Bonneville, the Pre-Collector Edition
Bonneville, the Pre-Collector Edition
LEANINGS
Peter Egan
WHAT WITH TRIUMPH CELEBRATING THE 50th anniversary of the legendary Bonneville for 2009, I did what any crafty investor would do and ran right over to my Triumph shop three weeks ago and bought a 2008 Bonneville T100. Yes, the meaningless 49th Anniversary model!
Meanwhile, the new ’09 fuel-injected bikes were flooding in and the shop’s owner, Lyall Sharer, decided to scoop up the one new orange-and-pale-blue 50th Anniversary collector’s edition and keep it for himself. As well he should.
Anyway, I saw my own particular purchase coming a long time ago, locked in as surely as Fate.
About five months ago, I was paging through a Triumph accessory catalog and stumbled on a photo of a new T100 that was painted almost exactly like my favorite early Bonneville, the “Astral Red” 1970 model. Deep claret tank, with silver-aluminum “ram’s horn” stripes curling across the tank, set off with gold pinstripes.
I tossed the catalog aside, leaped over our two sleeping dogs and dialed up Sharer Cycle Center. I asked salesman John Musillami if this was actually an available color combination or just one of those enticing “Europe-only” photographs.
“We’ve got one right here,” he said. “Just came in.”
So of course I jumped on my XLCR Cafe Racer and chuffed right over there on the winding backroads.
Lyall’s place is out in the country, near Verona, Wisconsin, in about as charming a setting as you can have for a motorcycle shop-at least in my demented outlook, where all the best scenery resembles something out of rural England. The shop sits on a scenic ridge and Lyall’s family runs a riding stable, so you also have white fences and a big red bam with a Union Jack painted on the side. When you’re looking at bikes, you half expect the London Mail Coach to show up in the farmyard. Or maybe Susannah York.
So I throttled back the Llarley to keep from spooking the steeds, picked my way through the horse apples and pulled up in front of the shop. And there in the showroom, sure enough, was the claret-andsilver Bonneville. My brain clicked with that typical Lee-Enfield .303 bolt-action finality and I said to John, “I must have one of these.”
“But not right now,” I added.
This has been quite a financial summer for us. Trees fall down, cars fail, roofs leak, cats need-I am not kidding-CAT scans. And then we had the Revenge of the Appliances. Don’t let anyone tell you the Maytag man has nothing to do. Or the guy who sold us that kitchen vent hood with the howling, eccentric fan... All it does is spew dead insect parts into my latest batch of Carroll Shelby’s Original Texas Chili.
Protein, yes, but is it the right protein?
Anyway, there was a slight delay while I “liquidated other resources” and simultaneously discovered a wonderful new bank resource called “an instant line of credit.” You guessed it: I personally precipitated the current credit meltdown.
So I eventually bought the third Bonneville of my surprisingly long lifetime, and it took almost three days to accumulate the 600 break-in miles for my requisite first oil change (straight synthetic) and dealer check-up. Before I took it to the shop, I installed a pair of Norman Hyde mufflers, adding some much-needed throatiness to the bike. Also, they’re angled slightly upward, eliminating some of that dreaded “bentpipe” look. A carb re-jet and opening of the airbox was needed, and now the bike runs and sounds great.
In my first three weeks of ownership, I’ve put 1600 miles on the Triumph, and I haven’t actually gone anywhere. I’ve just been exploring backroads, running errands, visiting friends (more often than really makes them comfortable) and riding into the city for our Slimey Crud Motorcycle Gang meetings. I can’t stay off the thing, and it’s eaten into about half the time I normally spend on my trusty (seriously) Velocette Venom.
Speaking of the Cruds, there are now four new-generation Triumph Twins in the group, a Scrambler and three Bonnevilles, so the curb in front of the Blue Moon is starting to look like a Hinckley product display.
It’s hard not to like the new Bonneville. It’s a genuinely comfortable bike with intuitive steering and handling. Flat seat, nice bars, effortless to ride. It also has garage appeal. It looks kind of like that 1970 Bonneville (though not as pure and purposeful, but what does?) and it has real brakes. Also, it doesn’t have two sets of independent contact points mounted on a greasy movable plate, as my ’67 did. Most of all, the Triumph is fun. It brings back some magical combination of size, performance and agility that got many of us into this sport in the first place.
For a really long trip, I might look to a larger Twin of a more thudding and laidback nature-with hard luggage-and the Bonnie is far from being a killer sportbike of limitless top speed. But it works so well for everything else that I sometimes have a hard time remembering what other bikes are supposed to do for me that this one doesn’t.
The other thing the Bonneville is not, of course, is a Scrambler. I almost bought one of these instead of the T100. Similar to the Bonneville in construction, the Scrambler is a slightly different animal. More suspension travel, a little roomier riding position for tall dudes such as myself, quicker (but less imperturbable) steering and a 270-degree crank that lowers the torque curve and sounds neat but makes a little less power. Also very nice-looking, I think.
Lyall has one of these on the showroom floor. A leftover ’08 in tangerine and silver-aluminum. I keep stopping by to look at it.
A reckless person could have two 2008 Triumph Twins, I suppose, but that would be wrong, as Nixon once said.
Still, Nixon went ahead and did the wrong thing anyway.
He wasn’t exactly my favorite president, but you have to give the guy credit for listening to his inner demons.
