‘Bird is the word’

Rare doesn’t always mean desirable. Some bikes are rare because they were expensive, some because only limited numbers were made, and plenty because they were rubbish and nobody bought them. A depressing number of sellers seem to think that rare only means ‘expensive’ and with that in mind it’s time to re-assess Hinckley Triumphs. There are quite a few rare Triumphs on the used market, for example the 1200 Daytona. When Japanese builders were limiting some sportsbikes to 125bhp in anticipation of a Europe-wide horsepower cap (which didn’t happen), Hinckley brought out a 147bhp sports-tourer and stuck two fingers up.

Then there’s the TT600, but a British-built Honda CBR600 with iffy fuelling wasn’t what the market wanted. It morphed into the Daytona 650, which was better, but Triumph realised their future lay with twins and triples and gave up fours altogether. If I was looking for an early Hinckley bike with inflation-resistant residuals, I might opt for the Daytona 1200, but it’s really a racing lorry like an old Kawasaki ZZ-R1100.

Me, I’d be looking at the 900 Thunderbird, for my money one of the two best 885cc triples (the other being the original Speed Triple). Speed Triple prices are already very firm, but a good T’bird can be had for reasonable money, if you’re quick.

They look more ‘realistic’ than an early Hinckley Bonnie, have a sweet torque curve, are solid as rocks (barring carb, coil and starter gremlins) and are cheap to run. Opt for the Sport with uprated brakes and X75style cans and you’ve something to cherish.