Intermot 2014: Three new Triumph Bonnevilles

TRIUMPH’S launches at Intermot in Cologne have so far focussed purely on limited-edition or special-edition versions of existing bikes – and alongside the Street Triple RX there are no fewer than three new Bonneville editions.

First up comes the T214, named after the 214mph speed record set by Johnny Allen in 1956 at, of course, Bonneville. It was that record that led to the naming of the original ‘Bonneville’ in 1959.

While Allen’s bike, the Texas Cee-Gar, was a Thunderbird 650-powered streamliner, the Bonneville T214 is rather more tame. It’s based on the T100 Black and gets a hand-painted blue-and-white colour scheme that reflects the colours of Allen’s machine. Many of the parts that are chrome on a stock Bonnie, including the wheel rims, bars and rear springs, are black, while the red seat and smaller headlight also make the T214 stand out.

Only 1000 are set to be sold worldwide, with prices to be confirmed when the bike goes on sale in October this year. Triumph has also launched a Land Speed Clothing range to go with the bike.

Next comes the Newchurch special edition. Named after Neukirchen, the location of the Tridays festival in Austria, which changes its name to the English translation when the event is on, it gets black mudguards, headlight bowl, bars, mirrors and springs along with black-and-red alloy wheels. The seat is also a ‘custom profile’ on the Newchurch while the tank loses the chrome badge of most Bonnevilles in favour of a more modern badge.

Unlike the T214, numbers aren’t limited and there are a choice of colours – either red/white or blue/white. Again, prices won’t be announced until nearer  the on-sale date, which is said to be spring 2015 in the case of the Newchurch.

Finally there’s the Bonneville Spirit special edition, based on the T100 and given black, instead of chrome, rims, mudguards, mirrors and bars, plus the headlight from the Scrambler along with a shorter rear mudguard from the Thruxton. As with the Newchurch, it loses the chrome tank badge and is set to be on-sale in spring 2015, with prices announced nearer the time.