FROM THE FRONT

How many chances would you give a particular model of motorcycle? What I mean to ask is whether, having suffered a couple of dull experiences with a well-known – not rare – model of bike, you would consider trying another one? And, if the second attempt proved to be less than entirely inspirational, so uninspiring that you sold the bike quite quickly, how many more times would you try again?

The reason I’m asking is probably obvious. I’ve been pondering a Triumph 750 Bonnie … again. This seems to happen every few years, and the results are dully predictable. I buy the bike. I ride the bike. I enjoy it, usually apart from the riding position, but after only a few excursions I find myself taking another machine every time I head out. But here comes the rub: every time I borrow a Bonnie from someone else, I enjoy the ride. How can this be?

Only the other day I sheared a glorious repast with Ollie Hulme of this parish – at a roadside restaurant which rejoices under the name of Ollie’s, which made for a predictable smile, although there is apparently no connection. Ollie of course put me to shame by rattling up on his own T140 Bonneville, and managing not to appear at all smug as I made excuses for my own appearance aboard a modern machine – and an American machine at that! Of course I atoned by paying for lunch, but honour and righteousness were dented a little.

Things did not improve, as Ollie sat and occasionally interrupted his mastications with a stream of positive vibes about T140 Bonnies in general and his own in particular. I chewed and kept mostly quiet. There were no points to be scored in that conversation.

Things improved less the following day. I was booked to borrow a bike you’ll be able to read about soon – possibly next month

– and while putting on the airs and graces of a serious high mileage motorcycle tester of many decades standing, my eye was constantly pulled away from the ****** (I’m not saying) by, you guessed, by a T140 Bonnie. I passed up the offer of a spin on it mainly because I was dedicated to understanding why I’d never actually owned an example of the ****** aboard which I’d been howling around like a sort- of geriatric adolescent. Because it was very good. It was a contemporary of the Bonnie’s, too, and boasted many fine features which appealed, such as… caught myself just in time there.

But I do genuinely fancy giving Triumph’s ubiquitous twin another go. Prices are currently not what we might describe as stratospheric, and indeed there are what appear to be bargains around, which would allow me to expend a few shillings making the Triumph my own. It’s a puzzle, isn’t it?

I have of course been down this road more than twice, as the song goes, and there is indeed no fool like an old fool. So, is it foolish to try again? Every time I end up disillusioned by a Bonnie – by any 750 Triumph twin, really – I vow that never again will I waste my declining years on one. Until I ride another and love it for a dozen miles, or until I talk to a delighted owner who maintains that I’ve just been unlucky.

So. I ask again. How many times would you give Bonnie (or Tiger, or TSS, or TR65, etc) the benefit of the doubt? Or… which is your own bad penny bike? Which bikes from your own riding years have you discounted only to be enthused once more with the passage of time? Watch this space, as we say…

Ride safely