I love vertical twins, but I have only owned two. My first bike was a Honda Dream 250, a parallel twin with forward leaning cylinders. My third bike was a four cylinder Honda 550. My second bike was a Honda CJ360T, a true vertical twin, and I thought it had a beautiful engine. I loved the looks of the vertical twin DOHC (double overhead cam) Honda CB450 but somehow never bought one.
And now I own a New Bonneville, which is like a big brother to the 450. It's an even bigger DOHC vertical twin motorcycle. It's the big twin Honda never made.
The Bonnie is also classic-Honda-like with its high quality, smoothness and quiet strength. In many ways it's more like a grown up CB450 than a classic era Triumph. And I couldn't be happier about it.
60s Triumphs were fast, great looking and super cool, but they weren't great vehicles in several important respects. They were unreliable and not the best handling bikes. Some people found their quirks charming. But I needed a bike that would get me safely to my destination, every time. In the 60s and early 70s that meant Hondas and BMWs.
Honda changed motorcycling by making performance and quality affordable. The other manufacturers had to inprove their quality to compete. Every motorcycle company has benefited from Honda's lead. Remember the AMF-era Harleys?
So when John Bloor reinvented the Bonneville, he insisted on a super reliable, high quality machine capable of competing with the best bikes in the world. And Triumph built one. I bet even Sochiro Honda would love the New Bonneville.
Honda changed automobiles, too. Remember the Vega?
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