VOL. 53 ISSUE 2 JANUARY 19, 2016 P81
T
hings have been pretty quiet
of late at Triumph in terms
of new models, in spite of
which Britain's top manufacturer
set a new sales record in its last
2014/15 business year with
54,000 motorcycles delivered
around the globe, a 12 percent
increase year on year.
But that quiet spell is in the
course of ending big time, be-
cause at Milan's EICMA Show last
November, Triumph presented
no less than five new parallel-twin
motorcycles powered by all-
new water-cooled engines—one
900cc model and four 1200cc big
twins. These collectively repre-
sent the next generation of its
iconic Bonneville family of retro
models, which, with more than
140,000 such bikes built in the
past 15 years since the born-again
Bonneville's 2000 launch, es-
sentially represent one of the core
products of its model lineup as
presently responsible for between
one-quarter and one-third of its
annual sales.
Though designed and de-
veloped in the UK at Triumph's
Hinckley base, these new mod-
els will all be manufactured in
Thailand at the company's three
factories south of Bangkok.
There, production has already
commenced of the 900cc Street
Twin, which, in representing the
entry level model to Triumph
ownership, essentially replaces
the cast-wheel T100 Bonneville
model that's been entirely built in
Thailand for several years.
The Bonneville name now
denotes the entire family of such
models, with each different variant
having its own moniker—as in,
T120, Thruxton and Street Twin.
Manufacture of the outgoing
air-cooled T100-engined models
has now ended, apart from the
Scrambler where ongoing de-
mand has dictated one final year
of manufacture in 2016¾after
BORN IN BRITAIN, RAISED IN BANGKOK,
RIDDEN IN SPAIN. ALAN CATHCART GETS
SADDLED UTP TO MEET A NEW FRIEND
BY ALAN CATHCART
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALESSIO BARBANTI AND MATTEO CAVADINI
BANGKOK BONNEVILLE
