adjustable ‘gold plated’ Ohlins suspension and racing Brembo monobloc callipers at the front. Some of the other features include race bred, fully-adjustable Showa big piston forks at the front and Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa tyres.

Some of the cooler things that the Triumph Bonneville range of motorcycles flaunt are things like ABS, traction control, slip assist clutch, ride-by-wire throttle, distinctive LED rear lights, USB charging socket and an engine immobilizer; various rider modes and LED DRL headlights are two features limited to only the 1200s.

Triumph is going to kickstart the new Bonnevilles in India with the launch of the Street Twin at the Auto Expo and will launch another two models in quick succession. Triumph has said that the T120 Black and the Thruxton R will not be readily available in the Indian market, but we are not ruling out the possibility of it happening sometime towards the end of next year or beginning of 2017.

Whatever happens in the end, we are sure that it will be worth the wait.