This week marked a big change for the Triumph Twin, with the release of five completely new models which include the Street Twin, Bonneville T120, T120 Black and finally the Thruxton & Thruxton R. Five machines which will take the Triumph Twin into the 2030’s and instantly turing the last of the fully air cooled 360º cranked Triumph Bonneville’s variants into collectable classics, just like their predecessors. But these five new bikes do not mark the end of the air-cooled Triumph Twin just yet, with the 270º cranked Scrambler, America and Speedmaster remaining in the current line-up in their current form for the time being.
These five new models really are a big deal for Triumph, not only do they allow the company to maintain a visible link to its heritage in its dealer showrooms all over the world – the Bonneville range also makes up twenty five percent of Triumph’s worldwide sales, which goes some way to explain why Triumph doubled the size of the development team behind these five bikes, in their four year ground-up development – as well as putting on a London launch, which was attended by the likes of Tom Hardy of Mad Max fame, Carl Fogarty, Charlie Boorman and most importantly myself (kidding). This sort of launch party is new ground for the one hundred and thirteen year old British motorcycle company and shows just how serious Triumph are about these new and exciting motorcycles. 
Motorcycles which will available early next year starting with the Street Twin, which will be followed by the four other models over the first half of 2016 and ending with the Thruxton R. Prices I am told will be comparable with bikes in direct competition, with the Thruxton R being priced to compete with the Norton 961.
The 900cc Street Twin is to be the entry level bike and I imagine the one we will see on the most of coming out of custom builders workshops the world over – with the 1200cc T120 being for those demanding more power as well as typical Bonneville looks. The release of the new Thruxton’s I hope will help take custom Triumph’s into a long overdue change in direction, as over the last few years its been very much about striped down bikes with cut frames, shorts thin seats and often fitted with either knobbly or vintage tyres and little else.
Triumph have taken into account this need for owners to modify their bikes, often choosing the most popular styles. Not wanting to miss out, Triumph have created 470 accessories for the five new Twins, which can be fitted by Triumph’s dealers or owners alike (parts which have been designed exclusively for the new bikes so will not fit the previous generation of Twin)
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The accessories include Fairings, Vance and Hines Exhausts, mini indicators, thin brat style seats and short mudguards. Parts which can be purchased individually or in what Triumph have called ‘Inspiration Kits’ which include all the parts you will need to turn you new water-cooled Twin into one of a range of styles which include ‘Scrambler‘, ‘Brat Tracker‘, ‘Urban‘ and Prestige.
The ‘Scrambler‘, a kit includes a Brushed high-level Vance & Hines exhaust system (off-road use only – as it also bypasses the catalyst) Rear mudguard removal kit with compact rear light (still don’t think this looks right on a Scrambler), Brown ribbed bench seat (yes yes a brown seat), Brown ‘Barrel style’ handlebar grips , Compact LED indicators and a Brushed aluminium sump guard.
If the off-road look is not your thing then there is the super trendy ‘Brat Tracker’ kit which includes, Brushed, Vance & Hines slip-on silencers, Rear mudguard removal kit with compact rear light, Black ribbed bench seat, Compact LED indicators, Black ‘Barrel style’ handlebar grips and again a Brushed sump guard.
Then of course there are those who need to be more practical with their style, using their Triumph Twin as a cool and trendy daily commuter – Triumph have thought of these people too and created the ‘Urban’ kit which includes ‘Ace’ style handlebars, Brushed Vance & Hines slip-on silencers, Compact LED indicators, Short tinted fly-screen and a very nice and practical Signature single pannier, in waxed cotton and leather….nice! 
For the T120 and T120 black you have the ‘Prestige‘ Kit which comprises of, an Authentic chrome ‘4 bar’ tank badge (which I really like the look of ) Ribbed and stitched black seat, Compact LED indicators, Chrome Vance & Hines peashooter slip on silencers, Black ‘Barrel style’ handlebar grips and Chrome clutch cover, alternator cover and throttle body embellishers… woof! 
The Thruxton and Thruxton R have not been left out getting the Track Racer inspiration kit and The Café Racer inspiration kit – the Track Racer inspiration kit comprising of a Sculpted cockpit fairing with lower clip-on handlebars, Single painted seat cowl (only for the Thruxton as already standard on Thruxton R), Rear mudguard removal kit with compact light, Compact LED Indicators, Vance & Hines slip on silencers, Knurled handlebar grips and Leather tank strap and…
The Café Racer inspiration kit for the Thruxton R being made up of a Rear mudguard removal kit with compact light, Vance & Hines exhausts, Lower clip-on handlebars, Short tinted Fly-screen, Compact LED Indicators, Single painted seat cowl (only for the Thruxton as standard already on Thruxton R), Signature Triumph rubber knee pads, Knurled handlebar grips and a Leather tank strap.
Factory official modification haven’t stopped at just the styling, at some point next year Triumph will release the ‘Performance Kit‘ for the Thruxton R which has been specifically designed and developed for competition use and closed circuit racing…. I wonder just how many kits sold will actually see a racetrack. What also came to mind with the Street Twin 900cc (899cc) engine is that it uses the same crank casing as the 1200cc unit with the difference being in the bore size, meaning at some stage we may see a custom 1200cc Street Twin!
Its clear unlike like Triumph’s previous range of accessories, these will be worth fitting and wont end up in a Triumph Dealers bargain bucket anytime soon – many of Triumph new range of accessories have taken their inspiration from the custom and modified scene which Bonnefication has been showcasing since 2008. Parts which will also be homologated, safety tested, road approved, and you wont need to make any structural changes to your bike. This should also convince and encourage those previously adverse to modifying their bike to do so.
All great news for the custom and modded Triumph Twin scene, which has been going for some time and I feel transcends this so called ‘New Wave‘ trend, as customising and modding motorcycles has been done by generations of bikers many of whom just like to tinker and modify their Triumphs. Many of these people don’t sport a dapper beard or in fact consider themselves ‘trendy‘ knowing that if they did their wives, girlfriend, husbands, boyfriends or mates would probably fall off their bikes laughing.
With Triumph producing their own range off the shelf kits, which now allow owners to instantly transform their Twin into a Brat Racer, Urban Scrambler or Prestige Tracker – the pressure is now on the professional custom builders the world over to do something different. Its also clear that what ever the pro builders do, Triumph can now do too – perhaps not better, (thought their Build-Off proved they are capable) but certainly on a bigger scale. Perhaps some of these pro-builders will be working with Triumph in the future and come up with new and even more exciting accessories and styles, and if they haven’t yet, lets hope Triumph have thought of it now!
I was lucky enough to be invited by Triumph to the Bonneville launch party on the 28th were I got to see these bikes in the flesh. The evening started with history and background behind Triumph and the introduction to some of the people behind the bikes development. The five bikes were then ridden out into a small crowd of fellow motorcycle bloggers, only lit by cool blue mood lighting, which was s bit of a shame as my camera really sucks in the dark. But that aside the bikes sounded amazing in the confines of the railway arches and looked just as good. It was clear from the off just how new these bikes were.
The first area I first focused on was this new radiator which has met with a mixed reaction from people when it have first been seen in spy shots. I had to say it wasn’t as ugly as I thought, but then many of us don’t like the much smaller oil cooler on the previous model, so we are a tough audience – for many I cant see the larger radiator being a problem – I spoke to the Triumph engineer who was one of the chaps behind the development of the new 900cc and 1200cc engine, and I asked him if it was possible to change the OEM radiator for a much smaller unit or feed the coolant through the frame is someone so chose.
His answer was yes, if an owner did want to remove it and find an alternative it could be done, but would clearly void any warranty. But more importantly due to the bikes electronic warning system, if the bike began to overheat you would get a warning light so could switch the bike off and let it cool down. This is rather handy if anybody wanted to experiment with an alternative. I also learned that these engines are in fact still partly air-cooled which reduced the size and weight of the engines, unlike if they had been fully water-cooled.
Looking closer at the bikes I noticed that the rectifier, horn and starter motor have all been relocated from where they were positioned on the last generation of Twins – with the starter being moved to make room for the catalyst, and relocated to underneath the EFI dummy carbs which feature alloy covers, which on the T120’s and Thruxton’s mimic retro air filters, though not on the Street Twin (cheaper system perhaps) – these are a nice touch and been fitted simply to conceal what lays beneath.
Other nice detailing include the fins on the exhausts and vent holes on the Thuxton’s side covers, which help with breathing – holes which have been reproduced on the right hand side covers, though these are just for show. The horn I also noted is now behind the left hand exhausts header, with the rectifier being moved to underneath the bike on the Thruxtons (see pic).
I moved on to take a look at the frame of these five new bikes, noting the difference between the frames on the Thruxton and Thruxton R, which has a frame loop which help gives these models more sweeping lines. On the Street Twin and T120 the frame ends in a similar manner to the previous generation of Twins and so ripe for cutting!
While under the seat, which can be removed using a key rather than the old method of using an allen-key which had been located behind the side cover, I noted that battery was now more exposed and at an angle, with fuse box had been relocated to under the seat. It would be interesting to see if the battery/airbox could still be removed without leaving an ugly gap or to much exposed wiring.
One of the first cosmetic modification ever done, and one of the first many did to the air-cooled Twin was to dump the rear tail light for a Lucas unit, which many thought was more in keeping with the Bonneville and replaced the oversize turn signals. On the new T120 and Thruxton, Triumph have finally changed the much hated tail-light, also opting for something resembling the Lucas unit, which has been paired with smaller turn signals – with the Street Twin getting a nice compact rear light, smaller turn signal and slimmed down rear mudguard.
Another popular modification on the Air-cooled bikes is changing the speedos for something smaller with a lower profile. On the new machines the clock are a big improvement, having a noticeably lower profile. It was the introduction of the CanBus in 2011 which made swopping the clocks a lot harder and more expensive. With the introduction of these Triumph Twins the desire to swop the speedos may well of been reduced, not eradicated – then there is the question, is still possible to change the speedos on these new models?
With the Street Twin there could be an elephant in the room, and its those cast wheel, which are not everyones cup of tea. Will these wheels push people in the direction of the 1200cc T120 or would it be a cheaper option to just get them changed for a set of spoked wheels taken from the T120 parts list. I think they look great, but it will be interesting to read peoples reaction to them.
The more I looked at the Street Twin the more differences to the T120 more classic styling I noted. Differences which include the petrol tank, which has an altogether different shape, the lower seat position and moulded side covers which are similar to those made by JVB Moto and of course the previously mentioned rear mudguard, tail lights and smaller turn signals, which at the front have been relocated to the fork legs. The 1200cc T120 and T120 Black are still very similar in appearance to the old T100 so should keep die hard fans happy especially now that they features more power and better brakes, though there are no figures on weight, Im told these bikes across the rang are lighter.
The Street Twin and T120 should keep most people happy, but what to choose?….. naked or more power?!?….. hmmm I want a mix of both!
Then there is the Thruxton and Thruxton R, two bikes which I hope will be the basis of some very cool and exciting builds in the future, unlike the old Thruxton which was often just used as a donor bike and turned into Trackers, Scramblers and everything in between. Again if you look at these Triumph Twins and ignore the obvious upgrades such as the frame, increased power, improved braking and the those USD Fork on the Thruxton R, you will see key styling differences truly setting these Cafe Racer styled variants apart from the Street Twin and T120. 
Styling differences which including scolloped tanks, vented side covers and Cafe Racer seats – add to that there are 160 accessories to choose from aimed directly at the Thruxton, which will turn you Thruxton into something truly special even (such as the pictured Beckham Thruxton R) before it leave the dealers showroom. These bikes look so good, that I fully expect to see plenty Thruxton’d Street Twins for those with smaller budgets. I just hope I don’t see to many Thruxton R with vintage tyres, heat wrap and painted in satin black!
Personally I can wait to get my hands on a Thruxton R and the Street Twin for a bit of a blast as these two bikes i’m sure will be the most popular of the five new bikes.
Press Releases including Specs
The new Triumph Street Twin
Built for fun. Built to ride. Built to make your own.
The new Triumph Street Twin is our most contemporary, fun and accessible new Bonneville. With its unique character, thrilling engine, distinctive sound, stripped-back styling and dynamic riding experience, the Street Twin is the perfect Bonneville for today’s rider.
Powered by the all-new 900cc ‘high torque’ Bonneville engine. Delivering much more torque than the previous generation, lower down and across the whole rev range, for a lively, exciting ride and sound you can really feel and hear.
With its new chassis and suspension, high level of capability, low seat height and incredibly accessible riding position, the Street Twin delivers refined, modern-day handling for real roads in the real world. Designed with the spirit of individualism in mind, with clean lines, minimal bodywork, contemporary upswept silencers and a garage load of stylish accessories – it’s the perfect starting point for customisation.
The Street Twin is one of the five exciting motorcycles in the new Bonneville family – all with 100% authentic Bonneville character, and truly modern capability and performance.
Inspired by the new wave custom scene, the Street Twin takes the Bonneville bloodline firmly into the 21st century, without losing any of its iconic character.
This is Triumph’s most contemporary new Bonneville; built to slot straight into today’s rider’s lifestyle. It’s built for fun, built to ride with a smile, and built for owners to customise.
Its combination of iconic Bonneville character, stunning looks, thrilling engine, low seat height, dynamic handling and ease of personalisation makes the Street Twin THE most accessible and desirable modern classic available today – the Bonneville for every rider.
New 900cc ‘high torque’ engine
The unique character of the Street twin comes to life through the all-new 900cc ‘high torque’ 8 valve, parallel twin Bonneville engine.
As the name suggests, it delivers a massive peak torque figure of 80Nm at a low 3200 rpm, which is an amazing 18% more than the previous model, delivered where you want it – low down and across the whole rev range. Benefitting from the pinpoint accuracy and instant throttle response of Triumph’s next generation ride-by-wire fuel-injection and engine management system, the Bonneville Street Twin is engineered with a charismatic 270° firing interval for an immaculately smooth, linear power delivery through the smooth six-speed gearbox. The look of the new 900cc engine has also been beautifully crafted, with stylish black engine cases and a very high level of detailing. Incorporating contemporary engine components alongside signature features from the iconic Bonneville engine to enhance that authentic Bonneville silhouette. The all-new upswept brushed stainless steel exhaust system of the Street Twin has been developed and tuned carefully to look great and deliver the unmistakable sound of a genuine British twin, with a rich, fruity note to match its lively character, tuned to a level you can feel as well as hear.
Significantly advanced fuel economy
Behind the new 900 engine’s stylish exterior sits a cutting-edge liquid cooling system, carefully integrated to minimise its visual impact whilst achieving cleaner emissions and enhancing fuel efficiency – an amazing 36% better than the previous generation Bonneville.
Dynamic Handling
The Street Twin’s fun, engaging and easy-going riding experience comes courtesy of an all-new chassis and suspension – designed to bring Triumph’s signature ride dynamic of neutrality and agility, and deliver refined and intuitive handling. Combining a user-friendly low seat, more substantial seat foam, greater suspension travel, a more natural riding position, slim waist profile and fantastic ‘stand-over’ ergonomics, the Street Twin is our most accessible Bonneville ever.
Modern capability
The Street Twin sets a new standard of modern capability, with a wealth of rider -focused technology to deliver advanced control, safety and enhanced rider confidence, integrated sensitively and without compromise, to maintain its authentic Bonneville style and character.
Including:
ABS – The Street Twin’s variable anti-lock braking system enhances rider confidence, safety and control.
Traction control – Taking advantage of the ride-by-wire system, the switchable traction control system optimises the delivery of the Street Twin’s amazing torque.
Slip assist clutch – Bringing a lighter touch and feel to the clutch to make it easier to ride, and ride longer.
Ride-by-wire – Enhancing throttle responsiveness, safety and feel.
LED rear light – Incorporated into the classically-inspired tail set-up, bringing a distinctive rear light pattern and power efficiency.
USB charge socket – Under seat mounted USB socket provided so riders can charge up their essential devices.
Engine immobiliser – With a transponder integrated in the new Street Twin key.
Stylish single clock – Feature packed single clock, incorporating a digital menu system.
Key features include:
– Gear position indicator
– Odometer
– Two trip settings
– Service indicator
– Range to empty
– Fuel level, average and current MPG
– Access to turn off traction control and ABS features
– Clock.
Additionally riders can add accessories which would also then be accessed via the clock display. Including: tyre pressure monitoring system and heated grips.
Switchgear – New, elegant switchgear presents simple fingertip controls for easy access to the key features on the clock.
Stripped back styling – The Street Twin is an exciting contemporary take on the original Bonneville silhouette, with stripped-back styling, clean lines and minimal bodywork.
Its stylish details and finishes include:
– Cast wheels, finished in black with pinstripe detailing
– Elegant fuel tank with contemporary decals and stylish chrome filler cap
– Compact indicators
– LED rear light with distinctive light pattern
– Compact headlight with a signature Triumph bulb cap cover badge
– Elegant upswept brushed stainless steel silencer
– Sculpted black side panels, with contemporary Street Twin graphics
– Minimal black painted mudguards.
The Street Twin comes in five exciting colour schemes:
– Cranberry Red, with tank and wheel strips
– Aluminium Silver with tank and wheel strips
– Matt Black
– Jet Black.
– Phantom Black
£7,300 ON THE ROAD ($8,950.00)
The new Triumph Bonneville T120 and T120 Black
Timeless icons, beautifully evolved.
The timeless style and iconic character of the original Bonneville is reborn in the classy and authentic Bonneville T120 and effortlessly cool T120 Black. Both crafted to the highest standard of detailing, quality and finish, matched by the capability and performance of a truly modern classic.
Powered by the all-new 1200cc ‘high torque’ Bonneville engine, fed by beautiful authentically styled twin throttle bodies. Built to deliver more torque lower down and across the rev range. Authentic peashooter exhausts deliver that genuine sound of a British twin.
Both featuring an all-new chassis and suspension developed for refined all day riding every day, all day, with or without a passenger. Combining Triumph’s signature ride dynamic of neutrality, agility and stability with advanced levels of capability and comfort.
Inspired by the legendary 1959 Bonneville and styled to incorporate more of the original’s iconic DNA. Both with a significantly higher level of finish, beautifully authentic detailing and standard of equipment that sets a new benchmark.
The Bonneville T120 and T120 Black are two of the five exciting motorcycles in the new Bonneville family – all with 100% authentic Bonneville character, truly modern capability and performance.
Like the iconic original Bonneville T120, that enjoyed global success thanks to its heart-stopping looks and game-changing perf
