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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>

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