Bonneville T120- Traditional Values With Some Contemporary Modern Tech

Astride The Retro-Themed Bonneville T120, The Modern World Doesn’t Seem Too Bad At All.

- Christopher Chaves

Kala Ghoda in south Mumbai is famous for its heritage structures and history. Take the Rajabai Tower, the Army & Navy Building, Watson’s Hotel, or Rhythm House for instance. While some have been painstakingly restored, others have fallen by the wayside. Watson’s Hotel, now Esplanade Mansion, once host to the likes of Mark Twain, is now in ruins. Rhythm House, the place that provided Mumbai a location to source their music from for nearly seven decades, downed its shutters in March this year. This was mainly due to the advent of technology availability of music on devices like mobile phones had made obtaining music easy, cheap and convenient for all, so the store was running into losses. In a developing city like Mumbai, old is constantly giving way to the new, and heritage structures are fast becoming an uncommon sight, with many landmarks making way for outfits that are thought more relevant in today’s times.

It’s the same with motorcycles. Most bike  manufacturers are conducting multiple wind tunnel tests, using new lightweight composite materials and trying to stuff as much technology as they can into their gasolinepowered creations to attract more buyers. So what’s the harm in that, you might ask. Well, in the process, these manufacturers are losing out on some of the core values their brands were primarily built on.

Thankfully, like some structures that still stand strong in south Mumbai, helping it retain some of its old-world charm, there are motorcycles such as the Triumph Bonneville, which incorporate just about enough modern tech to make it relevant in today’s world, while retaining the traits the Bonnie’s known to have. The Bonneville name resonated through the golden age of motorcycling in the West Midlands in the ’60s, and to this day, rings a bell with anyone who is even remotely versed with classic British motorcycles.