Triumph Bonneville T100: Sure to Earn Its Spurs

We ride the new 2017-model Bonnie T100: a smaller-capacity, less powerful model powered by the 900-cc, 55-PS parallel twin engine used for the entry-level Street Twin.

- Roland Brown

WE’RE ALMOST back at Hinckley when I finally get a chance to see whether the Bonneville T100 lives up to its name. After miles of twisty roads and traffic, the A46 suddenly opens out, clear tarmac stretching ahead. So I tread down a gear and wind open the throttle to discover whether the Triumph is really good for 100 mph (161 km/h).

The Bonneville pulls crisply and fairly hard from about 3,000 rpm in fourth, its speedometer needle sweeping past 130 km/h as I flick back into top gear, then crouch down with my chin nudging the blue-and-white tank, and take my feet off the foot-rests to stretch my legs backwards to help by cheating the wind in time-honoured Bonneville salt flats fashion.

As the hedges flash past faster, I’m switching my gaze between the road ahead and a speedometer that quickly reaches 145 km/h, then more slowly edges to 155 km/h. The Triumph keeps pulling smoothly, cold autumn wind watering my eyes, as it eases to 158, 159, and then 160 km/h. Moments later the bike is still accelerating gently and showing about 170 km/h when a curve appears ahead and I have to slow down.

So this new Bonneville earns that T100 designation, with its indicated speed at least, and would probably have gone slightly faster if given more room. Which is not a bad effort, given that this new, 2017-model Bonnie is a smaller-capacity, less powerful model powered by the 900-cc, 55-PS parallel twin engine used for the entry-level Street Twin, rather than the 1,200-cc, 80-PS unit of the Bonneville T120 that was released at the beginning of the year.