Road test by Adrian Percival

Last year I was handed the keys to the latest model from Triumph and told ‘go out and enjoy it!’ Now this was actually in the paddock at Mallory park and I immediately went out on track for about 10 laps on a bike I had never ridden before. This was also a session in amongst some of the fastest supersport machinery from all the other manufacturers, so I was a little apprehensive at riding the new Thruxton, especially after just getting off a new ZX10!

My apprehensions were soon put to rest as I got used to the Thruxton after a couple of laps. Why did I feel so at home on this bike? This was just one of the questions I asked myself as I rode around the fast Mallory Park track.

The Thruxton is essentially a derivation of the standard Bonneville. It’s a bold move back into the past café racer folklore and a nice change from all the cruiser styles that seemed to be squarely aimed at the American market. Another major change with the Thruxton is the boost in engine performance achieved by increasing the engine size to 865cc. But it doesn’t stop there, Triumph have added a higher compression, some hotter cams, a couple of bigger carbs and a pair of traditional styled megaphone exhausts, All this adds up to is a bike that gets an additional 8bhp and 9 more ft-lbs of torque over the standard Bonneville. Now that doesn’t sound a great deal but get it on the road and you soon realise just why triumph have done all this work to the new Thruxton.

So I had ridden the Thruxton for about 20 minutes on track and my first impressions were that I wanted more. The Thruxton wasn’t quite what I had expected at first, what seemed like a quiet softie when I rode it across the paddock turned out to be a snorting vintage style racer out on the tarmac! The riding position is quite radical with the clip-ons and rear-set pegs, and this together with one of the narrowest tanks made my knees rest against the cylinder heads, luckily there are a couple of small guards mounted on them to stop you melting your knees! It is the classic café-racer stance and compared to most modern supersport bikes today it’s far more radical.
A few months later I got the chance to live with a Thruxton for a few weeks and actually got to use it on the roads, and that was where the fun really began!

I collected the Triumph from the factory up in Hinckley on a bright sunny day and rode off for my first real road ride on it, some 100 miles down a combination of A5 and some other minor roads. Cruising down the faster roads I soon began to see just why this bike was created, and why I had had so much fun on it the last time. With my toes planted firmly on the rearset pegs and a riding stance somewhat like a TT racer of old I rode on through the bends and curves carrying speed and more speed, it was just bliss on a warm sunny day! The more I rode it like that the more I grinned from ear to ear, and after every bend I just wanted more…

The speed of the Thruxton is quite deceptive as there is virtually no vibration from the motor, and the exhaust note from the standard somewhat strangled silencers is rather quiet. On a straight stretch I did manage to top it out at a rather meagre 115mph, but in all fairness speed is not what this bike is all about. At that sort of speed you are doing around the 7,000rpm mark which is just about everything the motor has got, but the one thing I found out as I rode it mile after mile is you really never need to change gear on twisting roads. Forget the power band of modern sports bikes, the Thruxton pulls from about 2,000rpm all the way to the redline at 7,000rpm, but if you really want to know the limiter will cut the bike out at a shade over 8,000rpm but you don’t gain a thing by riding way up there. So off I went onward and upward with the learning curve of riding the Thruxton on the main highways.

At some stage later in the day I had discovered that all I needed to do was use 1st and 2nd gears in town traffic, after that 3rd gear was the lowest I need to go as I found out you could not only pull up the steepest of hills in 3rd but at a measly 2,000rpm as well. Did I say that this bike had torque, well it certainly has and the best way to make full use of the lower power available to you is to ride it on the torque curve. I soon discovered that ‘short shifting’ was the trick and the absolute best way to get the most from the Thruxton. Riding it reminded me a little of my first ride on an old Ducati 900 supersport, keep the power on and keep in a higher gear that you would normally use and just ride it around the corner, it will go and it will stay firmly on line. It takes a little practice to get it just right but after a while the riding pleasure just seems to get better and better. As I said before keep it in 3rd and ride from there shifting up through the rather smooth box. The gearbox is a little stiff to move and does require a ‘prod’ to change but the action is smooth and never a false neutral in sight!

I did like the Thruxton the more I rode it, so did most other people who saw it! In town it drew attention from bikers and non bikers alike, on the roads it drew attention from the bikes you just passed! Yes indeed ride one of these and you will go past some modern supersports on the twisties and make them look as if they are standing still, that’s just how good this bike is at keeping up pace on the corners and long bends. The only thing I wished for the entire time I had it was MORE NOISE!!

So is it a true Café racer or a mere copy of those legendary bikes?

With the larger displacement motor there is certainly more power and torque, but the motor is only half of the question, what about the frame, a steel cradle in the era of alloy beam frames, isn’t that a direct throwback to the bike of old? Well in all aspect the frame is the same as the standard Bonneville, but the geometry is very different indeed. The Thruxton has some modifications which include a classic spoked alloy rimmed 18” front (the rear is the same), and on this bike you get longer rear shocks. This adds up to a steeper front end and quicker steering helping you turn in the bike with the narrow clip-on bars. The steering is nowhere near razor sharp but what it does for you is hone your skills and make you work a little harder on getting your riding technique just right. When you do it rewards you big time though. All this adds up to a bike with character and in my mind the Thruxton is a true Café racer, just like my dad’s old Triton!!

On all but the bumpiest of roads the Truimph behaved well, the front forks coping well with most surfaces. The suspension set up is somewhat classic in itself as the forks and the rear shocks are adjustable for preload only. Only at certain times was I not happy with the overall feel of the Thruxton. On some corners and especially at high speed there was a certain feeling of vagueness, but I put that down to changing surface textures and mid corner bumps upsetting the nature of this fine machine!

Triumph has given the Thruxton some good front brakes to cope with the extra speed you can carry with this bike, the new 320mm disc setup works very well with the twin piston calliper but a firm pressure is required to haul it down quickly. The feel is the only thing missing here, it’s a little slow but stops you in good time whenever you need it, I think I would go for a second disc if I had the chance though! The rear brake works just fine, there’s no locking up and unlike most modern sports bike its not just for show.

So who is going to buy the Thruxton?

To me it’s a bike that I would use every weekend to blow the cobwebs out and to sharpen my riding after a week of commuting. It’s certainly a niche machine that cries out to be ridden down twisting country lanes, and woe is you if you take it out on the motorway or try to ride it in traffic!

Riding it on the open roads is not that bad when it comes to a riding position, at least at speed there is some relief offered by the wind supporting your body, but on the motorway it just doesn’t work as you get buffeted around and its just so boring! Now when it comes to riding it in town then there lies the problem, traffic is definitely painful, with the riding position being so very wrist heavy on the low slung clip-ons and feet resting on rear-set pegs at best I could say I got aching wrists. The Triumph is best on roads with corners and speeds of more than 50mph.

The Thruxton relies on its character and Café racer heritage as its main appeal. It’s not just its looks with those white faced dials, chrome headlight, polished side cases, shorty pipes, pollished alloy rims, and need I go on! I took pictures of this bike and unlike many other bikes just sat back and admired it myself. There are few bikes that I would take time out to do that, but the Thruxton is one of them and that’s what most other onlookers said too.

Perfection in any motorcycle is rare and a personal opinion of the individual concerned, but with the Thruxton Triumph have got it ‘spot on’ and have managed to recreate a classic Café racer with the comforts of some modern engineering. No easy task, I must say, but I congratulate them for building this masterpiece of a motorcycle!

My initial ride on the Thruxton was out on track at Mallory park, my subsequent riding was all done on open roads and country lanes around Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, and what I can draw from my second encounter with the Thruxton is that I think I found it’s true habitat, one far away from the hustle and bustle of town traffic and the mindless boredom of the motorway.

Yes the Thruxton is at home and happy in and around the roads of the Costwolds and never a dual carriageway in sight, catch me if you can, I dare you!!

AP