Triumph currently sells 11 motorcycles in India and the company has classified the models under five categories – Classic, Roadsters, Adventure, Super Sports, and Cruisers. It has three bikes under the Classic category and two each in the rest of them, so despite my gut feel telling me that it could be the Scrambler that would be Triumph’s next in India, the image in the official invite wants everyone to believe otherwise.
The picture above shows Triumph Thunderbird LTs on an open highway and the bikes are pure Americana too. And hence, speculations are ride that the Triumph motorcycle launching on 18th Sep might as well be the Thunderbird. And if that is true, we might as well give you a brief low down.
Triumph had launched the new Thunderbirds, the Commander and the LT, earlier this year in the US of A and though the bikes share the engine with the Thunderbird Storm (available in India) the new additions to the Triumph’s cruiser family are more relaxed in style and character. In fact, it’s the LT that is a full-on cruiser in Triumph’s international line-up and this is the one that everyone is most optimistic about being launched in India.
The LT is powered by the same 1699 cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected parallel twin motor that produces 93 bhp and 146 Nm of torque. It sports a 6-speed gearbox and the final drive is via belt…The spoke wheels carry 150/80-R16 Avon ‘whitewall’ radial tire on the front and 180/70-R16 Avon whitewall radial on the rear. Braking duties are taken care of by dual 310 mm floating discs at the front and a same size single disc at the rear, and ABS is standard.
Most would love the analogue speedometer and fuel gauge while an LCD incorporates the rest like the odometer, dual tripmeters, fuel range, clock, indicator lights for ABS, high beam, turn signal, oil level, low fuel, coolant temp, etc. A 21.9-litre fuel tank, auxiliary spot lights, big windscreen, and detachable leather saddle bags (with 21-litre storage space) round a storage space of 21 litres add up more brownie points to the cruiser’s resume.
With the Thunderbird Storm priced at INR 13 lakh (ex-showroom) in Delhi, it would be interesting to see how Triumph positions this one; if at all it does come to India on the 18th…