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New 2017 Triumph Bonneville Bobber launched

To the east end of London, and the launch party for Triumph’s new Bonneville Bobber. You can’t move for wallet chains, waxed moustaches and art-installation beards, and the Hinckley outfit has properly pulled out the stops. Thousands of folk are here to see the new bike unveiled, eat hipster street food, and watch mini-drag races between the world’s press, and a selection of celeb racer ‘ambassadors’, including Freddie Spencer and Carl Fogarty.

It’s an impressive show - but what about the bike? Well, it looks charming enough, if you like that sort of thing, and the designers have made a decent fist of it. Under the skin, it’s a modified version of the T120 Bonneville 1200 - so a rather mild 80bhp-ish parallel twin, with some liquid-cooling, fuel injection made to look like an old-school slide carb, and a bit of a retune to give more low-down torque. That also means less peak power compared with the standard T120, itself no fire-breather.

The chassis has had more changes, obviously, with the hardtail-styled rear end. There is a shock, of course, tucked away under the seat, but it looks like a solid frame. That seat is adjustable, and the neat digital speedo is also adjustable, so you get the perfect view of the clocks however the seat is adjusted.

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Triumph’s specced British Avon tyres for the Bobber too. Apparently they tried a load of competitor tyres, and couldn’t get the bike to handle properly at all. It was so bad that at one point, the whole project was nearly scrapped. But the Hinckley firm asked the Wiltshire tyre guys what they could do, and Avon came up with a plan. Unusually, the Bobber has a cross-ply front and radial rear fitment: Avon tweaked the carcass on the front Cobra to give a slightly pointier profile, and also developed a new rear Cobra radial for the factory custom. As a result, the Avon Cobras are OE fitment, and the only recommended rubber for the British Bobber…

We’ve no word on pricing or full specs - expect more from the NEC show…

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