Bonneville Boys

Bonneville Boys

IF YOU'RE A PETTY BASTARD LIKE ME, YOU PROBABLY WANT to punch "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno on the chin. But you can't, because you know that he's a sicko gearhead just like us, only with enough money to do it right. And perhaps a better sense of humor. He’s also got the nice pair of original Bonnies displayed here, all of which helps make him an A-1 connoisseur, and the perfect guy-along with the other pair of big names from Triumph’s past we gathered here, Don Brown and Gary Nixon-to query for a few words on the new Bonneville.

So what do you think, Jay? “Well, I think they were as honest as you can be,” says Leno, chatting from one of the two warehouses in which he stores his giant motorcycle and car collections. “It’s nice to have bikes where the focus is on going for a ride, instead of how fast you’re going. I enjoy my new MV Agusta, but I’m 50. When I get off that

thing, my arms ache, my wrists ache. Anything under 85 mph, you’re just feeling it in your wrists. So although it’s fun to ride, it’s not fun for a whole day. Whereas something like the Bonneville, you go through the hills and have a good time-it’s a bit more like an old friend.”

So you think Triumph took the right path, then? “Yeah, I think they’ve done a pretty good job. And I think they did it the right way: They came out with it after all the other (new) Triumphs. So they’re not accused of just trying to build the same thing all over again.”

Next up, Don Brown, who was hired on at Triumph’s first U.S. importer, Johnson Motors, back in 1956, putting him on the scene in plenty of time for the introduction of the original Bonnie in ’59. “I think it’s a really first-class effort,” he said from his office at DJB Associates, a motorcycle-industry analysis and consulting firm. “One of the things that has troubled me a little bit is that British Twins seem to have gotten short-changed just because they haven’t been around in a while. But I think Triumph made the Bonneville what it would be today if it had evolved over time, recognizing that our market has changed many times since the old Bonneville. If anything, I personally think they waited a bit long to build this bike.”

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Brown eventually came full circle, consulting for Triumph’s new boss, John Bloor, in ’84, and still counts the lone British bike-maker as a client. Like Leno, he sees the bike as a friendly standard-style machine, but with extra dimension. “A lot of manufacturers haven’t really been building something with style for the average guy out there. And the Bonneville has something more, it isn’t just a plain-Jane motorcycle. It’s got good heritage, it’s great to look at, it’s got a great design, the engine’s modem and the price it right.”

Remember Gary Nixon? If you’re a Triumph fan, he’s a hard guy to forget. Nixon won consecutive Grand National Championships aboard tweaked Bonnevilles in 1967-68. Nixon got a good look at the new Bonnie Triumph displayed at last year’s Del Mar Concours and came away pleased. “They’ve come up with something that’s completely different but looks basically the same-and the price is decent,” he said. “But here’s the thing, I got a little Kawasaki Ninja roadracer, and it’s great. But you try to ride that very far and it’s uncomfortable as crap. The new Bonneville is nice for the guy who doesn’t want to go 180 mph all the time. They got that 955 Daytona, anyway, and that’s a killer-looking bike. So, I think they did a really nice job with it.”

Sounds like trio bravo to me.

Mark Hoyer