Triumph Bonneville T120

The Bonneville T120 is the quintessential British twin that one can get their hands on in the 21st century. It dresses in 70s garb, replete with chrome engine casing, spokes, and dual exhausts. Plus, the dual-tone colours look exquisite, with a hand-painted gold lining on the tank. On the T120 Black model, the Matte Jet Black/Matte Sapphire colour option gets a hand-painted Aluminium Silver coachline. The Black model gets darkened mechanicals with not a speck of chrome in sight.

In the features department, the Bonneville T120 isn’t that blessed really. The dual-pod console packs two small digital displays surrounded by an analogue speedometer and an analogue tachometer. There’s the usual trip-related data, gear-position indicator, a clock, and distance-to-empty indicator.

The engine's internals have been lightened, and Triumph says the bike feels livelier to ride. The 1200cc parallel twin liquid-cooled motor churns out 80PS (same as before), but the peak torque has increased by 1Nm, to 105Nm. The engine is reined in by updated Road and Rain riding modes which work in conjunction with the throttle map and traction control settings. It also gets cruise control as standard now. The lighter engine, along with the lighter spoke wheels, have resulted in a 7kg weight reduction. For better braking prowess, it packs twin discs with new Brembo calipers up front and a disc with Nissin caliper at the back (same as before). No changes to the suspension as the Bonneville T120 still employs a 41mm cartridge fork and twin shocks.

There are no rivals to the Bonneville T120 in its segment. That said, the BMW R nineT and Ducati Scrambler 1100 Pro are their respective brands’ large-capacity neo-retro bikes.

The Bonneville T120 will arrive in two variants: Standard and Black. The latter gets blacked-out engine casings, fins, exhausts, rims, and mirrors. These aside, there is no mechanical difference between the two variants. Prices for both trims will remain the same.