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Printing Triumph Bonneville T120 and Honda CB 1100 EX

Fine rib for the heart

Grandma always said: "The good fine rib keeps you warm, boy." I ignored it. Until Honda rescued the crackling cooling rib in the here and now with the CB 1100. It automatically warmed my heart. The new Triumph Bonneville T120 also wants to achieve this, albeit with a small sham package.

M.Motorcycles have long ceased to be a pure means of transportation. They should inspire, emotionalize and be the perfect companion for escapes from everyday life. That unites them all. But not everyone goes the same way. On the one hand, there are two-wheelers bursting with technology and assistance systems, often wrapped in jagged plastic. They demonstrate what is possible, what is possible, and symbolize the current state of the art. They incite you, challenge you, want to be active sports equipment, are made for dealing with the street. A little more diagonally around the corner, accelerated a little harder, decelerated a little more tightly. Whether athlete, naked cannon or enduro: a life for the final trick in every quartet.

Printing Triumph Bonneville T120 and Honda CB 1100 EX

Fine rib for the heart

Honda CB 1100 EX – glide with pleasure

ABS is on board, the fuel finds its way into the engine via an injection system. But this engine alone. The stunner hangs majestically from a four-cylinder in the frame corset. The shiny elbows between the front wheel and drive peek out cheekily, merging straight into the exhaust. No frills, no detours, reduced to the essentials. The unit is wide. The alternator and clutch are at the crankshaft level. Today, both can often be found piggybacking behind the cylinder bank. As is typical for Honda, just briefly press the starter button. The fine rib quad of the Honda CB 1100 EX is there immediately. Whispers softly in front of you. No, he’s not a laughing. Neither when stationary nor at higher speeds. After all, the crankshaft is allowed to turn in circles almost 8500 times before the engine control intervenes. The shiny four-wheeler mobilizes 92 test bench horsepower, which alone the airflow and the engine oil have to protect from death by heat.

But who will scare the CB 1100 EX so that it gets too warm around the ribbed heart? Rather, the Honda promotes a completely different program that goes by the name Gliding with pleasure. Because so much honesty is also appropriate: the Honda CB 1100 EX does not like to cycle in a sporty way. It weighs a full 262 kilograms with a full tank, the chassis data with 63 degrees steering head angle, 114 millimeters of caster and a wheelbase of 1490 millimeters are more on the stable than on the handy side. The narrow 110/140 tires in 18-inch format can do little to change that. In addition: the lean angle is not too abundant, the brakes are not too snappy and the suspension elements have little in reserve. So now, no more purely objective stuff.

Grab the tall handlebars, loll on the bench, let the foursome purr somewhere between 3500 and 6500 revolutions – and it will capture you in a special way. The Honda reaches out to you, takes you on a journey whose destination you don’t know. But that’s secondary. It’s all about experiencing every moment of the present. The past is far away, the future doesn’t matter. The here and now counts. Without hectic and without stress. This is exactly what the Honda CB 1100 EX is made for. When the analog tachometer shows you the number 2800 at 100 km / h, you know that you have arrived. There is something meditative about it. Somewhere, when a good amount of fuel has already been used on the 17.5 liter gasoline drum, you stop, crouch down next to the Honda and just watch. This is exactly what a motorcycle should look like. No plastic – except for the rear light – the spoke rims with their large-format hubs and a shine that only polished metal surfaces can offer. There’s nothing on it that doesn‘t belong on it. The function of each component is immediately apparent. And then there’s that crackling sound as the metal from the engine and exhaust slowly cools down. I don’t know why that sounds so good. It definitely sounds right.

Triumph Bonneville T120: There’s character in there.

The Triumph driver has to do without that. The Triumph Bonneville T120 cheats a bit when it comes to classic looks. A water jacket washes around your slim 1200 model, the cooler is discreetly hidden between the front frame tubes. Nevertheless, the Bonnie twin is also ribbed. Finally, the fine webs on the cylinder walls should support the cooling effect. If you dig through the equipment list of the Englishwoman, you will also discover ABS, heated grips, traction control, various engine mappings and an anti-hopping clutch as standard. So all just modern technology in a retro guise? To a certain extent. But the technology never pushes itself to the fore, it is more of a decorative accessory than a necessary aid. In addition, the Triumph Bonneville T120 grows with a pound that makes you forget any superfluous thought of the technical overkill: with its design. The guys at Triumph have managed to cite the Bonnie line from 1959 with a lot of stylistic devices, without building a stale motorcycle. Knee cushions on the tank, the dignified color scheme and this exhaust version. All a successful memory of the past. Simply a motorcycle in the best sense of the word, modern and yet limited to what really matters.

The Triumph Bonneville T120 is therefore quite similar to the Honda CB 1100 EX. Until you take a seat on the comfortable bench seat, enjoy the relaxed knee angle and the slightly more gathered seating position than on the Honda and bring the engine to life with the first spark. There’s character in there. What makes a crankshaft with a 270 degree crank pin offset is demonstrated by the T120 engine with every throttle. Acoustically present, it thunders off as robustly as a ship’s diesel, without missing a smooth concentricity. That turns on. Even at 3100 revolutions, the twin presses its maximum torque of 105 Nm onto the crankshaft. Anyone who keeps the Triumph Bonneville T120 always around this area with the extremely smooth clutch and the equally fluffy-to-use gearbox is ideally equipped for a relaxed country road ride. Luck into the bend, turn in and, at the exit of the bend, seek the distance with the bubbling blow of the two man. Like that. The view remains free for the landscape, your own pulse in the relaxed area. If you want to let it race upwards with a sporty approach, you should not use the T120 – as you have seen with the Honda CB 1100 EX. Thanks to a weight of 246 kilograms, a steering head angle of 64.5 degrees, a caster of 105 millimeters and a wheelbase of 1445 millimeters, it falls into the corner a little more manageably than the Honda, but it draws lines in as early as the Japanese with the footrests the asphalt. And shortly afterwards, both non-yielding parts such as the main stand rasp across the road surface. Better to slow down without being really slow. This is what Triumph Bonneville T120 and Honda CB 1100 EX are made for. They promote the active experience of motorcycling, do not overwhelm. Do not spike, but integrate you in their midst. That feels like arriving. You are right here.

The only downer: the price

The only downer? The fun for every kilometer of enjoyment with the two is not cheaper. This affects less fuel consumption, which is within four to five liters per 100 kilometers. Rather, it is the price tags that hang on the Honda CB 1100 EX and Triumph Bonneville T120. For 12,165 euros, the Honda moves from the dealer to your garage, while the Triumph costs 11,900 euros. A lot of money for a lot of metal. But they are both worth it, because the real value is not determined by the price tag, but by what you feel on both machines. And so the rib straps should actually be priceless. Even grandma would see it that way.

Technical data Honda CB 1100 EX

Technical data Triumph Bonneville T120

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