New Zealand motorcycle legend, Chris Birch, uses the slogan “say no to slow” to attract participants to his off-road riding courses. However, this is not a sentiment encouraged when riding the Triumph Speedmaster 1200. It might be a large-displacement parallel twin with a racy model name, but the Speedmaster is a motorcycle born to cruise rather than to run.
It prefers to adopt a steady, measured pace along a country road rather than engage in any of that “ride faster” palaver. But it’s not a want of performance that makes the Speedmaster a bike that doesn’t prefer to be hurried along. It’s simply that the bike is so good at encouraging its rider to adopt a “smell the roses” pace. It succeeds in being one of the most mentally therapeutic motorcycles that I’ve ridden.
The beefy air/oil-cooled, single overhead camshaft, eight-valve, inline twin-cylinder engine is shared with the other 1200cc heritage-inspired Bonneville models in Triumph’s range: the looks-like-a-custom Bobber, and the more traditional T120. It’s a bit of a goer.
The D-spec engine delivers plenty of instantaneous grunt for all three retro-styled Bonnies, with a peak of 106Nm of riding force arriving at just 3750rpm.
The 77bhp Speedmaster can therefore come out of “the hole” aggressively at the traffic lights when they turn green. It’ll even smoke the rear tyre if you’ve turned off the corner-lean-sensitive traction control first and want to risk a ticket for sustained loss of traction. Brake-free burnouts and doughnuts are part of the riding options if they’re your thing.
The point is that this Bonneville would rather master your need for speed than feed it. It’s the riding position that most settles the rider into a peaceful mood. For a cruiser, it’s relatively comfy, with the forward pegs and foot controls not too much of a stretch away, along with the new handlebar.
The equally new seat for 2026 cups and supports the glutes instead of compressing the pelvic bones, increasing long-distance comfort. Add suspension that’s perfectly sprung for absorbing road imperfections at legal speed while using up most of its wheel travel at higher velocities, and you have a bike that is virtually self-policing when it comes to open road cruising.
The well-balanced 270-degree crankshaft engine feels butter-smooth in the middle of the rev range, giving the choice of cruising at 100km/h at 2500rpm in sixth gear, or at 3000rpm in fifth. My preference was the latter, as it meant the torque peak was only another 750rpm away, making quick overtaking a simple twist of the wrist. At 2500rpm, the big twin isn’t quite in its stride and slinging the 265kg bike forward in top gear doesn’t feel as effortless.
Despite the new handlebar bringing the rider’s torso further forward and the new wheel/tyre set featuring alloy-rimmed spoked wheels that are 1kg lighter, the Speedmaster is the slowest of the heritage Bonneville 1200 trio to change direction. The lack of a pillion seat and rear subframe on the Bobber removes 15kg of mass from the rear, and the model has a flatter handlebar, both of which weight the front tyre more, increasing agility.
The 233kg T120 is the bike that Triumph twin initiator, Edward Turner, would most recognise were he still alive, and it enjoys the quicker steering and increased corner lean angle clearance that go with its longer suspension travel, conventional wheels/tyres and higher engine mass.
So why buy the $24,990 Speedmaster instead of either of the other two retrospective 1200cc Bonnevilles? If you want the British version of a $42,495 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, the Speedmaster is your bike. Same balloon-like front tyre to add inertia to the steering, same limited corner lean angles, same faux-hardtail rear end, same torque-enriched blast away from the traffic lights. Most important of all: same attention to detail and design.
The Brit bike is superior in many ways. It’s lighter, has a second front brake disc so the new corner-lean-sensitive ABS has plenty of work to do, and is easier to ride and park. It also attracts admirers like the iconic Softail model. The beautiful carnival red/white paint livery of the Speedmaster with the nicely applied gold pinstripe evoked memories of Graham Hill campaigning his Gold Leaf Lotus 49 in the 1968 F1 season. It’s not often that a cruiser motorcycle can make me feel 14 again, but the Speedmaster did.
