Triumph T100 Bonneville Review

[Riggers]

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.


 

 

<span style="color:#000000;">As we were in the middle of lockdown with all dealers 

</span>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 quizzed 
Carpers
 on 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
.


 

 

<span style="color:#000000;">So

</span> to the bike. The Bonneville and the TDM are really very, very different bikes but I’ll try to compare directly whenever possible. Sitting on the Bonnie I noticed straight away that it’s lower than the TDM 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 like the TDM 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, 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. 


 

 

<span style="color:#000000;">On to the engine, which is a real beauty. Like the 9er, the Bonnieville has a 270 degree crank which gives the  smooth, lazy V-twin type feel we all know and love.

</span> 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 3,500 rpm which makes it a bit slower revving than the Yam 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 oh! There is absolutely no low speed jerkiness. 30mph in 4^th gear could be done all day if need be. That's progress I suppose.

 

 

Moving the bike around is easy due to the low weight and handlebars, but surprisingly it is a bit heavier than the TDM by about 12kg, but to me it doesn’t feel it. 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 imho. 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.



 

 

 

We all know TDMs are such great bikes - that's why we've got them so to to me its a bit unfair to try to rank one against the other so I'm not going to. But 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. As a final comparison I’d say that if I were setting off on a European tour, or some long serious motorway work I’d load up the TDM. If I were off to the local biker cafe or about to potter around the hills then the Bonneville would win, but that’s not to say that it wouldn’t be perfectly happy on the European tour. In 1970 who’d have thought it!



 

 

 

[Andy25]

I Enjoyed reading that

Thanks

Andy

[Studley Ramrod]

Thanks for sharing Riggers. :good:  What's the tank range and mpg ?

[Riggers]

Thanks for sharing Riggers. :good:  What's the tank range and mpg ?

 

Knew I'd forget something. The tank holds 14.5 litres (3+ gallons), and the ECU is telling me the bike has averaged 75 mpg from new with just under 1000 miles on the clock. But that included gradually increasing the speed from 50 mph when she was brand new to bursts of up to anything now.

 

When I fill the tank it tells me I've got a range of 180 miles which I know doesn't compute with the above but I don't know how its working things out. Maybe it's not including the 'reserve' amount when the low fuel warning light comes on . :blink:

[leehenty]

Pictures, dying for pictures

[Studley Ramrod]

 

Knew I'd forget something. The tank holds 14.5 litres (3+ gallons), and the ECU is telling me the bike has averaged 75 mpg from new with just under 1000 miles on the clock. But that included gradually increasing the speed from 50 mph when she was brand new to bursts of up to anything now.

 

When I fill the tank it tells me I've got a range of 180 miles which I know doesn't compute with the above but I don't know how its working things out. Maybe it's not including the 'reserve' amount when the low fuel warning light comes on . :blink:

That's a decent range from a small tank. Yeah, might be you're getting around 60mpg now it's run in.  Shows how good the TDM mpg is really, being an older more powerful engine.

[Riggers]

Pictures, dying for pictures

 

On delivery day.....

 

[attachment=o13449]

 

 

With 'extras' fitted.

 

[attachment=o13450]

 

 

In 1970! 

 

[attachment=o13451]

[Riggers]

Pictures, dying for pictures

 

And a close up.....

 

[attachment=o13452]

[Studley Ramrod]

Cool.

[drewpy]

very nice, great having a couple of bikes which do different things for you

[leehenty]

Happy days, now just need some sunshine, seasocks over boot tops, off to the Ace.

[Quartermaster]

That was really interesting, thanks Riggers. Was thinking of buying an Enfield Interceptor, but will definitely try the Triumph too.

[Riggers]

That was really interesting, thanks Riggers. Was thinking of buying an Enfield Interceptor, but will definitely try the Triumph too.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I did try an Interceptor last summer but for me it didn't quite cut the mustard, and I did have some niggling doubts about the quality control.  Definitely a good idea to try both.  :good:

[DaveW]

Thanks Riggers. I found your article helpful. Do you feel that the lower height makes you feel that you have less "presence" in traffic?

[Riggers]

Thanks Riggers. I found your article helpful. Do you feel that the lower height makes you feel that you have less "presence" in traffic?

 

Thanks Dave. No I wouldn't say so. I think the upright riding position helps on that front.

[DaveW]

Okey dokey. Again helpful, thanks.