But he ALSO said:
"I love this machine. I love the peashooter exhaust pipes, the chrome, the spokes, the pear-shaped tank and the wonderful orange and white paint job. It is a friendly bike that sits unthreateningly in my driveway, offering a laid-back British retro-hello as I squeeze my suited frame into leathers and fumble with the irritating (but authentically positioned) ignition.
I even patted the tank affectionately after the machine slid to an inexplicable halt a mile from my home one morning, offering me that real Triumph-of-yore experience: lots of time sitting on a pavement edge waiting for someone to come and collect you. As it turned out, a scooter bandit had passed by the parked bike earlier, slashed the fuel line and filled up his bloody Piaggio or whatever at my expense.
The Bonnie is a welcome alternative to the smug Japanese multis, clad in acres of plastic and capable of power outputs you could not hope to use legally on British roads. It enables mid-lifers like me to ride with dignity. It is a true friend of the forty-something."
True stuff!
