Meet the Triumph Bonneville
With the UK's iconic Triumph Motorcycles setting up shop in India, here is a look at its base model the Bonneville.
The Triumph Bonneville in Aurum Gold
The Triumph Bonneville dates back to 1959 and is named after the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where motorcycles and cars regularly vie for land speed records. The look of the Bonneville is classically 'retro' but don't let its appearance fool you, the Bonneville underwent a complete overhaul in 2001 and though it still looks like the original, it's completely modern under the skin.
Read OVERDRIVE's first ride of Triumph Bonneville here. Below is the walkaround we shot at the Auto Expo in 2012, when the bikes were first presented.
The engine is an 865cc double overhead cam parallel twin developing 68PS of power at 7500rpm and 68Nm of torque at 5800 rpm, which Triumph claims should return about 18kmpl in the city. Triumph has been so thorough in retaining the original look that they have gone to great lengths to make the throttle bodies (fuel injection) look like carburetors. Drums have also been replaced by disc brakes front and rear.
The Bonneville, which is expected to be priced around Rs 6.5-7 lakh, will directly compete with the Harley-Davidson Iron (Rs 6.70 lakh) in both pricing and performance figures, but may have a tough time challenging the Harley-Davidson SuperLow (Rs 5.7 lakh) and the Hyosung ST7 (Rs 5.79 lakh) on the pricing front. All of the three are cruisers and ergonomically, will differ significantly from the Bonnie. However â" at their core â" the goal of a nostalgic, gentle riding experience is shared between them. See our pricing of other Triumph bikes here.
In its markets abroad it has two avatars; the Bonneville and the Bonneville T100 (classic wire spoke wheels and '60s styling). The same platform also forms the base of the Triumph Scrambler and the Thruxton caf racer.
One thing is for sure, a number of people would be seriously calculating their finances to land this iconic classic.
Check out our expected pricing for the Triumph India line-up here.
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