Late-Breaking

Late-breaking

UP FRONT

David Edwards

FORGET ABOUT ALL THE NEWS THAT’S fit to print, sometimes it’s simply all the news that fits. As this issue went to press came late-breaking items of interest, jammed into this column. At its summer dealer meeting, Triumph finally released official photos of its forthcoming big Twin cruiser, previously only seen in spyshots. Not much more was disclosed but now we have a name, Thunderbird, and a displacement, 1574cc, to attach to the bike, which won’t be in showrooms ’til next year.

Also of note is a 50th-anniversary T100 Bonneville, paying homage to the original model, named after the famed Utah salt flats, site of Johnny Allen’s 214mph record run in the Triumph-powered “Texas Ceegar” streamliner. That first 1959 Bonneville was painted tangerine-andgray, and so is the 2009 commemorative edition, limited to 650 units, the number in honor of the original’s engine displacement in cc-never mind, the historian in me wants to point out, that the first-year Bonneville, with its odd color scheme, valanced fenders and headlight nacelle, was a showroom disaster.

While we don’t play favorites here at CW, the Bonnie will always have a special place in the magazine’s history. A 1962 T120 Bonneville-by now stripped-down and sporty-looking-was the first bike we ever road tested back in Vol. 1, No.l. To say it (hyper)bowled us over with its 50 claimed horsepower, 14.5-second/85-mph dragstrip run and 108-mph top speed would be an understatement, the editors disclosing that, “.. .our test rider spent a sizeable portion of the ‘quarter’ fighting to keep the front wheel down and the machine pointed straight.’

Really? Our writer continued to risk points to his editorial license, noting, “There is a lot of mental comfort, while passing cars, in knowing that hooking a big handful of throttle will ram you ahead like something going into orbit.”

Seven years later, on the eve of the MultiCylinder Revolution, our compadres at Cycle magazine took a more measured view of the Bonneville-at least going into their March, 1969, road test.

“How can an increasingly hip motorcycling public continue to put up with the 650 Twin, an engine appreciably unchanged in three decades, an engine that’s undersquare, overaged and well past the point of legitimate development?” they wondered.

“How can the poor wretches at Triumph, bearing witness to the coming of the BSA Three and the Honda Four and the Yamaha whoknows-how-many, continue, with straight faces, to produce this antedeluvial dodger of the tarpits?”

The Bonnie, though, would win them over despite its lack of modern conveniences, bells and whistles.

“What it does have is a great mechanical presence,” they wrote in conclusion. “The Bonneville swells with pride and boasts of its own rightness. As well it should. The Bonneville, with all that power and all that slinky, silky smoothness, those good looks, is just about the tightest machine around. And just like it has been for a long time now-and will continue to be-the big Bonneville is one of the two or three most desirable motorcycles being made in the world today.”

Not sure if the new Bonneville qualifies for that same high praise, but it’s nice to have such a simple, entertaining model for sale, one that can trace its roots back some 50 years.

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Harley-Davidson and Buell dealers were getting the 411 on some interesting ’09 iron, namely a power-cruiser, a touring trike and a sporty naked, which if nothing else has to set some kind of record for scope of product.

The V-Rod line gets a new player in the form of the VRSCF Muscle, surely soon to be nicknamed the “Square-Rod” thanks to its angular styling. The claim is 122 horsepower; list price $17,199. First fruit of H-D’s partnership with Lehman Trikes announced a couple of years ago is the Tri Glide Ultra Classic, which looks not unlike the love child resulting from a Harley dresser/icecream trolley tryst. All yours for $29,995. Buell is bouncing back from the botched roll-out of its Rotax-powered 1125R sportbike with a debugging of the fuelling system, thank you very much, and the addition of a naked version, the 1125CR.

“Part superbike and part streetfighter, the 1125CR is my vision of a 21 st-century café-racer,” said Erik Buell. “It’s got clubman-style bars and a flyscreen instead of a fairing; then we geared it down to optimize acceleration.”

Should be fun, and accessible, too, at $11,695. Sadly, no news is bad news concerning the stellar XR1200 streettracker, which for now remains a Euroonly offering. Let’s see.. .when is Harley’s winter dealer meeting?