Good looking and cool with it
Last year, the new 900cc Bonneville Street Twin might have looked a little lonely in Triumph showrooms, surrounded as it was by several variants of the new 1200cc Bonnevilles.
That isolation has now been fixed by three new models being spun off the Street Twin platform for the 2017 model year – the trad T100 ($17,990), the Steve McQueeninspired Scrambler 900 ($17,990), and this, the inevitable Street Cup cafe racer clone.
At, you-guessed-it, $17,990, the Cup is a viable alternative to the equally racy-looking Thruxton 1200. It might lose a forward ratio, a front disc, and a few mill off the diameter of its pistons when comparing it to the larger-capacity Triumph, but opting for it will save you around five grand at purchase time.
I’d feel quite tempted by that proposition, as to my eye the Street Cup is the better-looking of the two low-barred Triumph twins.
By retaining the classic teardrop shaped fuel tank that we all instantly associate with Bonnevilles, the SC puts more of its engine on display than the Thruxton with it’s bulkier Manx Norton-esque fuel carrier. And when a motor looks as good as that of any of the latest liquid-cooled twins from Triumph, it’s a boon to have increased visual access to it.
Meanwhile, the two-tone paint schemes of the Street Cup – yellow/metallic silver or black/ metallic silver – are not the usual work of a bulk production factory. They result instead from a team of highly-skilled craftsman working inside Triumph’s factory at Chonburi, Thailand.
The added body-work of the Street Twin’s new cafe racer variant – the pillion seat cover and the flyscreen that shields the inherited-from-Thruxton instruments – create new opportunities for Triumph to show off its paint skills including the hand-applied stripes that separate the two colours.
The livery of the Cup is a stunner, especially when the aluminum flakes in the silver light up. For proof that no robots were involved in the decoration of the Street Cup, inspect the underside of the fuel tank. There, you’ll find the signature of the individual artist who did the work.
A clubman racer-style handlebar wraps itself round the instruments to provide the lower mounted grips of the Cup. These tilt the rider’s upper body gently and mildly forward, and feet settle into the same footpeg positions as the Street Twin. It’s a comfy riding possie if you’re of short-to-average height, however taller riders will find the more rearset footpegs of a Thruxton don’t cramp their legs as much.
At 178cm tall, I felt right at home aboard the SC, and enjoying memories of both the Yamaha RD350 I added clubman-style bars to in the 1970s, and the similarlyequipped Moto Guzzi V7 Cafe Classic that carried me through a lot of the late-noughties.
Subtle are the differences between the riding experiences of the Street Twin and the Cup, but they’re still discernable from the slightly higher seat (780mm) of the latter. It’s all found in the handling of the bike, as the powertrain performance is identical given that both Triumphs possess the same 270 degree-cranked singleoverhead-cam 900 parallel twin with the same easy-going yet willing power delivery. Same V-twin sound effects from similar megaphone-mimicking mufflers too.
Ditto, same rider-friendly fivespeed transmission with its precise clutch engagement, exemplary gear shifting, and lack of chain snatch during on/off throttle transitions. Similar frugality gives an ability to stretch 250km of travel from a single fill of the 12-litre tank.
It’s the 8mm-longer rear shocks and the slightly more racy riding position that make the difference. Both put more weight onto the front tyre, quickening the alreadyagile steering of the bike to allow it to live up to its sportier appearance. A nice side benefit of the longer shocks (which don’t offer any more wheel travel than the Street Twin’s) is that there’s now a couple of degrees of extra cornering lean available before the footpegs touch down. This makes the Street Cup a more exploitable motorcycle whenever the chosen Sunday morning road starts to turn back on itself.
If said road gets a bit rambunctious with its surfaces, the basic suspension of the Street Twin can handle it, provided you keep the pace appropriate. Push harder, and the un-adjustable forks will begin to pogo on their soft spring rates, and the rear shocks will also show their displeasure at repeated bump abuse. Triumph will offer a better set of Fox shocks as accessories for the Street Cup, and I’d be teaming these up with firmer fork springs if the bike was mine.
There’s little need for an upgrade in the braking department, however, as the twopiston Brembo caliper puts plenty of clamp on the 310mm floating disc. Grab a big squeeze of the right-hand lever and you’ll quickly trigger the standard ABS system of the Street Cup. With 20 less kilograms to stop that the previous-generation 865cc Thruxton and the better front disc doing the arresting, the Street Cup has all the stopping power it requires, negating the need to add the unsprung mass of a second front disc.
This is a bike to be admired, not only for the way it shades the previous Thruxton dynamically, but also for its cleaner design, better engineering, and classier finishing. And there’s enough opportunity left for owners to enjoy further satisfaction through their own well-targeted improvements.
Buy a Thruxton 1200 if you must have the extra power and torque, but a Street Cup has the potential to be a more rewarding bike to own.