Triumph is planning to launch two editions of the Bonneville family in India soon. The two models will be the Bonneville T 100 Black and Bonneville T 120 Black, which are more contemporary-looking versions of the Bonneville T 100 and T 120, where black replaces almost all of the chrome. Blacked-out components include the wheels, engine, mirrors, indicators, and dual pea-shooter exhausts.
Mechanically, both the Black Editions remain identical to the standard bikes. The T 100 gets a 900cc parallel-twin engine that makes 55hp and 77Nm. These figures are significantly down on the new Triumph Street Twin which makes 65hp and 80Nm from a reworked version of the same engine. Triumph lists the T 100 and T 120 as Euro 4 models on its international website and has specially homologated these models to BS6-spec for India. We don’t have access to the latest BS6 specifications yet, but sources tell us that performance will be largely the same. The T models will get a more significant update next year and that’s when the T 100 power figure should catch up with the Street Twin's.
As for the T 120, it runs a 1,200cc parallel-twin that makes 80hp and 105Nm. Both the Bonneville models run on tubular steel-cradle frames, and use simple brake and suspension components, along with spoked wheels wrapped in tubed tyres. Despite their analogue looks, they get dual-channel ABS, a simple switchable traction control system and ride-by-wire, with the bigger T 120 getting two riding modes.
Triumph plans to launch the Black Edition models in India in June, but this will depend on the COVID-19 situation at the time. In the UK, Triumph prices the Black Editions on par with their standard siblings, and that means we should be looking at an ex-showroom price of Rs 8.87 lakh for the T 100 and Rs 9.97 lakh for the T120. In recent times, Triumph has managed to correct the ex-showroom prices of the Street twin (Rs 7.45 lakh) and Speed Twin (Rs 9.46 lakh), which are now a fair bit more affordable than their simpler siblings from the T family. For now, Triumph India will continue the current pricing strategy but it might even go up by a bit in July 2020.
Many big bike manufacturers will find themselves in a bad situation regarding how many BS6 models they have to sell over the next few months, but Triumph is quite well-placed in this regard. For now, the British company has four BS6 models available in its bestselling Modern Classic family - the Street Twin, Bonneville T 100, Bonneville T 120, and the Speedmaster. The addition of the Black Models in June will take the tally to six models. Then there’s the newly launched Rocket III and Street Triple RS which are also Euro 5/BS6 compliant. The other upcoming BS6 launches include the new-gen Tiger 900 and the mid-level Street Triple R, both of which are expected here soon.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
