Fully loaded
Pillion
This is no place for a passenger to spend any time; the Speedmaster’s pillion seat looks — and feels — like a leather-clad brick. The dense rectangular rear seat is both tiny and uncomfortable, while the chrome grab rail encourages passengers to perch up, tall and straight-backed, as if trying to achieve perfect posture. There’s little room between rider and pillion, not to mention the fact that the Speedmaster’s already very limited ground clearance reduces to virtually non-existent with the added weight of a pillion passenger compressing the rear end.
Luggage
This Oxford tailpack used on all RIDE tests is too big to be safely used on the Bonneville Speedmaster. The pillion seat pad is easy to remove with only one bolt, so the tailpack’s Velcro strap fastens round the pad with no issues. The problem is the actual size of the pad — it has insufficient surface area to provide a sturdy base for the tailpack. Added to this, there are no dedicated bungee hook locations, though we did improvise by looping some around the chrome passenger grabrail and front of the painted mudguard, which isn’t ideal. It’s here that the Triumph official luggage makes sense. The manufacturer offers wax-cotton panniers for £179 each, plus £62 (each side) for the fitting kit — a total of £482. Another option would be the £102 chrome luggage rack that bolts on to the existing passenger grabrail.
“The passenger seat looks and feels like a leather-clad brick ”