Featured New Bonneville T100 Initial Review

Firstly, if you don’t like listening to old geezers who start by saying ‘When I were a lad’ skip this paragraph. In 1970 I was sixteen years old, had left school, passed my test on a BSA 250 and had a temporary job earning £9 a week on a market garden. For some reason the owner of the business took a shine to me and offered to take me on permanently, train me to be his manager and learn all aspects of the business. Oh, and by the way he’d up my wages to £20 a week. Obviously I said ‘No’. I’m lying and that evening went guns blazing to the Triumph dealer - Peters of Hull - now long gone. I traded in the BSA and bought a new Triumph T100 which in those days was a 500cc Tiger 100 twin, costing £350. Today, without the part ex it would be like earning £270 a week and buying a £5,500 Honda CB500F. That T100 opened up my world with rides to race meetings, tours around Yorkshire and beyond, camping holidays, it taught me to learn maintenance routines and yes, how to fix it when it broke down – which it occasionally did, as did most things in 1970. But most of all it gave me a bunch of gold-plated mates, some of whom I still meet and ride with to this day. Skip 50 years and at 66 I’m sitting in the middle of lockdown with nowhere to go, 3 holidays cancelled, no pub to go to, no petrol to buy and listening to Laura Doomsberg on the BBC telling me I’m likely to die anytime soon. So I thought, ‘well if it’s all about end, it may as well end as it started, with me on a new Triumph T100’, only now it would be a 900cc twin and called a Bonneville.

As we were in the middle of lockdown with all dealers closed I used the internet to browse what was on offer and came across a new, pre-registered bike with delivery mileage only (10), on the Isle of Wight! I’d already researched buying bikes online and wasn’t put off by the distance and made contact with them via email, and as soon as lockdown was eased I completed the deal, saving myself around two grand on the list price. Nice one. I've used some of the purchase price savings to have some extras fitted such as a centre stand, heated grips, pillion grab rail and a Dart fly screen. I took delivery on Sunday 24 May and the whole deal went like clock work.

So to the bike. Sitting on the Bonnie I noticed straight away that it’s lower than my other bike, a Yamaha TDM900 by maybe a couple of inches or so. I’m 5’ 11’ and can comfortably get both feet flat on the ground. Going on to the controls, everything is pretty standard apart from there being no headlight flasher, but there is a switch for four-way hazards. The 'dashboard' layout is great with two big analogue clocks and digital displays for fuel on the right and a selectable display on the left for clock, average mpg, trip one, trip two, instantaneous mpg, total odometer, heated grip level, and traction control. I've settled on having the clock as default. The warning lights are in the clocks but I find the indicator warning lights are not quite bright enough.

On to the engine, which is a real beauty. The Bonnieville has a 270 degree crank which gives the smooth, lazy V-twin type feel I really love. It’s very torquey with loads and loads of low down grunt which makes overtaking a breeze even when running in. At 70 mph the Triumph is doing about 3,800 rpm which makes it quite a slow revver by modern standards and tops out at 7000. Maximum bhp is around 55 which will make it good for over 100mph which to me, for this kind of bike, is fine. It will sit all day at 70 or 80 which is about max for an upright riding position with no fairing. Overall it’s just a brilliant bike to just ride and ride and ride a bit more. The clutch is the lightest I’ve ever come across, the 5 speed gear box is amazingly smooth and the throttle response (ride by wire) is instantaneous. And there is absolutely no low speed jerkiness. 30mph in 3rd gear could be done all day if need be and compared to my TDM that's progress. Fuel consumption so far is around 75mpg - amazing.

Moving the bike around is easy due to the weight being low down and the wide handlebars help, but but to me it doesn’t feel heavy. And once on the move it feels much, much lighter than it really is. The tyres are Pirellis and seem to do what’s needed of a tyre. I’m no knee-down merchant anymore but the Bonnie corners and changes direction exactly as it should. Single disk brakes back and front do the job and ABS is standard.

One thing really stands out on the Triumph and that’s the quality of everything. The finish is fabulous, and a nice touch is the signing off by the guy who did the coach lining on the tank. The rider pack which comes with the bike includes a branded back pack, a really nice document case, a leather branded key fob, a year’s RAC membership, Datatag, a factory visit and two years guarantee.

To sum up, I’d say Triumph have produced a winner with this bike. It’s just so NICE to ride and makes you feel you just want to keep going. Everytime I see it in the garage it seems to be saying 'Please ride me. Pleeease'.

In 1970 who'd have thought it!

 

Many thanks for all the positive comments guys and welcome messages etc.

I'm gonna enjoy this forum - I can feel it coming!

 

Well spotted! I'll ring John Bloor tomorrow! Funnily enough just before lock down three others and I had booked and paid £20 each for the Triumph Factory Tour, which was subsequently cancelled and vouchers were issued. Just my luck then to get another one in the rider's pack!

 

Sorry to hear your trip had to be cancelled Lee, it's a sign of the times I'm afraid. I should have been touring Scotland two weeks ago, but cancellation fever struck again. I hope your trip in October goes well and your love affair with Bonnie The Bike blossoms!

 

Yep, I've noticed this Flash - makes overtaking an absolute breeze.

 

Hi Schuey,

Glad you agreed with my review. Like you I took a test on a Royal Enfield Interceptor last year ( already have a 2000 Indian Bullet) but thought it fell short a bit on power and finish. It certainly didn't have the low-down grunt that our bikes have, and a friend of a friend's chrome headlamp started to peel before he'd had the bike a year! I know 'you pays your money etc' but like you I'm glad I found the extra pennies for the Bonneville. Safe riding mate.