Motorcycle Fab Four London Motor Show May 17th-20th 2018
A handful of bikes managed to sneak into the show so here's a bit about them.
I visited the 2018 London Motor Show on the first two days and was treated to an impressive feast of automotive loveliness. In truth it was mainly cars, and lovely as they were this is a motorcycle focused tribe, so here's a few details about the handful of bikes that were on show, particularly the four that caught my eye.
I should say that this is not a motorcycle performance review, and this tribe is very much about literature about motorcycles, but the odd 'spot' both of bikes and some *cough* quite well known motoring journalists looking at a bike can't hurt once in a while.
Triumph Motorcycles had a small stand, mainly promoting their factory works tour, with three bikes, all lovely in their own way, the first of these was the Street Cup, seen below.
Yellow, but not a peril.... soz, it's quite hard to come up with these captions you know.
Described by one reviewer as '....your cup of tea if you want some accessible café racer cool in your life..' and based on the Street Twin, it sits somewhere between that model and the Thruxton, and to my eye very nice (in the best way) it is too. It might be a bit girly to mention that I especially like yellow, but I found it very easy to look at.
I first saw a new Triumph Thruxton in Australia in late 2016, and was very taken with it's looks so it's perhaps no surprise that the Street cup with it's design reminiscent of the Thruxton appealed to me. They had a Thruxton at the show too, and it is definitely my favourite of the three bikes Triumph were displaying here.
A modern day white charger waiting for its Knight. Yes I like it so much I've gone all poetical..
As you will no doubt know, the Thruxton name is not a new one, it is associated with a series of British parallel-twin motorcycles. The name being first used by Triumph Engineering as Thruxton Bonneville and much later on manufactured by Triumph Motorcycles. This particular one is a 1200R built from 2016 onwards.. Now I know not everyone will like what I've seen described as 'neo-retro' styling, but well, in this case I do.
The third offering Triumph gave to please the show goers eye was the Bonneville Black Bobber.
None more matt black. Matt black turned up to 11, possibly.
The Black Bobber comes in any colour as long as it's black or, if you're prepared to pay a premium, matt black. Described as 'darker and meaner' than the previous Bobber, they presumably don't just mean because of the colour. It certainly looks mean, but of the three the Thruxton still gives me the most visual fizz, if James May will forgive me for appropriating his measure of excitement.
Moving away from the Triumphs the CCM Custom stand were displaying their Spitfire Bobber, number one of 500 to be built. This bike was drawing a lot of attention on Thursday at the opening when I first admired it, and became a focus of attention for Richard Hammond and James May when they toured the show on Friday after visiting the Drive Tribe stand, before they gave an interview about Drive Tribe for the assembled car show going masses.
When CCM released the original Spitfire it was an instant hit and sold 150 in one week. This Bobber version is very eye catching with its swept back handle bars, floating single seat, slammed suspension and chunky white walled tyres.
It certainly got a detailed looking over by Hammond and May, with James seeming particularly interested in how it was put together.
It seems very tactile, and certainly held everyone's interest
Excuse my soft focus pics, they are from the video I took, rather than any desire to make Hammond and May look better.
So these were the bikes that apealled to me, hope there's one amongst them that catches your attention. The show is well worth a look if you have a day free next time it's on.
All photos my own.
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Comments (6)
I'll take the Thruxton.
Lovely, all of them.
Bloody gorgeous, the Spitfire Bobber.
Love the Thruxton too, shame there weren't more bikes there.
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