RIDEFAST DECEMBER 2021
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Present for duty:<br />
The bikes included:<br />
• The new Euro 5 T120 Bonnie and a very limited<br />
2019 Euro 4 T120 Ace – one of only two in the<br />
country and number 1400 of 1400 globally.<br />
• The Bonneville Bobber (The Brutal Beauty) was<br />
present for duty.<br />
• The Thruxton based Speed Twin they gave<br />
us was also a Euro 4 model – their Euro 5 was<br />
with a customer for the day. But it’s cool to have<br />
the Euro 4 models to compare with the Euro 5<br />
units.<br />
All have the new Hi performance Torque parallel twin fuel<br />
injected engine. And yes, we drag raced all of them…<br />
fastest of the Batch is the 2019 Speed Twin, followed by<br />
the Bobber, then the latest Bonnie with that gorgeous Ace<br />
just a smidgeon behind it. But most of these bikes are not<br />
top-end get your knee and elbow down bikes, these ones<br />
are all about Uber Cool urban cruising…<br />
The fox in the henhouse was the new 1200 Scrambler<br />
that was loaned to us for the day. It doesn’t really fit into<br />
this feature, but it does have the same Euro 5 engine and<br />
we can confirm that the upgraded performance is pretty<br />
flippen spectacular… The old one is brilliant and this one<br />
is even better!<br />
A lot more on this one in future issues…<br />
Our guests:<br />
All of our riders are experienced riders from very different<br />
backgrounds.<br />
• The big chief of Motul Oil in Southern Africa,<br />
Mercia Jansen came along to give us a ladies<br />
perspective. Mix FM DJ and muso “Al Your Pal”<br />
Smythe who has a superbike background came<br />
along for the day. Sadly he had to rush<br />
off to entertain us on the radio, so he only got to<br />
ride the Bobber.<br />
• Zona Enduro’s Peter Schleuter was out for the<br />
Motul Roof Of Africa, so we chucked him into the<br />
saddle. Back home in Germany, he rides a Honda<br />
CBR 1000F. Jason Foley is out<br />
from the UK. His weapons of choice have always<br />
been of the German manufactured tourer<br />
variety – so this was the very first time that he<br />
has ridden anything like this lot.<br />
• Regular contributor singer/songwriter Garth<br />
Taylor hung up his guitar for the day and<br />
exchanged it for a few sets of handlebars.<br />
We all assembled at the Triumph head office really early to<br />
work out the routes and sample some British coffee and<br />
then we headed out for the hills. Our routes took us onto<br />
the freeway for a catch up stop at the beautiful Casalinga<br />
venue near Muldersdrift. Then it was out along the back<br />
roads to the base of Krugersdorp hill. Down towards<br />
Hekpoort, with a turn off onto the satellite road where we<br />
were moaned at for taking photos. Apparently it’s a private<br />
road. We didn’t know that!<br />
We took off further down the road past the ADA training<br />
venue in Broederstroom for a quick bite to eat at the<br />
market shop down the road. And then we took some back<br />
roads out past Lanseria airport with an urban grind back<br />
to Triumph South Africa. It’s a great route and to quote our<br />
German Visitor “I cannot believe that you have so many<br />
cool places to ride just outside the city!”. And he is quite<br />
correct. Everything is lush and green. The roads are in<br />
excellent condition and… the middle of the week meant<br />
that the roads were not too manic. It’s a great ride for<br />
sure, made even better by some good friends and…<br />
of course some interesting machinery.<br />
Bobber<br />
Bonnie Ace<br />
Speed Twin<br />
T120<br />
The new Scrambler 1200 Is quite special.<br />
Full Feature to follow<br />
38 <strong>RIDEFAST</strong> MAGAZINE <strong>DECEMBER</strong> <strong>2021</strong>