With its Eighties-inspired styling, twin rear shocks and what appears to be an old-fashioned, air-cooled parallel twin engine, the first model of Triumph’s new-generation Bonneville family is intended to look simple; to ride motorcycling’s joint waves of classic style and easy customisation. But there’s more to the Street Twin than meets the eye, especially where that 900cc engine is concerned.

Despite its traditional cooling fins the new powerplant is liquid-cooled, and also differs from its predecessor by using sohc instead of dohc valve operation. And its performance is distinctly different too. Triumph calls it the “high-torque” engine, because it’s designed to churn out torque from low revs, at the expense of top-end horsepower. Its maximum output of 54bhp is 13bhp down on the previous, 865cc Bonneville, itself not exactly known for top-end thrills.

Below 5000rpm the Street Twin lump, which also has more long-stroke cylinder dimensions, makes far more torque than its air-cooled predecessor; almost 20 per cent more in what Triumph calls the “real world riding range” between 2750 and 4750rpm. But by 5000rpm the output is dropping sharply, before fading out at 7000rpm while the old unit keeps pulling for another 1000 revs.

That flexible delivery makes the Street Twin easy to ride, as does the bike’s compact size. Its seat is slim and fairly low. The one-piece handlebar is slightly raised; footrests are lower and further back than the previous Bonneville’s, but still not remotely sporty. The round instrument panel is simple but informative, blending old-style analogue speedo with a digital display that includes a fuel gauge plus info on consumption and remaining range.

There’s no rev-counter, but that didn’t matter because the Twin was happy to rumble forward from very low revs, its silencers making enough twin-cylinder noise to add to the occasion. The Triumph cruised with a pleasantly smooth feel – not something that could be said of all its ancestors – and answered crisply when I tweaked its throttle, rarely requiring a down-shift through its sweet five-speed gearbox.

To read the rest of the review in the latest OTOR magazine click HERE