Y
ou never forget the motorcycle that first
opens your eyes and a dreaming heart. For
many, the low down, dropped bar, single
seat, big headlight, and growling tiger
attitude of the Thruxton invoked ideas of
adventure, speed and manliness. It was café
styled, and reeked of English leather, waxed cotton,
oil and smoke - the headiest of perfumes for a young
lad.
That was the late 60s, when Steve McQueen was the
coolest bloke, ever, (apart from James Hunt and John
Britten) and the Thruxton had been born out of the
Bonneville family and the crucible of the Isle of Man
TT. Credentials-wise the Thruxton was the pinnacle of
the street rider’s art.
A couple of years back I rode the new retro
Thruxton out of Hinckley. It was smart, looked great,
handled well, didn’t leak oil, the electrics worked, the
headlight actually illuminated the way at night, and
was quite exciting. Apart from one small niggle... the
860cc engine, although capable, did not really have
the power I had tasted with the new Bonneville
offering in the 1200. I opted to wait until Triumph
came to its senses and offered the Thruxton with the
best that it deserved. The wait was worth it. Brilliantly
worth it, in my opinion.
Firstly the Thruxton R ticks every retro box for café
cool, and then some. From the gleaming gold fat
front forks, to the crackling brushed stainless Vance
and Hines pipes, sitting under the yellow Öhlins
springers at the rear, this Triumph is heavy with
promise. And delivers.
You just cannot go past the specs quickly in this
regard. Up front the fully adjustable Showa 43mm
gold forks have 120mm of travel, they couple to a
highly polished top yoke, and dive down to the
gorgeous aluminium rims of the 17-inch wheel.
Brooding like two thugs on a street corner are the
twin 310mm Brembos with stopping power that halts
fiercely but with almost imperceptible dive. The rake
angle of 22.8 degrees looks quite steep and gives the
entire front end a clean, jewel-like, surgical precision
element. There’s no shirking with the footwear either,
Pirelli’s Diablo Rosso Corsa tyres grip like fiends.
The headlight has the usual excellent daytime
running lights, twin clocks deliver clear and cogent
messages, speed, tach, gear pos, fuel, range to
empty, service, clock, trips, fuel use, traction control
and throttle modes. These last two are controlled
from the left grip and are easy to use on the fly. The
clip-on bars terminate with strong bar-end mounts,
which offer good vision behind, but are not so wide
that lane splitting is impossible - although care is
needed. The highly polished top yoke does not like
you leaving other keys or fobs on the ring, I scratched
mine within the first few rides and was a little
disappointed.
The tubular steel cradle frame holds the high-
output 1200cc power plant stiffly, and it felt rock solid
on every sharp and nasty bumping corner, but more
THRUXTON
R
40KIWI RIDER