this stunning beautiful Triumph Bonneville t120 black has just arrived and I'm going to be doing
a really good review on this bike over the next few days in some stunning locations but you may
notice two other bikes here the Royal Enfield classic 350 and my BMW r18 which I'm going to
talk about in this video as well got some very interesting new developments on the BMW but let's
get started with the Triumph Bonneville t120 Black the Royal Enfield classic and the Triumph
Bonneville are both very similar looking bikes in many ways the Royal Enfield is probably a much
more purist version of the original bikes from the 1960s and that sort of era whereas the Triumph
Bonneville is a modern interpretation of that with much more up-to-date engine Electronics brakes and
that sort of thing so this is a modern bike in a classic guys whereas the Royal Enfield is more
of a classic bike brought up to date with enough modern technology to make it a bit more reliable
if you look back at the Triumph bonnevilles from the 1960s era they all had mud guards like this
at the front which is a much better design because it covers most of the wheel and it keeps the wet
and the muck off the bike and off of you whereas the modern uh versions have these little tiny
um mud guards fenders that don't cover enough of the bike and I know from experience that the bike
gets caked in muck if you take it out on a wet day this has got a plastic mud guard at the front and
sounds like a metal one at the rear whereas this is metal front and rear of course that saves a
little bit of weight but this is more beautiful and stronger and I do like these braces that it
has there I know the modern designs perhaps want to try and get rid of that brace they've
got the front one kind of thing for looks but I think that looks better personally
so what I'm saying really is that I just wish Triumph would make a more purist Bonneville
and take the design cues from way back in the 60s and that sort of era with the mud guards wouldn't
it be wonderful with an air cooled engine and both these bikes are air stroke oil cooled so it can be
done in today's world with all the uh Euro 4 and Euro five Hoops that you have to jump through and
who knows what Euro six will be probably just electric that would be something I would really
love to see from Triumph a Back to Basics purist monoville with the bare minimum stuff
and that would be nice but saying that it's still a beautiful looking bike you've got lovely analog
clocks here and uh The Styling is is very classic so it's a beautiful motorcycle so if you want a
bike that's got more technology more speed more power the Triumph is for you whereas if you want
that sort of very classic air cooled feel of an old motorcycle then you might look at the Royal
Enfield all three of these bikes are classically designed and in terms of popularity the Royal
Enfield and the Triumph Bonneville would probably be much more appealing to most people than the BMW
r18 when BMW designed this bike they weren't trying to do something subtle they wanted the
biggest baddest boxer engine that's ever made and they say we're going to stick it in this bike and
it's going to be incredible and this thing would be just as at home in an airplane as it is on this
bike so it's it's a real statement whereas these two are much more classically designed fortunately
there are many Triumph bonneville's from which you can choose and find the one that suits you this
one's more blacked out but you can get ones with tons of chrome like this has got so there's plenty
of choices and same as the Royal Enfield of course there's different uh designs with this you've got
the signals versions which are more like Army bikes all blacked out and you've got the shiny
ones like this I love to see these shiny engine casings here I think they're very very beautiful
so if I was going to buy one of these I'd probably go for a shiny one but I
do like the the signals one as well and the Triumph Bonneville yes we're gonna give it
a good test ride in the next few days and a review but you can go back to my
previous original review of this two or three years ago where I I reviewed it thoroughly
I did think it was superb then we did have some bad weather leading up to that
review so the roads weren't ideal so I didn't really get to put it through its Paces enough
but with this wonderful weather we've got at the moment and it's forecast to be the same
I can really get to know this bike take it to some amazing places and really see what it's like now I
found out some very interesting new information about my intended move to Spain in terms of
importing a motorcycle or not in my previous video I was saying well this Royal Enfield
Classics come and because of the tax implications of importing a vehicle into Spain this was going
to have to go but I've since found out something very interesting if you're changing residence so
if you're moving house to Spain but it could be any EU country but I haven't looked into
the other countries so there could be differences but um Spain is what I'm looking at you're allowed
to bring one vehicle in and not pay any tax or import Duty as long as you've had it for
over six months and all the taxes Etc have been paid in your own country which they have on this
um and it's your Prime vehicle and you're changing residence you're moving house so I
can actually take this bike to Spain and not have to pay any Duty or tax which completely changes
the game because if I were to sell this bike I'm going to lose 5 000 pounds in depreciation which
is crazy I can't keep losing money on selling vehicles and you know how much I love this bike
as much as some people hate it I love it and if you look at some of my recent videos I've
ridden this through the Welsh mountainous roads and the back Lanes perfectly okay and
it will do what that will do or what that will do and I already own the bike so I don't want to lose
any more money so it looks like I'm going to be taking this to Spain after all but who's to say
I couldn't buy a second bike maybe one of these as a second bike for running around could be a good
idea so I haven't decided yet or even one of these so I've got lots of decisions to make what a nice
position to be in but I don't spend money on much else to be honest so motorcycles are my hobby my
thing so maybe there could be space for two bikes but at least I can keep my beloved BMW r18 I'm so
happy about now if you were going to take more than one vehicle to Spain or any other European
country I'm sure the same applies you would have to pay the full vat uh in Spain it's 21 and the
10 import Duty so you're looking at 31 per vehicle which is a huge amount of money to have to pay so
fortunately with your own personal vehicle one vehicle if you're moving house and you've paid
all the tax and v80 in your own country you're okay to import it free of charge if you like
apart from doing the ITV test where they have to test the bike like an mot in England and make sure
it's all compliant with the regulations and it's got to be sort of bog standard no modifications
allowed and of course you'd have to have the headlight pointing the other way and that
speedometer would have to be put into kilometers per hour so I haven't looked into that yet I'm
uh it's Marmite this bike's Marmite all over if you don't know what that means mom might just
spread you put on toast and people either love them I might I hate Marmite so you say it's a
Marmite bike or a mom might think it's a Love or hate I love it but I have found an exhaust
it's made by an American company it's a shark fin or shark tail exhaust which sounds amazing
and keeps that sort of end bit but it's a sort of normal conventional pipe all the way down I have
messages and I actually messaged them on their YouTube page over a year ago and they haven't
responded messaged them a month ago on the YouTube page and they haven't responded and I've emailed
them and they haven't responded so um not holding my breath on that but obviously if I were to get
one of these exhausts and put it on my bike and do a video about it it's going to bring them a lot of
views so sometimes it's in a company's interest to send her something rather than me buy it so
um open-minded so if you're watching and you make exhaust get in touch because I am open
to changing this exhaust but I don't want just a normal conventional round pipe on it
back to the Triumph Bonneville t120 black if you're interested in this bike and you want
to know a bit more about how it is to live with to service Etc go and have a look at my friend's
Channel Nick on Moto UK and I'll leave a link in the description he's got one of these he bought it
last year and there's a lot of information on his Channel about this bike in particular and
other bikes too he reviews other bikes and does trips and things so go and follow his channel
subscribe you might find that quite interesting too now looking at these two bikes side by side
they're very similar in size also it seems let's have a sit on them
the triumph feels really nice there's plenty of arm room and my legs aren't too bent I I
don't like riding bikes with my feet are like that so that's nice and of course with a bench
sheet you can move backwards and forwards to get the perfect riding Place riding position
this has got more of a scooped out sort of uh solo seat and it does feel smaller I would have
to have the seat further back somehow uh otherwise I'll sit right on the back of it like that so in
terms of size that's the better bike sitting on it but they look very similar side by side
if any of these bikes interest you then you can look back at our old reviews I've reviewed the r18
the Royal Enfield classic 350 and the Bonneville t120 already in the past so you can look back
at those and watch those videos and then watch the new ones when they come out and see if I've
changed my mind and it might help you out as well I might cover some things in the new review that
I didn't in the last one now one massive bonus of registering the bike of Spain is I can get rid of
this horrible yellow number plate on the back and they have black and white ones which look so much
nicer these are huge I've cut my one down just to the legal limit but on the Royal Enfield it's
massive it sticks out it's just stupid um but if you're if you're in Spain and you know about
the number plates our motorcycle number plates in Spain smaller than the UK plates I'd like to know
the size difference if there is one but at least black and white looks better than yellow now I
found something else out there's a little tiny uh box under here just underneath the handlebar for
a USB connector so you can plug your Sat Nav in or your mobile phone if you have one who hasn't
got one whereas the Triumph fits normally under the seat I'm not going to lift this up to check
but they have it under the seat Which is less accessible of course so most people if they're
going to have a phone with them going to have it on handlebars for their Sat Nav so if you're on
a cable through there it's not ideal on my r18 it doesn't have a USB thing so I've got one of those
adapters and it's got a sort of a plug-in just down there so I do have to run a cable to it but
the sat nav that I bought is brilliant because it lasts about six or seven hours on a battery
charge so that's pretty much perfect for any ride um but that's just an interesting little point