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legroom at the expense of a
more close-coupled stance,
which felt comfortable on the
road, plus there’s a simple
quick-release on the single
round dash to adjust it to suit
your stance. The footrests sit
quite far back rather than feet-
forward, Custom-style, but I
never felt cramped bobbing
around. It’s a nice bike to ride,
letting you chill out or carve
curves when you feel like it.Not so Hardtail
The non-adjustable Showa
fork and K YB rear shock
together offer quite good ride
comfort and adequate, if not
exceptional, compliance.
Visually, it appears the
Triumph has a traditional
hardtail rear end without any
suspension, until you discover
the monoshock beneath the
seat in what appears to be a
direct-action cantilever rear
end, thanks to a swing cage
operating the rear suspension.
The Bobber’s cleverly
packaged laydown monoshock
has a hidden linear-rate link
that gives good control overrear wheel damping, and the
special Avon Cobra radial
supplements the suspension
via fl ex in its sidewall, which
you can feel working as you
cross the many concrete
or plastic speedbumps in
the streets of Marbella and
surrounding villages.Although the rangy 1510mm
wheelbase helps calm things
down riding over bumps
with restricted suspension
travel, the Black is most at
home cranking from side to
side through a succession of
sweeping third-gear bends,
and it’s super-stable at any
speed thanks to its long stride.
With its low centre of gravity,
which also helps it ride bumps
well, it’s nimble rounding
tighter turns in city streets or
mountain hairpins. It has no
right to handle as well as it does
with that chunky front tyre!
Steering geometry is
unchanged from the original
Bobber, the same 25.8 degrees
of rake and 87.9mm of trail, yet
even with the fat 16-inch front
wheel it handles slightly better
than the original bike with its
skinny 19-inch hoop. I have
no explanation for that – but,
remarkably, nor did any of
Triumph’s staff at the launch.
The rolling diameter of the
two different front wheels is
almost identical even with
different tyres, but honestly
there’s no difference on turnretrospin
On the road in southern Spain
during the launch of the latest
Triumph; Bobber remains a pure
single-seater; new LED fi ve-inch
headlight in standardTriumph Bonneville Bobber Black