BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph Bonneville T120 Black

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BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph Bonneville T120 Black

Pressure therapy against daily grind

If you are looking for the beautiful in life, you have to take a look at everyday life, finally banish the winter blues from your head. So what are you waiting for when two purists are standing under the roadsters in front of the garage and invite you to pressure therapy? Impressions of the two retro bikes BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph Bonneville T120 Black.

Another day like that. The eyelids hardly want to reveal the eyes, the body has more calcium between the joints than muscles on the bones. Jeez, are the spirits really already half underground? Just don’t throw in the towel prematurely! Because there are antidotes. Pressure therapy is the keyword. Without further ado, the buddy rang the doorbell, the Triumph Bonneville T120 and the BMW R. The nineT Pure is pushed out of the garage, toothbrush, underpants and credit card are thrown into the baggage roll and quickly thrown where everyday life is guaranteed not to wait for us – the Côte d´Azur.

BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph Bonneville T120 Black

Pressure therapy against daily grind

Tidy, massive, classic

With a legend like the Triumph Bonneville, the chances are good to rehabilitate yourself within a few hours, to breathe joy back into your stiff bones with a few puffs of gas. This has been even more true since last year. Because now hangs in the heart of the double loop frame of the T120 a fat 1200 Big Bang engine. And it’s not just its cooling fins that you can’t get enough of. What the gentlemen from Hinckley are presenting to us could easily be swapped for the television in the living room. Then there would be a dream ship to see every evening. However, this description is only partially correct. As tidy, so massive, as classic as the Triumph Bonneville T120 Black stands in front of you, it is a dream come true.

But it is not a ship, even if it looks as elongated in profile as its ancestor from 1959. With a wheelbase of rather moderate 1445 millimeters (BMW: 1493 millimeters) and a weight of at least 246 kilograms, the engineers and Designers knew how to maintain the slim silhouette of the ancestor in loving detail. And that in spite of the now water-washed and more than 300 cubic larger two-cylinder engine. The driver sits wonderfully relaxed and well integrated on the quilted brown leather seat bench. In front of him, the narrow 18-inch wire-spoke wheel stretches out gracefully on the parquet. Yes, the reminiscence of the T120 of yore is a direct hit. The Triumph Bonneville T120 Black has a soul. You can see that. And you can feel that.

Heavy boxer blasts against gloomy everyday blues

In contrast, does the BMW R nineT Pure leave you cold? With the addition of the name Pure, the R nineT is now even more puristic. Not that it previously had too many gimmicks as a regular variant, but for around 2,600 euros less, even more consumers will probably be able to get their spirits up again with the air-cooled boxer engine. No savings were made on the unit itself. The 1200 steam hammer confidently leans its cool-ribbed cylinders on the left and right out of the tubular space frame, motor and gear unit, as has always been the case. But what then distinguishes the Pure from the original? Instead of wire-spoke rims, there are five-spoke cast wheels in 17-inch format, the upside-down fork gives way to a conventional telescopic fork with 125 millimeters of travel, the deceleration takes over instead of the radially screwed-on brake calipers, and the cockpit is adorned with a single speedometer including an integrated LC display. That was essentially it. And experienced BMW connoisseurs have long known: The Pure combines parts of the Scrambler with those of the Normalo version. The chassis data such as the steering head angle (63.4 degrees) and caster (105 millimeters) are also located exactly between the two models. If you want to recognize the Pure at first glance, it is best to pay attention to the exhaust: Instead of a double flute, the Pure has a single, conical muffler. 

If you continue to hear the everyday blues in your head, you can set the longitudinal crankshaft rotating at the push of a button, let yourself be convinced of its existence by a unique left-hand spin of the entire motorcycle, pull hard on the ride-by-wire throttle and pop with a violent boxer -Galler everything from the brain that doesn’t belong there! A wonderfully hard two-cylinder blow catapults itself out of the exhaust pipe into freedom with the throttle valve open, makes the hair on the neck stand up and passers-by in the Mediterranean rub their eyes in disbelief. Is it a kind of Bavarian proof that the Euro 4 standard does not have to be a sound killer? At least now it is certain that the BMW R NineT Pure is serious about its categorization as a roadster. True to the motto: Home is where the road leads.

The BMW sounds more pithy, the Triumph more reassuring

The Bonneville two-cylinder, which is already known from the Thruxton, has a completely different, namely more subtle impact. The Brit engineers have trained him to be more relaxed about working in the Triumph Bonneville T120. Lower compression, tamer control times, more flywheel mass result in a maximum of 78 hp galloping on the crankshaft, which is up to 101 Newton meters even at low speeds. Good omen for the therapeutic ride through the mountainous hinterland. Gold? A push of the button and the Triumph gives its driver a soothing soul massage with the first combustion stroke. Not a bully, but a bassy flatterer stomps unrhythmically with 270 degrees of crankshafts.

The BMW sounds more pithy, the Triumph more reassuring. The driver of the Triumph Bonneville T120 also has to listen carefully: the two exhaust pipes in the "Pea Shooter" design end asymmetrically only at the level of the narrow 150 Pirelli Phantom Sports Comp and thus far behind the ears of the pilot. Anyway, from around 2,000 tours the Bonnie picks up the throttle smoothly, showing from here that there is a lot of power in the engine. The fat thrust already reaches the plateau between 3,000 and 3,500 revolutions, on which you can surf around with a smile. And even if the pressure drops again a few revolutions later: Even with 6,000 tours, the test bench diagram still draws 90 Newton meters on paper – enough!

Sounds almost like the assistance of an automatic switchgear

The fact that, despite the power, you need a hard-working gearshift foot when driving around courageously doesn’t really matter. The six-speed gearbox with a long ratio locks into place very precisely and smoothly. The Triumph Bonneville T120 just doesn’t want to set any more world records, it prefers to strut along the streets of this world with royal sovereignty. And – if you look at it soberly – preferably upright. It can only be brought into an inclined position with a high steering force, and it has to be steered with a hard hand in alternating curves in order to be able to keep the line aimed at. That is surprising. With the narrow tires providing plenty of grip, one would expect livelier handling. Is it because of the steel rims? The comfortably coordinated telescopic fork and the traditional stereo suspension struts do their job well, cushion long waves neatly, only pass transverse joints as blows to the driver. Despite modern little helpers like the anti-hopping clutch, traction control and the two driving modes ("Rain" and "Road"), the Triumph prefers to stroll, not to be shooed around the corner. If you accept that, the bike will massage your soul and you will enjoy life again.

The BMW R nineT Pure also produces joy, but in a completely different way: when you sit on it, you have the feeling of sitting on a sharp naked bike compared to the Triumph Bonneville T120. This is not only due to the thinly padded seating, but also to the much more active, but by no means cramped seating position. You are enthroned on top of the 219 kilogram woman from Munich, thanks to the wide handlebars you can safely grab the bike, which has a maximum output of 112 hp and 116 Newton meters, by the horns and feel like a paraglider on it. The dry clutch disengages cleanly, and the transmission can be shifted inaudibly. When quickly zapping through the six gears, it almost sounds like the assistance of an automatic gearshift, so you change the gear ratio manually and smoothly.

Get on and feel good

The tidiness, the clean structure of the Triumph engine should not be expected from the boxer due to the concept. The massive boxer engine doesn’t look clean. Nevertheless: The BMW R nineT Pure hits the heart. And mostly thanks to their ultra-direct driving experience. Even if the fork has too little damping, seems overwhelmed in the rapid mountain classification and the shock absorber is anything but back-friendly: If you bend down curve after curve, then again and again later on, after a few bends, you grip the well-controlled and powerful brake accelerates so early that the 180 Bridgestone T30 EVO rear tire reaches its grip limit, then it’s like pouring a big sip of a perfectly mixed emotional cocktail down your throat turn after turn. The boxer pushes forward powerfully from the lowest engine speeds, gains in revving pleasure in the middle and ignites fireworks in the upper third of the engine speed that make you cheer inside. If you think you have propeller glasses on your nose: the BMW R nineT Pure has over 30 hp more than the Triumph Bonneville T120, weighs 27 kilograms less, and can go from 60 to 100 km / h and from 100 in almost half the time through to 140 km / h. These are worlds!

And that’s exactly what hits the nail on the head: the Triumph Bonneville T120 and the BMW R nineT Pure speak different languages, don’t want to be compared with each other, come from other worlds. When it comes to driving, you have to go for a BMW, for a clean and traditional look, the Bonneville T120. Both motorcycles are modern designs, are in the same category and price range, but still inspire in their own way. What they have in common: how they cast a spell over their drivers by concentrating on the essentials, how they forget everyday life, how they reactivate their spirits with their bearded engines. Get on and feel good is the motto of this puristic roadster. 

Price comparison for used BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph T120 Black

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In terms of price, both motorcycles are close to each other.

If you think that two puristic beauties like the BMW R nineT Pure and the Triumph Bonneville T120 Black are rarities, you should take a look at the used market. The availability of both motorcycles is good and the prices are within the same range. Here is an overview of the current motorcycle market: used BMW R nineT Pure and Triumph Bonneville T120 Black in Germany.

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