Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge NZ America Review

Compliments and insults at the same time...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/motoring/5122177/Triumph-America-throws-down-gauntlet

Well, I have to say Paul Owen(the reviewer) loves his historical analogies/metaphors, alright!

Actually, considering that Mr. Bloor and his boys never bothered to offer a larger displacement Bonnie model or option for such(LIKE I'VE ALWAYS SAID THEY SHOULD HAVE!!!!! ), I can kind of see his point about the Triumph America being(what was that he said, oh yeah) "For the America is the most sanitised(of course, WE in the country this bike is named after prefer to spell that "sanitized"...but back to Mr. Owen and his review...) model of the current Triumph range. The 21st century Bonneville twins aren't noted for being great balls of fire, and this variant reduces the modest power and torque figures of the range's 865cc parallel-twin engine to their lowest levels."

Yep, I have to agree the Kiwi makes a few good point in his review, alright.

(...though, evidently Mr. Owen is unaware that there IS still some disagreement among[st] some military historians about the issue of whether Adm. Yamamoto actually said the "Sleeping Giant" line or not, ya know!!!)

And who in the hell is PAUL OWEN!!!

Think he must be on P Bro!

He's made some valid criique's, but off in some others. It IS kind of humorous how quiet the stock mufflers are. (I wonder how many members here retain the totally stock mufflers?) But this dude is obviously on the Hardly showboat.

The BA and SM have more HP and torque compared to the 883 Sportster. But Owen chooses to compare the 1200cc Sportster with the 865cc BA. The guy is an idiot and a poor excuse for a journalist. I think he owns a new Sportster and is now trying to convince himself he didn't make an expensive mistake. In fact HD is so embarrassed about their underpowered overweight 883 Sportster that they don't publish the HP specs - it took a bit of digging to find them.

Doesn't every new motorcycle, regardless of brand, have quiet OEM mufflers? It's the legal requirement. He's a dork.

I came from a 883 Sportster to my America, a definite UPGRADE! The guy is probably being paid by HD for the article.
He has maybe a couple of points, but speaking from experience my America is more powerful, lighter, gets better mileage by a bit, has a larger gas tank, more torque, rides much better and as for the stock pipes, he can say that about any bike's OEM pipes, doesn't leak, is less expensive...I could go on, but you get the point. My sportster was an 07 and my America is an 09, so they're basically the same years. The America is just a better bike all around. Just my 2 cents...

And I migrated from a twin cam a year ago -sometimes people fail to grasp that there are other ways to assess a bike than on image/specs and they just miss the point.
My TBA runs with the HD twins qite competetly thanks ...and is so much more fun to ride.

Al

Yep, Alan. Every time I read reviews of our bikes such as Mr.Owen's, I am reminded that there are a lot of folks out there who will never forgive Triumph for making a Cruiser. Which, I might add, handles better than any Cruiser-style motorcycle has a right to...among many of its other attributes, such as its VERY smooth-running engine...as compared to a Sportster...rubber-mounted engine or not!

Agreed,Dwight Old Bean....It's the intangible things which attracted me to the bike in the first place and then I was held by the sheer enjoyment of riding it......then the practicality of it as a bike and last but not least...its the beauty....be honest folks, bet you still take a backward glance at the bike as you park up and walk away.
I do.
Yon wee journo will never undersand that

Al

still turns my crank. It's like they gave a supermodel a bad review, just look at the pictures and move on.

The Sportster 883 Deluxe (pre rubber mounted) I owned couldn't hold a candle to the America. The engine was noisy and vibrated like crazy at 70mph.

So Triumph have awakened the "sleeping giant" that is HD?

What are they going to do? Nuke Hinckley?

I don't think Mr Bloor need worry, with HDs reputation, they'd have to trailer their inter-continental ballistic missile to within 5 miles of the target, then let it vibrate itself apart before it reached its target

Harley doesn't have to worry, there will always be dentists and accountants who wanna be "cool."

I thought it might be cool to own a Harley someday, as part of my stable (like the 5th or 6th bike) but after riding that Heritage Softail for 280 miles, I can't imagine why I'd want one. If I want to tour extra-comfortably I'll get a Rocket III touring or a Goldwing.

I wish I had said all of this, but seeing as I'm new to this forum I just didn't want to say anything negative about what might be somebody's favorite MC.

I'll have to admit, too, that I actually went to the HD dealer here in town to scope out their newest 883 Sportster. The salesman didn't like that I had dismounted a rather well-kept '07 Shadow VLX outside his front door — seeing as some of his customers came outside to look at it — but he did ask if I wanted to trade it in. I said _no_ and that was the end of that. I'll admit that there are some things that I liked about the bike, but something inside was just gnawing at away at me about the whole HD experience.

Mr. Owen, the author of this review, might be surprised if I told him that I had followed up my visit to the HD shop with a casual consideration of a Vespa 300, but that's another story. It was when I was at the Vespa shop that I figured the thing would have been slung into the back of the garage that I started thinking about alternatives. That lead me to a google search of motorcycle dealers in Louisiana cities just to see what was out there.

It wouldn't surprise anyone reading this to find out that every decently-sized city in the state offers the usual suspects — Harleys, all of the major Japanese brands and there are even two BMW dealers in our relatively small state, AND we have a single Triumph dealer. Me, I like to have things that other people don't so I surfed the dealer site, contacted their sales department and made an appointment to see the 2011 SM.

I bought the bike the moment I laid eyes on it just 4 weeks ago yesterday. Not only is this motorcycle more to my liking than the HD, but I must admit that my '07 Honda seems like a mere toy compared to this bike. I even discovered a wobbly quality to the VLX's steering that I'd never noticed before after riding the SM for 4 days. Granted, there are > 8000 miles on the Honda's tires, but that's not what's causing me that heretofore unidentified wobble.

I'll be leaving the exhaust system stock; I love the quietness of it.

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The BA and SM have more HP and torque compared to the 883 Sportster. But Owen chooses to compare the 1200cc Sportster with the 865cc BA. The guy is an idiot and a poor excuse for a journalist. I think he owns a new Sportster and is now trying to convince himself he didn't make an expensive mistake. In fact HD is so embarrassed about their underpowered overweight 883 Sportster that they don't publish the HP specs - it took a bit of digging to find them.

Doesn't every new motorcycle, regardless of brand, have quiet OEM mufflers? It's the legal requirement. He's a dork.

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Quote:

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I wish I had said all of this, but seeing as I'm new to this forum I just didn't want to say anything negative about what might be somebody's favorite MC.

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Don't worry about doing a bit of Harley bashing, most of us indulge in a bit.
To be honest,it's more of a dig at the image and the wannabes'.

Personally, I'd rather have a Harley than a car.




I don't mind walking

I agree that it's not so much the Harley bikes I dislike - but the superior posing of the owners when they have little to be superior about.

As an Ex Speedmaster owner the only problem I had was the Ignitor failure.

The reason I sold it was that it used to struggle 2 up and luggage.

Apart from that it was a great bike, I still go riding with 2 America owners.

We all enjoy the riding no matter what bike we are on.

I have another mate who has a 2007 Wide Glide which has just turned over 100,000 Klms. It has never missed a beat in all that time.