Cool As Cucumber

Triumph puts a unique British spin in an otherwise allAmerican Bobber culture, making what is probably the coolest bike in a long time

- Aninda Sardar

PEERLESS AUTHENTICITY’. ‘Innovative and elegant engineering’. ‘Category defining capability, control and comfort’. These are only some of the phrases that Triumph is using to describe its latest creation – the Bonneville Bobber. Having sampled the bike over the course of a full day on the beautifully twisty roads just outside of Madrid, what I have to admit at the very onset is that the Triumph Bonneville Bobber is a brilliant stroke of creativity and product planning. Allow me to explain and help you put two together with the other two so that you reach four.

Let’s start with the canvas. At the beginning there was a Bonneville. Wait, before you think I’m going to drown you in a lesson on Triumph history, I’m only referring to the all new Bonneville that Triumph launched not too far back in time. This new Bonnie, it has now appeared, is like a canvas that only has dotted lines that hide multiple patterns. Although a thoroughly modern machine, Triumph has kept the essence of this brand new Bonneville utterly simple and therefore easily customisable. Think it’s all a load of tosh? Well, look around and you’ll see the multiple variations of the Bonnie that are thundering down the roads of Britain, and her erstwhile colony. The Street Twin, T120, Thruxton and more recently the T100, to name a few. Now the stage is set for yet another such variation – the Bobber.