A Day With The New Triumph Modern Classics – Joe Fleming
In early June, Traditional Triumph of Edenvale contacted Bonafide Moto Co to let us know they had finally received the new range of Triumph modern classics. They asked if we’d like to take them out for a test ride. Hell yes we said!
We had our eyes on these bikes for quite a while, and were in anticipation of their arrival into the country so to take them out for a day was quite a treat.
The forecast for the next day was quite unpleasant, freezing cold and quite windy. Even though some of the new bikes had heated grips we wanted to pack as little gear as possible so that we could layer up and still be quite agile on the bikes shooting photos.
The day started out early to meet up with Nick Davidson at Traditional Triumph to pick up the bikes. This was the first time we’d seen them up close and we were very impressed with the build quality of the bikes. Joe Fleming was on the T120 (far left), Alan Shenton on the Street Twin (closest) and Nick Davidson on the cherry red Thruxton R (center).
Joe was in luck on that cold day as the T120 comes with heated grips! That’s normally not a feature we would personally opt for but to have them was something we’d be hard pressed to turn down in the future, especially when it comes to needing to take photos and riding in the middle of winter.
After our meetup at Traditional Triumph we met a few other riders at a coffee shop in Woodmead. There were various Triumphs in the group along with one very happy owner of his new Triumph T120, Richard Harper, AKA “Uncle Rich.” Uncle Rich is another one of the #BonafideMass riders in the group who is a FujiFilm photographer. This would be his first group ride on the new bike, and he was loving life.
From the coffee shop in Woodmead, we all set out for the long stretch of the ride to a cheese farm out by Hartbeesport Damn. Outside of town in this area you finally get some long swooping turns, and some open space to get to know the bikes quite well. With these bikes being just out of the factory, the dealer recommends to keep the engine under 4-5000 rpm’s until it reaches 800kms.
With most bikes we’ve broken in it can be quite boring for those first 800kms, but with the new range of Triumph modern classics they have new high torque water cooled engine, a 6th gear and offered more legs at lower RPMs.
