Best Bonnie ever?

[the mouse]

Presuming we are talking real Coventry/ Meriden Bonnnevilles here, or are you chucking in the Hinkley lot which are absolutely not comparable, in any way.
The the burning question as pointed out ...
Best for perfomance
best for reliability
best for appeal
best for sales
best for breaking down
best for wot???

They were all good! (ducks for cover).

[invisiblehand1]

d'uh

the best bonneville is the one in your shed.

All of them have their quirks, the later ones are torquey and not super fast, the earlier ones have rubbish brakes and bendy frames but go pretty good.

all (except from Hinckley are cool). The new ones are UJMs too big, too fat too lazy and too boring.

[Beeza]

No Bonnie ever came out of Coventry as that factory was totally bombed in the Blitz in 1940, long before any Bonnie ever went into production.

[jellywrestler]

anxi'ety(adverb) the feeling one gets when flying in a Triumph powered microlight

[Big Dave]

d'uh

all (except from Hinckley are cool). The new ones are UJMs too big, too fat too lazy and too boring.

And will kick a Meriden's arse.

Good idea would be to set up a race at Puke. See if I can swing it. I can get my hands on a mint '67 maybe. Up against a SE would make interesting viewing.
I know where my money would be and it isn't on a Meriden.

Further edit - no SEs available either - all sold - even the press bike.

[Big Dave]

Presuming we are talking real Coventry/ Meriden Bonnnevilles here, or are you chucking in the Hinkley lot which are absolutely not comparable, in any way.

And why not?

Green if you can name one logical reason not based on emotion.

[Paul in NZ]

And will kick a Meriden's arse.

Good idea would be to set up a race at Puke. See if I can swing it. I can get my hands on a mint '67 maybe. Up against a SE would make interesting viewing.
I know where my money would be and it isn't on a Meriden.

Further edit - no SEs available either - all sold - even the press bike.

Yawn!

Classic bike tested the first new bonnie against the last old bonnie (T140) and the new one got spanked...

Who cares? If a Bonnie was about numerical performance it 'might' matter but when Triumph manage to run one across the saltflats in a heroic effort at a very good speed it 'might' get some respect.

[Motu]

Still working it's magic on the mile - that's good enough for me.

[MVnut]

Like the new Bonnies but always wanted a 350 Bandit

[Big Dave]

Yawn!

Classic bike tested the first new bonnie against the last old bonnie (T140) and the new one got spanked...

Yawn is old school stick in the muds.

Try the SE. I stand by my comment.

Handling and responsiveness. Quite remarkable what the 17" front wheel does and the efi motor has better putsch.

[Big Dave]

I was going through my files to find this pic I have of a new bonne that has been turned into a pretty good T120 replica. Like, replica as much as possible - but allocated time passed without finding it - I did find these beauties though - ride to work day posters.

[Motu]

Oh wow - smacked in the head by a King Dick!!!!!

[Voltaire]

My vote would be for the Meridan Bonnie.
Retro vehicles just seem a bit odd to me.....Maybe if I had no mechanical skills and wanted to pretend I like classic bikes I might concider a Thruxton........ahhh no, I still like the ol bevel drive Duke.

[Max Headroom]

And why not?

Green if you can name one logical reason not based on emotion.

Dave, there's one area where Meridan Bonnie beats Hinckley Bonnie hands down. And that's future value. Let me explain . . . .

The Meridan Bonnie earned its reputation through hard-won competition success. Collectors place high value on competition success and reward it through higher value. Virtually all collectible cars & bikes share this characteristic. The Hinckley Bonnie attempts to bask in the reflected glory of the Meridan Bonnie, but it has no competition success of its own to boast about.

The Meridan Bonnie competed against its peers and won. This is something the Hinckley Bonnie can never achieve . . . . as such, its only claim to fame is the sharing of the name and having been constructed in a style reminiscent of Meridan. It has as much in common with Meridan as the New Beetle (FWD water-cooled inline 4) has with the original (RWD aircooled flat 4) Beetle. It's neither a development of the original, merely something which shares a similar silouette (from a distance, at a glance, with dark sunglasses, at night, etc). That the Hinckley Bonnie is a nice bike in its own right, capable and reliable and so on are almost irrelevant. The Kawasaki W650 was a more authentic development.

All that and I'm not even a Triumph enthusiast!!!

[Paul in NZ]

Yawn is old school stick in the muds.

Try the SE. I stand by my comment.

Handling and responsiveness. Quite remarkable what the 17" front wheel does and the efi motor has better putsch.

I'm sorry but using insults like 'stick in the mud' isn't a proper argument either. Especially when the one making them actually recieves payment to help market the new Triumphs and thus has a vested interest - it is a good tactic but I'm not buying it.

I'm sorry, I rather like my old bike, it still thrills me and it is a beautiful machine, arguably the best looking bike Triumph ever made and thats not just my opinion. Others here can tell you that whenever it's parked up amoungst the latest and greatest it recieves a lot of nice comments from all sorts. The smiles per gallon we get makes it worth riding. Best of all it is a riders bike, it's raw and alive in a way no modern machine can match, you can still smell what Steve McQueen and Bud saw in them. The modern bikes are fine machines and well developed mechanically and of course are numerically more efficient, it's nuts to claim otherwise but that does not make them 'better'.

Simply they are not for me and history will judge their worth much as the market already has. Go back to your earlier post - find a brand new SE and a brand new 67 and put them up for auction in the USA, UK or Japan and see which one attracts the most interest. Maybe, if you want to talk numbers (god forbid) then perhaps you should think about to what tune people are prepared to put their hands into their wallets to own one?