Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128310
spring for both carbs, meaning there's not a lot of spring pressure on the throttle action . This makes the bike very untiring to ride . Those flatslides give instant throttle respo nse either off the line or exiting a turn , though this comes at the expense of drowning the engine with fuel if you get too eager with the right hand under 3000 rpm - and that's with the adjustable accelerator jets on the flatslide Mikunis turned off. Capri says the bike doesn't need them, and I'd agree, because pickup is already perfectly prompt, and fitting them would only make this problem worse. You don't exactly need to baby it, but progressive throttle open- ings are better than wide open ones low down - though at least holding constant part throttle at 3000 rpm in top gear in a line of traffic doesn't make the tuned parallel-twin motor start hunting , nor spluttering when you get back on the throttle again. And above that rev mark, there's a crisp and responsive crack to a midrange ro ll-on that's add ictive and thrilling, especially to the background music of those growling exhausts. The Way It Was - but with 40 percent more power and significantly more performance. This is a real 21st-century classic streetrod. Though short-shifting just seems right in terms of maxing out drive , the sweet-run ning motor has an appetite fo r revs, which doesn't lead to any undue vibration even when wound up around the BOOO rpm mark . That's thanks to not only the twin counterbalancers, but the sense that this is a really well-balanced motor, in spite of the heavier, biggerbore piston assemblies . It feels quite refined , with none of the signature shakes of a 360-degree parallel-twin of yesteryear through the rub- ber-c1ad footpegs, nor even the handlebars or seat. Plus it idles happily if a little lumpily at traffic lights, even with those meaty cams fitted. Nice work, Matt! The South Bay Triumph is liberally adorned with var ious items from the Triumph factory aftermarket catalogue, such as the Union Jack-bedecked fuel tank and head lamp fairing. The flat dual seat makes this a practical streetrod with a great riding position thanks to the high, flat bars - comfy and close-coupled, while fairly upright . While the bike retains the stock nonad justable 41 mm Kayaba forks, these are fitted with heavy duty springs, while the twin rear shocks are WP billet items, which are quite stiffly sprung to counter the hefty torque from that big-bore motor and are adjustab le only for preload, not damping . The result is a pretty hard ride, which will have you weighting the footpegs to avoid getting tossed up in the air over quite average bumps, but at least the effects of weight transfer are minimized when you twist that wrist and the rear Pirelli Dragon bites into the pavement. Though "o nly" a lBO-section rear (but quite a bit more tire than the original stocker's 130/BO-17 Bridgestone, whose companion 100/90-19 front is retained), this is spread onto a wide aftermarket 6inch rim, which at first I sniffed at as too much tire for this bike. That is until I started hustling it hard through the turns in Capri'S favorite bit of c yon country. Capri has a long history of bu ilding fast motorcycles and even hos p laques to prove it, like his land-speed record in 1998 on a- ' Triumph Daytona T595 at 80nneville••• Utah, that is. www.cyclenews.com This was the first time I'd ever really put the stock Bonneville chassis to any real test of handl ing, and in spite of the nonadjustable suspension, it came through it very well. It felt like it could handle even more power, though you're glad of the leverage from the wide handlebar to offset the effects of the wider rear tire. This makes the steering fairly heavy, and it sometimes needs quite a tug on the bars to make it change direction, plus the combination of the conservative steering geometry (29-degree rake, I I7mm of trail) coupled with that wide back tire seemed to make the Bonneville tip over rather suddenly into an apex - after at first appearing quite definitely to understeer. Strange - but riding it like a point-andsquirt streetrod, braking deep into apexes and gunning it out with the engine growling menacingly in the 4000-6000 rpm fat midrange, disguised all that. And that's when you're glad for the aftermarket EBC carbon steel brake discs Capri has fitted to the bike, which, matched to the same company's Double-H sintered pads, give lots of bite and make the Bonnie stop well. Actually, far better than I expected it to with a single front 3 IOmm disc, which w ith the stock 4S I-po und bike is distinctly mar ginal - but that's with the budget Sunstar rotor Capri has thrown away, and not such upmarket pads. The EBC brake package gives more than enough stopping power. Lean, lithe, accelerative and potent, Capri 's Bonneville SS is the most zestful modern-day retro revival of a period product I've yet to sample - a '60s-style performance streetrod which Warren Beatty's Bonneville-riding character would be happy to hop on between dates in a 2003 remake of the archetype LA-based lifestyle flick Shampoo! It's arguably truer to the spirit of the classic-era Bonnie than the less-spirited mOdern-day stocker it' s descended from, cruisis really targeted more han the Bonn r base. Tr CYCLE NEWS • FEBRUARY 11 , 2004 39