Lots of Bark and Plenty of Bite
Oh, boy, this is fun! The Triumph Bobber 1200 is a surprising bike. It’s surprisingly good, surprisingly fast, surprisingly comfortable and surprisingly easy to ride. The original bobber was basically an unsprung bike with a slightly bouncy seat to limit bone jarring. Today’s bobbers integrate hidden suspension and a fixed seat that looks like it’s floating. It makes for a striking look.
Photography by Ignacio Nabulen
But looks aren’t everything, and a lot of the time, a bike that looks good doesn’t always go all that well. It’s not the case here, though. What you particularly notice is just how well this thing handles. Although suspension is a touch tough for my tender tush, this can be adjusted for owners of different weights.
So yes, this gritty piece of automotive engineering looks great. And it goes great, even through windy roads. Yes, of course it can do the waterfront cruise, the main street crawl and all. It’s made for that. But you can genuinely have fun on this bike when you leave the crowds behind and get into the hills. I think the secret is the match between the frame and the tires. Sometimes this style sports a skinny front; good for history, not for handling. Triumph has gone the other way on this, it’s got a big, beautifully profiled front tire that’s so well matched to the bike you know exactly what it’s going to do.
The Bonneville 1200 cc parallel twin is a tremendous engine, and Triumph have geared it a little higher to ensure that you can run in a nice low gear for maximum sound value. The big thumper revs to around 6500, but anything above 2000 and you’ve got a wall of torque, 106 Nm, plenty of bite and oodles of bark. It far exceeded my expectations of what a big bike like this could do in the rideability stakes.
I took it for a ride out of the Auckland traffic through the back roads to Maraetai and then back through the Hunua Hills. It was truly a festival of fun even in the twisties. You can mostly ride it on pure throttle control. That said, the brakes are very good if you need them, but on this style of bike you can set the controls to cruise and have a whale of a time.
Retro is the new/old cool and Triumph have maintained as much of this as possible with the black steel frame, the straight pipes and the classic bobber stance, low slung and grumpy. Then they sprinkled in just enough technology like an LED headlight, a little digital screen, traction control and a few other goodies, so you can be confident however you ride the bike. While older bikes might have been air cooled, this elegantly hides a radiator to give you air and water cooling. Stainless straight pipes look great and sound better, while the spoke wheels firmly trumpet that retro feel. The paint on this model that I had was essentially all black with a beautiful red tank. It doesn’t stop there, though, and there are many impressive little features all over the bike. And in the several days that I had it, I kept finding new design treats.
The riding style is sit up and beg, like you’re sitting on a kitchen chair. Different for me but comfortable and easy to get used to and the huge saddle means it’s very comfortable. It’s very low and you might drag a foot peg occasionally, but let’s admit that on this bike, you are not going to be climbing off it for the corner, you’re going to lean the bike and make it do the work.
It cuts a striking figure, and when parked it in public, garners many an admirer, wanting to touch it, sit on it, or learn about it. This is why we took it to Takutai square for the photo shoot. The images speak for themselves. Triumph are doing something right at the moment; their bikes are impressive across the board, but beyond the great looks, handling and performance, somehow one of the oldest manufacturers in the world is oozing X-factor.