The Triumph Thruxton is a series of British motorcycles with parallel-twin engines and sports styling. The name Thruxton was first applied to a handbuilt machine for endurance racing in the mid 1960s, and later revived in the 2000s.
History & design
The bike is named after Thruxton Circuit, a race track in Hampshire where in 1969 Triumph won the top three places in the Thruxton 500 mile endurance race. These races helped establish the "café racer" era, when standard production motorcycles were modified to improve street and racing performance.
The first bike to use the name was the Thruxton Bonneville, a limited-edition production-class racer hand-built in 1965 by the Triumph Engineering factory race shop at their Meriden Works based on the Bonneville T120. The Thruxton Bonneville was developed for homologation purposes and it was entered into British endurance races by local agents.
Thruxton 900
In 2004, the reborn Triumph Motorcycles factory at Hinckley adopted the Thruxton name for the Thruxton 900, an air-cooled 360° twin derived from the company's Bonneville, with hallmark café racer modifications, including rearset footrests, small flyscreen, analogue instruments, reverse-cone exhaust silencers, and seat cowl. The carburetted 900 models were built at the Hinckley plant in the U.K. The fuel injected 900 models and its 1200 successor were built at Triumph's factory in Thailand.
Thruxton 1200
In 2016, the 900 was superseded by two 270° 1200cc water-cooled similarly-styled café racers, the Triumph Thruxton and Triumph Thruxton R. The standard 1200 Thruxton has conventional cartridge forks and fixed discs, while the "R" has upgraded Öhlinsrear suspension with Showa USD "big piston" forks and Brembo front radial calipers with floating discs. Both 1200 Thruxtons have traction control, ABS, and ride by wire throttles featuring three modes, sport, road, and rain. Being of similar weight to the 900 but with 42% more power, the 1200 has a much improved power-to-weight ratio; but at over 200kg, neither bike should be considered a lightweight. Both Thruxton 900 & 1200 models are produced at John Bloor's Chonburi plant, but the original Thruxton was a special based on the Triumph Bonneville from the factory at Meriden Works, where, from May 1965, Triumph produced 52 tuned Thruxton Bonnies to homologate the type for production racing. The modern Hinckley Thruxtons are "softer" and less extreme; whereas the original Thruxton achieved top speeds over, the Thruxton 900 manages only. The Thruxton 900's engine is upgraded from the Bonneville engine of the same model year, with new cams and pistons increased to 90 mm, taking capacity to 865 cc and power up to. The frame is a tubular steel cradle with a twin-sided swingarm and traditional spoked wheels, 36-spoke front and 40-spoke rear. Front suspension has 41 mm forks with adjustable pre-loading and rear has chrome spring twin shock absorbers with adjustable pre-load. Front brakes are a single 320 mm floating disc and rear a smaller 255 mm disc, both with twin piston callipers.
Styling
When the Hinckley factory began making modern triples such as the Trident and Daytona 675, even though the inspiration was perhaps the Meriden Trident, no attempt was made to link the new bikes with their Meriden forebears. By contrast, when the Hinckley factory started to design new parallel twins, it was deemed vital to make the new bikes adopt similar "retro" styling to their Meriden predecessors. For instance, the new twins have a "timing chest" on the right, a "primary chaincase" is on the left, twin "rocker boxes", a R/H side panel resembling a dry-sump oil tank, and throttle bodies which resemble carburettors, even though the engines are fuel-injected. Triumph's desire for "retro authenticity" prescribed a tubular cradle frame, a decision which caused the bikes to be heavier than they otherwise might have been.
Reception
The Thruxton 900 was reviewed by The Daily Telegraph in 2014, saying: "It's easy to understand why the Thruxton's blend of retro style, gentle performance and practicality, combined with a reasonable price, have made it a long-running success". The Thruxton 1200R was reviewed by Motor Cycle News in 2016, saying "The styling and attention to detail lavished on the Thruxton is second to none. The R’s handling is right out of the top drawer thanks to excellent brakes, suspension and chassis balance and the electronics marry the whole package together. ".
