Quick Ride

Quick Ride

TRIUMPH BONNEVILLE BLACK Basic Britbike

TRIUMPH IS SWINGIN', cranking out the popular new Daytona 675 and perennial favorite Speed Triple, but talk to the purist and he is likely to tell you how much he likes the simple pleasure of the Bonneville Black.

We’re on that boat, too. This is the most basic bike in Triumph’s lineup, and in its stripped-down, guess-what-color getup retails for $6999, the same price the original new Bonnie busted out for in 2001. Not a bad deal.

That MSRP makes it $500 cheaper than the regular Bonneville with its chrome bits and identical counterbalanced, dohc, air/oil-cooled 790cc Twin, and a full $1200 under the T100 with its two-tone paint scheme, hand-painted “coach lines” (pinstripes for us not speakin’ the Queen’s

actual English) and the bigger 865cc engine as fitted to the Thruxton. Got it?

With the “Price is Right” episode over, hitting the road becomes the natural choice. Pull the carb-mounted manual choke (vestige of the old Amal tickler?), press the starter button and.. .it starts. Carburetion is on the edge of lean, but the traditional 360degree Twin is ready to move you right off the bat and won’t trouble at all once up to temp. Clutch and gearbox action are smooth, with fifth gear providing a pretty mellow cruise. I would tell you the revs at highway speed, but you have to hit Triumph’s accessory catalog to get a tachometer.

Having spent a recent day grinding out a 250-mile ride aboard a pre-unit Triumph 650,1 have to say this “newunit” is smooooth. There is a present thrum, which at 75 mph is a pleasant thrum, with a kindly suggestion of moving parts through the handlebar and footpegs.

The foam used for the long, flat seat foam wears a bit thin after extended riding, but the overall manmachine interface is quite nice, with the bend offered by the chrome, tubular bar setting you up in a rightproper riding position. The seat height is 30.5-inches low, which, combined with the “ensmallening” black paint job, makes the Bonnie mighty approachable, especially for shorter riders. Despite being of similar size, it looks remarkably compact when parked next to the new Scrambler.

While you’re tooling along the local lanes, steering is somewhat heavy at very low speed, but pick it up a bit and this is your basic, sweet-handling standard. Cornering clearance is very good, and the Bonnie carves a tight line with fundamental stability.

Although old-timer purists still cringe at the kinks in the exhaust pipes, those are what allow the bike to lean as deeply as it does.

There is an old joke about classic Triumphs being “well-oiled” machines. Well, this new Bonneville has been around long enough that we might have to start considering it a classic in its own right, well-oiled only on the inside, as it should be.

Revisiting this bike five years after its introduction is a reminder that the basic Britbike is alive and well, not to mention a very good deal. Mark Hoyer