Triumph Thruxton review, test ride

What is it?

The Thruxton is Triumph’s modern take on the café racer. It may be built on the Bonneville’s twin downtube frame and may use the same 865cc parallel-twin engine but it is, in essence, a very different bike.

A lot of that has to do with the way it looks. The Thruxton conforms to the café racer template to the T, and in that sense looks as if it’s been plucked straight from 1960s Britain. Spoked wheels, a round headlight, a narrow handlebar, a long fuel tank and a long seat (with a removable cowl on the rear seat), the Thruxton’s got it all. The twin upswept exhausts look rather nice as well and attention to detail is fantastic. Lovely gold stripes embellish the flyscreen, tank and rear cowl, while if you look closer at the engine, you’ll see a dummy carburetor body (the engine features fuel injection) which is there just to maintain the period look of the Thruxton.

The Thruxton also gets very retro and white-faced pods for the speedometer and tacho, but the font on them is too small. Also, much like the Bonneville, the Thruxton comes with its ignition key slot inconveniently placed near the headlight. You should also know that a lockable fuel filler cap is also only on offer as a paid option.

For their part, all points of contact are nice, right from the well padded seat to the neat grips and even the robust switches.