The people who market motorcycles (and, by extension the journalists who write about them) get caught up in marketing categories and subcategories; niches to the nth degree. But for years now, Triumph has had a refreshing habit of ignoring the established categories and going their own way. Case in point: they had a relatively diminutive line of 800ish cc cruisers and standards on one hand and the biggest hot rod cruiser on the planet on the other, but nothing in-between. What is the meat-and-potatoes section for most manufacturers, anywhere from 1000 to 2000ccs, was missing for Triumph. For comparison, Star has 20 models in this range while the entire Victory lineup is at the upper end of this spectrum.
Perhaps they really wanted to get the ball rolling on their fairly unique offerings, carving out some less-contested niches before going for the heart of the market and perhaps gaining some marketing insight along the way. The Thunderbird is designed to be exactly that: a core mainstream cruiser platform. Triumph claims they're planning on the T-Bird to be their best-selling model for the US in the coming years.
On the surface the 'Bird is a fairly standard cruiser with a few key differences. Triumph's signature parallel twin (in a beefy 1600cc version) with fat, double-wall chrome pipes arcing down both sides of the bike, does a good job at taking the eye away from the sizeable (black) radiator hiding between them. In case black doesn't float your boat, there's a chrome cover available as part of an extensive line of accessories, but we're not sure who'd want to do that. Triumph claims that a V-Twin engine was never even considered. A few years back they decided to stick to strictly parallel twins and triples as part of their overall identity, but that said they did what they could to bring that same uneven bump-a-bump to this upright engine by using an offset 270-degree crank. The motor is an all-new dual overhead cam parallel twin with dual counterbalancers. It also sports a six-speed transmission (rare at this price) equipped with quieter helical-style gears. Unlike its little brothers in the 865cc range, it proudly displays its fuel injection's throttle bodies behind the heads (i.e.: not disguised as carbs), styled to match.
After the engine the design is pretty standard cruiser fare, with a wide teardrop tank that drips back to wrap around the seat and minimal wheel-hugging fenders front and rear. The rear looks vaguely VTX-like, while the front looks a bit like a Wide Glide, only with a beefier headlight and 48mm fork. A fat 200mm radial graces the rear, driven by triumph's first belt final drive since the dawn of the company. The company went to great lengths to explain that back then belts were leather and now we've got high-tech carbon/Kevlar blah blah blah... we get it: belts are good, we agree.
Taking a gander at Triumph's raft of accessories available at launch, the fairly plain-jane, neutral design totally makes sense. As it sits (and with parts available) it can be made into anything from a stripped street rod, to a chromed out bling barge, to a fairly serious tourer (complete with good-sized luggage, bigger seats, floorboards, and a big quick-release windshield). As is beginning to become standard operating procedure on premium cruisers, there are a ton of accessories available right now; Triumph claims over 100, a record for them. Judging by past Triumphs, the Thunderbird should be no different in also having ready-made variants coming in ensuing model years like the Speedmaster/America cruisers or the Rocket III family to suit individual tastes and purposes.