Incomparable. Again

April 16, 2009

Some motorcycles are created by marketing departments who think they’ve spotted a niche in the market. Not so the new Thunderbird. This is a new bike demanded by customers.  It was Triumph riders all over the world who asked for the gap between the company’s 865cc Speedmaster and America cruisers, and the 2294cc Rocket III to be filled. And the soon to be released 1600cc Thunderbird is Triumph’s answer.

Yes, there are other big-inch cruisers out there, but nothing else can combine Triumph’s unquestionable pedigree or the unique parallel-twin engine. “Triumph continues to prosper by making motorcycles which are incomparable,” agrees Alan Cathcart, one of the world’s most read and respected motorcycle road testers.

“Nobody else makes anything quite like the various models in its product range – think 675 Daytona, Rocket III, Speed Triple, Bonneville, and now the Thunderbird 1600 cruiser. Not only is this a parallel-twin cruising through a marketplace otherwise populated by V-twins, it’s also rather different to ride than Harleys and their kin, while still looking way cool.

This is a bike with real presence, when you see it in the metal, out on the highway.” Cathcart was the first non-Triumph employee to ride the bike near the company’s Spanish research and development headquarters.  And he was impressed.

“The Thunderbird is a bike which dynamically is a step beyond anything of the kind yet made in the USA or Japan. It’s a cruiser that handles without transgressing into sport bike territory...."