![]() The 18-inch front means the T120 is not exactly a quick steering motorcycle, that’s not really in its design brief. They look period pukka, wore pretty well, gave excellent grip and even smoked up a treat. A 100/90-18 Pirelli Phantom Sportcomp up front is well matched to a 150/70-17 at the rear. Triumph T120 Bonneville – Trevor HedgeĪn intelligent choice of tyre sizes certainly plays a part in the handling of the Bonneville. The rear is also controlled enough to make the T120 a legitimately capable two-up bike. This is particularly noticeable at the front, where proper cartridges now reside in those 41 mm Kayaba fork stanchions. It achieves this feat not by having massive travel and soft spongy springs, but via quality damping control at both ends. ![]() Good enough to really enjoy scything through the Adelaide hills at a fairly cracking pace, and responsive enough to isolate the rider from all but the biggest of hits over the bumps. The damping control at both ends is impressive. But it takes only minutes aboard the machine to sense the quality of the suspension internals has gone up markedly. Outwardly, it doesn’t look all that different. Just as big a step forward has been made with the suspension. ![]() ![]() But I am sure an aftermarket exhaust would fix that. Sadly, their exit points are so far back in the machine that little of that note reaches the rider. Of course the Triumph doesn’t sound like a Harley, and from the well-shaped saddle there is not much aural accompaniment to the T120 experience, but the twin low-slung peashooter exhausts do emit a pleasing bark to onlookers. You could spend 10k on the engine of a 1200 Sportster, or even a big-cube Harley, and it still wouldn’t be as easy to mono as a T120 is out of the box. ![]() That ample off-idle grunt made standing the Bonneville up pretty simple, and the new gearbox, that for the first time in Bonneville history works exactly like a gearbox should, made clicking through a few gears while up there not all that much of a challenge. To be honest, the T120 made such stunting shenanigans quite simple. ![]()
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