Many new bikes belonging to the 2016 Triumph Bonneville range have been spotted testing in the recent months in UK and mainly in Spain at the company’s development and testing centre near Barcelona. It didn’t come as a surprise when Triumph posted a teaser video on its YouTube channel confirming the rumours of a new Bonneville range for 2016. The video says “Something big is coming” and starts by showing design sketches and then fleeting scenes of the old classic Bonnevilles. In the end, the clip provides a glimpse of a new café racer based on the Bonneville. The video also gives away the unveiling date at the end as 28th October.
The café racer in the video might just be the future Bonneville Thruxton and it looks similar to the ones spotted during testing in Spain in December, 2014. The bike appeared to have a new engine. Though it had fins on the bore, the radiator between the exhaust pipes points in the direction that the new Bonneville could be getting a new liquid-cooled parallel-twin. The new Bonneville’s engine is speculated to be a higher capacity of 1100 cc, capable of making at least 20 bhp more than the old 865 cc air-cooled twin.
The Bonneville Thruxton has been spied in two different avatars. The first one spotted in December 2014 is probably an ‘R’ edition with Öhlins USD forks taken directly from the Street triple at the front and Öhlins S36 twin shocks at the rear. It also had radially mounted dual Brembo disc brakes along with a single seat. The other variant was spotted more recently in September this year which looks more like a lower-spec edition of the previously spotted Bonneville café racer.
Triumph might have been working hard in developing new engines with an eye on the new Euro4 emission regulations. The new liquid-cooled engine seems to be a direct result of Triumph’s effort to keep in line with the new regulations.
Among the other Triumph’s that were spotted was a 2016 Triumph Bonneville base-model, which was spotted during testing in UK with the new liquid-cooled 1100 cc engine in July. The bike featured a smaller radiator than the café racers. This might suggest that the base-model will have a tuned-down version of the new 1100 cc engine. The spied 2016 Triumph Bonneville also sported newly designed alloys, mud guards and body panels. This would also mean that the Bonneville T100 also might get the new engine. July also saw the replacement of what would probably follow the Speedmaster and America models with a bobber version of the Bonneville which was spotted during testing with a solo seat.
The need to meet the Euro4 emission rules without loosing power has prompted Triumph to develop a new engine. And also with the ABS being made mandatory from 2017, Triumph would be updating the whole Bonneville range with new models. Only a couple of weeks wait to bury all the rumours and guesswork until Triumph officially announces the new bikes.
