The Bonneville Bobber puts on its big boy pants and becomes a worthy successor to the old Speedmaster
AMERiders decided to talk about Triumph’s all-new Bonneville Speedmaster today But first, we need to spend a few moments thinking about the Bonneville Bobber. It’s hard to argue with the Bobber. You sort of know exactly where you stand with it. It does it for you, or it doesn’t. With a single seat, hardly any luggage capacity, and pegs that touch the black stuff without much persuasion, it has a rather myopic take on life. It’s probably not any good for track days, nor the best weapon for touring, but it’s fantastic for a Sunday ride.
It’s easy to see that the Bobber hit the mark for more people than it didn’t. It hit for so many people that it caused Triumph to have to double the factory’s output for the UK market alone. The exhaust note and torquey engine tune sound great, it handles far better than it has any right to, the build quality is decent, and the packaging super clever. About the only thing, you could moan about was the compromised tank range, somewhat crashy rear suspension, and a front brake that required a fist full of digits to perform adequately. The looks speak for themselves to the point where some can fully believe a lot of Bobbers are being sold on visuals alone.
It comes as no real surprise then that Triumph reckoned it could use the Bobber’s platform to breathe new life into the Speedmaster. You’d have to believe that a good number of potential customers out there loved the Bobber’s looks, specification, and performance, but ultimately couldn’t sign on the dotted line due to its compromises. The Bobber-based Speedmaster is here to address those compromises, and it does so wonderfully.
A Bobber in a different outfit?
This is all rather curious because at the Bobber’s launch in Madrid Triumph said that the platform was designed for one seat only. Due to the (admittedly clever) packaging of the shock and its accompanying small amount of travel, modifying the chassis to accommodate two seats would be, quote, “hard to achieve”. Yet, here’s the Speedmaster with two seats! Apparently, all Triumph had to do make it possible was to fit a sub-frame to the back of the chassis and swap out the rear shock for one with a dual-spring rate and top-out spring. Therefore the Speedmaster has 73mm of rear suspension travel, and the new shock unit is pre-load adjustable too. At the front, the non-adjustable forks are fitted with cartridge internals making them higher-spec than the Bobber’s, but with the same 41mm diameter and 90mm of travel.
The Bonneville Speedmaster’s engine is the 1200cc T120 mill from the Bobber and Bobber Black in ‘High Torque’ tune, which trades more useful low down torque for top-end power. That means a healthy 78 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 RPM and 76 HP at 6,100 RPM available to your right hand through a 6-speed gearbox with identical ratios to the Bobber. That’s an impressive 42 percent more torque and 25 percent more power than the outgoing Speedmaster.
To slow all this new power down, the Bonneville Speedmaster borrows the front brake and wheel setup from the Bobber Black. It has a 16-inch front wheel – down three inches from the Bobber Black’s 19-inch unit – with a pair of 310mm rotors and floating two-piston Brembo calipers. The rear brake setup consists of a Nissin floating caliper gripping a single 255mm rotor. Anti-lock braking is, of course, standard, and the rubber is courtesy of Avon Tires.
Other Changes
In an effort to transform the riding position into more cruising oriented duties, the Bonneville Speedmaster was fitted with beach bars, fat grips, and foot pegs relocated forward of the crankshaft. The tank is different too, with an increased capacity of just over three gallons. This makes the tank visually a bit bigger, and Triumph claims that those three or so gallons are enough for a 174-mile range.
Lastly, a number of visual changes complete the Bobber to Speedmaster transformation. Lots of chrome where matte finishes once sat, a nacelle for the LED headlight, a grab bar over the rear fender for a passenger or luggage to hold on to, and three new paint schemes – Jet Black, Cranberry Red, and Fusion White Phantom Black with some gold and black pinstriping. Whichever you pick, it’s only ever the tank that changes color.
Overall, is the Bonneville Speedmaster just a Bobber in slightly different trim? Yes, it definitely is. Armed with Triumph’s accessory catalog, you can almost turn a Speedmaster into a Bobber and vice versa. The only thing you can’t do is fit the Bobber Black’s 49mm forks to the Speedmaster (or the original Bobber for that matter) due to slight differences in rake and trail. There are a couple of “Inspiration Kits” available too, which add a pre-chosen set of options to the Speedmaster. One’s called the Maverick, which amusingly does away with the swept-back bars and pillion seat (basically forming a Bobber with forward foot pegs). The other, the Highway, adds panniers, a big screen, and a backrest for your passenger.
Californian Cruising
Triumph clearly sees the U.S. as the biggest market for the Bonneville Speedmaster, and accordingly, it chose San Diego as the location for the press launch. With the Pacific Coast Highway to test its cruising ability and mountain roads to make good use of, it seemed the perfect location. The test bikes were completely standard, although we were lucky enough to have an extra day’s test where we stole a quick ride on a Speedmaster in “Maverick” trim. The seat’s a very friendly 27.7 inches tall – about half an inch taller than the Bobber’s – and the ignition switch is in the same place as the Bobber’s down under your right thigh.
The reach to the wide beach bars is short, and the angle your wrists sit at when holding on is very natural. Feet out in front, a person of average 5’9″ stature, the ride will be comfy – not too far forward as to suffer hamstring discomfort nor too close to feel wrong. Everything seemed to make sense, and brake and clutch levers are adjustable as standard. Note that unlike the Bobber, the rider’s seat can’t be moved forwards or backward.
Anyway, turn off the coastal road, hit the highways and life’s still good. The T120 HT motor is nearly vibration free between 2,500-3,000 RPM. This is good for cruising at 50-75MPH in fifth and sixth gear, and only rarely will you need to shift down to find enough power to squirt past slower moving traffic. The beefy front brake setup doesn’t disappoint either, and two digits are all that’s required to stop as swiftly and sharply as you like. There’s plenty of power in the rear brake too. When asked why Triumph fit Brembo to the front and Nissan to the back, a rep commented that it was simply the combination that worked the best for them during testing. Make of that what you will, but some personally prefer a Brembo caliper on the back as well. At highway speeds the new tank is big enough to remove one of the Bobber’s common complaints – it reduces air flowing to your gentlemanly bits, and as a result that department is left warmer and much more comfortable at speed (or in colder weather). All-day comfort? You bet.
The standard issue cruise control is brilliantly executed as well. It works in third gear or above between 30 and 100 MPH and is dead simple to use. Press once to wake the system up, press again to activate. Press again to lower your speed in one mile-per-hour increment, and touch any control (brakes, throttle, clutch) to deactivate. While we’re talking electronics, the Speedmaster has rain and road mode which delivers the same power via an altered throttle response, as well as switchable ABS and traction control.
Of course, if you want to find out if the Bonneville Speedmaster can come up with the goods in the twisties, especially given the more relaxed fork rake and trail. It should not surprise you that the Speedmaster did a great job, even if it weighs slightly more than the Bobber at 540 lbs dry. Hero blobs were swiftly scraped away on the asphalt, and the wider front tire doesn’t seem to have affected turn-in ability whatsoever. Compared to Harley-Davidson’s Fat Bob with its similarly fat front tire, there’s no hesitancy at all as you nudge the bars to get the Speedmaster pointed in the right direction.
If you were blown away by how well the Bobber handled, it appears the Bonneville Speedmaster has inherited all of its ability. Second and third gear are the gears of choice in the twisties, with the engine anywhere between 4,000 and 6,000 RPM enabling swift progress between sharp corners. At these elevated RPMs you can definitely feel the two 270 degree offset pistons dancing up and down. Spend long enough in these gears while riding enthusiastically and some slight numbness will work its way into your hands through the handlebars. We don’t think many Speedmaster riders will be doing much of that though. That is the kind of aggressive riding that ends up with not only pegs being ground away but the exhausts too. Oops!
On a 150-mile ride, the fuel warning light illuminated at the 100-mile mark and the onboard computer indicates the rider has a further 35 miles of range left at an average of 59.5MPG so far. Therefore, using the power of math we’d happily say that Triumph’s stated 174-mile range seems rather optimistic. 150 miles is more realistic for highway use, and 130 miles for combined use.
Conclusion
Is this new Bonneville Speedmaster a worthy replacement for the outgoing model? Definitely. Take an already very good bike – both technically and visually – make it a bit comfier, give it the ability to carry a pillion, brake harder, and travel further and you’ve got yet another winning formula from the boys and girls in Hinckley, England. The price isn’t too unreasonable either, starting at $13,150 for the Jet Black model – $1,250 more than the standard Bobber – rising to $13,400 for the Cranberry Red, and finally $13,650 for Fusion White. It’ll be in showrooms by early March, and you’ve got 10,000 miles from there to your first service.
Overall, the Bobber just grew up a little. If you were considering a Bobber but were put off by its characteristics, or none of the competition float your boat, then perhaps the Speedmaster is the bike for you.
~And as always….
~Live Free Ride Hard~
~AMERiders
and
Let AMERiders keep you up to on the 2018 Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster.
And as always don’t forget to send us your stories, pictures, and events for posting to GALLERY.AMERIDERS @ GMAIL.COM and we will post them for you. The more people that know about your event the better and we are offering free advertising. We would also love to hear about your rides and love to see those bikes so send those stories and pictures.
Like what you just read? Share it on social media ( Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Instagram) with others and let them get the information and benefit from it as well.