...
Nice. Unfortunetely I don't know alot about British bikes. I thought the Bonnie was the newer line built from the Trophy. I do know they have a Steve McQueen edition Bonneville ..... But he rode a Trophy?
I looked at the SE and the SM bike and the Scrambler.... But the "plain" Bonnie just looked right to me.
I can see a set of clubman bars and a 1/4 cafe fairing in my future....
Triumph was re-branded in 1991. The previous factory in Meridon closed in 1983, the site (and the brand-name) was bought by John Bloor for housing development. He started a new factory in Hinckley, starting with the 750 Daytona. More models were developed over the years, making good use of the modular design, allowing 3- and 4-cylinder engines to be made to suit the bikes.
The new Bonneville was an all-new bike, released in 2001. It was made to look like a 1970 T120R, they found one in America and shipped it to to Hinckley to copy the styling. Which is why I got one, its looks brought back my teen-age desire for a Bonneville. The new Bonneville started off as 780cc parallel twin with a 180 degree crank, just like the old Triumph parallel twins, but they put in balance shafts to reduce the vibration - they deliberately left some vibration to retain the "character". Having said it's "all new", that's the engine. They obviously used the same gearbox as the Trophy but missed out the Trophy's 5th, all the other ratios are identical.
They developed the Bonneville into several styles, some with a larger 900cc engine, including cruiser (with 90 degree crankshaft to give a V-twin sound), cafe racer, scrambler ...
If you are referring to Steve McQueen's "Great Escape" bike, that was an older TR6/A Trophy made up to look like an army BMW. McQueen was a Triumph enthusiast. The Steve McQueen Special Edition Bonneville is painted matt khaki green, otherwise it's fairly standard. I s'pose it looks a little like the Trophy that was supposed to look like a BMW
.
There you go, mcatrophy's potted history of Triumph.
I found my Bonneville a very stable, easy to ride bike (after getting used to riding after my 35 year gap), wide torque band, ideal for what I wanted at the time apart from weather protection! I added centre stand and soft luggage as extras. The bike never gave me a problem apart from me getting cold on it, but I only had it for a year and about 6000 miles before I chickened out and got the (new) Trophy. Gave that up when I could no longer use a clutch lever properly, so got my first FJR
.
